One problem Russia has is that lots of police officers left to join the army which pays high recruitment bonuses, salaries and death-in-service benefits. I'd be surprised at martial law, though. It is hard to see what problem it would solve, and would just alert the main population centres to the failure of the SMO.
It’s apparently now at the point where people working in weapons factories haven’t been paid for three months, and the Kremlin is expecting serious civil disobedience over the Orthodox Christmas period when most Russians in the private sector take the whole month of January off.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Wiki dodgy stats again, the post 2000 ones are misleading, only really 1 in that period. But point remains that the big drop was into the 80s from 70s.
Yes - by the 80s, they were talking about improving crash resistance and making circuits less dangerous, in a big way.
Senna’s death was a shock because people thought they were past *big names* dying.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
I’d say that the TV coverage was different in 1994, and starting to move towards what we see today.
I was 16 in 1994, and watched Senna’s death live in a way that didn’t necessarily happen earlier to such a global audience. Thankfully, I’ve found out three decades later, the BBC actually cut away from the World Feed that was on Eurosport, which showed the doctors working on the driver from a helicopter shot.
To take it to the extreme, F1 today would lose a lot of its audience if they thought that there would be a couple of funerals every year, and media companies would absolutely not want to show it.
These fake boxing matches are the same, it’s counting down the days until someone gets killed which isn’t fair on anyone. If you want to get into the ring with AJ you need to be damn close to his equal, this is supposed to be why we have sanctioning bodies for fighting sports.
The downside of long tail economics.
If a spectacle needs a mass audience for the business case to work, public sensibilities matter and you can't be too gross.
Once the big profits come from finding and serving your niche, some pretty horrible things become potentially profitable.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
That Monza GP weekend was horrific. Not just 1 driver was killed. Roland Rantzenberger died the day before. A tyre came off a car accelerating out of a pit stop and went bouncing into the stadium. It's just luck that someone in the crowd didn't get injured in that incident.
One problem Russia has is that lots of police officers left to join the army which pays high recruitment bonuses, salaries and death-in-service benefits. I'd be surprised at martial law, though. It is hard to see what problem it would solve, and would just alert the main population centres to the failure of the SMO.
There is a very interesting AMA on /r/ukrainerussiareport from a kid who served in the Donetsk militia and Sparta for two years with somehow not getting killed or kneecapped by Azov. It gives some good insight into the reality of the SMO.
His thoughts...
- Training and equipment are wildly variable. Dogshit in DPR militia, very good in Sparta. - All Russian forces are wildly reckless. No surprise. Crazy Ivan. - Nobody who is left in DPR/LPR (and probably Crimea) wants the "Ukros" back. Again, no surprise. All of the Ukrainian nationalists are dead or fled west. All that's left are the zhdany and Russian nationalists. - The two best infantry armies in the world are now Ukraine and Russia due to recent experience and exploitation of emergent tactics like FPV. - He is now a teacher in DPR, a job which he considers to be worse than sweeping the streets. XAXA.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Wikipedia's description of this tragedy is immediately followed by: In an otherwise uneventful race, Jackie Stewart won his 26th...
The answer to the question is partly Sid Watkins but also the zeitgeist. Deaths were seen as normal because they were normal (see also the Isle of Man TT) and even in football, it used to be that injured players would be carried off by the local St John Ambulance volunteers. In ordinary life, ambulance practice was scoop and run rather than trained paramedics on site (although I think that has swung part of the way back).
It wasn't until the early 80s that seatbelts were compulsory. It was a different world before that.
You should have seen some of the rides in public playgrounds.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My daughter for her final nativity insisted she wanted a speaking role, after years of getting silent parts.
She was given Joseph.
We were very proud of her and had no objection to her being Joseph.
One problem Russia has is that lots of police officers left to join the army which pays high recruitment bonuses, salaries and death-in-service benefits. I'd be surprised at martial law, though. It is hard to see what problem it would solve, and would just alert the main population centres to the failure of the SMO.
There is a very interesting AMA on /r/ukrainerussiareport from a kid who served in the Donetsk militia and Sparta for two years with somehow not getting killed or kneecapped by Azov. It gives some good insight into the reality of the SMO.
His thoughts...
- Training and equipment are wildly variable. Dogshit in DPR militia, very good in Sparta. - All Russian forces are wildly reckless. No surprise. Crazy Ivan. - Nobody who is left in DPR/LPR (and probably Crimea) wants the "Ukros" back. Again, no surprise. All of the Ukrainian nationalists are dead or fled west. All that's left are the zhdany and Russian nationalists. - The two best infantry armies in the world are now Ukraine and Russia due to recent experience and exploitation of emergent tactics like FPV. - He is now a teacher in DPR, a job which he considers to be worse than sweeping the streets. XAXA.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
Id be interested in what the case would be, as i imagine the law gives wide discretion on local elections to ministers, or legislation can be passed to do it.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
The Tories and LDs postponed the Holyrood elections for a whole year to suit their Westminster priorities. Nothing happened.
I thought Holyrood did that themselves because they wanted to avoid having the Holyrood elections at the same time as the Westminster election. Didn't they switch to five-year terms at the same time?
Okay, so I looked this up. The legislation was passed at Westminster, but all the parties agreed to it, because there was a recommendation not to have elections with different voting systems on the same day. Clegg did offer that the Holyrood elections could have been brought forward a year, but the choice was made to delay instead.
For the next election it was the Scottish government that chose to delay to 2021 to avoid a clash with the Westminster election that was due in 2020 (after the 2015 general election). So, again, this was not imposed on Scotland, and it changed the default term of a Scottish Parliament to five years. By legislation passed at Holyrood.
Why do ScotNats always have to blame everything on Westminster when they've done the thing themselves? It's not like we can't check.
