He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
The 28 point plan is essentially the surrender document with added grifting by the WH .
Disgraceful is putting it mildly .
Trump is a Russian plant, Farage likes him, and in even more shocking news one of Farage’s MEPs was a Russian shill.
What were the odds?
On only 1 of them being a Russian shill? Quite high against I would have thought.
A few months ago I asked on here what would Trump have done differently if he was a Russian shill and another PBer replied with ‘Be less subtle about it’
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
@Sandpit any thoughts on this ridiculous surrender by America of Ukraine's interests.
Exactly what many of us warned would happen if Trump were elected.
Ten and a half years seems a bit excessive for Gill. Jail time maybe for taking some bribes from the Russians but even some who kill by dangerous driving or manslaughter or rapists get less time in jail than that.
Is it because he was Reform? One hopes not
My first reaction was "Wow".
My first thought is that there is evidence of direct bribe taking from a foreign Government which has been waging a hybrid war on this country for some time, so I would expect strong "lay down a warning" and "pour encourager les autres" elements. And Nathan Gill is a Brit (I assume), rather than a foreign national. It was also multiple offences, so some aggravating factors.
He pled Guilty, so 10.5 years has some reduction from a bigger number.
But I need to read the sentencing remarks.
I will be interested in reactions, especially from Kemi who has previously (in my view) used even defence as matter to seek political confrontation rather than common support for the national interest.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
Even Beth Rigby is complaining about how many trips abroad he has taken
But it is his happy place away from domestic turmoil
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
No, it's driven by genuine problems, which London has in abundance - staggeringly expensive housing, higher poverty levels than any other region in southern England, a dismal one-party city government led by a classic machine politician, a national government that regards it, like they regard anywhere remotely successful, as an ATM, high levels of certain types of property crime and a police force which has given up on them, unwanted immigrants dumped in previously cohesive communities for decades without consultation or consent, etc. etc.
But it ignores London's huge strengths, in particular its character, resilience and vitality which make it, despite its problems, one of the world's great cities. So, like most media these days, it presents just one side of a much more nuanced picture, just because that gets the clicks.
But why is the populist right so keen to push the 'London is a toilet' fiction? I think it's to draw a link between immigration and societal decline and strife. That's the button being pressed.
So you DON'T think London has genuine and huge problems?
Or you think they should be not mentioned or concealed because central London is mostly immigrants now?
For decades the multi-culty left has wanted to "rub the right's nose in diversity" and stigmatise and ostracise and they're now amusingly and naively surprised when, far from everybody uniting in a fragmented society, with the immigrant vote keeping them in power for perpetuity, it's coming back to bite them. Just as when higher taxes destroy economic growth the left has failed to think through the most predictable consequences of their smug and incompetent self-righteousness.
This is what happens when bandits and mafiosi like Trump and Netanyahu become political leaders. When is someone going to stand up to these criminals?
It goes well beyond that, though (and the fact that it involves Israel isn't particularly relevant in the greater scheme of things.)
It should be another wake up call for Europe (and that includes us) that depending on the US to the extent we do, both economically and militarily, involves a far greater loss of sovereignty than does (for example) membership of the EU.
That people like Farage will likely applaud this, rather than recognise it for what it is, will indicate that they have no real interest in British sovereignty.
Maybe the idiot judge should have thought about the consequences of targeting a US ally before getting caught up in the hard left anti-Semitism that drives all the nonsense against Jews having their own state.
It's about time these judges in their ivory towers faced consequences for their idiotic decisions.
Maybe you should reply to my actual point.
..the fact that it involves Israel isn't particularly relevant in the greater scheme of things..
It's very relevant. Do you think the US would have put sanctions on this judge had he not decided to be a complete dick head and try and make a name for himself by targeting Israel?
So you're agreeing with me that we can only enforce our laws subject to approval of the US.
But it's not our law, it's the nebulous concept of "international law". Again, I'd remove the UK from the ICC and ECHR anyway.
Also, how is it different from when we put sanctions on Russians and Russian companies after Putin invaded Ukraine both times. Individuals in Russia are subject to our (and US) sanctions despite there being no jurisdiction. You just don't like it this time because the US has targeted one of your pet liberal projects.
A ridiculous ad hominem from you. The principle at stake has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of Israel. Or indeed the ECHR.
This is what I am alarmed about:
..He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.
He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.
That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are: - punishing a European citizen - for doing his job in Europe - applying laws Europe officially supports - at an institution based in Europe - that Europe helped create and fund
and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil...
That you can't appreciate that this is about practical sovereignty is a clear demonstration that you don't really care about our own sovereignty.
This is essentially the Putinist argument against the existing world order.
No it isn't.
So how do you propose to establish practical sovereignty against American power?
What a bastard. Today is Nathan Gill's day and Starmer has just stolen top billing headlines from him and Farage.
Perhaps the Conservative Party have their priority wrong today too.
Today is Ben Stokes' day.
If only we'd sent some batsmen to accompany him downunder.
I worry about what’s going to happen once Root and Stokes have to step down. Two of the greatest players of all time, and both approaching the twilight of their careers. Both utterly irreplaceable.
We said the same about Broad and Anderson. Our bowling attack today showed that wasn't necessarily the case, great though they were. Harry Brook looks like the next Root to me and Carse has potential. But we should of course celebrate them whilst we have them.
Ten and a half years seems a bit excessive for Gill. Jail time maybe for taking some bribes from the Russians but even some who kill by dangerous driving or manslaughter or rapists get less time in jail than that.
Is it because he was Reform? One hopes not
Utter and complete rubbish
I assume you didn't listen to the judgement on how he helped Putin and was anti Ukraine
He was lucky to get only 10 and a half years as he corrupted politics across Europe
I genuinely hope this damages pro Putin Farage and his Reform mob
Did he disclose lots of sensitive intelligence to Putin? no. Did he sent vast quantities of funds to Russia? No. Did he fight on the battlefield with Russia? No.
He made some pro Putin speeches and interviews he was bribed for. A 5 year sentence would have sufficed
You are attempting to defend the indefensible
Shame on you
He’s putting forward his opinion, and arguing for it cogently. He has nothing to be ashamed about. And fwiw, on this matter, I agree more with you than I do with HYUFD.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
If you don't believe the judgment of the many pb-ers who live in London and none of whom even vaguely recognise this societal collapse, perhaps consider the judgment of the free market? People are still willing to pay half a million quid for a small two bed flat or a million quid for an ordinary terraced house in much of London, why would they do so if it was so bad?
It is bonkers, outright fiction.
And very on topic, if the question of the day is "why do voters believe things that just aren't true"?
Because belief *is* truth. Experiential conviction trumps 'objective reality' and nothing that occurs without its occurrence being perceived and experienced is of any value. Or something.
Reality is fundamentally an internalisation; one that differs for each individual and is ultimately subjective. Trying to make arguments based on a universal and objective truth is usually a fools errand, because if something doesn't 'feel' true to someone, it may as well not be true.
If 'reality' is only individual and subjective, then it doesn't distinguish itself much from concepts like 'mental state'. We tend to use the word 'reality' to indicate a possible gap between what we might have in our head and what the universe actually is in some respect, independent of our mental contribution to it.
So, for example. my belief that there is something real in the universe apart from my own mental states has a realistic claim to be true not just subjectively but true even after I have died.
