pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone ha e any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
My daughter lived there for a year recently. They were due north of the old town, just outside the inner ring road. Walking distance to englischer garten. Nice area, just lively enough and lots of good bars and places to eat as close to university. Are you arriving into Munich airport and then picking up a car ?
Thanks - yes, that's the plan. We're going to spend a week in Austria but then a couple of days in Munich at the end (probably will return the car and do Munich by public transport).
Don’t bother with Dachau. Total letdown. No gas chambers, not even a torture cell
Just a pathetic rip off of Auschwitz, basically. Like one of those Winter Wonderlands with a plastic Santa and 3 mangy reindeer
We took our family to Dachau when they were relatively young and it left an indeliable mark on them
No concentration camp can be described as a let down
They are not tourist attractions
Ignore him, Big G. He’s just being an edgelord.
Incorrect. He is trying to be an edgelord
Actually, he is Biff.
He's certainly a (U)Kipper.
There's one for the parents of primary school children.
Its shit or get off the pot time for the US vis a vis Iran. They have had sufficient in-theatre resources on top of strategic capacity since Saturday to launch a sustained offensive for many days, but have continued to put resourcing in, both defensive and offensive. Rumour has it the Pentagon believes that this isnt going to be a one day job to meet the CiC's objectives and have decided to do what the USA does well, stack a lot of power
There has been a lot of chatter about at least one Iranian government flight heading out to Moscow today but whether that is an indication of a sinking ship or just hiding out for a bit, no one knows. The problem Iran has is needs to look West, South and now also North for incoming and they just dont have the capability to close the gates in one direction never mind three.
The position of Israel is unclear if they will get involved offensively. Certainly the US resources have dual purpose, both to sustain there own actions but also potentially to fill in gaps in Israel's resources to maintain a high tempo effort for longer.
The US cannot leave so much metal there for long without doing something or just packing up and going home. The latter isnt really Trump's thing. Remember his motivation, he wants to get a proper big result and if he doesnt think he is going to get it he wont do it.
One problem the Pentagon faces I mentioned a week or so ago. Targeting. The US have been asking around for a bit now if anyone can help identify target locations, human targets. The Europeans have been asked, the Israelis have too. Its a gap for US intelligence.
We basically somehow ended up with David Icke as prime minister for two months didn't we? How the hell did we manage that?
We were in mourning for the Queen for one chunk of it, and then there was the conference recess for another chunk of it.
Elizabeth T took over on September 6 Elizabeth R died on September 8 The funeral was on September 19 Kwarteng's mini budget was on September 23 The party conference recess was from September 23 to October 11 Kwateng was sacked on October 14 Hunt's antibudget was on October 17 Truss announced her resgination on October 20 Sunak took over on October 24
In terms of actual Westminster time, that's about three weeks?
I would like to formally ask that "Kwarteng appeared to be off his t*ts at the funeral on September 19" be added to the list.
"I took a closer look at the UK government's new 'AI Skills Hub', and it is insane. It includes 'courses' that are simply links to info pages about PhD programs; 'courses' that are literally just software developer documentation; and 'courses' that don't exist at all."
That's not a Skills Hub for AI. That's a Skills Hub made by AI.
Who did this and how much did they charge?
Its been reported at "only" £4 million. I I was a journalist I might do so digging to see if that was the extent of it and who actually did the work and who signed it off.
Capita (or similar) will have got the main contract for it. They will then have sub-contracted to Cognizant (or similar) to do the main bit of the work. But they will likely have also sub-contracted to a number of smaller consultancy firms you've never heard of to get the people to do the work. A lot of people will have sat around getting paid while they waited for various stages of onboarding to happen, before being able to do any work, and the work done will have concentrated on building the framework for the website, but not the content - the idea being to deliver something to the department that the department could keep updated, because something like this is always going to need to be updated.
However, the department likely won't have thought about who was going to populate it and maintain it on an ongoing basis - that's opex and not capex - and the department likely doesn't have the knowledge to update a Skills Hub for AI anyway. So when they had the site delivered to them, populated by a bunch of placeholder "courses" to show that the site worked, I guess they simply published it, because who was going to have the domain knowledge to put useful stuff into it?