FPT: because Westminster chose to clash in the first place, when it knew that Holyrood's dates were already established.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Wikipedia's description of this tragedy is immediately followed by: In an otherwise uneventful race, Jackie Stewart won his 26th...
The answer to the question is partly Sid Watkins but also the zeitgeist. Deaths were seen as normal because they were normal (see also the Isle of Man TT) and even in football, it used to be that injured players would be carried off by the local St John Ambulance volunteers. In ordinary life, ambulance practice was scoop and run rather than trained paramedics on site (although I think that has swung part of the way back).
It wasn't until the early 80s that seatbelts were compulsory. It was a different world before that.
You should have seen some of the rides in public playgrounds.
An old St John Ambulance person told me that back in the 70s, the week of the travelling fairground could be relied on for a couple of broken arms.
I was at international (quasi-American) schools and we wouldn't have dreamed of celebrating Christmas or any other religious festivity. I've been surprised to find them ubiquitous in Britain, so I surprise people by looking baffled when they ask if I was an angel or a sheep. Does the US have them?
I have no memory of any nativity plays when I was at school in the early 60s. Went to loads for my children though.
One problem Russia has is that lots of police officers left to join the army which pays high recruitment bonuses, salaries and death-in-service benefits. I'd be surprised at martial law, though. It is hard to see what problem it would solve, and would just alert the main population centres to the failure of the SMO.
There is a very interesting AMA on /r/ukrainerussiareport from a kid who served in the Donetsk militia and Sparta for two years with somehow not getting killed or kneecapped by Azov. It gives some good insight into the reality of the SMO.
His thoughts...
- Training and equipment are wildly variable. Dogshit in DPR militia, very good in Sparta. - All Russian forces are wildly reckless. No surprise. Crazy Ivan. - Nobody who is left in DPR/LPR (and probably Crimea) wants the "Ukros" back. Again, no surprise. All of the Ukrainian nationalists are dead or fled west. All that's left are the zhdany and Russian nationalists. - The two best infantry armies in the world are now Ukraine and Russia due to recent experience and exploitation of emergent tactics like FPV. - He is now a teacher in DPR, a job which he considers to be worse than sweeping the streets. XAXA.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
Id be interested in what the case would be, as i imagine the law gives wide discretion on local elections to ministers, or legislation can be passed to do it.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
The Tories and LDs postponed the Holyrood elections for a whole year to suit their Westminster priorities. Nothing happened.
I thought Holyrood did that themselves because they wanted to avoid having the Holyrood elections at the same time as the Westminster election. Didn't they switch to five-year terms at the same time?
Okay, so I looked this up. The legislation was passed at Westminster, but all the parties agreed to it, because there was a recommendation not to have elections with different voting systems on the same day. Clegg did offer that the Holyrood elections could have been brought forward a year, but the choice was made to delay instead.
For the next election it was the Scottish government that chose to delay to 2021 to avoid a clash with the Westminster election that was due in 2020 (after the 2015 general election). So, again, this was not imposed on Scotland, and it changed the default term of a Scottish Parliament to five years. By legislation passed at Holyrood.
Why do ScotNats always have to blame everything on Westminster when they've done the thing themselves? It's not like we can't check.
FPT: because Westminster chose to clash in the first place, when it knew that Holyrood's dates were already established.
What's wrong with having them a few weeks apart, rather than a whole year?
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Absolutely agree, but Senna’s death was what made the commercial side really wake up to the determination to never have another racer die live on TV.
Today, if there’s a serious accident we never see replays of it until it’s known that everyone is safe.
Massive props go to Jackie Stewart, Prof Sid Watkins, Bernie Ecclestone, and even Spanky himself, Max Mosley, for major F1 safety improvements.
Senna’s death was one of two in the same weekend, the other being Roland Ratzenberger.
Senna had himself, the very morning of the race, demanded a reconstitution of the GPDA with a renewed focus on safety. He had, in fact, just been elected President.
And with safety having improved greatly, the shock of two deaths in 36 hours, one of them the greatest driver in the world at that time, did rather concentrate minds.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Wikipedia's description of this tragedy is immediately followed by: In an otherwise uneventful race, Jackie Stewart won his 26th...
The answer to the question is partly Sid Watkins but also the zeitgeist. Deaths were seen as normal because they were normal (see also the Isle of Man TT) and even in football, it used to be that injured players would be carried off by the local St John Ambulance volunteers. In ordinary life, ambulance practice was scoop and run rather than trained paramedics on site (although I think that has swung part of the way back).
It wasn't until the early 80s that seatbelts were compulsory. It was a different world before that.
You should have seen some of the rides in public playgrounds.
An old St John Ambulance person told me that back in the 70s, the week of the travelling fairground could be relied on for a couple of broken arms.
They should have held on tighter!
I notice a football match was abandoned the other day because someone died on the terraces. I'm fairly sure back in the 60s the game would have carried on while the SJA stretchered them off around the touchline. 'It's the way he wanted to go,' people might have said, if they gave the matter any thought at all.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
Russian warplanes drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities daily. The Ukrainian population certainly knows about Russian warplanes. Plus they're also used to shoot down Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
Russian warplanes drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities daily. The Ukrainian population certainly knows about Russian warplanes. Plus they're also used to shoot down Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
I think John's comment referred to the Russian population as the group, of which 'only a few generals' etc.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
Russian warplanes drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities daily. The Ukrainian population certainly knows about Russian warplanes. Plus they're also used to shoot down Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
I thought the point was that targeting empty civilian airliners would cause far more damage to Putin’s reputation among his people and lead to him possibly being forced out?