The idea of eliminating the virus from Scotland was inappropriate and destined to fail in the light of an open border with England and there being no agreement with the UK government to close it. The references by Ms Sturgeon and others to elimination of the virus from Scotland might have created the impression for the public that life could return to normal.
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
There is a legitimate concern in some part of London of neighbourhoods' character changing. "White flight" as I believe it is called. Now, don't get me wrong. Walking down the Costa del Sol there's nothing I like better than a row of Spoons, Harry Ramsden's chippies, and sports bars showing Coventry vs Stoke on its five TV screens, but some say that it is an okay thing to want to preserve the character (ofc people vary on their choice of T= 0).
From my perspective, I don't mind if leafy suburbs, previously the preserve of the intelligentsia and literary types, are opened up to loadsamoney oiks who've made it in the City but you have to understand how some people think.
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
No, it's driven by genuine problems, which London has in abundance - staggeringly expensive housing, higher poverty levels than any other region in southern England, a dismal one-party city government led by a classic machine politician, a national government that regards it, like they regard anywhere remotely successful, as an ATM, high levels of certain types of property crime and a police force which has given up on them, unwanted immigrants dumped in previously cohesive communities for decades without consultation or consent, etc. etc.
But it ignores London's huge strengths, in particular its character, resilience and vitality which make it, despite its problems, one of the world's great cities. So, like most media these days, it presents just one side of a much more nuanced picture, just because that gets the clicks.
London is fantastic and a truly amazing place (imo). But that's because I skew typicaly PB demographic and I can enjoy all the plays, concerts, book readings, cultcha, etc.
I understand that not everyone for example is a Friend of the RA so has to queue and pay £20 or whatever it is now for the Kiefer/Van Gogh which must be ghastly.
Londoners have to have other people read books to them now?
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Did Baroness Hallett report that smoking gun yesterday?
I was enjoying yesterday's narrative from a couple of PBers that whilst Johnson got all the big calls right, Starmer, Corbyn and Davey would have made a hell of a mess of COVID*
*And I thought I had been crowned the PB King of whataboutery.
I have been moderately complementary about Johnson's COVID performance in respect of his lockdowns, against the charges and reflections of the PB lockdown naysayers.
All this stuff from grok is seeing Musk parade his insecurities to all the world. I wonder what other - less amusing - biases he has ordered be built into it?
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
No, it's driven by genuine problems, which London has in abundance - staggeringly expensive housing, higher poverty levels than any other region in southern England, a dismal one-party city government led by a classic machine politician, a national government that regards it, like they regard anywhere remotely successful, as an ATM, high levels of certain types of property crime and a police force which has given up on them, unwanted immigrants dumped in previously cohesive communities for decades without consultation or consent, etc. etc.
But it ignores London's huge strengths, in particular its character, resilience and vitality which make it, despite its problems, one of the world's great cities. So, like most media these days, it presents just one side of a much more nuanced picture, just because that gets the clicks.
But why is the populist right so keen to push the 'London is a toilet' fiction? I think it's to draw a link between immigration and societal decline and strife. That's the button being pressed.
What a bastard. Today is Nathan Gill's day and Starmer has just stolen top billing headlines from him and Farage.
Perhaps the Conservative Party have their priority wrong today too.
Today is Ben Stokes' day.
If only we'd sent some batsmen to accompany him downunder.
I worry about what’s going to happen once Root and Stokes have to step down. Two of the greatest players of all time, and both approaching the twilight of their careers. Both utterly irreplaceable.
We said the same about Broad and Anderson. Our bowling attack today showed that wasn't necessarily the case, great though they were. Harry Brook looks like the next Root to me and Carse has potential. But we should of course celebrate them whilst we have them.
You all must have youth on your side. We used to have this worry about Trueman, Underwood, Cowdrey (senior), Boycott (whose first test appearance I remember, listening on a valve radio) and a few others.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
Even Beth Rigby is complaining about how many trips abroad he has taken
But it is his happy place away from domestic turmoil
I thought we all dismissed Rigby as an airhead, or is that only when she decries Tories?
You can charge Starmer with a whole list of incompetences. This however is cheap partisan rubbish. It's on a par with the Friday night dinner nonsense.
Vote UK forum suggesting a tight contest between Ref UK and the Tories in Stranraer, with Reform leading narrowly, roughly 38 votes in it in the final stages of the count
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
Perhaps it is about time we reminded Trump that the US relies upon the RAF Fylingdales SSPARS station for a key part of its Ballistic missile early warning system and we have the capability to cut their access if they start playing fast and lose with our defence.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
The loss of intelligence would hurt, but far less than agreeing to surrender would.
The loss of weaponry is an empty threat. The US has stopped supplying weapons, and their arms manufacturers won't stop selling them.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
Nathan Gill - the worst sort of politician getting the worst sort of sentence. The plod might not have something they can stick on Tice and Farrage......yet....
Sentence seems a bit harsh to me. Some murderers get less.
If you reflect what he said against the context of the war in Ukraine he has an indirect responsibility for a lot of dead Ukrainians (and young Russians). For a Minister of the cloth he undoubtedly has blood on his hands. He has five and a quarter years to consider that.
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
There is a legitimate concern in some part of London of neighbourhoods' character changing. "White flight" as I believe it is called. Now, don't get me wrong. Walking down the Costa del Sol there's nothing I like better than a row of Spoons, Harry Ramsden's chippies, and sports bars showing Coventry vs Stoke on its five TV screens, but some say that it is an okay thing to want to preserve the character (ofc people vary on their choice of T= 0).
From my perspective, I don't mind if leafy suburbs, previously the preserve of the intelligentsia and literary types, are opened up to loadsamoney oiks who've made it in the City but you have to understand how some people think.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
Fun fact. Richard II got no polling scores after Bosworth, nor did he get any on the day of Bosworth. He ceased to be Lawful King and our Leige Master the DAY BEFORE Bosworth. Otherwise to have fought on Henry VII's side at Bosworth would have been treason and to have fought with the late usurped and pretended King would not have been. But it wasn't. Like Starmer Henry VII liked to have things proper and legal. Bills of Attainder all round !
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
Gill is a traitor, so it's right he receives an exemplary sentence.
One or two others (I can't remember their names) have made almost exactly the same (uncannily similar) assertion as Gill in the EU Parliament. Are they traitors too?
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
Fun fact. Richard II got no polling scores after Bosworth, nor did he get any on the day of Bosworth. He ceased to be Lawful King and our Leige Master the DAY BEFORE Bosworth. Otherwise to have fought on Henry VII's side at Bosworth would have been treason and to have fought with the late usurped and pretended King would not have been. But it wasn't. Like Starmer Henry VII liked to have things proper and legal. Bills of Attainder all round !
I see we have someone bought by a foreign power, advocating for their pet project - The Tudors.
Complete with foreign mercenaries. Paid for by the... French
"On 7 August 1485, Henry Tudor landed ... at Mill Bay, at the mouth of the Milford Haven waterway. He was 28 years old and had lived most of his life in exile in France. With him were c.2,000 French mercenaries, funded by the King of France."
