He’s had a damascene conversion. Last few years he was one of SKS’s biggest online fluffers.
He was duped like many were re Starmer . I hold my hands up . I thought we’d get a dull sensible no drama few years in No 10 . Of course Starmers weak leadership has emboldened many Labour backbenchers who seem to be living in la la land .
It's becoming clear that Starmer is going nowhere. There is no JFK standing in the wings. It's time for all us Farage haters to get used to it. Our best chance is a new improved Starmer. He's got 3.5 yers to get better and learn what is expected of a Labour leader. He doesn't need to be super articulate just start listening to the right people and get himself a Philip Gould figure to read and understand public opinion.
JFK: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
AB: "“The best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down.”
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
There’s a lot of multi-storey car parks built in the ‘60s that assumed an average car weighed 700 or 800kg, as they did at the time, in their engineering calculations.
Now they would have had perhaps a 3x safety factor, which you’d expect in such constructions, but now you have cars that weigh 3x what they did 60 years ago, and a 60-year-old structure that is close to it’s design life, there’s not an awful lot of margin left…
Can they accomodate the higher roofs of SUVs OK? In Tokyo you have loads of parking options if you're driving an old-school car, because there are loads of mechanical ones that someone built expecting that cars would be a thing only to find anyone who wanted a big car got an SUV and anyone who wanted a little car got an N-van or some other high-roofed kei car. My Seal weight 2.2 tons and has a huge fat arse but it's still cheaper to park than an SUV.
Something big like a Volvo XC90 is still shorter than a six footer.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
It's pretty obviously AI. It's the details that give it away, like the missing foot you mentioned. The open window on the house on the left looks weird. It doesn't match the other windows, and it doesn't have a handle.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
What an excellent opportunity to get rid of lots and lots and lots and lots of multi-storey car parks .
I foresee that the “Price the drivers onto the non-existent trains we can’t afford to build” will end well.
Probably with demands to tax all the personal eVTOLS out of the sky…
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
Hah, lack of windows, I missed that.
It's a bit like those spot the difference puzzles and I was always a bit crap at those.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
It's pretty obviously AI. It's the details that give it away, like the missing foot you mentioned. The open window on the house on the left looks weird. It's hanging there when the rest of the frame has gone, and it doesn't have a handle.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
OK, so given that, why is Darren Grimes such a klutz at propaganda?
Now that this has gone through Reform Exposed (which is where I noticed it) it will be in media to some extent, directly from there or via one or two Youtube channels.
Here we all make our mistakes from time to time, but I don't think anyone on PB has that level of fopdoodlism.
I can see James O'Brien doing one of his pained step by step "unwrapping an onion" monologues about it.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
What an excellent opportunity to get rid of lots and lots and lots and lots of multi-storey car parks .
I foresee that the “Price the drivers onto the non-existent trains we can’t afford to build” will end well.
Probably with demands to tax all the personal eVTOLS out of the sky…
Guess what happened at the Dubai Airshow this week..?
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
OK, so given that, why is Darren Grimes such a klutz at propaganda?
Now that this has gone through Reform Exposed (which is where I noticed it) it will be in media to some extent, directly from there or via one or two Youtube channels.
Here we all make our mistakes from time to time, but I don't think anyone on PB has that level of fopdoodlism.
Because all the parties are. They still haven't broken out of the mind-space that what they put out for a niche audience won't spread out into the general, more cynical realm. The web is the great message leveller.
Why the hell does anyone want to succeed Starmer - and inherit the economic wasteland he oversees?
Well here's the thing. Most of us on PB think we could do better don't we? I know I do.
2-3 years as PM to turn this round and establish Pointernomics as the pattern for the next 30 years, then back to retirement with occasional ex-PM jollies and a nice extra pension. Yep, that would be acceptable.
Now, I must get back to waiting for that call...
At least you are building a house - how is that going BTW? - which is more than can be said for this government.
Thank you @Cyclefree - I hope all is well with you.
The house is going pretty well thanks, we've reached the interior fit-out now: floor tiling, bathrooms, electrics, kitchen, internal doors, etc...
We're hoping to be in by early spring. Then the fun begins with the landscaping - quite of lot of work required to convert a building site into a garden 😱 - but we do already have some trees in:
Looks to be going great! We did a biggish extension project last year and I'm still traumatised by the cost... I admire you for doing a complete new build and I'm also rather jealous.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
No satellite TV dishes.
At first I thought this was showing the back garden, with much ofd the back fence derelict, and taken either from the rear rough service road or the backing house's garden. But I have just realised the door of the middle house is supposed to be the front door. With doorbell. And postbox. But how does Postman Pat get in?
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
He’s had a damascene conversion. Last few years he was one of SKS’s biggest online fluffers.
He was duped like many were re Starmer . I hold my hands up . I thought we’d get a dull sensible no drama few years in No 10 . Of course Starmers weak leadership has emboldened many Labour backbenchers who seem to be living in la la land .
It's becoming clear that Starmer is going nowhere. There is no JFK standing in the wings. It's time for all us Farage haters to get used to it. Our best chance is a new improved Starmer. He's got 3.5 yers to get better and learn what is expected of a Labour leader. He doesn't need to be super articulate just start listening to the right people and get himself a Philip Gould figure to read and understand public opinion.
JFK: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
AB: "“The best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down.”
It's easy to get confused.
I'm fairly ambivalent toward Starmer. I certainly don't share the unbridled near-hatred for him I detect from others which stems, I suspect in part, from the fact he had the temerity to win an election and inflict the heaviest defeat in their history on the once mighty Conservative Party.