The minister asked for a Skills Hub for AI, and the department delivered a Skills Hub for AI, but the civil service is such a diminished organisation - not allowed to pay the salaries to employ people who know what they're doing, demoralised from the abuse they receive from every quarter, encouraged to outsource at every turn, rather than build institutional knowledge and capability - that what was delivered was a potemkin skills hub for AI, and I guess that this will kick off another round of abuse towards the civil service, reducing the prospect of a similar outcome being avoided in the future.
I note that the Civil Service have managed to inflict Capita on themselves, by getting them to run their pensions. You've got respect that kind of selfless solidarity with the general public - in fact if all contracts were piloted on a group of senior civil servants first I'd suggest the country would be run much better.
pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone ha e any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
My daughter lived there for a year recently. They were due north of the old town, just outside the inner ring road. Walking distance to englischer garten. Nice area, just lively enough and lots of good bars and places to eat as close to university. Are you arriving into Munich airport and then picking up a car ?
Thanks - yes, that's the plan. We're going to spend a week in Austria but then a couple of days in Munich at the end (probably will return the car and do Munich by public transport).
Don’t bother with Dachau. Total letdown. No gas chambers, not even a torture cell
Just a pathetic rip off of Auschwitz, basically. Like one of those Winter Wonderlands with a plastic Santa and 3 mangy reindeer
Which one's your favourite, m9* ? I like Sachsenhausen, the OG. When I say "like", I mean I went on a bitterly cold grey day in December with the wind sweeping in all the way from the Steppes, and it was the bleakest thing I have ever done and it left a stronger impression on me than any film or book, or any of the museums.
*m9 is like m8 but one better.
Haven’t been to Sachsenhausen - I’ll give it a go! Thanks for the tip. Does it have actual proper gas chambers?
Treblinka’s not bad. Not much left but you do get some sense of abysmal horror and they’ve got death pits 👌
When I’m in Cambodia I can’t ever decide between Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek. Both are great but in different ways. Tuol Sleng has this kind of dreadful creeping claustrophobia which makes you want to kill yourself 👍. But Cheong Ek has the stupas full of skulls and you can still find teeth in the dirt
Hard to beat that. Actual human teeth. Think it came top of TripAdvisor Death Camps 2025, and fair play. They put in a lot of effort
pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone have any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
We basically somehow ended up with David Icke as prime minister for two months didn't we? How the hell did we manage that?
We were in mourning for the Queen for one chunk of it, and then there was the conference recess for another chunk of it.
Elizabeth T took over on September 6 Elizabeth R died on September 8 The funeral was on September 19 Kwarteng's mini budget was on September 23 The party conference recess was from September 23 to October 11 Kwateng was sacked on October 14 Hunt's antibudget was on October 17 Truss announced her resgination on October 20 Sunak took over on October 24
In terms of actual Westminster time, that's about three weeks?
I would like to formally ask that "Kwarteng appeared to be off his t*ts at the funeral on September 19" be added to the list.
Let us not forget. 🙏
Also: was having affair with Truss either before or during the Trussterreich
Perhaps the craziest 4 weeks in British politics ever
*strives to suppress personal knowledge of Finland rumour*
pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone ha e any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
My daughter lived there for a year recently. They were due north of the old town, just outside the inner ring road. Walking distance to englischer garten. Nice area, just lively enough and lots of good bars and places to eat as close to university. Are you arriving into Munich airport and then picking up a car ?
Thanks - yes, that's the plan. We're going to spend a week in Austria but then a couple of days in Munich at the end (probably will return the car and do Munich by public transport).
Don’t bother with Dachau. Total letdown. No gas chambers, not even a torture cell
Just a pathetic rip off of Auschwitz, basically. Like one of those Winter Wonderlands with a plastic Santa and 3 mangy reindeer
Which one's your favourite, m9* ? I like Sachsenhausen, the OG. When I say "like", I mean I went on a bitterly cold grey day in December with the wind sweeping in all the way from the Steppes, and it was the bleakest thing I have ever done and it left a stronger impression on me than any film or book, or any of the museums.
*m9 is like m8 but one better.
Haven’t been to Sachsenhausen - I’ll give it a go! Thanks for the tip. Does it have actual proper gas chambers?