The downfall of Nathan Gill won't have any negative impact on Reform. Reform voters won't care, and the story will be forgotten about by Monday anyway. It's only direct dirt on Farage that would damage him, and neither Gill nor Farage's obnoxiousness as a schoolboy will cut the mustard. We need something more substantial.
Density, diversity, and globalization. All three have advantages; all three make it more difficult to prevent, and cope with, pandemics.
I assume the first and third are obvious, but the second may not be. Different peoples have different endemic diseases; when you bring those different peoples together, they infect each other. If we want to think clearly about preventing and coping with pandemics, we need to recognize the potential health costs of all three.
I am currently down with a bug. I suspect I caught it from students coming back from reading week. Because, as you say, if you bring different people together, they infect each other.
But that's a very acute effect. It happens in days for most diseases. It's not a problem with diversity in the usual way we use that word. That my work colleagues include people who were born in Poland, Italy and India doesn't matter for pandemic risk. They all live in London now: they have whatever bugs people in London have.
International travel can spread pandemics, but having diverse societies doesn't. During the early weeks of COVID-19, British people going on holiday to Italy helped spread the disease from Italy to the UK. Those British people being black or white, Jewish or Muslim, didn't.
Oh boo hoo. That's sovereignty, capitalism and the law right there. Which bit do you object to, that he can't google "pearl clutching"?
Mmm no. It's an assault on law, international law, by Trump & Co - which started in around Feb/March following the pattern of Trump's assaults on Court Staff in his various trials in 2024.
I'm interested if any UK parties have policies on this, and what my MP Lee Anderson would say (if he's heard of the ICC). Do the Tories have a defined view on the ICC?
No such thing as international law.
Radovan Karadžić says hello from HMP Parkhurst.
There is international law just as long as countries want to abide by international law. If they decide for any reason that they don't want to, then international law ceases to exist.
That's essentially the same basis on which all law exists. It's an entirely human-created construct that exists only so long as there are people and institutions willing to enforce it. So there's no distinction between international or domestic law in that respect.
The distinction is that domestic law has domestic elections so if we disagree with the law then we can kick out the politicians and elect new ones to change it. Furthermore no Parliament can bind its successors.
International law does not.
Domestic law is democratic. It has a mandate. International law is not.
You don't like international law because you're all up for crimes against humanity, like ethnic cleansing.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
Fun fact. Richard II got no polling scores after Bosworth,
Gill is a traitor, so it's right he receives an exemplary sentence.
One or two others (I can't remember their names) have made almost exactly the same (uncannily similar) assertion as Gill in the EU Parliament. Are they traitors too?
This is reminiscent of Sir Keir forensic skewering of Boris in the commons!
A few “I’ll leave it there… for now”’s and I’ll start to think it’s the man himself
Sentence seems a bit harsh to me. Some murderers get less.
No murderer gets less. Murder is an automatic life sentence. The time periods you hear are until they might be able to get parole, and Gill will be able to get parole probably only after 5 years, or less given the prisons are full.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
I'm not surprised. Planners tried to stop someone in a parish near me in Yorkshire Dales having a window in a barn conversion (which they couldn't refuse) ground floor room that couldn't be seen from any lawful public views. They should put slits in no more than 6 in wide. So this was bullshit mixed with anachronism. They wanted early 17thC slits from a thatched corn barn in a slated 19th C hay barn. As members we were appalled but we got them. The slits would have meant they would have had to have had the lights on all the time even the middle of summer. So we spouted green energy bullshit in return and gave then a window twice the size they asked for but with a condition they didn't use incandescent bulbs when there was sufficient natural light.
Come the revolution some of these planners are going to have one hell of a wakeup call ...
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
No, it's driven by genuine problems, which London has in abundance - staggeringly expensive housing, higher poverty levels than any other region in southern England, a dismal one-party city government led by a classic machine politician, a national government that regards it, like they regard anywhere remotely successful, as an ATM, high levels of certain types of property crime and a police force which has given up on them, unwanted immigrants dumped in previously cohesive communities for decades without consultation or consent, etc. etc.
But it ignores London's huge strengths, in particular its character, resilience and vitality which make it, despite its problems, one of the world's great cities. So, like most media these days, it presents just one side of a much more nuanced picture, just because that gets the clicks.
But why is the populist right so keen to push the 'London is a toilet' fiction? I think it's to draw a link between immigration and societal decline and strife. That's the button being pressed.
So you DON'T think London has genuine and huge problems?
Or you think they should be not mentioned or concealed because central London is mostly immigrants now?
For decades the multi-culty left has wanted to "rub the right's nose in diversity" and stigmatise and ostracise and they're now amusingly and naively surprised when, far from everybody uniting in a fragmented society, with the immigrant vote keeping them in power for perpetuity, it's coming back to bite them. Just as when higher taxes destroy economic growth the left has failed to think through the most predictable consequences of their smug and incompetent self-righteousness.
London's development into a diverse metropolis was driven by wanting to humiliate the right? Lol. You seem lost in a world of grievance and caricature. And yes of course the place has genuine problems. Tell me a big city that doesn't.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
Air sourced heat pump aircon plus a separate small heat-exchange ventilation fan to bring in fresh air/ dump moisture, without losing building heat, is the way to go.
They do (along with daft stuff like mandating dual aspect windows etc.). But this is new policy: ..Now the scheme has been expanded to offer a £2,500 discount off the cost of installing an air-to-air heat pump, which can offer the best of both worlds, providing heat in winter and keeping you cool in summer.
This is the first time air-conditioning units have been eligible for government funding, meaning residents will benefit from cool homes during a long, hot summer, without burning harmful fossil fuels. ..
Gill is a traitor, so it's right he receives an exemplary sentence.
One or two others (I can't remember their names) have made almost exactly the same (uncannily similar) assertion as Gill in the EU Parliament. Are they traitors too?
This is reminiscent of Sir Keir forensic skewering of Boris in the commons!
A few “I’ll leave it there… for now”’s and I’ll start to think it’s the man himself
Sir Keir's skewering of Mr Johnson, I think you mean. Let's be consistent with our formalities.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
I'm not surprised. Planners tried to stop someone in a parish near me in Yorkshire Dales having a window in a barn conversion (which they couldn't refuse) ground floor room that couldn't be seen from any lawful public views. They should put slits in no more than 6 in wide. So this was bullshit mixed with anachronism. They wanted early 17thC slits from a thatched corn barn in a slated 19th C hay barn. As members we were appalled but we got them. The slits would have meant they would have had to have had the lights on all the time even the middle of summer. So we spouted green energy bullshit in return and gave then a window twice the size they asked for but with a condition they didn't use incandescent bulbs when there was sufficient natural light.
Come the revolution some of these planners are going to have one hell of a wakeup call ...
Ha.
In my case, the planning guy then got upset because I was using a skylight/roof hatch 1.5x0.8m.
Again, no planning power. Can only be seen if you are above the roof - and it's the same height as all the neighbours. So they can't physically see it. Unless they hire a drone....
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
There is a legitimate concern in some part of London of neighbourhoods' character changing. "White flight" as I believe it is called. Now, don't get me wrong. Walking down the Costa del Sol there's nothing I like better than a row of Spoons, Harry Ramsden's chippies, and sports bars showing Coventry vs Stoke on its five TV screens, but some say that it is an okay thing to want to preserve the character (ofc people vary on their choice of T= 0).