We all knew "the party" was over and there would be a reckoning and Labour are the ones who have the bill sitting in front of them (not quite the same as passing the hand grenade but similar).
Yes, it all looks a little shambolic at times but as Luke Tryl's polling showed, the disillusionment (especially among men) stems from much deeper causes and, to be blunt, a couple of years of economic growth would do wonders but no one seems to have anything approaching a coherent plan to bring about that growth so we may be entering a period of prolonged political instability as one snake oil salesman after another tries to convince an increasingly sceptical and desperate electorate they have "the answers".
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
No satellite TV dishes.
Could be a cable area?
Aside of the fact its AI dross, the satellite dishes could simply be on the other sides of the houses.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
No satellite TV dishes.
and remarkably clean, uniform roofs
No birdshite or staining below the TV aerials and the sag in particular looks rather uniform. Slightly suspicious of the right party wall line.
Edit: but could be pukka. The houses look like a 1960s-ish terrace. The upper back window design is exactly similar to that on my 1960s semis and dets estate. Butd would the roof sag that much?
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
No satellite TV dishes.
Could be a cable area?
OK, there are TV aerials but those are quite possibly legacy stuff.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
As perceptions of charging issues is the biggest factor behind a slow adoption of electric vehicles, I would focus incentives on chargers, particularly public chargers, rather than the ownership costs of the vehicles themselves.
Incidentally China, where EVs make up 50% of new vehicle sales and where there are strong incentives to go EV, is hitting a plateau on adoption now. You probably need to make it difficult to own an ICE, if you want to go wholesale electric.
Edit and in response to your question, I would tax on kerb weight, not purchase price as that would drive the behaviours you are looking for, I think.
He’s had a damascene conversion. Last few years he was one of SKS’s biggest online fluffers.
He was duped like many were re Starmer . I hold my hands up . I thought we’d get a dull sensible no drama few years in No 10 . Of course Starmers weak leadership has emboldened many Labour backbenchers who seem to be living in la la land .
It's becoming clear that Starmer is going nowhere. There is no JFK standing in the wings. It's time for all us Farage haters to get used to it. Our best chance is a new improved Starmer. He's got 3.5 yers to get better and learn what is expected of a Labour leader. He doesn't need to be super articulate just start listening to the right people and get himself a Philip Gould figure to read and understand public opinion.
JFK: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
AB: "“The best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down.”
It's easy to get confused.
I'm fairly ambivalent toward Starmer. I certainly don't share the unbridled near-hatred for him I detect from others which stems, I suspect in part, from the fact he had the temerity to win an election and inflict the heaviest defeat in their history on the once mighty Conservative Party.
We all knew "the party" was over and there would be a reckoning and Labour are the ones who have the bill sitting in front of them (not quite the same as passing the hand grenade but similar).
Yes, it all looks a little shambolic at times but as Luke Tryl's polling showed, the disillusionment (especially among men) stems from much deeper causes and, to be blunt, a couple of years of economic growth would do wonders but no one seems to have anything approaching a coherent plan to bring about that growth so we may be entering a period of prolonged political instability as one snake oil salesman after another tries to convince an increasingly sceptical and desperate electorate they have "the answers".
I don't hate him either, and he did do us the huge favour of removing the venal incompetants that preceded him. The disappointment is a failure to seize the opportunity to seriously tackle any of the glaring problems facing the country, and what appears to be an aspiration merely to manage the plate spinning marginally better than the last lot. And the humilating retreats in the face of party pressure.
As Martin Kettle says, out this morning in the Grauniad: Starmer’s modern Labour party cannot agree about doing anything big, radical or different in domestic policy. Since it cannot agree, it is unable to govern well. It is not up to the job.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
OK, so given that, why is Darren Grimes such a klutz at propaganda?
Now that this has gone through Reform Exposed (which is where I noticed it) it will be in media to some extent, directly from there or via one or two Youtube channels.
Here we all make our mistakes from time to time, but I don't think anyone on PB has that level of fopdoodlism.
Because all the parties are. They still haven't broken out of the mind-space that what they put out for a niche audience won't spread out into the general, more cynical realm. The web is the great message leveller.
It's a fair point about families being sent halfway across the country to be rehoused though. Here in N Essex we've a recently built estate where some of the houses have, apparently, been sold to London Boroughs for rehousing their residents. No-one, so far anyway, objects to that in itself. What is an issue is that pretty well all local employment is a car journey away. We've no station and only hourly buses.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
No satellite TV dishes.
Could be a cable area?
OK, there are TV aerials but those are quite possibly legacy stuff.
There's a reasonable chance that TV aerials will outlast satellite dishes as a going concern.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
There’s a lot of multi-storey car parks built in the ‘60s that assumed an average car weighed 700 or 800kg, as they did at the time, in their engineering calculations.
Now they would have had perhaps a 3x safety factor, which you’d expect in such constructions, but now you have cars that weigh 3x what they did 60 years ago, and a 60-year-old structure that is close to it’s design life, there’s not an awful lot of margin left…
I guess if they repaint the parking bays to give more space for today's much larger cars, then they'd reduce the number of cars which would help to balance out the increase in weight of each car to an extent.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
More accurately, the problem is heavy vehicles rather than electric vehicles. My Nissan Leaf, for example, is around a ton lighter than a typical petrol or diesel powered Range Rover. Cars had been getting bigger and heavier for a long time before the advent of EVs.
Which is also a problem for conventional car parks.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
It's pretty obviously AI. It's the details that give it away, like the missing foot you mentioned. The open window on the house on the left looks weird. It doesn't match the other windows, and it doesn't have a handle.