I have to say I think that’s optimistic but somebody may have said that in December 1916 (as John Buchan had the Princess say in Huntingtower).
It is almost a different sport in Australia, not far from a rugby league team playing union. If the Ashes is really so important we pick sub optimal squads vs other nations to get the "right" players in the team then it is also important enough that we should be arranging three proper warm up matches across a long tour.
If England want to take it seriously, they should have as many of the squad as possible playing 1st Class cricket in the southern hemisphere by about October.
Back in the day many English cricketers would play club cricket in Australia in the winter, if there wasn't a spot for them in the Sheffield Shield, but these days there's almost always a franchise T20 competition on somewhere.
Things have changed and somehow the team has to work out how to be successful in a new way.
One problem Russia has is that lots of police officers left to join the army which pays high recruitment bonuses, salaries and death-in-service benefits. I'd be surprised at martial law, though. It is hard to see what problem it would solve, and would just alert the main population centres to the failure of the SMO.
There is a very interesting AMA on /r/ukrainerussiareport from a kid who served in the Donetsk militia and Sparta for two years with somehow not getting killed or kneecapped by Azov. It gives some good insight into the reality of the SMO.
His thoughts...
- Training and equipment are wildly variable. Dogshit in DPR militia, very good in Sparta. - All Russian forces are wildly reckless. No surprise. Crazy Ivan. - Nobody who is left in DPR/LPR (and probably Crimea) wants the "Ukros" back. Again, no surprise. All of the Ukrainian nationalists are dead or fled west. All that's left are the zhdany and Russian nationalists. - The two best infantry armies in the world are now Ukraine and Russia due to recent experience and exploitation of emergent tactics like FPV. - He is now a teacher in DPR, a job which he considers to be worse than sweeping the streets. XAXA.
Based on this set of insights, I still think they should put into place the Eastern Ukraine idea. Russia shouldn't be permitted to add spoils to its territory (Crimea probably being the exception), but the remaining people in these areas probably no longer belong in Ukraine proper.
Create Eastern Ukraine spanning the Russia/Ukraine border, a nominally independent but in reality Russia-aligned state.
Let them sign the Russian 'Association agreement', and let Ukraine join the EU and NATO.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Luke 1: 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Absolutely agree, but Senna’s death was what made the commercial side really wake up to the determination to never have another racer die live on TV.
Today, if there’s a serious accident we never see replays of it until it’s known that everyone is safe.
Massive props go to Jackie Stewart, Prof Sid Watkins, Bernie Ecclestone, and even Spanky himself, Max Mosley, for major F1 safety improvements.
Senna’s death was one of two in the same weekend, the other being Roland Ratzenberger.
Senna had himself, the very morning of the race, demanded a reconstitution of the GPDA with a renewed focus on safety. He had, in fact, just been elected President.
And with safety having improved greatly, the shock of two deaths in 36 hours, one of them the greatest driver in the world at that time, did rather concentrate minds.
Wasn’t it Mosley who went to Ratzenberger’s funeral - and said that he went because everyone else was going to Senna’s?
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
Russian warplanes drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities daily. The Ukrainian population certainly knows about Russian warplanes. Plus they're also used to shoot down Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
I thought the point was that targeting empty civilian airliners would cause far more damage to Putin’s reputation among his people and lead to him possibly being forced out?
I have to say I think that’s optimistic but somebody may have said that in December 1916 (as John Buchan had the Princess say in Huntingtower).
The one thing the UK could do that would put significant domestic pressure on VVP would be to stop granting visas to Russian citizens under any circumstances. The Russia That Matters greatly prizes foreign travel. Starmer seems about as keen on that as he is on seizing Russian assets frozen in the UK. Not very.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
Wikipedia's description of this tragedy is immediately followed by: In an otherwise uneventful race, Jackie Stewart won his 26th...
The answer to the question is partly Sid Watkins but also the zeitgeist. Deaths were seen as normal because they were normal (see also the Isle of Man TT) and even in football, it used to be that injured players would be carried off by the local St John Ambulance volunteers. In ordinary life, ambulance practice was scoop and run rather than trained paramedics on site (although I think that has swung part of the way back).
It wasn't until the early 80s that seatbelts were compulsory. It was a different world before that.
You should have seen some of the rides in public playgrounds.
An old St John Ambulance person told me that back in the 70s, the week of the travelling fairground could be relied on for a couple of broken arms.
This was fixed playground equipment, and no supervision other than the odd parent.
The most terrifying thing was a kind of conical climbing frame about 18ft high, suspended at the apex by a pivoting joint (which allowed It to wobble from side to side as well as rotate), so it acted as a large roundabout with a step around the perimeter which could either be close to the ground or close to chin level.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
Id be interested in what the case would be, as i imagine the law gives wide discretion on local elections to ministers, or legislation can be passed to do it.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
The Tories and LDs postponed the Holyrood elections for a whole year to suit their Westminster priorities. Nothing happened.
I thought Holyrood did that themselves because they wanted to avoid having the Holyrood elections at the same time as the Westminster election. Didn't they switch to five-year terms at the same time?
Okay, so I looked this up. The legislation was passed at Westminster, but all the parties agreed to it, because there was a recommendation not to have elections with different voting systems on the same day. Clegg did offer that the Holyrood elections could have been brought forward a year, but the choice was made to delay instead.
For the next election it was the Scottish government that chose to delay to 2021 to avoid a clash with the Westminster election that was due in 2020 (after the 2015 general election). So, again, this was not imposed on Scotland, and it changed the default term of a Scottish Parliament to five years. By legislation passed at Holyrood.
Why do ScotNats always have to blame everything on Westminster when they've done the thing themselves? It's not like we can't check.
FPT: because Westminster chose to clash in the first place, when it knew that Holyrood's dates were already established.
