I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
Former Ohio Republican Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich:
“What’s happening in Minnesota is waking up the whole country. It’s bothering us because we don’t see justice and fairness… It’s tearing the country apart but it’s also raising the consciousness of Americans who are saying enough is enough… Republicans may pay a HUGE price for this.”
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Somebody was telling me that a number of fastfood chains after replacing humans at the counter, they are now testing AI for the road thrus, hastened by minimum wage / NI increases.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
👏👏👍👍 Rachel and Keir
Landman, Leon. The second series is so anti-woke, witty and fun, you’ll love it.
That show is awful outside of the 5-10mins per episode with Billy Bob character not with his family. The other 30-40 minutes is awful. And nothing ever happens outside the first 5 and last 5 mins. The whole first season could have been about 4-5 episodes.
You philistine! The adventures of the rest of the gang are priceless.
If you don’t get Landman you are clearly a cultural wasteland. Simples.
Tbf anyone who adds "Simples" to the end of a post has to be an expert on the cultural wasteland.
Former Ohio Republican Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich:
“What’s happening in Minnesota is waking up the whole country. It’s bothering us because we don’t see justice and fairness… It’s tearing the country apart but it’s also raising the consciousness of Americans who are saying enough is enough… Republicans may pay a HUGE price for this.”
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Somebody was telling me that a number of fastfood chains after replacing humans at the counter, they are now testing AI for the road thrus, hastened by minimum wage / NI increases.
But McDonalds gave up on it 18 months ago after spending many tens of millions on putting it in place. It was shit.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
WFH does improve efficiency, I am a hufe fan of it.
Folly. There is no good outcome for Burnham, Starmer or Labour here.
If Burnham stands, and wins, they have an expensive and probably damaging by-election (even if they win) for the mayoralty plus a media circus over Burnham's ambitions.
If he is barred from standing, Starmer will look weak, but won't go anywhere, so we have a lame duck government a la Rishi Sunak.
If he stands, and loses, he's wrecked himself as Mayor, Labour have lost a seat, and Starmer still looks weak and ineffectual as he can't win their 37th safest seat.
Andy Burnham isn't Prospero - he's Macbeth.
There is a Johnsonian sense of entitlement in Burnham's announcement. For this alone, Burnham is unsuitable for high office.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
I don't think a boycott is going to be necessary the way things are going. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before we see ICE and local law enforcement fighting.
Folly. There is no good outcome for Burnham, Starmer or Labour here.
If Burnham stands, and wins, they have an expensive and probably damaging by-election (even if they win) for the mayoralty plus a media circus over Burnham's ambitions.
If he is barred from standing, Starmer will look weak, but won't go anywhere, so we have a lame duck government a la Rishi Sunak.
If he stands, and loses, he's wrecked himself as Mayor, Labour have lost a seat, and Starmer still looks weak and ineffectual as he can't win their 37th safest seat.
Andy Burnham isn't Prospero - he's Macbeth.
There is a Johnsonian sense of entitlement in Burnham's announcement. For this alone, Burnham is unsuitable for high office.
If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
I don't think a boycott is going to be necessary the way things are going. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before we see ICE and local law enforcement fighting.
I will die laughing at Trump if Canada has to put on extra World Cup games in its stadiums because the USA is too unsafe for the competition to take place there.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
👏👏👍👍 Rachel and Keir
Landman, Leon. The second series is so anti-woke, witty and fun, you’ll love it.
That show is awful outside of the 5-10mins per episode with Billy Bob character not with his family. The other 30-40 minutes is awful. And nothing ever happens outside the first 5 and last 5 mins. The whole first season could have been about 4-5 episodes.
My friends all tell me it is great. I watched half an hour and switched off, bored.