Ignoring the AI photo he’s using immigrants when the issue is bigger than that - a number of London councils have been dumping people in overpriced dire quality cheap houses in Durham pit villages for the past 3 years.
The reality is it’s not - 60s/70s terrace it’s a 1920’s 2 up 2 down without no front garden
I’ve mentioned it here multiple times in the past as reports have appeared in the local press
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
There’s a lot of multi-storey car parks built in the ‘60s that assumed an average car weighed 700 or 800kg, as they did at the time, in their engineering calculations.
Now they would have had perhaps a 3x safety factor, which you’d expect in such constructions, but now you have cars that weigh 3x what they did 60 years ago, and a 60-year-old structure that is close to it’s design life, there’s not an awful lot of margin left…
I guess if they repaint the parking bays to give more space for today's much larger cars, then they'd reduce the number of cars which would help to balance out the increase in weight of each car to an extent.
Yes, but they have to work around the columns in the building which in many cases lead to a 33% or 50% reduction in parking capacity, so fewer people visiting the shops.
He’s had a damascene conversion. Last few years he was one of SKS’s biggest online fluffers.
He was duped like many were re Starmer . I hold my hands up . I thought we’d get a dull sensible no drama few years in No 10 . Of course Starmers weak leadership has emboldened many Labour backbenchers who seem to be living in la la land .
It's becoming clear that Starmer is going nowhere. There is no JFK standing in the wings. It's time for all us Farage haters to get used to it. Our best chance is a new improved Starmer. He's got 3.5 yers to get better and learn what is expected of a Labour leader. He doesn't need to be super articulate just start listening to the right people and get himself a Philip Gould figure to read and understand public opinion.
JFK: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
AB: "“The best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down.”
It's easy to get confused.
I'm fairly ambivalent toward Starmer. I certainly don't share the unbridled near-hatred for him I detect from others which stems, I suspect in part, from the fact he had the temerity to win an election and inflict the heaviest defeat in their history on the once mighty Conservative Party.
We all knew "the party" was over and there would be a reckoning and Labour are the ones who have the bill sitting in front of them (not quite the same as passing the hand grenade but similar).
Yes, it all looks a little shambolic at times but as Luke Tryl's polling showed, the disillusionment (especially among men) stems from much deeper causes and, to be blunt, a couple of years of economic growth would do wonders but no one seems to have anything approaching a coherent plan to bring about that growth so we may be entering a period of prolonged political instability as one snake oil salesman after another tries to convince an increasingly sceptical and desperate electorate they have "the answers".
Yes - obviously, the defections of many Labour members to the Greens, the creation of Your Party and the attempted candidatures of Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham are entirely motivated by the anger at the defeat of the Conservative Party.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
On topic there are jumped up turds and then there are utter scumbags. We can make a distinction.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
As perceptions of charging issues is the biggest factor behind a slow adoption of electric vehicles, I would focus incentives on chargers, particularly public chargers, rather than the ownership costs of the vehicles themselves.
Incidentally China, where EVs make up 50% of new vehicle sales and where there are strong incentives to go EV, is hitting a plateau on adoption now. You probably need to make it difficult to own an ICE, if you want to go wholesale electric.
Edit and in response to your question, I would tax on kerb weight, not purchase price as that would drive the behaviours you are looking for, I think.
The effect on the percent of cars on the road is even bigger, because even if they were still selling the same number of EVs as last year a lot of them would be replacing gasoline cars so the proportion of EVs would still be growing.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
The so-called Circle line is even worse as a wheelchair user. I have a feeling you can only travel between Paddinington and Kings Cross/St Pancras and back in a clockwise direction. But I am not entirely sure tbh - if anyone else can work it out from the Tube Access map do tell.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
There also appears to be a fence built across the path.
OK, so given that, why is Darren Grimes such a klutz at propaganda?
Now that this has gone through Reform Exposed (which is where I noticed it) it will be in media to some extent, directly from there or via one or two Youtube channels.
Here we all make our mistakes from time to time, but I don't think anyone on PB has that level of fopdoodlism.
Because all the parties are. They still haven't broken out of the mind-space that what they put out for a niche audience won't spread out into the general, more cynical realm. The web is the great message leveller.
It's a fair point about families being sent halfway across the country to be rehoused though. Here in N Essex we've a recently built estate where some of the houses have, apparently, been sold to London Boroughs for rehousing their residents. No-one, so far anyway, objects to that in itself. What is an issue is that pretty well all local employment is a car journey away. We've no station and only hourly buses.
What are the actual demographics of the dumped? Do we have any facts?
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
It's pretty obviously AI. It's the details that give it away, like the missing foot you mentioned. The open window on the house on the left looks weird. It doesn't match the other windows, and it doesn't have a handle.
Ignoring the AI photo he’s using immigrants when the issue is bigger than that - a number of London councils have been dumping people in overpriced dire quality cheap houses in Durham pit villages for the past 3 years.
The reality is it’s not - 60s/70s terrace it’s a 1920’s 2 up 2 down without no front garden
I’ve mentioned it here multiple times in the past as reports have appeared in the local press
So have I. It’s something we’ve discussed a few times and it affects places like Ferryhill, Spenny and Blackhall Colliery.
Durham Councils new policy on HMO’s I welcome but it does not address this.
The really annoying thing about this Grimes post is it totally swerves the real issue we have. Being a repository for wealthy southern councils cleansing themselves of the people they don’t want. These people will be a mix of ages and races.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
The Circle line not being a circle has been true for decades now. This is in fact a plot point in an old episode of "New Tricks".