But that was inevitable eventually when Holyrood was on a fixed 4-year cycle and Westminster wasn't. And the main point is that Holyrood could have chosen to do a 3-year Parliament but, surprise surprise, they choose to go to five years. So you can hardly say that Westminster delayed the elections.
You want to be independent but you won't even take responsibility for the decisions you already make.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
Early Minis had their fuel tank close to the boot so would often burst into flames in an accident. There was one particular blackspot on an A-road up north somewhere that led to volunteer doctors being organised to attend.
But even today when we occasionally see old cars on the road, say pre-80s, it is astonishing how small and flimsy they are, although at least they'd have fitted into car park bays which a lot of modern cars overhang.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
I was at international (quasi-American) schools and we wouldn't have dreamed of celebrating Christmas or any other religious festivity. I've been surprised to find them ubiquitous in Britain, so I surprise people by looking baffled when they ask if I was an angel or a sheep. Does the US have them?
I have no memory of any nativity plays when I was at school in the early 60s. Went to loads for my children though.
I was at international (quasi-American) schools and we wouldn't have dreamed of celebrating Christmas or any other religious festivity. I've been surprised to find them ubiquitous in Britain, so I surprise people by looking baffled when they ask if I was an angel or a sheep. Does the US have them?
I have no memory of any nativity plays when I was at school in the early 60s. Went to loads for my children though.
I’ve no memory of any either; infant/juniors 40’s.
The MiC poll fieldwork is three weeks old and therefore is ancient history. The current situation is Reform around 30, Labour and Conservatives around 20 and LDs and Greens around 11-13 if you believe Luke Tryl.
There are other pollsters whose view is different but the proof of all these puddings (Christmas or otherwise) will be found in 2029.
Spent the morning fighting the crowds in the M&S Food Hall at Stratford while Mrs Stodge was elsewhere - not so much divide and conquer as divide and see who gets as much as possible. Even if we are told no one is spending, people seem eager to eat, drink and be merry and perhaps an interest rate cut will loosen the purse strings a bit - no point saving if you get as much interest as a discussion on cooking or what constitutes a Christmas film or what toppings to put on a pizza or the performance of the England cricket team).
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
Early Minis had their fuel tank close to the boot so would often burst into flames in an accident. There was one particular blackspot on an A-road up north somewhere that led to volunteer doctors being organised to attend.
But even today when we occasionally see old cars on the road, say pre-80s, it is astonishing how small and flimsy they are, although at least they'd have fitted into car park bays which a lot of modern cars overhang.
Car deaths in this country peaked in 1966 which coincidentally is the year I passed my test. I think the figure was about 6,500. It is now down to about 1500. Traffic has of course increased exponentially in that time.
Car design is a big factor in the reduction in the number of deaths, but it is not the only one. A less cavalier attitude towards drinking and driving would also have played a big part.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
Russian warplanes drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities daily. The Ukrainian population certainly knows about Russian warplanes. Plus they're also used to shoot down Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
I thought the point was that targeting empty civilian airliners would cause far more damage to Putin’s reputation among his people and lead to him possibly being forced out?
I have to say I think that’s optimistic but somebody may have said that in December 1916 (as John Buchan had the Princess say in Huntingtower).
The one thing the UK could do that would put significant domestic pressure on VVP would be to stop granting visas to Russian citizens under any circumstances. The Russia That Matters greatly prizes foreign travel. Starmer seems about as keen on that as he is on seizing Russian assets frozen in the UK. Not very.
Yes, and there’s pressure on Schengen to do the same. No visit visas or new resident visas for Russian passports.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
I’d say that the TV coverage was different in 1994, and starting to move towards what we see today.
I was 16 in 1994, and watched Senna’s death live in a way that didn’t necessarily happen earlier to such a global audience. Thankfully, I’ve found out three decades later, the BBC actually cut away from the World Feed that was on Eurosport, which showed the doctors working on the driver from a helicopter shot.
To take it to the extreme, F1 today would lose a lot of its audience if they thought that there would be a couple of funerals every year, and media companies would absolutely not want to show it.
These fake boxing matches are the same, it’s counting down the days until someone gets killed which isn’t fair on anyone. If you want to get into the ring with AJ you need to be damn close to his equal, this is supposed to be why we have sanctioning bodies for fighting sports.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
If we have the elections in, for example, Essex, in 2026, given the delays in settling the new arrangements, the councillors will have at least two years service before those new arrangements kick in. Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
If we have the elections in, for example, Essex, in 2026, given the delays in settling the new arrangements, the councillors will have at least two years service before those new arrangements kick in. Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
I have doubts how much any group could mess up in just two years, with competent officer support. I know a few Reform cllrs and they seem little different than any others - some engaged, others less so. The trouble will be where the national party tries to dictate things or the locals in control have no understanding of local circumstances vs slogans.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
There shouldn't be a state religion
You cannot prevent people from worshipping the NHS.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
I'm not familiar with recent primary school nativities, but how do you have one with a silent Mary - that sounds very untraditional.
If Mary is silent, that is an editorial choice.
What do Roman Catholic Nativities do (with their habit of emphasising the place of Mary)?
(If it were up to me I would include the Annunciation as perhaps the first scene.)
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
There shouldn't be a state religion
You cannot prevent people from worshipping the NHS.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
There shouldn't be a state religion
You cannot prevent people from worshipping the NHS.
Although many do so on the basis of doctored statistics.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
My teachers realising my greatness cast me as a wise man.
I was an innkeeper. The only “baddie” in the story.
The only baddie in the story is God.
Knocks up a woman without her consent, then considering his power, makes her give birth to his kid in a donkey sanctuary.
Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is the one that traumatised me.