"Malice" on the other hand, is fantastic, if extremely uncomfortable viewing. I am four episodes in, two to go
I’ve started season 2 of “industry”
After skipping season 1 coz everyone says it’s crap
It’s ok. It’s diverting. It’s better than Pluribus, or season 2 of the fungi thingy
The Golden Age is over, tho. There is still great TV, if you look hard, but that wonderful era where you were swamped with endless brilliant dramas, with 10 more to watch, has concluded
Sic transit
I loved Pluribus. Unique idea, and perfect doing it so slowly, allowing eerie and menacing to seep in - it was genuinely philosophical, because the whole premise is a black mirror, only missing it and it’s value when it’s gone. It’s worth the time investment compared to another Agatha Christie , or another crime or cop show where the police have been infiltrated by villains and the detective has a gimmicky personality quirk. I loved Wake Up Dead Man as the best in the series. There’s lots of fine things on TV.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Yes yes everything is Labour’s fault
The SNP might share some of the blame. But the Tories? LibDems? Greens? Reform? There's one party in Government in Westminster with a humoungous majority. So yes, it's primarily Labour's fault.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Yes yes everything is Labour’s fault
The SNP might share some of the blame. But the Tories? LibDems? Greens? Reform? There's one party in Government in Westminster with a humoungous majority. So yes, it's primarily Labour's fault.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
👏👏👍👍 Rachel and Keir
Landman, Leon. The second series is so anti-woke, witty and fun, you’ll love it.
That show is awful outside of the 5-10mins per episode with Billy Bob character not with his family. The other 30-40 minutes is awful. And nothing ever happens outside the first 5 and last 5 mins. The whole first season could have been about 4-5 episodes.
My friends all tell me it is great. I watched half an hour and switched off, bored.
"Malice" on the other hand, is fantastic, if extremely uncomfortable viewing. I am four episodes in, two to go
I’ve started season 2 of “industry”
After skipping season 1 coz everyone says it’s crap
It’s ok. It’s diverting. It’s better than Pluribus, or season 2 of the fungi thingy
The Golden Age is over, tho. There is still great TV, if you look hard, but that wonderful era where you were swamped with endless brilliant dramas, with 10 more to watch, has concluded
Sic transit
The last episode of Industry focusing on Sir Henry and the impact on him of his father's suicide at 40 was brilliantly done, also right up to date with a Labour government and him losing his Tory seat and Reform also featuring
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Somebody was telling me that a number of fastfood chains after replacing humans at the counter, they are now testing AI for the road thrus, hastened by minimum wage / NI increases.
But McDonalds gave up on it 18 months ago after spending many tens of millions on putting it in place. It was shit.
I can't see what is so great about Andy Burnham anyway. It's not as if he is really well known, or charismatic as Boris was when he went from Mayor to MP in order to become PM. By doing what he is doing, he risks annoying a large chunk of Labour MPs and voters anyway, it seems odd
A MiC poll last September had a Burnham led Labour up to 30% compared to 25% sticking with Starmer.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Yes yes everything is Labour’s fault
The SNP might share some of the blame. But the Tories? LibDems? Greens? Reform? There's one party in Government in Westminster with a humoungous majority. So yes, it's primarily Labour's fault.
Suck it up.
Come off it! Liz Truss was a LibDem and you can't pin her on Labour.
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h Gtr Manchester wouldn't have to have mayoral by-election if Burnham became MP. By law, ministers could instead appoint one of his deputies, Paul Dennett or Kate Green, until 2028. That would save money, but might not look democratic.
Maybe instead of identifying specific ICE agents who do particularly heinous things, we could just penalize everyone who was on payroll at the agency starting by a certain date.
This is the way. Any 2028 Dem candidates need to start saying that on Day One: (1) all ICE agents fired; (2) pensions/benefits defunded; (3) forced to pay backpay as restitution to victims; and (4) only way to avoid prison is to become a cooperating informant
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
PB is going to be offline for the next hour or so as I delete every thread I've written saying Andy Burnham won't succeed Sir Keir Starmer.
At least you had the prescience to include the question in the PB Competition: 9. Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026?
As a recap for those who missed it, to enter the competition this year: post your answers the the following questions with the tag #competition or PM me you answers before the end of January 2026:
The questions: 1. Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the House? 2. Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the Senate? 3. Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 4. Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 5. UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage? (British Polling Council registered pollsters only.) 6. Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 7. Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 8. The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? 9. Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? 10. UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025)? 11. UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025)? 12. Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup?
Thanks for the reminder. My guesses: 1. +10 2. +2 3. 54 4. 15 5. Reform 18% 6. 18% 7. 14 8. Sir Keir Starmer 9. No 10. £144b 11. 1.6% 12. Argentina
Maybe instead of identifying specific ICE agents who do particularly heinous things, we could just penalize everyone who was on payroll at the agency starting by a certain date.