The Hammersmith and City Line stop at Paddington is in an odd location, being quite the trek about halfway up the platform on the extreme right instead of in the clusters with the others at the bottom. So you probably made the right choice.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
It's pretty obviously AI. It's the details that give it away, like the missing foot you mentioned. The open window on the house on the left looks weird. It doesn't match the other windows, and it doesn't have a handle.
Ignoring the AI photo he’s using immigrants when the issue is bigger than that - a number of London councils have been dumping people in overpriced dire quality cheap houses in Durham pit villages for the past 3 years.
The reality is it’s not - 60s/70s terrace it’s a 1920’s 2 up 2 down without no front garden
I’ve mentioned it here multiple times in the past as reports have appeared in the local press
So have I. It’s something we’ve discussed a few times and it affects places like Ferryhill, Spenny and Blackhall Colliery.
Durham Councils new policy on HMO’s I welcome but it does not address this.
The really annoying thing about this Grimes post is it totally swerves the real issue we have. Being a repository for wealthy southern councils cleansing themselves of the people they don’t want. These people will be a mix of ages and races.
+1 - that’s what’s annoying he’s managed to take an issue and make it into a immigration issue when it just isn’t
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
I read only yesterday that there is some doubt whether multi-storey car parks will be strong enough if all the cars parked were to be electric vehicles. Strengthening them is going to be quite costly, I'd expect.
There’s a lot of multi-storey car parks built in the ‘60s that assumed an average car weighed 700 or 800kg, as they did at the time, in their engineering calculations.
Now they would have had perhaps a 3x safety factor, which you’d expect in such constructions, but now you have cars that weigh 3x what they did 60 years ago, and a 60-year-old structure that is close to it’s design life, there’s not an awful lot of margin left…
I guess if they repaint the parking bays to give more space for today's much larger cars, then they'd reduce the number of cars which would help to balance out the increase in weight of each car to an extent.
Yes, but they have to work around the columns in the building which in many cases lead to a 33% or 50% reduction in parking capacity, so fewer people visiting the shops.
In fairness, fewer people are visiting the shops anyway. One of the multistorey carparks in my area has already closed due to lack of demand for parking spaces.
Can any of our AI wallahs comment on whether this is a real photo or not? One of the children seems to have a put ankle deep in the ground, for one thing. This is from Councillor Darren Grimes, and the Reform Exposed argument is that he is using fake AI pictures to demonise immigrants (obviously Muslims, because reasons), by portraying groups of them ogling white children. It is a story about "Councils from rich areas" allegedly buying up or renting housing stock in Durham for immigrants, and Grimes is to my eye trying to exploit the "protect our girls" narrative, and attack the Labour Govt at the same time.
I think that, if we remove the imo fake photo and the anti-immigrant stuff, he actually has a story. There was considerable lefty outrage (particularly in the Independent) in iirc the second half of the 2010s, around London Councils dispersing tenants who needed emergency housing as far away as Birmingham, under pressure (eg that if they did not accept they would not be offered something else). The objections then were around vulnerable people being ripped away from their communities, local support networks etc.
It's still an issue at a low level over the last year or two (I've noticed occasional minor reports without cut-through), and I think this could be made into a serious mainstream political issue if reported accurately.
But IMO Grimesy is overreaching again, and that is what will get him eventually in some manner.
As others have said, certainly AI. Whoever created it is using a multi-stage AI image editing workflow, taking an image of shabby houses and then asking the AI to add in the groups of people from separate images. But whoever created the image doesn't understand that AI isn't magic, you still need to carefully chose the source images and learn how to write prompts to get the required result.
The houses are their first mistake, I suspect the source image may have been photoshopped - the windows look like the light is hitting them from differing directions. Same with the group on the right, the source picture of them was obviously taken in much lower light conditions than the little girls. And, yeah, the girl's missing foot.
With careful prompting AI can correct all of this, but whoever created the image doesn't really know what they're doing.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
The Circle line not being a circle has been true for decades now. This is in fact a plot point in an old episode of "New Tricks".
The Hammersmith and City Line stop at Paddington is in an odd location, being quite the trek about halfway up the platform on the extreme right instead of in the clusters with the others at the bottom. So you probably made the right choice.
The Circle line also stops at the Hammersmith & City line stop.
Casually, I'm wondering if we could look at a similar system to that proposed for Council Tax for VED.
VED to be a % of the purchase price per annum, which would raise the sums we need, but also incentivise smaller, safer for everyone, more cost effective vehicles.
As a for instance, eg 1% of purchase price per annum, dropping to 0.5% from year 11 ? It has the benefit of being simple, but would cause a few squeals. The obvious problem is that such a simple system would be very generous for big SUVs, so purely linear with price might not work, so maybe 2% for heavier or more powerful vehicles.
That's still only a fraction of what we have for the most polluting ICE personal vehicles, if I have my numbers correct. It's complex so I may not be correct on that.
(I'm not sure on index linking; I can see arguments both sides.)
As perceptions of charging issues is the biggest factor behind a slow adoption of electric vehicles, I would focus incentives on chargers, particularly public chargers, rather than the ownership costs of the vehicles themselves.
Incidentally China, where EVs make up 50% of new vehicle sales and where there are strong incentives to go EV, is hitting a plateau on adoption now. You probably need to make it difficult to own an ICE, if you want to go wholesale electric.
Edit and in response to your question, I would tax on kerb weight, not purchase price as that would drive the behaviours you are looking for, I think.