Treblinka’s not bad. Not much left but you do get some sense of abysmal horror and they’ve got death pits 👌
When I’m in Cambodia I can’t ever decide between Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek. Both are great but in different ways. Tuol Sleng has this kind of dreadful creeping claustrophobia which makes you want to kill yourself 👍. But Cheong Ek has the stupas full of skulls and you can still find teeth in the dirt
Hard to beat that. Actual human teeth. Think it came top of TripAdvisor Death Camps 2025, and fair play. They put in a lot of effort
Cheong Ek had no emotional impact on me at all when I was wandering around it. And I think this is the first time I've even thought about it since I visited Cambodia. Same with Auschwitz. Maybe it's too real for my brain to compute - I find reading about these things much more harrowing.
pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone ha e any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
My daughter lived there for a year recently. They were due north of the old town, just outside the inner ring road. Walking distance to englischer garten. Nice area, just lively enough and lots of good bars and places to eat as close to university. Are you arriving into Munich airport and then picking up a car ?
Thanks - yes, that's the plan. We're going to spend a week in Austria but then a couple of days in Munich at the end (probably will return the car and do Munich by public transport).
Don’t bother with Dachau. Total letdown. No gas chambers, not even a torture cell
Just a pathetic rip off of Auschwitz, basically. Like one of those Winter Wonderlands with a plastic Santa and 3 mangy reindeer
Which one's your favourite, m9* ? I like Sachsenhausen, the OG. When I say "like", I mean I went on a bitterly cold grey day in December with the wind sweeping in all the way from the Steppes, and it was the bleakest thing I have ever done and it left a stronger impression on me than any film or book, or any of the museums.
*m9 is like m8 but one better.
Haven’t been to Sachsenhausen - I’ll give it a go! Thanks for the tip. Does it have actual proper gas chambers?
Treblinka’s not bad. Not much left but you do get some sense of abysmal horror and they’ve got death pits 👌
When I’m in Cambodia I can’t ever decide between Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek. Both are great but in different ways. Tuol Sleng has this kind of dreadful creeping claustrophobia which makes you want to kill yourself 👍. But Cheong Ek has the stupas full of skulls and you can still find teeth in the dirt
Hard to beat that. Actual human teeth. Think it came top of TripAdvisor Death Camps 2025, and fair play. They put in a lot of effort
Cheong Ek had no emotional impact on me at all when I was wandering around it. And I think this is the first time I've even thought about it since I visited Cambodia. Same with Auschwitz. Maybe it's too real for my brain to compute - I find reading about these things much more harrowing.
Bro, they’ve got human teeth in the dust, everywhere. Just molars lying around. And the infamous baby bashing tree where they literally bashed babies to death. What more do you f*cking want?
It’s moaning minnies like you that are putting death camps out of business. Dozens close every year. I hear even Birkenau is in trouble because of whining reviews like this. Moan moan moan
pb brains trust: Anyone know Munich? Anyone ha e any views what area of the city I might be best advised to stay in with the family, balancing niceness/cost/proximity to things to see?
My daughter lived there for a year recently. They were due north of the old town, just outside the inner ring road. Walking distance to englischer garten. Nice area, just lively enough and lots of good bars and places to eat as close to university. Are you arriving into Munich airport and then picking up a car ?
Thanks - yes, that's the plan. We're going to spend a week in Austria but then a couple of days in Munich at the end (probably will return the car and do Munich by public transport).
Don’t bother with Dachau. Total letdown. No gas chambers, not even a torture cell
Just a pathetic rip off of Auschwitz, basically. Like one of those Winter Wonderlands with a plastic Santa and 3 mangy reindeer
Which one's your favourite, m9* ? I like Sachsenhausen, the OG. When I say "like", I mean I went on a bitterly cold grey day in December with the wind sweeping in all the way from the Steppes, and it was the bleakest thing I have ever done and it left a stronger impression on me than any film or book, or any of the museums.
*m9 is like m8 but one better.
Haven’t been to Sachsenhausen - I’ll give it a go! Thanks for the tip. Does it have actual proper gas chambers?
Treblinka’s not bad. Not much left but you do get some sense of abysmal horror and they’ve got death pits 👌
When I’m in Cambodia I can’t ever decide between Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek. Both are great but in different ways. Tuol Sleng has this kind of dreadful creeping claustrophobia which makes you want to kill yourself 👍. But Cheong Ek has the stupas full of skulls and you can still find teeth in the dirt
Hard to beat that. Actual human teeth. Think it came top of TripAdvisor Death Camps 2025, and fair play. They put in a lot of effort
I was reminded of Sachsenhausen when watching Zone of Interest. The camp commandant has to go there, to the central offices of the camp inspectorate. I could swear the streets he walked down looked familiar but apparently the whole film was shot in Poland.