My voice broke during rehearsals and then my singing ability matched my ability to be subtle.
Ahh to live in a country where you can blaspheme the state religion until your heart's content.
There shouldn't be a state religion
You cannot prevent people from worshipping the NHS.
Herertics emerge every day when reality does not live up to expectations.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
I'm not familiar with recent primary school nativities, but how do you have one with a silent Mary - that sounds very untraditional.
If Mary is silent, that is an editorial choice.
What do Roman Catholic Nativities do?
They (local school and nursery ones, not RC) start with the angel announcing she’s going to have a child, but given the only line for Mary in that scene would be “but I’m still a virgin, honest” I assume they cut it out to keep things clean. Beyond that scene she’s silent anyway: Joseph does the talking at the inn doors.
The nativity is the first public sorting most children experience, and it’s definitely sorting rather than sortition.
Some parts have lines, others don’t. The narrator, Joseph, the innkeeper, the wise men and the angel Gabriel have meaningful lines.
There are no female parts with dialogue. As I discovered when our daughter was given the seemingly plum role of Mary only to discover it’s a completely silent part. You just sit there looking demure. Hence the most articulate young girl tends to get the narrator part, and/or they treat the Angels as ladies.
Those vote shares are pretty close to what you’d expect with current class and educational differences in party support, but there’s something else going on too. Look at the Lib Dems: Joseph the top performer, but narrator way down. I would hazard a guess that says something why some people become Lib Dems. We are Josephs, rather than narrators.
I'm not familiar with recent primary school nativities, but how do you have one with a silent Mary - that sounds very untraditional.
If Mary is silent, that is an editorial choice.
What do Roman Catholic Nativities do?
They (local school and nursery ones, not RC) start with the angel announcing she’s going to have a child, but given the only line for Mary in that scene would be “but I’m still a virgin, honest” I assume they cut it out to keep things clean. Beyond that scene she’s silent anyway: Joseph does the talking at the inn doors.
The annunciation. We did this the other day. Add nine months and Jesus is born on the 25th of December.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
If we have the elections in, for example, Essex, in 2026, given the delays in settling the new arrangements, the councillors will have at least two years service before those new arrangements kick in. Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
I have doubts how much any group could mess up in just two years, with competent officer support. I know a few Reform cllrs and they seem little different than any others - some engaged, others less so. The trouble will be where the national party tries to dictate things or the locals in control have no understanding of local circumstances vs slogans.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
If we have the elections in, for example, Essex, in 2026, given the delays in settling the new arrangements, the councillors will have at least two years service before those new arrangements kick in. Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
I have doubts how much any group could mess up in just two years, with competent officer support. I know a few Reform cllrs and they seem little different than any others - some engaged, others less so. The trouble will be where the national party tries to dictate things or the locals in control have no understanding of local circumstances vs slogans.
Even when such support is rejected, there's a limit to how much damage a new adminstration can do in Year One, because they are mostly operating on the budget and plans of the previous administration.
Though I look at the leaflets I've started getting from the local Teal Team (we're going to leave GLA/Khan/ULEZ, we're going to reject housing applications until we get another hospital etc) and I wonder how quickly it all falls apart.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians. Even if you just gong after aircraft parked on the ground.
Plus Putin would see it as a reason to do the same in other countries (Russia already attacks civilian aircraft in Ukraine, of course).
That Trump coin collapse must have deprived many ordinary Americans of a chunk of their savings, yet it doesn’t seem to be that prominent a story in the US media?
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians.
They aren't arsed about killing civilians who work in oil refineries.
Not sure who managed to see Labour doing best with Wise Men? The fact Reform is thought to do best with those who play donkeys is something,
Some encouragement for Kemi and Starmer in the final MiC poll of the year, the Tories now tied with Labour for second and up to 21% and Labour 10% ahead of the Greens.
Farage will also be reasonably pleased Reform still clearly in the lead on 30%
"Wise Men" is a bit cultural. AIUI it was Zoroastrian Priests, and "Magi" or "Astrologers *" is better imo.
A couple of decades ago when Eastern Spiritualty Without the Difficult Bits was all over Glastonburya as the latest self-actualisation fad, they were framed in some evangelical circles as Eastern Mystics seeking Christ.
Did everyone know that there is a version of the Nativity in the Quran (though Mohammed moved it from an Inn to under a palm tree, and left some bits out, including Joseph)?
* This theoretically opens the way for the tubby teacher playing Russell Grant, or the dinner lady doing Mystic Meg.
I was a lamb in the nativity probably because I was so small.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
If we have the elections in, for example, Essex, in 2026, given the delays in settling the new arrangements, the councillors will have at least two years service before those new arrangements kick in. Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
I have doubts how much any group could mess up in just two years, with competent officer support. I know a few Reform cllrs and they seem little different than any others - some engaged, others less so. The trouble will be where the national party tries to dictate things or the locals in control have no understanding of local circumstances vs slogans.
Haven’t you been keeping up with matters Kentish?
Reform is spending a chunk of its revenue budget on special advisers, in the hope of bringing in someone who actually knows what they are doing - just as they did when they took control in Warwickshire
RRR for the annual CET record is now 1C below average. Usually you’d say this is now nailed on. But some of the model runs for the last week of the year put this slightly in question.
I was at international (quasi-American) schools and we wouldn't have dreamed of celebrating Christmas or any other religious festivity. I've been surprised to find them ubiquitous in Britain, so I surprise people by looking baffled when they ask if I was an angel or a sheep. Does the US have them?
I wonder what happens in the USA in private, but increasingly publicly funded, "Christian" Schools of various stripes?
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians.
They aren't arsed about killing civilians who work in oil refineries.