From my perspective, I don't mind if leafy suburbs, previously the preserve of the intelligentsia and literary types, are opened up to loadsamoney oiks who've made it in the City but you have to understand how some people think.
Can't fault you for effort on that one.
Nor I for your whole "fitting in to NW3" effort.
You seem to be bristling at something. Cmon spit it out.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
Perhaps it is about time we reminded Trump that the US relies upon the RAF Fylingdales SSPARS station for a key part of its Ballistic missile early warning system and we have the capability to cut their access if they start playing fast and lose with our defence.
Maybe - but then can't the US turn off Trident if Britain gets too uppity?
Gill is a traitor, so it's right he receives an exemplary sentence.
One or two others (I can't remember their names) have made almost exactly the same (uncannily similar) assertion as Gill in the EU Parliament. Are they traitors too?
This is reminiscent of Sir Keir forensic skewering of Boris in the commons!
A few “I’ll leave it there… for now”’s and I’ll start to think it’s the man himself
Are we at cross purposes? I don't remember Starmer or Johnson promoting Putin and Russia in Parliament. Although I believe one of them elevated Lebedev to the HoL and got tired and emotional after attending a party at Lebedev's dad's gaff in Italy.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
Air sourced heat pump aircon plus a separate small heat-exchange ventilation fan to bring in fresh air/ dump moisture, without losing building heat, is the way to go.
They do (along with daft stuff like mandating dual aspect windows etc.). But this is new policy: ..Now the scheme has been expanded to offer a £2,500 discount off the cost of installing an air-to-air heat pump, which can offer the best of both worlds, providing heat in winter and keeping you cool in summer.
This is the first time air-conditioning units have been eligible for government funding, meaning residents will benefit from cool homes during a long, hot summer, without burning harmful fossil fuels. ..
Indeed
So government is trying to stop people installed A/C at one end - to the point of fucking up flat designs.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
The loss of intelligence would hurt, but far less than agreeing to surrender would.
The loss of weaponry is an empty threat. The US has stopped supplying weapons, and their arms manufacturers won't stop selling them.
Most US-weapons are supply-limited. Certainly for the next couple of years arms production could be diverted to rebuilding US stocks. I think the US could quite easily turn off weapons supplies to Ukraine if they wanted to.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
Perhaps it is about time we reminded Trump that the US relies upon the RAF Fylingdales SSPARS station for a key part of its Ballistic missile early warning system and we have the capability to cut their access if they start playing fast and lose with our defence.
Maybe - but then can't the US turn off Trident if Britain gets too uppity?
They could break the maintenance contract - under which we share a pool of missiles with the US Navy.
That wouldn't turn off Trident - just cause a slow degradation.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
Perhaps it is about time we reminded Trump that the US relies upon the RAF Fylingdales SSPARS station for a key part of its Ballistic missile early warning system and we have the capability to cut their access if they start playing fast and lose with our defence.
Maybe - but then can't the US turn off Trident if Britain gets too uppity?
So we can't retaliate but they can't defend themselves.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
It's one of those things which was true, when British electricity was generated by coal, and AC units were inefficient, and we were about 1 degree of average warming in the past. But it's no longer true.
I think it's a more general example of how people think in terms of beliefs. Beliefs may well form in response to facts to a degree, but they then solidify and become impervious to a change in those facts. As a psychological shortcut it makes a lot of sense. It would be exhausting to have to re-examine everything from first principles all the time. But it does lead us into defending erroneous beliefs long after they should have been abandoned.
14 years minus 3.5 years for guilty please part way through the process.
I'll be interested to see whether the GBN, Daily Mail and Telegraph / Daily T comments box warriors go for "Two Tier Justice" or paroxysms of patriotism.
I think it’s time for King Charles to get on a plane to meet Trump and intercede on behalf of Ukraine. It would appeal to Trump’s vanity and we know he listens to the last person he speaks to. I think if there is anyone in the world who could sway Trump’s tiny mind then the King has the best chance - Christ even take one for Ukraine by dangling an honorary knighthood should Trump get a peace deal that favours Ukraine.
Shame Farage wasn’t in the dock . He’s been a Putin stooge for years .
I'd like to see a sober comparison of their talking points from the period in question.
If you want them to get Farage honestly it's going to need to be a bit more than a few shared Thought Terminating Cliches. You're going to need the cash or the meetups.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
It's one of those things which was true, when British electricity was generated by coal, and AC units were inefficient, and we were about 1 degree of average warming in the past. But it's no longer true.
I think it's a more general example of how people think in terms of beliefs. Beliefs may well form in response to facts to a degree, but they then solidify and become impervious to a change in those facts. As a psychological shortcut it makes a lot of sense. It would be exhausting to have to re-examine everything from first principles all the time. But it does lead us into defending erroneous beliefs long after they should have been abandoned.
And regulations and laws often represent the ossification of these beliefs.
See the War on Drugs. Which must be waged. Because Drugs are Illegal.
I think it’s time for King Charles to get on a plane to meet Trump and intercede on behalf of Ukraine. It would appeal to Trump’s vanity and we know he listens to the last person he speaks to. I think if there is anyone in the world who could sway Trump’s tiny mind then the King has the best chance - Christ even take one for Ukraine by dangling an honorary knighthood should Trump get a peace deal that favours Ukraine.
Easier to just buy Trump.
Start a whip round in Europe - club together and buy $10Bn in Trump coin in return for services rendered.
Then make sure it leaks in the run up to the next Presidential election. Get him on tape selling foreign policy for cash.
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
iirc there was some discussion here during the pandemic of filtered air for schools.
The animus against A/C in the UK is an interesting cultural thing.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
What a complete prat.
Take a look into heat exchange ventilation, though. It pays for itself in the winter, as you don't have to rely on natural ventilation (opening a window, for instance), and prevents damp problems. Not even that expensive for domestic units, and uses very little electricity (v low speed fan).
I am finding it very hard to get het up by the Covid report. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yes we know that shagger was the worst possible leader in a time of crisis. But good men, better men, competent men are also just as capable of inaction when faced with "that can't be right" data.
I am more interested in what we can change next time than calling for vengeance against people who have long since been booted out of office.
I think most of us could have predicted most of that report about five years ago.
Politicians all crap, civil servants all wonderful, no lessons to learn, now write the nine-figure cheque for the lawyers writing the report please.
Now, if they could produce a report from the perspective of something like a transport accident investigation, going into detail about what led to the decisions that were made, what might be done differently next time, and with comparison of approaches taken in other countries, that one might be worth reading.
Yep - lessons can be learnt, doesn't help when you don't say what bits looking backwards could be used to implement restrictions earlier.
without that information and without knowing what else works we could well end up implement restrictions for 45 of the next 0 pandemics.
What restrictions, though ?
Face masks, for example, greatly lower the transmission rate for any respiratory virus.
Compared with even the shortest lockdown, they are a minor imposition - and in some countries just ordinary practice.
Better ventilation has similar health benefits for relatively minor costs.
The other lesson which ought to be learned was the benefit of cheap rapid tests for infection, once developed.
We wasted tens of billions on PCR 'gold standard' testing which was almost completely ineffective in changing outcomes. Cheap self-administered tests, widely adopted, could completely avoid the need for any lockdown in the future (and could have been far better used earlier in this pandemic).