This is the way. Any 2028 Dem candidates need to start saying that on Day One: (1) all ICE agents fired; (2) pensions/benefits defunded; (3) forced to pay backpay as restitution to victims; and (4) only way to avoid prison is to become a cooperating informant
Seven Dem quislings voted to raise the ICE budget.
Thanks for the kind remarks re my daughter’s job. It’s hardly the end of the world but it is another cute little business destroyed by this government’s rank incompetence, and half a dozen jobs gone
I’m possibly beginning to regret my vote for Skyr
Yes yes everything is Labour’s fault
The SNP might share some of the blame. But the Tories? LibDems? Greens? Reform? There's one party in Government in Westminster with a humoungous majority. So yes, it's primarily Labour's fault.
Suck it up.
Come off it! Liz Truss was a LibDem and you can't pin her on Labour.
She's ancient history. (Even more so her time as a LibDem. But hey, we can agree it's always fun to dredge that up!)
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
Starmer went to Leeds for undergrad and a minor public school ex grammar school. Kemi went to a sixth form college and Sussex Uni, Farage never went to any uni albeit he went to major public school Dulwich. Davey went to a minor public school and Oxford, Polanski went to a minor public school, state sixth form college and Aberystwyth.
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
Maybe instead of identifying specific ICE agents who do particularly heinous things, we could just penalize everyone who was on payroll at the agency starting by a certain date.
This is the way. Any 2028 Dem candidates need to start saying that on Day One: (1) all ICE agents fired; (2) pensions/benefits defunded; (3) forced to pay backpay as restitution to victims; and (4) only way to avoid prison is to become a cooperating informant
Seven Dem quislings voted to raise the ICE budget.
Primary these bastards!
I am not sure it's going to pass the Senate. Another shutdown is on the cards
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Er...you literally point out the right is doing political assassinations and then say 'it's the left does the assassinations.'
And even if your point about migrants were true - which, by the way, it isn't as Biden's efforts to reduce it were deliberately thwarted by both Abbott and Trump to make people of limited ability think it was a Dem strategy (seems to have worked) - your bizarre whataboutery wouldn't really alter the fact you have a General Melchett style inability to see things as they are rather than as your obsessive biases wish them to be.
For the final paragraph if that is your understanding of Weimar it is probably important you read a better book on it. The 'Commies' as you call them (the SPD) did win, and did ally with Soviet Russia under the Treaty of Rapallo. Hitler came to power not with popular support, but due to the corruption of the President, a senile old fool with militaristic notions. Hitler then proceeded - in case you have forgotten - to ally with *checks notes* Stalin.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Don't be daft. The Democrats are not Stalin.
Nor is Trump Hitler. But you guys constantly use this language - “Republicans are Nazis, Trump = Hitler” etc
Though Labour leading amongst the rich is more of a change, even Corbyn won graduates but the Tories still won the rich in 2017 and 2019 and Corbyn won the poor in 2017. The biggest swing since 2017 and 2019 has been amongst the rich from Tory to Starmer Labour or LD and amongst the poor from Labour to Reform and from Boris voters in 2019 to Reform
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia is suing.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
Maybe instead of identifying specific ICE agents who do particularly heinous things, we could just penalize everyone who was on payroll at the agency starting by a certain date.
This is the way. Any 2028 Dem candidates need to start saying that on Day One: (1) all ICE agents fired; (2) pensions/benefits defunded; (3) forced to pay backpay as restitution to victims; and (4) only way to avoid prison is to become a cooperating informant
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
It’s their own fault according to @Leon’s aging mind
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
It’s their own fault according to @Leon’s aging mind
Though Labour leading amongst the rich is more of a change, even Corbyn won graduates but the Tories still won the rich in 2017 and 2024 and Corbyn won the poor in 2017. The biggest swing since 2017 and 2019 has been amongst the rich from Tory to Starmer Labour or LD and amongst the poor from Labour to Reform and from Boris voters in 2019 to Reform
Self made rich leaving and what's left is a fat cat class of lawyers, senior civil servants, local Government and Charitable sector executives all of whom depend on Government largesse?