Quite reasonably. I think they should pick a khrushchyovka in Belgorod and hit it when everyone's home in bed. Fly a drone into every apartment. Kill 500 civilians. Point out what the Russians have been doing. I would, after the next Russian atrocity. That they haven't is to their credit.
Not sure who managed to see Labour doing best with Wise Men? The fact Reform is thought to do best with those who play donkeys is something,
Some encouragement for Kemi and Starmer in the final MiC poll of the year, the Tories now tied with Labour for second and up to 21% and Labour 10% ahead of the Greens.
Farage will also be reasonably pleased Reform still clearly in the lead on 30%
First, it's NOT the final More in Common of the year - look at the fieldwork date.
Does no one actually read anything any more?
The current MiC (fieldwork 12-16 December) has Reform on 29%, Labour on 21% and Conservatives on 20%.
He picked off more than he could chew this time, an actual current champion boxer rather than a long-retired one. Something in AJ’s brain flipped when the ref told them to stop pissing around.
Time to stop these farcical WWE-style boxing matches.
Probably going to take somebody being killed by a punch though.
I would have thought there may be a case for prosecution of the promoters of such a blatant mismatch.
Paul is an asshole, but that doesn't justify a public beating.
The people who deserve a public beating are the twats who watch it thinking it entertainment.
A symptom of our times.
Well it’s clearly entertainment, but those paying the bills and promoting it need to be held accountable for such a mismatch.
Look at what F1 did for safety after we all saw Ayrton Senna killed live on TV three decades ago, do the boxing authorities also have to wait until someone dies before they act on these farcical matchups?
Re F1, I don't disagree but why was Senna's death the catalyst for change when the dozens of F1 deaths in the 50s, 60s and 70s were not?
I’d say that the TV coverage was different in 1994, and starting to move towards what we see today.
I was 16 in 1994, and watched Senna’s death live in a way that didn’t necessarily happen earlier to such a global audience. Thankfully, I’ve found out three decades later, the BBC actually cut away from the World Feed that was on Eurosport, which showed the doctors working on the driver from a helicopter shot.
To take it to the extreme, F1 today would lose a lot of its audience if they thought that there would be a couple of funerals every year, and media companies would absolutely not want to show it.
These fake boxing matches are the same, it’s counting down the days until someone gets killed which isn’t fair on anyone. If you want to get into the ring with AJ you need to be damn close to his equal, this is supposed to be why we have sanctioning bodies for fighting sports.
That Senna race was the first id ever watched.
Oh dear, that’s not good at all. Thankfully we’ve not seen anything similar since then, and when serious accidents have occurred the TV director has switched away and not shown replays.
We didn’t see the accident that would eventually claim the life of Jules Bianchi, and the F2 accident involving Anthoine Hubert and Juan Manuel Correa was quickly cut away from and not replayed.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians.
They aren't arsed about killing civilians who work in oil refineries.
Under the conventions of the laws of war, an oil refineries are classed as reasonable military target.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians.
They aren't arsed about killing civilians who work in oil refineries.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians. Even if you just gong after aircraft parked on the ground.
Plus Putin would see it as a reason to do the same in other countries (Russia already attacks civilian aircraft in Ukraine, of course).
Ukraine is right to avoid civvie airliners, they’re not part of the war machine and attacking them will only provoke a response from Putin. There’s also unintended consequences if they damage a neutral nation’s plane by mistake.
Putting drones in the sky near Moscow on the other hand, forcing closure of airspace and annoying thousands of ordinary Russians with delays and diversions, that’s absolutely fair game.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
There’s been quite the ramp-up in Ukranian strikes on strategic assets in the last few days.
Nice to see the Ukranians responding to Mr Putin's plea for respect.
It might have more affect if they disabled civilian airliners. That would impact the Russian population because sanctions would drastically limit their repairability. Only a handful of generals know or care how many warplanes Russia has.
I've been wondering for months why that does not happen, since it's an obvious dual use technology, and the number of civil airlines in Russia is somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Attacking civilian airliners would almost certainly kill civilians. Even if you just gong after aircraft parked on the ground.
Plus Putin would see it as a reason to do the same in other countries (Russia already attacks civilian aircraft in Ukraine, of course).
Ukraine is right to avoid civvie airliners, they’re not part of the war machine and attacking them will only provoke a response from Putin. There’s also unintended consequences if they damage a neutral nation’s plane by mistake.
Putting drones in the sky near Moscow on the other hand, forcing close of airspace and annoying thousands of ordinary Russians with delays and diversions, that’s absolutely fair game.
There is a theory that something that pushed the PIRA into a ceasefire was the mortar attack on the runway at Heathrow airport. If it had been a minute or two later, it would have hit/strewn shrapnel in the way of a plane taking off - an American Airlines flight, with lots of Americans onboard.
Beardy Weirdy & chums realised that they had just had a near miss of getting promoted to The Big Leagues of international terrorism...
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
This would be a step backwards for Warwickshire. For the past two years we've combined all recyclables - paper, card, bottles, plastic, film - in a single bin. The system seems to work perfectly well.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
This would be a step backwards for Warwickshire. For the past two years we've combined all recyclables - paper, card, bottles, plastic, film - in a single bin. The system seems to work perfectly well.
Improving the automation of the sorting of recyclables is surely an easy use case for simple AI ?
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
My dad deeply resented the 1983 legislation making their wearing compulsory, and flouted the law for years before finally accepting it.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
My dad deeply resented the 1983 legislation making their wearing compulsory, and flouted the law for years before finally accepting it.
I don't understand the attitude, if evidence exists.