I haven't read the report, but if it hasn't adopted a cost/benefit analysis as its fundamental framework, then it is a waste of time. (Apart from the necessary conformation of what a crap PM was Boris - though we didn't need to spend £200m to know that.)
The big dog that has not barked in the night time, although it might by Sunday, is the defence of Boris ‘he got the big calls right’ Johnson or the Conservative government in general – or the devolved governments. One less king across the water for Kemi to worry about.
I mentioned the anti-A/C thing in planning yesterday.
The units I use - which chill/heat the air in the room, using a liquid loop to the outside air - have a HEPA filter in them.
Air sourced heat pump aircon plus a separate small heat-exchange ventilation fan to bring in fresh air/ dump moisture, without losing building heat, is the way to go.
They do (along with daft stuff like mandating dual aspect windows etc.). But this is new policy: ..Now the scheme has been expanded to offer a £2,500 discount off the cost of installing an air-to-air heat pump, which can offer the best of both worlds, providing heat in winter and keeping you cool in summer.
This is the first time air-conditioning units have been eligible for government funding, meaning residents will benefit from cool homes during a long, hot summer, without burning harmful fossil fuels. ..
Indeed
So government is trying to stop people installed A/C at one end - to the point of fucking up flat designs.
At the other they are now subsiding them....
Like I said yesterday, baby steps. And way too slow.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
Fun fact. Richard II got no polling scores after Bosworth,
One thing I'm starting to notice in local by-elections compared to the MRPs: All the MRPs are showing the LD vote decreasing (sometimes significantly) in their areas of strength, but increasing slightly across the rest of the country. In practice in by-elections the reverse is happening, the LDs are strengthening where they are strong and if anything losing ground where they're out of the running. Last night's results show that exactly, up in both seats in Stratford (and very narrowly second in the seat Reform picked up from the Tories), nowhere and declining in the rest.
So I think all projections currently underestimate LD seats. TBF others have been saying this - on current polls there is a swing of several points from C to LD yet seat projections are going the other way. Of course given the shortage of potential targets from the Tories and the potential gains from Labour start and stop at Sheffield Hallam that doesn't mean they'll gain many either, but surely 80 rather than 60 would be about right on current polling.
Lots of guys with UJs in their profile not understanding the Scottish voting system - why haven’t Reform won!? Some poor saps even reduced to asking Grok.
We can see the threats from the US now. Reuters reporting that the US will stop providing weapons and intelligence support of Ukraine doesn't sign by Thanksgiving (in six days).
The loss of intelligence would hurt, but far less than agreeing to surrender would.
The loss of weaponry is an empty threat. The US has stopped supplying weapons, and their arms manufacturers won't stop selling them.
Most US-weapons are supply-limited. Certainly for the next couple of years arms production could be diverted to rebuilding US stocks. I think the US could quite easily turn off weapons supplies to Ukraine if they wanted to.
They could. But I think European re-armament has now got to the point where a sufficiently determined Europe might be able pick up the slack (certainly in something like artillery). The biggest deficit is in intelligence (satellite capacity) and communications (Starlink, etc).
There is also a c.90% probability that Trump would fold if his bluff was called.
A lawyer working for a bank/financial institution is usually the best of humanity….
A BlackRock solicitor has been fined for shouting abuse at other passengers on a train.
Rebecca Lindsay, who qualified in Scotland in 2020, was travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow last December after a Christmas party (which was not thrown by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, it pointed out to ROF).
Having partaken in the refreshments available at the event, Lindsay took a tumble in the aisle and was helped up by another passenger.
Lindsay struck up a conversation with the man before becoming “aggressive” towards him, and when another passenger asked if he was alright, Lindsay yelled at them, “Is he your boyfriend? Have you got your d**k up his a**e, is he shagging him tonight - he is up his ass”.
Turning on a woman in the carriage, she shouted, “You are a f***ing mad f***ing dyke lesbian, you are the problem”.
Once Lindsay was sat down, she called a man who was passing in the aisle with a woman “ugly”.
Then she shouted at him, “Go away you f***ing orange ned, go away you f***ing psycho freak!” and kicked him twice for good measure.
Fiscal depute Ross Canning told the court, “The man with the woman tried to get Lindsay into her seat in an attempt to diffuse the situation. From the seated position, she kicked the man twice but there was no injury”.
The court heard how Lindsay, from Glasgow, shared her thoughts with her fellow passengers for the duration of the journey, telling one rubbernecker, “You getting a f***ing hard on for it, aye?”
Lindsay pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner aggravated by prejudice related to sexual orientation, and to assault.
Her lawyer said she had consumed alcohol while on medication because “there was social pressure on her to drink” at the party, and that it “went to her head”.
He said his client had “no recollection” of going full ned and that “She cannot express more regret than she feels and is utterly ashamed by her conduct. She bitterly regrets her actions”.
In further mitigation, the court heard that the man she kicked had called her an “old skank”, which may explain why she was only fined £640.
He has been out of the country 45 times since elected
Good it is going so well for him here in the UK then !!!!
Not really the most reasonable charge against Starmer when the war in Ukraine and Gaza have boiled over on his watch.
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
I heard Starmer stumbled when he had that curry and beer during lockdown.
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Maybe he punished it too harshly and it’s crumbled
Given that Stramer is lower in the polls than Richard III after Bosworth, perhaps the information has been published?
Fun fact. Richard II got no polling scores after Bosworth,
One thing I'm starting to notice in local by-elections compared to the MRPs: All the MRPs are showing the LD vote decreasing (sometimes significantly) in their areas of strength, but increasing slightly across the rest of the country. In practice in by-elections the reverse is happening, the LDs are strengthening where they are strong and if anything losing ground where they're out of the running. Last night's results show that exactly, up in both seats in Stratford (and very narrowly second in the seat Reform picked up from the Tories), nowhere and declining in the rest.
So I think all projections currently underestimate LD seats. TBF others have been saying this - on current polls there is a swing of several points from C to LD yet seat projections are going the other way. Of course given the shortage of potential targets from the Tories and the potential gains from Labour start and stop at Sheffield Hallam that doesn't mean they'll gain many either, but surely 80 rather than 60 would be about right on current polling.
Srely if they are strengthening where they are already strong they are not likely to gain many seats, just not likely to lose many.
Lots of guys with UJs in their profile not understanding the Scottish voting system - why haven’t Reform won!? Some poor saps even reduced to asking Grok.
Con gain in Dumfries and Galloway on transfers. There was also a Lib Dem hold in Stratford and Avon.
Yes, Reform won most votes on first preferences in Dumfries but the Conservatives won the seat as it was elected by STV and most SNP, Labour and LD and Green preferences went Conservative over Reform. Clear evidence now FPTP disadvantages the Tories at the moment and boosts Reform https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1991875559710667073?s=20
Con gain in Dumfries and Galloway on transfers. There was also a Lib Dem hold in Stratford and Avon.
Yes, Reform won most votes on first preferences but the Conservatives won the seat as it was elected by STV and most SNP, Labour and LD and Green preferences went Conservative over Reform. Clear evidence now FPTP disadvantages the Tories at the moment and boosts Reform https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1991875559710667073?s=20
One thing I'm starting to notice in local by-elections compared to the MRPs: All the MRPs are showing the LD vote decreasing (sometimes significantly) in their areas of strength, but increasing slightly across the rest of the country. In practice in by-elections the reverse is happening, the LDs are strengthening where they are strong and if anything losing ground where they're out of the running. Last night's results show that exactly, up in both seats in Stratford (and very narrowly second in the seat Reform picked up from the Tories), nowhere and declining in the rest.