The effect on the percent of cars on the road is even bigger, because even if they were still selling the same number of EVs as last year a lot of them would be replacing gasoline cars so the proportion of EVs would still be growing.
My comment was based on having previously read the following article, which I should probably have reread before commenting as it's somewhat anecdotal:
I'd block any politician selling themselves in a high viz jacket from standing.
That's, er, um, as logical as banning pols in lanyards. It's impossible to visit some workplaces (ie where real people work) without wearing them.
Edit: ditto eye shields.
I think you missed the line 'selling themselves'. I object on two grounds.
1. it reminds me of Johnson
2. it reminds me of Thatcher on a tank
Maybe I should have widened it to inappropriate props
On 1, er, well, you may have a point.
On 2, I think you misremember. Like John Major (IIRC) Mrs T didn't dress up in combats - though in the modern era one does need a helmet for safety as Ms Truss exemplifies (lots of pointy sharp bits inside a tank - not sure about the flak jacket).
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
The Circle line not being a circle has been true for decades now. This is in fact a plot point in an old episode of "New Tricks".
The Hammersmith and City Line stop at Paddington is in an odd location, being quite the trek about halfway up the platform on the extreme right instead of in the clusters with the others at the bottom. So you probably made the right choice.
The Circle line also stops at the Hammersmith & City line stop.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Some folk desperately want to be angry.
Some people wallow in rage. The comfortable blanket of self-righteousness, the clarity of purpose, the justified fury at injustice.
But as Marcus Aurelius wrote, how much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes?
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
Witkoff and his crew seem to be on commission from certain clients, but actually the US is cutting itself out of the process by trying to screw the Ukrainians and by extension the EU. Meanwhile Trump is watching his domestic support collapse as people realize that he is as someone said this week "as sexually predatory as Bill Clinton, as corrupt as Hilary Clinton, as much a warmonger as George W Bush and as gaga as Joe Biden".
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground, which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Some folk desperately want to be angry.
And so,e folk desperately want to rant about those angry people and polish their own halo.
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
Witkoff and his crew seem to be on commission from certain clients, but actually the US is cutting itself out of the process by trying to screw the Ukrainians and by extension the EU. Meanwhile Trump is watching his domestic support collapse as people realize that he is as someone said this week "as sexually predatory as Bill Clinton, as corrupt as Hilary Clinton, as much a warmonger as George W Bush and as gaga as Joe Biden".
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
Also the US has no direct interest in Russia prevailing while Ukraine and most of the rest of Europe have a very strong interest in it not prevailing. Which makes this proposal so baffling. The US probably doesn't care enough to force the deal on parties who care very much indeed.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
The Circle line not being a circle has been true for decades now. This is in fact a plot point in an old episode of "New Tricks".
The Hammersmith and City Line stop at Paddington is in an odd location, being quite the trek about halfway up the platform on the extreme right instead of in the clusters with the others at the bottom. So you probably made the right choice.
The Circle line also stops at the Hammersmith & City line stop.
Isn't it more like the Spiral line?
Lassoo Line? That's what we've always called it since it was changed when they brought the new trains in about 15 years ago.
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
Witkoff and his crew seem to be on commission from certain clients, but actually the US is cutting itself out of the process by trying to screw the Ukrainians and by extension the EU. Meanwhile Trump is watching his domestic support collapse as people realize that he is as someone said this week "as sexually predatory as Bill Clinton, as corrupt as Hilary Clinton, as much a warmonger as George W Bush and as gaga as Joe Biden".
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
The thing is, if it was less obviously unreasonable there is scope for the US to pressure Ukraine to accept a bad deal. But by over-reaching so far, it makes it much easier to reject the surrender deal as absurd.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
PSA: if any PBers are considering buying a new PC or Laptop in the near future, or getting someone one as a chrimbo prezzie, I highly recommend you DO IT NOW.
The price of memory has doubled over the last month and is likely to double again before Christmas. This is going to filter through to the cost of Laptops and pre-built PCs in the near future. AI companies are buying up such vast quantities of memory that it's causing a capacity crunch, and speculators have now become involved, hoarding memory and driving the price up still further.
A kit of 64GB DDR5 memory I bought in September for £150 is now over £400, at the present rate of increase it'll be approaching £600 by Christmas.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Some folk desperately want to be angry.
And so,e folk desperately want to rant about those angry people and polish their own halo.
Err. If they are ranting then they are angry. They are part of the same set. Even if they are outraged by opposite things. Is it any wonder mental health isn't good? Still, suits the technobros, so must be right and proper.
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
Witkoff and his crew seem to be on commission from certain clients, but actually the US is cutting itself out of the process by trying to screw the Ukrainians and by extension the EU. Meanwhile Trump is watching his domestic support collapse as people realize that he is as someone said this week "as sexually predatory as Bill Clinton, as corrupt as Hilary Clinton, as much a warmonger as George W Bush and as gaga as Joe Biden".
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
The thing is, if it was less obviously unreasonable there is scope for the US to pressure Ukraine to accept a bad deal. But by over-reaching so far, it makes it much easier to reject the surrender deal as absurd.
Yes, it is going to weaken US influence on the process and delivers nothing. That might even be the intent, a grown up in Foggy bottom making sure that at least the Trump crooks can't actually control things.
There were suggestions that Trump was going to threaten to leave NATO if the EU and Ukraine didn’t accept the deal .
I will never vote for a party that would accept this abject surrender . It’s time for the EU and UK to grow a spine and tell Trump to go fxck himself .