I learnt to drive around then (passed in oct '83), but as a family we always wore seat belts. To me it is like the commuters in the famous World in Action in 1967 defending drink driving.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
We have the following
Food waste bin
Separate plastic bin, bottle bin, and paper bin all in one trolley block
Cardboard bag [large]
General waste bin
2 Optional gardening bins [paid at £26 each pa ]
The trolley block, food waste and cardboard collected weekly
The general waste bin collected monthly
The optional garden bin collected fortnightly
Additionally every 2 weeks a charity clothes bag
After several years it seems to be generally accepted and works well, but any unauthorized items in the various bins will mean the bin is not collected
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
Id be interested in what the case would be, as i imagine the law gives wide discretion on local elections to ministers, or legislation can be passed to do it.
The government have left local councils moving to becoming unitaries to decide if they want elections next year, likely for just one year council seats, until the first elections for unitaries are held in 2027
I know that but it looks iffy, is iffy, and the Electoral Commission is not happy
I expect legal action to follow
The Tories and LDs postponed the Holyrood elections for a whole year to suit their Westminster priorities. Nothing happened.
I thought Holyrood did that themselves because they wanted to avoid having the Holyrood elections at the same time as the Westminster election. Didn't they switch to five-year terms at the same time?
Okay, so I looked this up. The legislation was passed at Westminster, but all the parties agreed to it, because there was a recommendation not to have elections with different voting systems on the same day. Clegg did offer that the Holyrood elections could have been brought forward a year, but the choice was made to delay instead.
For the next election it was the Scottish government that chose to delay to 2021 to avoid a clash with the Westminster election that was due in 2020 (after the 2015 general election). So, again, this was not imposed on Scotland, and it changed the default term of a Scottish Parliament to five years. By legislation passed at Holyrood.
Why do ScotNats always have to blame everything on Westminster when they've done the thing themselves? It's not like we can't check.
FPT: because Westminster chose to clash in the first place, when it knew that Holyrood's dates were already established.
But that was inevitable eventually when Holyrood was on a fixed 4-year cycle and Westminster wasn't. And the main point is that Holyrood could have chosen to do a 3-year Parliament but, surprise surprise, they choose to go to five years. So you can hardly say that Westminster delayed the elections.
You want to be independent but you won't even take responsibility for the decisions you already make.
I know it's fun to blame the victim, but how on earth was a clash inevitable that particular year when *Westminster* didn't have a fixed date, as you yourself say? Or [edit] indeed any year? And if it happened, it was clearly down to Westminster.
For all that that gave the SNP an extra year, I thought at the time and still do that it is wrong to change the terms of fixed term parliaments (and maximum terms of flexiterm parliaments) while they are running, for the democratic reasons much aired on here in re the Englich local government issues. ,
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
On general car safety, whenever I watch films from the 60s or 70s I wonder how on earth so many survived driving around in those death traps. Twice, on different occasions, I had friends fall out of a car as it was driving along. They were in the passenger seat and as the car went round a bend, they lurched against the passenger door and it opened and they fell out. They weren't wearing a safety belt, because no-one did in those days. Both survived. One landed on a grass verge, injured his back and had to wear a corset for 6 months. The other fell out at a roundabout. She was in an MG, which was going slowly, but she was lucky not to be run over. Her face was badly bruised. It was the summer when everyone seemed to be wearing a Kaftan so she wore one with the hood up to try to hide her bruises.
The past is a different country.
That's not quite right. In the 1970s 30-40% wore seat belts afaics, and front seat belts were compulsory OE items from the late 1960s.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
My dad deeply resented the 1983 legislation making their wearing compulsory, and flouted the law for years before finally accepting it.
My father had seatbelts fitted to the family car by 1965 at the latest and insisted on their use.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
Comments
Senna’s death was a shock because people thought they were past *big names* dying.
That it was a champion driver, one of the GOATs of the sport, cut down in his prime live on TV, is what changed the attitude.
If a spectacle needs a mass audience for the business case to work, public sensibilities matter and you can't be too gross.
Once the big profits come from finding and serving your niche, some pretty horrible things become potentially profitable.
His thoughts...
- Training and equipment are wildly variable. Dogshit in DPR militia, very good in Sparta.
- All Russian forces are wildly reckless. No surprise. Crazy Ivan.
- Nobody who is left in DPR/LPR (and probably Crimea) wants the "Ukros" back. Again, no surprise. All of the Ukrainian nationalists are dead or fled west. All that's left are the zhdany and Russian nationalists.
- The two best infantry armies in the world are now Ukraine and Russia due to recent experience and exploitation of emergent tactics like FPV.
- He is now a teacher in DPR, a job which he considers to be worse than sweeping the streets. XAXA.
Edit. I see that has been noted.
It was a different world before that.
You should have seen some of the rides in public playgrounds.
She was given Joseph.
We were very proud of her and had no objection to her being Joseph.
Fog, wind, snow. There's usually something to prevent smooth operation of the airport.
Senna had himself, the very morning of the race, demanded a reconstitution of the GPDA with a renewed focus on safety. He had, in fact, just been elected President.
And with safety having improved greatly, the shock of two deaths in 36 hours, one of them the greatest driver in the world at that time, did rather concentrate minds.
Five years ago today: “We have a PM who is so scared of being unpopular that he is incapable of taking tough decisions until it is too late” - Starmer
I notice a football match was abandoned the other day because someone died on the terraces. I'm fairly sure back in the 60s the game would have carried on while the SJA stretchered them off around the touchline. 'It's the way he wanted to go,' people might have said, if they gave the matter any thought at all.
I am struggling to get my head round how weird your comment is.
I have to say I think that’s optimistic but somebody may have said that in December 1916 (as John Buchan had the Princess say in Huntingtower).
Things have changed and somehow the team has to work out how to be successful in a new way.