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia is suing.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
You say that like white supremacist fascism is a bad thing
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
It’s their own fault according to @Leon’s aging mind
He won't like this, respect is only a one way thing.
Google translate Italy and the United States are bound by a solid friendship, founded on shared values and historic collaboration, even more necessary in the face of the many ongoing challenges. But friendship requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the solidarity that underpins the Atlantic Alliance. https://nitter.poast.org/GiorgiaMeloni/status/2015128920962527388#m
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
Though Labour leading amongst the rich is more of a change, even Corbyn won graduates but the Tories still won the rich in 2017 and 2024 and Corbyn won the poor in 2017. The biggest swing since 2017 and 2019 has been amongst the rich from Tory to Starmer Labour or LD and amongst the poor from Labour to Reform and from Boris voters in 2019 to Reform
Self made rich leaving and what's left is a fat cat class of lawyers, senior civil servants, local Government and Charitable sector executives all of whom depend on Government largesse?
A few have but the city of London and big banks and FTSE 100 companies have hardly shut up shop in the UK either. They have also swung to Starmer Labour and the LDs while they would not touch Corbyn with a bargepole.
Entrepreneurs are more likely to vote Reform or Tory but established business and City figures are unlikely to vote Reform
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
I don't think a boycott is going to be necessary the way things are going. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before we see ICE and local law enforcement fighting.
Any significant boycott will make it a sure thing for Argentina who definitely won't boycott.
That’s disgusting. That’s the end of Newsoms Presidential bid.
Thank God.
Trump lowered the bar so much that anything goes now . I don’t think much of Newsom and he would be a disaster. Hopefully the Dems see sense . My long shot would be Andy Beshear the Kentucky Governor.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
Starmer went to Leeds for undergrad and a minor public school ex grammar school. Kemi went to a sixth form college and Sussex Uni, Farage never went to any uni albeit he went to major public school Dulwich. Davey went to a minor public school and Oxford, Polanski went to a minor public school, state sixth form college and Aberystwyth.
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
I wasn’t thinking of our senior politicians. I was thinking of our generally incompetent senior and middle managers, both in the public and private sectors.
Alternatively went to University; learnt critical thinking
Universities don't do a huge line in critical thinking these days in case you hadn't spotted it.
Only in your opinion
*Clears Throat* IN ANY CASE the poll is little more than a proxy for age. Old people far less likely to be university educated.
Indeed, and in a fair few cases, not even fully secondary educated.
The school leaving age was only raised from 15 to 16 in 1972. The cohort affected by that are aged 70 now. Old, but not insanely so. More amazingly (and this is my favourite 'the recent past is a different country' stat), pupils have only had to stay on long enough to sit their GCSE exams since 1998.
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
It’s their own fault according to @Leon’s aging mind
He won't like this, respect is only a one way thing.
Google translate Italy and the United States are bound by a solid friendship, founded on shared values and historic collaboration, even more necessary in the face of the many ongoing challenges. But friendship requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the solidarity that underpins the Atlantic Alliance. https://nitter.poast.org/GiorgiaMeloni/status/2015128920962527388#m
Meloni seems to be the only populist right leader who does anti-Trumpism well…?
Comments
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Republicans against Trump
@RpsAgainstTrump
Former Ohio Republican Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich:
“What’s happening in Minnesota is waking up the whole country. It’s bothering us because we don’t see justice and fairness… It’s tearing the country apart but it’s also raising the consciousness of Americans who are saying enough is enough… Republicans may pay a HUGE price for this.”
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2015164056647221613
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
@SpencerHakimian
·
14m
🚨BREAKING: MAINE DEMANDS ICE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/2015168101671719264
Suck it up.
Bondi's language about Somali's is very similar to the Reform narrative about asylum seekers.
https://x.com/harryjsisson/status/2015140264944267655
Reform would be unchanged on 28% against Labour led by either man but Burnham would give Labour a narrow lead by squeezing LD, Green and Tory votes
https://theweekinpolls.substack.com/p/what-do-the-polls-say-about-andy
Michael Crick
@MichaelLCrick
·
1h
Gtr Manchester wouldn't have to have mayoral by-election if Burnham became MP. By law, ministers could instead appoint one of his deputies, Paul Dennett or Kate Green, until 2028. That would save money, but might not look democratic.
https://x.com/MichaelLCrick/status/2015151928628453816
https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2014741470335664605
Your interpretation is very odd.