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
The best case for Labour, which I also think is the most likely, is they have zero difference to house building and this is just natural fluctuation, which would still be a major failure.
The alternative is they have actively made it worse.
PSA: if any PBers are considering buying a new PC or Laptop in the near future, or getting someone one as a chrimbo prezzie, I highly recommend you DO IT NOW.
The price of memory has doubled over the last month and is likely to double again before Christmas. This is going to filter through to the cost of Laptops and pre-built PCs in the near future. AI companies are buying up such vast quantities of memory that it's causing a capacity crunch, and speculators have now become involved, hoarding memory and driving the price up still further.
A kit of 64GB DDR5 memory I bought in September for £150 is now over £400, at the present rate of increase it'll be approaching £600 by Christmas.
Wtf. I had no idea it was that expensive now. I spent a fraction of that on my latest PC build a year ago.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
Presumably no longer a circle for reasons of line capacity. It's a better use of the limited capacity to bring passengers into the circle, now a loop, than have them go right round the circle. A boring explanation really.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Given how bad the construction industry statistics have been for some time I am surprised that the figures are not even worse. I guess there is some lag in housing completions and it will get worse in this year's figures.
A comparison with Ireland is interesting. There were just over 30,000 dwellings completed in Ireland in 2024 - widely seen as a large failure by the government, and way below the 40,000 they claimed would be built during the November 2024 general election campaign. Yet, with Ireland's population being about 1/13th of Britain's, it's the equivalent of building nearly 400,000 dwellings in Britain, more than twice the British figure.
I think I'd accept a government argument that it would take some time to turn this around, if there was evidence that they were taking action to turn it around. But at this stage I would be surprised if they managed to get 300,000 new homes built in any single year, let alone an average of that number for all five years of the Parliament.
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
Witkoff and his crew seem to be on commission from certain clients, but actually the US is cutting itself out of the process by trying to screw the Ukrainians and by extension the EU. Meanwhile Trump is watching his domestic support collapse as people realize that he is as someone said this week "as sexually predatory as Bill Clinton, as corrupt as Hilary Clinton, as much a warmonger as George W Bush and as gaga as Joe Biden".
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
The thing is, if it was less obviously unreasonable there is scope for the US to pressure Ukraine to accept a bad deal. But by over-reaching so far, it makes it much easier to reject the surrender deal as absurd.
Yes, it is going to weaken US influence on the process and delivers nothing. That might even be the intent, a grown up in Foggy bottom making sure that at least the Trump crooks can't actually control things.
If that's true then they're mad.
A bad deal for the Ukraine - even if it's not accepted - is a direct threat to the NPT and the end of the NPT is bad for the US. And everyone else.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
Presumably no longer a circle for reasons of line capacity. It's a better use of the limited capacity to bring passengers into the circle, now a loop, than have them go right round the circle. A boring explanation really.
But can students still spend the day doing the famous pub crawl?
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Calgie say "built" not "starts" or "completions", which is meaningless, and since a house takes the best part of a year to build bearing in mind ground works etc, or at least 2-4 years if the whole process is taken into account, we just can't judge how much is the last Govt or this Govt.
And I'm not sure exactly what "start" means - presumably "commencement" under planning law.
OTOH we know that many of the processes towards building in London have been made much more constipated under this Govt for various "not joined up policy" reasons, so the pipeline in London will be constricted for some time.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
Presumably no longer a circle for reasons of line capacity. It's a better use of the limited capacity to bring passengers into the circle, now a loop, than have them go right round the circle. A boring explanation really.
But can students still spend the day doing the famous pub crawl?
As long as one of the pubs is at Edgware Road YES!
Darren Grimes will no doubt be chuffed that it is the authenticity, or not, of his photo that is being discussed, rather than the authenticity of his undisguised racism that lies behind it.
Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to jump on the outrage bus even when it is obvious that the trigger for that outrage has been fabricated.
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
Some folk desperately want to be angry.
And so,e folk desperately want to rant about those angry people and polish their own halo.
Err. If they are ranting then they are angry. They are part of the same set. Even if they are outraged by opposite things. Is it any wonder mental health isn't good? Still, suits the technobros, so must be right and proper.
I’m sure that meant something to you.
There’s a difference between being angry and wanting to be angry.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
I wonder where you were heading. Perhaps it would have been a good opportunity to take the wonderful Elizabeth Line, a marvel of modern British engineering excellence and an example of what all our infrastructure could look like if the good people at the Treasury weren't such penny pinching twats. Although just as the circle line is not a circle, you may have been disgusted to have discovered that the Elizabeth Line bears little resemblance to our late departed and much missed sovereign.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Calgie say "built" not "starts" or "completions", which is meaningless, and since a house takes the best part of a year to build bearing in mind ground works etc, or at least 2-4 years if the whole process is taken into account, we just can't judge how much is the last Govt or this Govt.
And I'm not sure exactly what "start" means - presumably "commencement" under planning law.
OTOH we know that many of the processes towards building in London have been made much more constipated under this Govt for various "not joined up policy" reasons, so the pipeline in London will be constricted for some time.
Starts are also,down.
One big problem I have with Labour is they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.
This govt has not helped but it’s also worth pointing out the last shambles also bear some blame.
As a country bumpkin these days (well, living well west of Ealing Broadway which, as we all know, is the western edge of civilisation) I was intrigued to travel to London today.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours, Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
I wonder where you were heading. Perhaps it would have been a good opportunity to take the wonderful Elizabeth Line, a marvel of modern British engineering excellence and an example of what all our infrastructure could look like if the good people at the Treasury weren't such penny pinching twats. Although just as the circle line is not a circle, you may have been disgusted to have discovered that the Elizabeth Line bears little resemblance to our late departed and much missed sovereign.