Create Eastern Ukraine spanning the Russia/Ukraine border, a nominally independent but in reality Russia-aligned state.
Let them sign the Russian 'Association agreement', and let Ukraine join the EU and NATO.
So, she consented.
The most terrifying thing was a kind of conical climbing frame about 18ft high, suspended at the apex by a pivoting joint (which allowed
It to wobble from side to side as well as rotate), so it acted as a large roundabout with a step around the perimeter which could either be close to the ground or close to chin level.
Lots of fun, but pretty dangerous for small kids.
The past is a different country.
You want to be independent but you won't even take responsibility for the decisions you already make.
But even today when we occasionally see old cars on the road, say pre-80s, it is astonishing how small and flimsy they are, although at least they'd have fitted into car park bays which a lot of modern cars overhang.
It would about evens then.
I've never thought until now this might influence my politics.
In other news the government has been given an earful by the Electoral Commission over it's decision to cancel elections in the spring. I think Starmer is playing with fire on this one.
What? Seriously?
The MiC poll fieldwork is three weeks old and therefore is ancient history. The current situation is Reform around 30, Labour and Conservatives around 20 and LDs and Greens around 11-13 if you believe Luke Tryl.
There are other pollsters whose view is different but the proof of all these puddings (Christmas or otherwise) will be found in 2029.
Spent the morning fighting the crowds in the M&S Food Hall at Stratford while Mrs Stodge was elsewhere - not so much divide and conquer as divide and see who gets as much as possible. Even if we are told no one is spending, people seem eager to eat, drink and be merry and perhaps an interest rate cut will loosen the purse strings a bit - no point saving if you get as much interest as a discussion on cooking or what constitutes a Christmas film or what toppings to put on a pizza or the performance of the England cricket team).
Ho hum...
Car design is a big factor in the reduction in the number of deaths, but it is not the only one. A less cavalier attitude towards drinking and driving would also have played a big part.
Which is plenty of time for Reform councillors to make a complete Horlicks of things, and ensure they’re never elected again.
Mugs and their money.
If Mary is silent, that is an editorial choice.
What do Roman Catholic Nativities do (with their habit of emphasising the place of Mary)?
(If it were up to me I would include the Annunciation as perhaps the first scene.)
Major drone offensives against a few Western Russian airports could have quite the effect. Recovery would take a decade, and it is one that becomes impossible after a cease-fire.
Though I look at the leaflets I've started getting from the local Teal Team (we're going to leave GLA/Khan/ULEZ, we're going to reject housing applications until we get another hospital etc) and I wonder how quickly it all falls apart.
Plus Putin would see it as a reason to do the same in other countries (Russia already attacks civilian aircraft in Ukraine, of course).
A couple of decades ago when Eastern Spiritualty Without the Difficult Bits was all over Glastonburya as the latest self-actualisation fad, they were framed in some evangelical circles as Eastern Mystics seeking Christ.
Did everyone know that there is a version of the Nativity in the Quran (though Mohammed moved it from an Inn to under a palm tree, and left some bits out, including Joseph)?
* This theoretically opens the way for the tubby teacher playing Russell Grant, or the dinner lady doing Mystic Meg.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
Does no one actually read anything any more?
The current MiC (fieldwork 12-16 December) has Reform on 29%, Labour on 21% and Conservatives on 20%.
We didn’t see the accident that would eventually claim the life of Jules Bianchi, and the F2 accident involving Anthoine Hubert and Juan Manuel Correa was quickly cut away from and not replayed.
A civilian airliners aren't
But that rather accepts that it's OK for presidents to run Ponzi schemes from the White House.
Putting drones in the sky near Moscow on the other hand, forcing closure of airspace and annoying thousands of ordinary Russians with delays and diversions, that’s absolutely fair game.
Watch Boiler room - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181984/ - to understand how that works.
(I think that this is both the current and previous Governments, but I picked it up from a Chris Spargo video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuwaOiTHl7U )
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/uk-world-news/major-recycling-overhaul-coming-2026-10716308
Beardy Weirdy & chums realised that they had just had a near miss of getting promoted to The Big Leagues of international terrorism...
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
It's the same principle behind all such frauds though.
Though I do recall someone from around 1976 (friend's mum) who was irritated with the seat belt warning on her Volvo, and put the seat belt across the seat then set on it as her driving posture.
Justice Department attorney says 11 states have shown a willingness to stop residents from voting at DOJ’s request.
https://stateline.org/2025/12/18/trumps-doj-offers-states-confidential-deal-to-wipe-voters-flagged-by-feds-as-ineligible/
https://youtu.be/950kIPv3f38?si=vvvfN9DRgctf5tjb
I learnt to drive around then (passed in oct '83), but as a family we always wore seat belts. To me it is like the commuters in the famous World in Action in 1967 defending drink driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tqQYmgMQg
I think standardisation will be far better.
Food waste bin
Separate plastic bin, bottle bin, and paper bin all in one trolley block
Cardboard bag [large]
General waste bin
2 Optional gardening bins [paid at £26 each pa ]
The trolley block, food waste and cardboard collected weekly
The general waste bin collected monthly
The optional garden bin collected fortnightly
Additionally every 2 weeks a charity clothes bag
After several years it seems to be generally accepted and works well, but any unauthorized items in the various bins will mean the bin is not collected
For all that that gave the SNP an extra year, I thought at the time and still do that it is wrong to change the terms of fixed term parliaments (and maximum terms of flexiterm parliaments) while they are running, for the democratic reasons much aired on here in re the Englich local government issues. ,
His account is that Harper-Collins had complaints, did an investigation, and publicly chucked him out without putting any allegations to him first.
If that is true, they may have a spot of bother.
Link to full article.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/49b279afd497d78c