We basically somehow ended up with David Icke as prime minister for two months didn't we? How the hell did we manage that?
We were in mourning for the Queen for one chunk of it, and then there was the conference recess for another chunk of it.
Elizabeth T took over on September 6 Elizabeth R died on September 8 The funeral was on September 19 Kwarteng's mini budget was on September 23 The party conference recess was from September 23 to October 11 Kwateng was sacked on October 14 Hunt's antibudget was on October 17 Truss announced her resgination on October 20 Sunak took over on October 24
In terms of actual Westminster time, that's about three weeks?
I would like to formally ask that "Kwarteng appeared to be off his t*ts at the funeral on September 19" be added to the list.
Let us not forget. 🙏
Cheeky wee read of Viz at the QE2 funeral. If you look closely Braverman has a swatch at one point
Online interviews, off site essay writing....they do know at that second rate institution that AI can ace these kind of tests.
What a stupid decision. The opposite of what they needed to do.
My understanding is lots of universities are still doing online exams (never stopped after COVID). Total mockery of standards.
To me the whole point of a university education is that you do most of it on-site, in person.
Arh you see you are missing the point of modern university education...the student gets the service they believe they deserve after paying £10k / year and the university don't want people failing / dropping out as it looks terrible on their rankings.
Not interested in party politics at the moment. More needs to be shaken out.
Big News! At yesterday's earnings call Tesla announced their plans to stop building cars. Model S and X and Cybertruck are all dead with their production lines repurposed for robots and taxis. No further cars will be built which you can drive. So once the Model 3 and Y get old, that's the end.
Madness standing on the shoulders of madness on stilts. Oh, the Robototron production line is to build 1m units next year. As there is no global market for these, expect them to be bought by the US government and used for herd culling of the population.
Is that a true-truth? I'm not a big fan of Elon (I know: surprise!) but even by his standard this is f*****g stupid. Tesla is a hundred-billion dollar company. Are the board so in thrall to Elon that they are willing to destroy the company for one man's stupidity?
1. Model S and X production ends shortly. Sales are down to a trickle anyway. Production space at the Fremont factory to be repurposed to build Optimus 2. Cybertruck production line to be repurposed to build autonomous vehicles. No timeline given or what those are but it won't be the truck that nobody buys 3. Roadster announced with a reveal in April. Its been announced as launching this year every year since 2020 4. Elon said that with the exception of the roadster, Tesla will not bring to the market any vehicles which are not fully autonomous 5. They further project that the bulk of all future sales will be the cybercab
He/they are mad. Sales are in Year on Year on Year decline. Accelerating hard. Sales of tax credits down nearly 50% YonY. They need profitable sales (vehicles are 75% of revenue to pay for capex and research. Capex this year more than doubles to $20bn. Hasn't said what they're spending it on. Won't be cars.
So no new models ever again. Its done.
Still, if the roadster ever does happen ima gettit. Performance that breaks either the laws of physics or the laws of the UK sounds good to me. 0-60 in one second is something I require.
You, TSE and Dura round Silverstone. I hope Betfair offer odds!
We could do it in iRacing. I will back myself at any odds.
I can do a 1:59 around it in a 992 GT3 R. It's a front end grip track so I can probably get another 1s with better setup and then maybe another 1s with practice.
Only interested in an IRL competition. Appreciate Silverstone might be somewhat unrealistic budget (or maybe not if go to trackday on time trial and all bring our own cars and swap?). Karts are out due to weight disadvantage but will consider any full sized cars.
Open to suggestions. I accept I'm highly unlikely to win but the main point is to humiliate TSE. Perhaps others can join. I missed the roundabout stuff but I understand someone said something daft? IDK.
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
President Donald J. Trump announces that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be decertifying Bombardier Global Expresses, and all other aircraft made in Canada, until Canada certifies the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Business Jets produced in the United States. Additionally, Trump states that if the issue is not immediately corrected, he will impose a 50% on all Canadian aircraft sold in the United States.
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
The solution is simple.
Everyone will be using the same unfamiliar car.
We (by which I mean @rcs1000 ) could even buy one as a future PB runabout.