They could mould her face onto the front of all the trains? Like Thomas? It'd certainly be good for the Instas....
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
So, in part @Leon was right - University teaching is being replaced by AI. However, it's the universities that are doing it, and the students can tell because it's crap (and they aren't happy about it).
How do you get a highly-educated workforce if university education standards collapse due to the use of AI by universities?
Apparently the surrender plan even includes a restriction on Ukrainian diplomatic flights.
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
It’s a “Russian Victory plan” only without the fighting.
Seems astonishing that the US think that Ukraine would go for it.
They don't think Ukraine will accept this but it is trying to move the mindset of what Ukraine may accept in the future. Lets not assume the malign are always incompetent, there is a significant overlap, but it is not always the case.
Is this the Daily Express spinning against Labour or a genuine failure?
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
Comments
AB: "“The best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down.”
It's easy to get confused.
There’s at least 20 reasons to say that’s an AI image.
Start with the lack of windows in the house on the left, and the kids ignoring the man in their own garden. And yes, one of the girls appears to be missing a foot.
Probably with demands to tax all the personal eVTOLS out of the sky…
It's a bit like those spot the difference puzzles and I was always a bit crap at those.
Now that this has gone through Reform Exposed (which is where I noticed it) it will be in media to some extent, directly from there or via one or two Youtube channels.
Here we all make our mistakes from time to time, but I don't think anyone on PB has that level of fopdoodlism.
I can see James O'Brien doing one of his pained step by step "unwrapping an onion" monologues about it.
https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/dubai-airshow-evtol-flying-display/
They’re certifying them now, and will be available next near. American tech, not Chinese.
Would it be the urban wasteland so decried by @Leon (late and very occasionally lamented of this parish) and his acolytes on here?
All was going well; Paddington is truly a masterpiece of Victorian engineering that I never properly noticed when going through it more regularly. But then I hit the circle line at Paddington (rookie error, obviously the H+C line was the better call).
IT'S NO LONGER A LOOP! Being a maths teacher, it was offensive enough that it was named the circle line when it actually connected up. Now? The sooner Putin nukes the whole city, the better.
What's even worse, you common-sense warriors blather on here about renaming the Suffragette line or some other wiffle waffle, but no-one ever speaks up for the poor yellow line. It's on a level with those who blather on about the little disagreement going on in Gaza right now without mentioning South Sudan or Boko Haram. Worse, probably.
If we are going to tolerate this monstrosity, we could at least rename it the spiral line.
Yours,
Flabbergasted of the western wastelands.
Great timing.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/nov/20/covid-inquiry-report-pandemic-labour-conservatives-andy-burnham-uk-politics-live-news
We all knew "the party" was over and there would be a reckoning and Labour are the ones who have the bill sitting in front of them (not quite the same as passing the hand grenade but similar).
Yes, it all looks a little shambolic at times but as Luke Tryl's polling showed, the disillusionment (especially among men) stems from much deeper causes and, to be blunt, a couple of years of economic growth would do wonders but no one seems to have anything approaching a coherent plan to bring about that growth so we may be entering a period of prolonged political instability as one snake oil salesman after another tries to convince an increasingly sceptical and desperate electorate they have "the answers".
https://x.com/infosec_fox/status/1991136025012224239
Edit: but could be pukka. The houses look like a 1960s-ish terrace. The upper back window design is exactly similar to that on my 1960s semis and dets estate. Butd would the roof sag that much?
Incidentally China, where EVs make up 50% of new vehicle sales and where there are strong incentives to go EV, is hitting a plateau on adoption now. You probably need to make it difficult to own an ICE, if you want to go wholesale electric.
Edit and in response to your question, I would tax on kerb weight, not purchase price as that would drive the behaviours you are looking for, I think.
As Martin Kettle says, out this morning in the Grauniad: Starmer’s modern Labour party cannot agree about doing anything big, radical or different in domestic policy. Since it cannot agree, it is unable to govern well. It is not up to the job.
Although I prefer Cistercian myself.
Good morning, everyone.
Some of which the widths are inadequate.
EXC: Keir Starmer is polling even worse than ex-prince Andrew, Wales’ Labour finance minister has said
Two people tell me Mark Drakeford made the comparison at an event on Sunday
Ex-first minister's team say he was talking in a personal capacity about publicly available polling
https://x.com/danbloom1/status/1991409606762066014?s=20
Same with Tracey and Jackie.
The reality is it’s not - 60s/70s terrace it’s a 1920’s 2 up 2 down without no front garden
I’ve mentioned it here multiple times in the past as reports have appeared in the local press
Alway knew Corbyn was a Tory.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-ev-hybrid-sales-growth-slowest-18-months-2025-09-08/
The effect on the percent of cars on the road is even bigger, because even if they were still selling the same number of EVs as last year a lot of them would be replacing gasoline cars so the proportion of EVs would still be growing.
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/step-free-tube-guide-map.pdf
Last time I opted to go round the long way from KC to Paddington.
Durham Councils new policy on HMO’s I welcome but it does not address this.
The really annoying thing about this Grimes post is it totally swerves the real issue we have. Being a repository for wealthy southern councils cleansing themselves of the people they don’t want. These people will be a mix of ages and races.
NEW: Reform UK-led Leicestershire County Council has 'stood down' its cabinet member for highways, transport and waste.