So I think all projections currently underestimate LD seats. TBF others have been saying this - on current polls there is a swing of several points from C to LD yet seat projections are going the other way. Of course given the shortage of potential targets from the Tories and the potential gains from Labour start and stop at Sheffield Hallam that doesn't mean they'll gain many either, but surely 80 rather than 60 would be about right on current polling.
Srely if they are strengthening where they are already strong they are not likely to gain many seats, just not likely to lose many.
I think it’s time for King Charles to get on a plane to meet Trump and intercede on behalf of Ukraine. It would appeal to Trump’s vanity and we know he listens to the last person he speaks to. I think if there is anyone in the world who could sway Trump’s tiny mind then the King has the best chance - Christ even take one for Ukraine by dangling an honorary knighthood should Trump get a peace deal that favours Ukraine.
Surely he shouldn't be getting involved in politics.
Lots of guys with UJs in their profile not understanding the Scottish voting system - why haven’t Reform won!? Some poor saps even reduced to asking Grok.
A lawyer working for a bank/financial institution is usually the best of humanity….
A BlackRock solicitor has been fined for shouting abuse at other passengers on a train.
Rebecca Lindsay, who qualified in Scotland in 2020, was travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow last December after a Christmas party (which was not thrown by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, it pointed out to ROF).
Having partaken in the refreshments available at the event, Lindsay took a tumble in the aisle and was helped up by another passenger.
Lindsay struck up a conversation with the man before becoming “aggressive” towards him, and when another passenger asked if he was alright, Lindsay yelled at them, “Is he your boyfriend? Have you got your d**k up his a**e, is he shagging him tonight - he is up his ass”.
Turning on a woman in the carriage, she shouted, “You are a f***ing mad f***ing dyke lesbian, you are the problem”.
Once Lindsay was sat down, she called a man who was passing in the aisle with a woman “ugly”.
Then she shouted at him, “Go away you f***ing orange ned, go away you f***ing psycho freak!” and kicked him twice for good measure.
Fiscal depute Ross Canning told the court, “The man with the woman tried to get Lindsay into her seat in an attempt to diffuse the situation. From the seated position, she kicked the man twice but there was no injury”.
The court heard how Lindsay, from Glasgow, shared her thoughts with her fellow passengers for the duration of the journey, telling one rubbernecker, “You getting a f***ing hard on for it, aye?”
Lindsay pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner aggravated by prejudice related to sexual orientation, and to assault.
Her lawyer said she had consumed alcohol while on medication because “there was social pressure on her to drink” at the party, and that it “went to her head”.
He said his client had “no recollection” of going full ned and that “She cannot express more regret than she feels and is utterly ashamed by her conduct. She bitterly regrets her actions”.
In further mitigation, the court heard that the man she kicked had called her an “old skank”, which may explain why she was only fined £640.
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
No, it's driven by genuine problems, which London has in abundance - staggeringly expensive housing, higher poverty levels than any other region in southern England, a dismal one-party city government led by a classic machine politician, a national government that regards it, like they regard anywhere remotely successful, as an ATM, high levels of certain types of property crime and a police force which has given up on them, unwanted immigrants dumped in previously cohesive communities for decades without consultation or consent, etc. etc.
But it ignores London's huge strengths, in particular its character, resilience and vitality which make it, despite its problems, one of the world's great cities. So, like most media these days, it presents just one side of a much more nuanced picture, just because that gets the clicks.
London is fantastic and a truly amazing place (imo). But that's because I skew typicaly PB demographic and I can enjoy all the plays, concerts, book readings, cultcha, etc.
I understand that not everyone for example is a Friend of the RA so has to queue and pay £20 or whatever it is now for the Kiefer/Van Gogh which must be ghastly.
*looks*
Bugger me, it's £148 pa! About the price of 4 rounds in central London!
Edit: That's as much as I pay for my English Heritage and National Trust for Scotland (joint, share of) memberships put together!
Ten and a half years seems a bit excessive for Gill. Jail time maybe for taking some bribes from the Russians but even some who kill by dangerous driving or manslaughter or rapists get less time in jail than that.
Is it because he was Reform? One hopes not
Utter and complete rubbish
I assume you didn't listen to the judgement on how he helped Putin and was anti Ukraine
He was lucky to get only 10 and a half years as he corrupted politics across Europe
I genuinely hope this damages pro Putin Farage and his Reform mob
Did he disclose lots of sensitive intelligence to Putin? no. Did he sent vast quantities of funds to Russia? No. Did he fight on the battlefield with Russia? No.
He made some pro Putin speeches and interviews he was bribed for. A 5 year sentence would have sufficed
He took money from a foreign power, and received his fellow elected representatives into promoting the views of that foreign power.
It was aggravated by his being an elected representative, who should be speaking for his constituents rather than betraying them and speaking for the Government of Russia.
He could have been charged with other serious offences such as Misconduct in Public Office.
Having skim read the sentencing remarks, I'm happy with the sentence. It is a suitably stiff deterrent, I guess pour discourager les autres.
I think it’s time for King Charles to get on a plane to meet Trump and intercede on behalf of Ukraine. It would appeal to Trump’s vanity and we know he listens to the last person he speaks to. I think if there is anyone in the world who could sway Trump’s tiny mind then the King has the best chance - Christ even take one for Ukraine by dangling an honorary knighthood should Trump get a peace deal that favours Ukraine.
It's a thought. But the fundamentals preclude such a deal. Anything acceptable to Ukraine is by definition unacceptable to Putin. He'd have to be forced into it by American pressure. He'd need to think, "this is not great but if we don't sign it things will end up getting worse for us". Donald Trump does not seem to be up for exerting that pressure so I can't see much prospect of a US brokered peace agreement atm.
I think it’s time for King Charles to get on a plane to meet Trump and intercede on behalf of Ukraine. It would appeal to Trump’s vanity and we know he listens to the last person he speaks to. I think if there is anyone in the world who could sway Trump’s tiny mind then the King has the best chance - Christ even take one for Ukraine by dangling an honorary knighthood should Trump get a peace deal that favours Ukraine.
Surely he shouldn't be getting involved in politics.
I think it would be worth it for this (and backed by probably nearly all parties and the majority of the population). To deal with an extreme problem you need to consider left-field solutions. If he failed to change Trump’s minds nobody would hold it against him either but be grateful he tried.
A lawyer working for a bank/financial institution is usually the best of humanity….
A BlackRock solicitor has been fined for shouting abuse at other passengers on a train.
Rebecca Lindsay, who qualified in Scotland in 2020, was travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow last December after a Christmas party (which was not thrown by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, it pointed out to ROF).
Having partaken in the refreshments available at the event, Lindsay took a tumble in the aisle and was helped up by another passenger.
Lindsay struck up a conversation with the man before becoming “aggressive” towards him, and when another passenger asked if he was alright, Lindsay yelled at them, “Is he your boyfriend? Have you got your d**k up his a**e, is he shagging him tonight - he is up his ass”.