President Donald J. Trump announces that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be decertifying Bombardier Global Expresses, and all other aircraft made in Canada, until Canada certifies the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Business Jets produced in the United States. Additionally, Trump states that if the issue is not immediately corrected, he will impose a 50% on all Canadian aircraft sold in the United States.
Number of net gains for the Dems in the House? 30 Number of net gains for the Dems in the Senate? 4 Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 58 Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 30 UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage (British Polling Council registered pollsters only)? Reform 14% Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 15% Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 9 The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Sir Keir Starmer Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? No UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025)? £125bn UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025)? 1.5% Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup? Argentina
We basically somehow ended up with David Icke as prime minister for two months didn't we? How the hell did we manage that?
She wasn’t always this crazy, was she? It’s like she has been captured by a brain washing cult.
Maybe it’s those social media algorithms - everyone says they are dangerous. Or, being booted out of politics altogether, so fast, is hard to come to terms with?
Let’s hope Liz is still switched on enough to be making lots of money from having been Prime Minister. Boris, Blair and Dave are raking it in.
We basically somehow ended up with David Icke as prime minister for two months didn't we? How the hell did we manage that?
She wasn’t always this crazy, was she? It’s like she has been captured by a brain washing cult.
Maybe it’s those social media algorithms - everyone says they are dangerous. Or, being booted out of politics altogether, so fast, is hard to come to terms with?
Let’s hope Liz is still switched on enough to be making lots of money from having been Prime Minister. Boris, Blair and Dave are raking it in.
Comes from a weird culty family. Her CND father disowned her for even standing as a Tory in 2005. Maybe the weirdness was baked in.
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
The solution is simple.
Everyone will be using the same unfamiliar car.
So basically, everyone in Top Gear's reasonably priced car?
So it seems that Alex Pretti was something of a violent street thug.
In fact his behaviour was rather reminiscent of the Wath rioters.
Now that doesn't mean he should have been killed but the USA is a gun society and thankfully Yorkshire isn't.
"Now that doesn't mean he should have been killed but.."
Why do the media have to pretend that every victim was an angel though? I am sure it turns more people towards the far right than telling the truth would. If the consensus had been that this guy was a provocative and aggressive armed protestor, but that is no reason for him to be shot dead once he had been disarmed, I can't see many people disagreeing, yet making him out to be a Kumbayah singing Greenham Common style peacenik only for the footage to be revealed is akin to the highbrow disinformation problem discussed in this article, linked by our old fav @AlastairMeeks
Very very good and carefully written piece that I encourage people to read closely rather than immediately seizing on things they don’t like to score points.
Otoh when people are victims of an atrocity it's not a natural instinct to go looking for ways in which they hadn't lived an admirable life. Doing this usually indicates a desire to downplay the atrocity (because of support for the political cause responsible for it) by introducing the thought that it wasn't entirely unjustified.
Your point would be fine if they had been a bit of a wrongun in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with their demise, and the fact they were a wrongun were used to dismiss their death. But the fellow who was killed last week was depicted as being an angel, when he was, if the video I have seen of him from the previous week is legitimate, quite a violent and angry, armed protestor. As I said, this doesn't mean it was right to kill him, especially as his firearm had been removed, but there is just no need to overegg the pudding. I think it treats the public as fools to do so, and in turn causes people to lose sympathy/distrust the authorities
Well, yes, the point being that even rogues and ne'erdowells deserve the protection of the law ad shouldn't be gunned down unless they present an immediate threat to life.
No, that isn’t the point.
I accept what you say, but the point is that there is no need to pretend that everyone who is mistakenly or unjustly killed by the police or ICE or whoever is some kind of Saint. Rogues and Ne’erdowells deserve the full protection of the law and shouldn’t be gunned down, but that doesn’t mean you have to pretend that they weren’t Rogues and Ne’erdowells. If anything the fact they were those things but still shouldn’t have been killed makes the point; trying to pretend they weren’t is obliquely saying that rogues and ne’erdowells don’t deserve to the full protection of the law as much as Saints
It's of no import whether he is an angel or not. The relevant matter is that this is a member of the public engaged in legal activity killed by Trump's officers with a gun whilst he was restrained flat on his face on the pavement by about 5 or 6 officers, and after he had been disarmed of a gun he had in plain sight as is legal in the state.