In a statement, leader Dan Harrison said:
"[Charles] Whitford has been temporarily stood down from the Cabinet.
"No further comment will be made."
https://x.com/LewisJWarner/status/1991426783028347351?s=20
A piss-take doesn't even start to do it justice.
The houses are their first mistake, I suspect the source image may have been photoshopped - the windows look like the light is hitting them from differing directions. Same with the group on the right, the source picture of them was obviously taken in much lower light conditions than the little girls. And, yeah, the girl's missing foot.
With careful prompting AI can correct all of this, but whoever created the image doesn't really know what they're doing.
2/10 from me for this one.
https://www.thinkchina.sg/economy/chinas-ev-market-rapid-development-amid-slowing-sales
More on the Chinese EV market for anyone who's interested; https://carnewschina.com/2025/07/21/report-china-ev-market-situation-in-first-half-of-2025/
Just yesterday, a YouTube video popped up in my feed. It was a highly indignant woman ranting about Tesco's supposed renaming of Christmas trees to Evergreen trees and how this was another nail in the coffin for British culture, etc. Of course, the comments were a sea of anger and hatred, mostly directed at Muslims, whose fault it apparently was. The few posts pointing out that Tesco hadn't actually renamed their trees, and that this was easily verifiable by visiting their stores or website, were largely ignored. The news was fake, but the damage was done.
But as Marcus Aurelius wrote, how much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes?
Edited extra: 'justified', of course.
The Ukrainians will not accept this "deal" and the US has very limited means to force it on Kyiv. It is not just Moscow that overestimates the power it has to force a settlement. By reducing its support to essentially nothing a few months ago, the US has reduced its ability to control the process, and Putin has failed to make any kind of significant breakthrough on the ground, which was what the back channels had told Washington would happen, and all the time their military capabilities reduce, while the Ukrainians military capabilities are improving whether the US wants it or not.
A snap back in Washington is coming and I expect when this deal collapses in a couple of weeks or months Witkoff will be fired and some other commission driven figure will be brought in to try again. Russia by then will be in a full recession and the economic options will be closing as fast as the military options.
Meanwhile, the EU will do what they did after Trump's Alaska fiasco and say nothing to the US, but continue to bolster Zelensky as far as possible.
Tell Russia to come back when it is in an economic nose dive the likes of which we living today have never witnessed.
And then they can fuck off again - out of Ukraine.
Absolutely damning new housing stats out this morning.
The number of net additional new dwellings during Labour's first year in office fell by 6% compared to the Tories.
The number of new builds fell by 8,000.
In total they oversaw just 190,000 new homes built in 24/25, suggesting they are seriously off course on their pledge to build 1.5m by the next election
It's so bad that the Tories managed to add 9,000 more additional homes *during the pandemic* than Angela Rayner managed during her time as Housing Secretary
https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1991461044997226649?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
The price of memory has doubled over the last month and is likely to double again before Christmas. This is going to filter through to the cost of Laptops and pre-built PCs in the near future. AI companies are buying up such vast quantities of memory that it's causing a capacity crunch, and speculators have now become involved, hoarding memory and driving the price up still further.
A kit of 64GB DDR5 memory I bought in September for £150 is now over £400, at the present rate of increase it'll be approaching £600 by Christmas.
If they are ranting then they are angry. They are part of the same set. Even if they are outraged by opposite things.
Is it any wonder mental health isn't good?
Still, suits the technobros, so must be right and proper.
As in the least that will allow him to survive.
Bit like the last deal.
Seems astonishing that the US think that Ukraine would go for it.
https://www.leicester.news/reform-councillor-threatens-to-quit-party-but-changes-his-mind/
I will never vote for a party that would accept this abject surrender . It’s time for the EU and UK to grow a spine and tell Trump to go fxck himself .
The alternative is they have actively made it worse.
A comparison with Ireland is interesting. There were just over 30,000 dwellings completed in Ireland in 2024 - widely seen as a large failure by the government, and way below the 40,000 they claimed would be built during the November 2024 general election campaign. Yet, with Ireland's population being about 1/13th of Britain's, it's the equivalent of building nearly 400,000 dwellings in Britain, more than twice the British figure.
I think I'd accept a government argument that it would take some time to turn this around, if there was evidence that they were taking action to turn it around. But at this stage I would be surprised if they managed to get 300,000 new homes built in any single year, let alone an average of that number for all five years of the Parliament.
A bad deal for the Ukraine - even if it's not accepted - is a direct threat to the NPT and the end of the NPT is bad for the US. And everyone else.
Express spin 1.05 / 1.08
Lab failure 12 / 23
Not much liquidity.
Housing starts under Labour have cratered. They talk the talk. Time to deliver.
Calgie say "built" not "starts" or "completions", which is meaningless, and since a house takes the best part of a year to build bearing in mind ground works etc, or at least 2-4 years if the whole process is taken into account, we just can't judge how much is the last Govt or this Govt.
And I'm not sure exactly what "start" means - presumably "commencement" under planning law.
OTOH we know that many of the processes towards building in London have been made much more constipated under this Govt for various "not joined up policy" reasons, so the pipeline in London will be constricted for some time.
There’s a difference between being angry and wanting to be angry.
One big problem I have with Labour is they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.
This govt has not helped but it’s also worth pointing out the last shambles also bear some blame.
Allegedly a reference to his IQ.
So, in part @Leon was right - University teaching is being replaced by AI. However, it's the universities that are doing it, and the students can tell because it's crap (and they aren't happy about it).
How do you get a highly-educated workforce if university education standards collapse due to the use of AI by universities?