Turning on a woman in the carriage, she shouted, “You are a f***ing mad f***ing dyke lesbian, you are the problem”.
Once Lindsay was sat down, she called a man who was passing in the aisle with a woman “ugly”.
Then she shouted at him, “Go away you f***ing orange ned, go away you f***ing psycho freak!” and kicked him twice for good measure.
Fiscal depute Ross Canning told the court, “The man with the woman tried to get Lindsay into her seat in an attempt to diffuse the situation. From the seated position, she kicked the man twice but there was no injury”.
The court heard how Lindsay, from Glasgow, shared her thoughts with her fellow passengers for the duration of the journey, telling one rubbernecker, “You getting a f***ing hard on for it, aye?”
Lindsay pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner aggravated by prejudice related to sexual orientation, and to assault.
Her lawyer said she had consumed alcohol while on medication because “there was social pressure on her to drink” at the party, and that it “went to her head”.
He said his client had “no recollection” of going full ned and that “She cannot express more regret than she feels and is utterly ashamed by her conduct. She bitterly regrets her actions”.
In further mitigation, the court heard that the man she kicked had called her an “old skank”, which may explain why she was only fined £640.
For those of us without a Daily Mail account, and who feel that our lives are the richer for not having one, what did it say?
As someone who has lived in London for most of my life, and the same corner of it for the last 25 years, I don't recognise a lot of the descriptions I read, and certainly feel that much of London is far better than during most of my life, except for a general decline in the public realm over the past decade or so that I see everywhere else I visit too.
It's a kind of modern Gin Lane account of walking through Kensington in the early hours of the morning, being scared of brown people, a random negative comment about the tube, seeing a prostitute buying some drugs, some obligatory hating on Sadiq Khan and contrasting it with the bucolic joy of the English countryside. She thinks American tourists must hate it here (weird how they keep coming) and takes a shot at the weather (also probably Khan's fault). A classic of the genre, basically.
And all those tall buildings. Scary.
Did the packs of rabid urban foxes, and Hitchcockian bird flu-infested parakeets and ornamental geese, get a look in?
Lol, I imagine so.
The 'London is terrible' meme has been around for as long as can remember. Three drivers, I'd say:
1. Backdoor envy. It means 'wish I could live there'. 2. Parochial xenophobia. It means 'multicultural equals shithole'. 3. Ageing. It means 'I'm too old for all that'.
Number 2 is what I think is behind it when it's coming from the Populist Right.
There is a legitimate concern in some part of London of neighbourhoods' character changing. "White flight" as I believe it is called. Now, don't get me wrong. Walking down the Costa del Sol there's nothing I like better than a row of Spoons, Harry Ramsden's chippies, and sports bars showing Coventry vs Stoke on its five TV screens, but some say that it is an okay thing to want to preserve the character (ofc people vary on their choice of T= 0).
From my perspective, I don't mind if leafy suburbs, previously the preserve of the intelligentsia and literary types, are opened up to loadsamoney oiks who've made it in the City but you have to understand how some people think.
Can't fault you for effort on that one.
Nor I for your whole "fitting in to NW3" effort.
You seem to be bristling at something. Cmon spit it out.
I am bristling at the fact that imposters such as you - and I mention this only because I appreciate that, as an incomers yourself, you feel exposed - don't allow yourseves to acknowledge that there are legitimate concerns over the changing character of some neighbourhoods.
Now, you won't find a greater fan of London than me but as mentioned earlier, that is probably because I am insulated from some of the issues that others face (although I did see in spitting distance not so long ago, a phone being snatched out of the hand of some rugger bugger on Sloane Square if you can imagine it). I don't need to worry about the changing face of my neighbourhood or of feeling dislocated from somewhere that might previously have been homogenous in its character, or more homogenous.
We are in this pickle rn with Reform riding high precisely because of people like you who have chosen to dismiss any concern as invalid. Had there been more of an understanding of those concerns we would all be getting on with worrying about the tax status of a Jaffa Cake rather than immigration dominating the political discourse (crystalised most clearly to many in London).
Comments
Utter condemnation of the Streeting fiasco last week is fair game but this is just ridiculous partisan nonsense. It's not like he missed five COBRA meetings to write a book*.
* Whataboutery of the finest order, but current under the circumstances of Lady Hallett's report.
Surely more?
Which reminds me, wasn’t some bloke on Twatter saying a few weeks ago they’d soon be punishing some new info about that which would cause Starmer problems.
Any updates?
Exactly what many of us warned would happen if Trump were elected.
My first thought is that there is evidence of direct bribe taking from a foreign Government which has been waging a hybrid war on this country for some time, so I would expect strong "lay down a warning" and "pour encourager les autres" elements. And Nathan Gill is a Brit (I assume), rather than a foreign national. It was also multiple offences, so some aggravating factors.
He pled Guilty, so 10.5 years has some reduction from a bigger number.
But I need to read the sentencing remarks.
I will be interested in reactions, especially from Kemi who has previously (in my view) used even defence as matter to seek political confrontation rather than common support for the national interest.
But it is his happy place away from domestic turmoil
Or you think they should be not mentioned or concealed because central London is mostly immigrants now?
For decades the multi-culty left has wanted to "rub the right's nose in diversity" and stigmatise and ostracise and they're now amusingly and naively surprised when, far from everybody uniting in a fragmented society, with the immigrant vote keeping them in power for perpetuity, it's coming back to bite them. Just as when higher taxes destroy economic growth the left has failed to think through the most predictable consequences of their smug and incompetent self-righteousness.
So, for example. my belief that there is something real in the universe apart from my own mental states has a realistic claim to be true not just subjectively but true even after I have died.
The idea of eliminating the virus from Scotland was inappropriate and destined to fail in the light of an open border with England and there being no agreement with the UK government to close it. The references by Ms Sturgeon and others to elimination of the virus from Scotland might have created the impression for the public that life could return to normal.
It must have gone down hill
I was enjoying yesterday's narrative from a couple of PBers that whilst Johnson got all the big calls right, Starmer, Corbyn and Davey would have made a hell of a mess of COVID*
*And I thought I had been crowned the PB King of whataboutery.
I have been moderately complementary about Johnson's COVID performance in respect of his lockdowns, against the charges and reflections of the PB lockdown naysayers.
He acted for Russia and anti Ukraine in a way I didn't appreciate though @Mexicanpete has warned off for sometime
In my opinion he was fortunate to get the sentence he did
You can charge Starmer with a whole list of incompetences. This however is cheap partisan rubbish. It's on a par with the Friday night dinner nonsense.
https://samf.substack.com/p/the-witkoff-dmitriev-peace-plan-annotated
The loss of weaponry is an empty threat. The US has stopped supplying weapons, and their arms manufacturers won't stop selling them.
But I bet they are squirming at the moment.
I actually had a planning guy ring me up - the architect included the A/C units in the diagrams of the work we were doing, even though they are located so as not to require planning consent.
He seem upset that he couldn't stop me adding the. "Why not natural ventilation"? - I pointed out that we were including an opening roof skylight at the top of the stairs to the loft conversion, as well.
"But it's wasteful" - I pointed out that was air source and driven by solar panels. "But.... "
I got the distinct impression that if he had had the power, he would have wanted to block it.