If you are up for a serious crime, whether you shouted at your wife a fortnight ago is not of very much relevance.
I think the serious issues here, which have been highlighted to Trump's marginal supporters perhaps because they assumed that white people were safe, are around no training, unlawful deployment, and a deliberate policy of casual violence to intimidate and both deport without due process, and manipulate future elections.
"Nexus Card" applications, which are the "fast border crossing cards" from Canada to the USA, fell by more than half from 2024 to 2025. They are similar to the various "Trusted Traveller" programmes, with background checks done which then persist for 5 years.
(Average spend is of the order of $1200 per trip, but "frequent traveller" may distort the number.)
Here's a video in similar vein from House of El, with a range of mainly financial and trade stats. I like her vids, but I'm not 100% on board yet; she overdoes headlines.
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
The solution is simple.
Everyone will be using the same unfamiliar car.
So basically, everyone in Top Gear's reasonably priced car?
@HYUFD@Big_G_NorthWales Fact#1 Plaid are surging in the polls Fact#2 Plaid have ruled out independence in first term However, there is zero evidence to suggest #1 is dependent on #2 - statistically this is called a 'spurious correlation'. There may be a few floating voters swayed by this but is a secondary effect at best.
Plaid surge is due to 'change' voters coalescing around Plaid. The Senedd election will be a repeat of Caerffili.
So how do you alll explain: 1. The absolute trouncing of the SNP (and Tories) by the LibDems in last night's East Dunbartonshire by-election. Labour, btw, "only" got 11% of the vote - but then East Dunbartonshire's a sort of Scottish rural Oxfordshire: ****ing rammed with poshos, Gails and Waitroses, solidly LibDem, and once so safely Tory it was thought they'd vote for a baboon wuth a blue rosette. Till they did in 2016, and have voted LD in every election since - including the 2019 Euros 2. The fact that in this year's British by elections so far, the LibDems total vote is about the same as the Tories and Reform COMBINED 3. And no British newspaper has bothered to mention any of this. Just like the politically blind TSE and all of the politically ignorant Starmer loathers infesting this site
Try investing a morning knocking on doors instead of reading opinion polls about an election that won't happen till at least 2028
So how do you alll explain: 1. The absolute trouncing of the SNP (and Tories) by the LibDems in last night's East Dunbartonshire by-election. Labour, btw, "only" got 11% of the vote - but then East Dunbartonshire's a sort of Scottish rural Oxfordshire: ****ing rammed with poshos, Gails and Waitroses, solidly LibDem, and once so safely Tory it was thought they'd vote for a baboon wuth a blue rosette. Till they did in 2016, and have voted LD in every election since - including the 2019 Euros 2. The fact that in this year's British by elections so far, the LibDems total vote is about the same as the Tories and Reform COMBINED 3. And no British newspaper has bothered to mention any of this. Just like the politically blind TSE and all of the politically ignorant Starmer loathers infesting this site
Try investing a morning knocking on doors instead of reading opinion polls about an election that won't happen till at least 2028
The circumstances were, ummm, dramatic, of course.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Oh come come come, does that really make the top ten?
So how do you alll explain: 1. The absolute trouncing of the SNP (and Tories) by the LibDems in last night's East Dunbartonshire by-election. Labour, btw, "only" got 11% of the vote - but then East Dunbartonshire's a sort of Scottish rural Oxfordshire: ****ing rammed with poshos, Gails and Waitroses, solidly LibDem, and once so safely Tory it was thought they'd vote for a baboon wuth a blue rosette. Till they did in 2016, and have voted LD in every election since - including the 2019 Euros 2. The fact that in this year's British by elections so far, the LibDems total vote is about the same as the Tories and Reform COMBINED 3. And no British newspaper has bothered to mention any of this. Just like the politically blind TSE and all of the politically ignorant Starmer loathers infesting this site
Try investing a morning knocking on doors instead of reading opinion polls about an election that won't happen till at least 2028
I wouldn't read too much into a single council byelection.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Online interviews, off site essay writing....they do know at that second rate institution that AI can ace these kind of tests.
Not quite the case. At the moment, Oxford has its own set of admissions tests, now it's going to use the same ones as Cambridge and Imperial. They've subcontracted to Pearson because that's what always happens.