Maybe instead of identifying specific ICE agents who do particularly heinous things, we could just penalize everyone who was on payroll at the agency starting by a certain date.
@organizingpower.bsky.social
This is the way. Any 2028 Dem candidates need to start saying that on Day One: (1) all ICE agents fired; (2) pensions/benefits defunded; (3) forced to pay backpay as restitution to victims; and (4) only way to avoid prison is to become a cooperating informant
Not great.
1. +10
2. +2
3. 54
4. 15
5. Reform 18%
6. 18%
7. 14
8. Sir Keir Starmer
9. No
10. £144b
11. 1.6%
12. Argentina
Primary these bastards!
-- Poorest --
➡️Ref: 34% (+17)
🔵Con: 18% (-6)
🔴Lab: 15% (-18)
🟢Grn: 14% (+6)
🟠LD: 12% (+1)
-- Richest --
🔴Lab: 23% (-17)
🟠LD: 19% (+3)
🔵Con: 19% (-3)
🟢Grn: 17% (+11)
➡️Ref: 16% (+6)
Via
@YouGov
, 14 Dec - 9 Jan (+/- vs GE24)'
https://x.com/LeftieStats/status/2015093459372122157?s=20
-- Low --
➡️Ref: 42% (+19)
🔵Con: 21% (-10)
🔴Lab: 12% (-16)
🟠LD: 10% (+1)
🟢Grn: 9% (+5)
-- High --
🔴Lab: 25% (-17)
🟢Grn: 21% (+12)
🟠LD: 18% (+5)
🔵Con: 16% (-2)
➡️Ref: 13% (+5)
Via
@YouGov
, 14 Dec - 9 Jan (+/- vs GE24)
https://x.com/LeftieStats/status/2015162217415455193?s=20
It's not good work from his media team, though.
He really should retract and apologise, IMO.
Bondi's language about Somalis is very similar to the Nazi narrative about asylum seekers.
Bessent, an American, being sniffy about Swiss/German cuisine was pretty funny. These gimps really do have zero self awareness.
https://x.com/rpsagainsttrump/status/2014864277329363257?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
The Democrats are not Stalin.
He doesn't want another public spectacle of getting booed
https://x.com/The_TUC/status/2014995801676632143
Trades Union Congress
@The_TUC
There's power in a union.
#TheTraitors
And even if your point about migrants were true - which, by the way, it isn't as Biden's efforts to reduce it were deliberately thwarted by both Abbott and Trump to make people of limited ability think it was a Dem strategy (seems to have worked) - your bizarre whataboutery wouldn't really alter the fact you have a General Melchett style inability to see things as they are rather than as your obsessive biases wish them to be.
For the final paragraph if that is your understanding of Weimar it is probably important you read a better book on it. The 'Commies' as you call them (the SPD) did win, and did ally with Soviet Russia under the Treaty of Rapallo. Hitler came to power not with popular support, but due to the corruption of the President, a senile old fool with militaristic notions. Hitler then proceeded - in case you have forgotten - to ally with *checks notes* Stalin.
But the drivers are things student debt, rent / house prices, graduate salaries.
In the end it might be self-fulfilling
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
Thank God.
Google translate
Italy and the United States are bound by a solid friendship, founded on shared values and historic collaboration, even more necessary in the face of the many ongoing challenges. But friendship requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the solidarity that underpins the Atlantic Alliance.
https://nitter.poast.org/GiorgiaMeloni/status/2015128920962527388#m
The booing of Taylor Swift was more partisan, due to connections.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO0uvjmRRA0
Entrepreneurs are more likely to vote Reform or Tory but established business and City figures are unlikely to vote Reform
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
The school leaving age was only raised from 15 to 16 in 1972. The cohort affected by that are aged 70 now. Old, but not insanely so. More amazingly (and this is my favourite 'the recent past is a different country' stat), pupils have only had to stay on long enough to sit their GCSE exams since 1998.