Complete with foreign mercenaries. Paid for by the... French
"On 7 August 1485, Henry Tudor landed ... at Mill Bay, at the mouth of the Milford Haven waterway. He was 28 years old and had lived most of his life in exile in France. With him were c.2,000 French mercenaries, funded by the King of France."
We need something more substantial.
But that's a very acute effect. It happens in days for most diseases. It's not a problem with diversity in the usual way we use that word. That my work colleagues include people who were born in Poland, Italy and India doesn't matter for pandemic risk. They all live in London now: they have whatever bugs people in London have.
International travel can spread pandemics, but having diverse societies doesn't. During the early weeks of COVID-19, British people going on holiday to Italy helped spread the disease from Italy to the UK. Those British people being black or white, Jewish or Muslim, didn't.
A few “I’ll leave it there… for now”’s and I’ll start to think it’s the man himself
Come the revolution some of these planners are going to have one hell of a wakeup call ...
But this is new policy:
..Now the scheme has been expanded to offer a £2,500 discount off the cost of installing an air-to-air heat pump, which can offer the best of both worlds, providing heat in winter and keeping you cool in summer.
This is the first time air-conditioning units have been eligible for government funding, meaning residents will benefit from cool homes during a long, hot summer, without burning harmful fossil fuels. ..
No luck so far.
In my case, the planning guy then got upset because I was using a skylight/roof hatch 1.5x0.8m.
Again, no planning power. Can only be seen if you are above the roof - and it's the same height as all the neighbours. So they can't physically see it. Unless they hire a drone....
https://www.dumfriesandgalloway.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-11/By-election-Stranraer and-the-Rhins-result.pdf
Technically its a Con gain from Independent
So government is trying to stop people installed A/C at one end - to the point of fucking up flat designs.
At the other they are now subsiding them....
NEW: Reform have failed to win their first election in Scotland after falling short in Stranraer and the Rhins.
Reform won the most first preferences, but the Tory candidate won at stage 7.
That wouldn't turn off Trident - just cause a slow degradation.
I think it's a more general example of how people think in terms of beliefs. Beliefs may well form in response to facts to a degree, but they then solidify and become impervious to a change in those facts. As a psychological shortcut it makes a lot of sense. It would be exhausting to have to re-examine everything from first principles all the time. But it does lead us into defending erroneous beliefs long after they should have been abandoned.
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/R-v-Nathan-Gill.pdf
14 years minus 3.5 years for guilty please part way through the process.
I'll be interested to see whether the GBN, Daily Mail and Telegraph / Daily T comments box warriors go for "Two Tier Justice" or paroxysms of patriotism.
See the War on Drugs. Which must be waged. Because Drugs are Illegal.
Start a whip round in Europe - club together and buy $10Bn in Trump coin in return for services rendered.
Then make sure it leaks in the run up to the next Presidential election. Get him on tape selling foreign policy for cash.
Take a look into heat exchange ventilation, though. It pays for itself in the winter, as you don't have to rely on natural ventilation (opening a window, for instance), and prevents damp problems.
Not even that expensive for domestic units, and uses very little electricity (v low speed fan).
https://x.com/johnrentoul/status/1991856861436588378?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
And way too slow.
So I think all projections currently underestimate LD seats. TBF others have been saying this - on current polls there is a swing of several points from C to LD yet seat projections are going the other way. Of course given the shortage of potential targets from the Tories and the potential gains from Labour start and stop at Sheffield Hallam that doesn't mean they'll gain many either, but surely 80 rather than 60 would be about right on current polling.
Lots of guys with UJs in their profile not understanding the Scottish voting system - why haven’t Reform won!?
Some poor saps even reduced to asking Grok.
https://x.com/mrgbjones/status/1991876514787528997?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
But I think European re-armament has now got to the point where a sufficiently determined Europe might be able pick up the slack (certainly in something like artillery). The biggest deficit is in intelligence (satellite capacity) and communications (Starlink, etc).
There is also a c.90% probability that Trump would fold if his bluff was called.
A BlackRock solicitor has been fined for shouting abuse at other passengers on a train.
Rebecca Lindsay, who qualified in Scotland in 2020, was travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow last December after a Christmas party (which was not thrown by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, it pointed out to ROF).
Having partaken in the refreshments available at the event, Lindsay took a tumble in the aisle and was helped up by another passenger.
Lindsay struck up a conversation with the man before becoming “aggressive” towards him, and when another passenger asked if he was alright, Lindsay yelled at them, “Is he your boyfriend? Have you got your d**k up his a**e, is he shagging him tonight - he is up his ass”.
Turning on a woman in the carriage, she shouted, “You are a f***ing mad f***ing dyke lesbian, you are the problem”.
Once Lindsay was sat down, she called a man who was passing in the aisle with a woman “ugly”.
Then she shouted at him, “Go away you f***ing orange ned, go away you f***ing psycho freak!” and kicked him twice for good measure.
Fiscal depute Ross Canning told the court, “The man with the woman tried to get Lindsay into her seat in an attempt to diffuse the situation. From the seated position, she kicked the man twice but there was no injury”.
The court heard how Lindsay, from Glasgow, shared her thoughts with her fellow passengers for the duration of the journey, telling one rubbernecker, “You getting a f***ing hard on for it, aye?”
Lindsay pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner aggravated by prejudice related to sexual orientation, and to assault.
Her lawyer said she had consumed alcohol while on medication because “there was social pressure on her to drink” at the party, and that it “went to her head”.
He said his client had “no recollection” of going full ned and that “She cannot express more regret than she feels and is utterly ashamed by her conduct. She bitterly regrets her actions”.
In further mitigation, the court heard that the man she kicked had called her an “old skank”, which may explain why she was only fined £640.
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/blackrock-solicitor-fined-abusive-tirade-train
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1991875559710667073?s=20
Bugger me, it's £148 pa! About the price of 4 rounds in central London!
Edit: That's as much as I pay for my English Heritage and National Trust for Scotland (joint, share of) memberships put together!
What are the carpet tacks made of, unobtainium?
It was aggravated by his being an elected representative, who should be speaking for his constituents rather than betraying them and speaking for the Government of Russia.
He could have been charged with other serious offences such as Misconduct in Public Office.
Having skim read the sentencing remarks, I'm happy with the sentence. It is a suitably stiff deterrent, I guess pour discourager les autres.
Well done the Reform spokesperson for giving strong support.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c891403eddet
(I jest, probably).
yourself, you feel exposed - don't allow yourseves to acknowledge that there are legitimate concerns over the changing character of some neighbourhoods.
Now, you won't find a greater fan of London than me but as mentioned earlier, that is probably because I am insulated from some of the issues that others face (although I did see in spitting distance not so long ago, a phone being snatched out of the hand of some rugger bugger on Sloane Square if you can imagine it). I don't need to worry about the changing face of my neighbourhood or of feeling dislocated from somewhere that might previously have been homogenous in its character, or more homogenous.
We are in this pickle rn with Reform riding high precisely because of people like you who have chosen to dismiss any concern as invalid. Had there been more of an understanding of those concerns we would all be getting on with worrying about the tax status of a Jaffa Cake rather than immigration dominating the political discourse (crystalised most clearly to many in London).
Is why I'm bristling. Because it's your fault.