I know, misleading headline in the Telegraph that winds people up. Shocking.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
These truths we hold, self evident and fancy free Take heed now, for we'll only say it once All points of the Lords are filled with mediocrities For Spielman is a terrible type of c (CUTS TO THE CUE CARD)
Online interviews, off site essay writing....they do know at that second rate institution that AI can ace these kind of tests.
Not quite the case. At the moment, Oxford has its own set of admissions tests, now it's going to use the same ones as Cambridge and Imperial. They've subcontracted to Pearson because that's what always happens.
I know, misleading headline in the Telegraph that winds people up. Shocking.
I don't think the Telegraph are wrong here are they? Here is what they say,
The university has axed all of its Oxford-specific entrance tests, spelling an end to traditional exams such as the Classics Admissions Test (CAT). The three-hour written assessment judged pupils’ abilities in Latin and ancient Greek. Oxford University confirmed to The Telegraph that it has also dropped its bespoke entrance tests for history, English, philosophy, ancient history and Classical archaeology, and materials science.
The second bit is saying no entrance exam at all for certain subjects now. And the whole article goes into more depth explaining what you said about standardised test used by other universities for some subjects.
@HYUFD@Big_G_NorthWales Fact#1 Plaid are surging in the polls Fact#2 Plaid have ruled out independence in first term However, there is zero evidence to suggest #1 is dependent on #2 - statistically this is called a 'spurious correlation'. There may be a few floating voters swayed by this but is a secondary effect at best.
Plaid surge is due to 'change' voters coalescing around Plaid. The Senedd election will be a repeat of Caerffili.
Good morning
Exactly my point to @HYUFD but he cannot ever admit to being wrong
He is an expert on Welsh politics because he actually voted for Plaud and independence once would anyone believe
In his world polls are sacrosanct and there to be juggled
Ben Goldsmith, the veteran Conservative environmentalist and ally of Boris Johnson, has been approached to write Reform UK’s policies on nature, as Nigel Farage’s party attempts to make inroads with voters put off by his stance on the climate crisis. Goldsmith will work with the Reform leader and his policy adviser James Orr on policies such as fishing and preservation of the green belt, as party figures admit they are struggling to win over Conservative voters who care about the environment.
He wants $1000 for every person who saw his leaked tax documents, when leaked to ProPublica. And he says 10,000,000 people might have seen them, claiming each is a separate disclosure.
Whilst the number is crazy, the lawsuit itself doesn't seem to be. May fail, but it's not complete batshit. (IANAL)
Ben Goldsmith, the veteran Conservative environmentalist and ally of Boris Johnson, has been approached to write Reform UK’s policies on nature, as Nigel Farage’s party attempts to make inroads with voters put off by his stance on the climate crisis. Goldsmith will work with the Reform leader and his policy adviser James Orr on policies such as fishing and preservation of the green belt, as party figures admit they are struggling to win over Conservative voters who care about the environment.
Ben Goldsmith, the veteran Conservative environmentalist and ally of Boris Johnson, has been approached to write Reform UK’s policies on nature, as Nigel Farage’s party attempts to make inroads with voters put off by his stance on the climate crisis. Goldsmith will work with the Reform leader and his policy adviser James Orr on policies such as fishing and preservation of the green belt, as party figures admit they are struggling to win over Conservative voters who care about the environment.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Regardless of the merits of the lady or her career, she's right. Councils can't afford to taxi kids into school and back. Get your kids into school - it's your responsibility.
It looks like the Greens have chosen Hannah Spencer for candidate, a council group leader on Trafford council, plumber (specialising in heat pumps), former candidate for GM mayor and national spokesperson on migration and asylum.
Weird move, particularly when the price was then so stable at its new floor. Must have been a massive dump of stock by someone. Will be interesting to see if there is any bounce back today.
Weird move, particularly when the price was then so stable at its new floor. Must have been a massive dump of stock by someone. Will be interesting to see if there is any bounce back today.
It was their earnings call yesterday, expenses (mostly on AI and cloud) were higher than expected, even if revenues overall were good.
Online interviews, off site essay writing....they do know at that second rate institution that AI can ace these kind of tests.
Not quite the case. At the moment, Oxford has its own set of admissions tests, now it's going to use the same ones as Cambridge and Imperial. They've subcontracted to Pearson because that's what always happens.
I know, misleading headline in the Telegraph that winds people up. Shocking.
I don't think the Telegraph are wrong here are they? Here is what they say,
The university has axed all of its Oxford-specific entrance tests, spelling an end to traditional exams such as the Classics Admissions Test (CAT). The three-hour written assessment judged pupils’ abilities in Latin and ancient Greek. Oxford University confirmed to The Telegraph that it has also dropped its bespoke entrance tests for history, English, philosophy, ancient history and Classical archaeology, and materials science.
The second bit is saying no entrance exam at all for certain subjects now. And the whole article goes into more depth explaining what you said about standardised test used by other universities for some subjects.
All true. But the art of polemic journalism is to create an emotional effect that goes further than the facts of a situation really merit. As we've seen from responses here.
Everyone has always done it a bit, but the Telegraph currently does it rather more than is healthy.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Regardless of the merits of the lady or her career, she's right. Councils can't afford to taxi kids into school and back. Get your kids into school - it's your responsibility.
And if the school is 40 miles away because it's the nearest specialist school for children with particular special needs.
The issue is like Adult Social care due to savings elsewhere, other costs are pushed up.
Weird move, particularly when the price was then so stable at its new floor. Must have been a massive dump of stock by someone. Will be interesting to see if there is any bounce back today.
It was their earnings call yesterday, expenses (mostly on AI and cloud) were higher than expected, even if revenues overall were good.
Client has just installed an expensive version of Co-pilot. It seems to be rather good at summarising information that is already on the screen but hidden on the second tab because it's not immediately useful.
That’s definitely an issue, that European laws are being quite deliberately diverged from American laws on things like data and privacy, but other stocks and commodities that also crashed yesterday later recovered much of the loss, whereas MSFT went down and stayed down.
I’m not sure that the EU can replicate much of what’s currently done by American companies, the new laws appear (from the US viewpoint) as much about generating income from fines as stimulating a homegrown European software market.
That’s definitely an issue, that European laws are being quite deliberately diverged from American laws on things like data and privacy, but other stocks and commodities that also crashed yesterday later recovered much of the loss, whereas MSFT went down and stayed down.
I’m not sure that the EU can replicate much of what’s currently done by American companies, the new laws appear (from the US viewpoint) as much about generating income from fines as stimulating a homegrown European software market.
Good morning, everyone.
Dislike and distrust of the USA and its regime may encourage European (both EU and non-EU) desire for non-American firms, the way China has Weibo[sp] instead of Twitter.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Regardless of the merits of the lady or her career, she's right. Councils can't afford to taxi kids into school and back. Get your kids into school - it's your responsibility.
And if the school is 40 miles away because it's the nearest specialist school for children with particular special needs.
The issue is like Adult Social care due to savings elsewhere, other costs are pushed up.
That is not what is causing the SEND phenomenon, and you know it. It is especially corrosive because once a responsibility/cost has been passed to the state, it's very hard to give it back without a massive backlash.
Off Topic. Despite the UAE saying they don't want to get involved in the US's venture into Iran, they don't appear to be able to stop the US. This is despite Al Dhafra being nominally under the control of the UAE. (Also plenty of air traffic over Iran at the moment.
@HYUFD@Big_G_NorthWales Fact#1 Plaid are surging in the polls Fact#2 Plaid have ruled out independence in first term However, there is zero evidence to suggest #1 is dependent on #2 - statistically this is called a 'spurious correlation'. There may be a few floating voters swayed by this but is a secondary effect at best.
Plaid surge is due to 'change' voters coalescing around Plaid. The Senedd election will be a repeat of Caerffili.
There is given the fact Plaid only got near 30%+ after ruling out independence in their first term. Which was also before the Caerphilly by election.
If they hadn't Labour would likely still be the main Welsh alternative to Reform
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Regardless of the merits of the lady or her career, she's right. Councils can't afford to taxi kids into school and back. Get your kids into school - it's your responsibility.
And if the school is 40 miles away because it's the nearest specialist school for children with particular special needs.
The issue is like Adult Social care due to savings elsewhere, other costs are pushed up.
That is not what is causing the SEND phenomenon, and you know it. It is especially corrosive because once a responsibility/cost has been passed to the state, it's very hard to give it back without a massive backlash.
Sorry but the examples I know of where people are getting taxis are wheelchair taxis taking children 40 miles because that is the nearest specialist school with a space. Locally a new specialist school opened which reduced the costs round here but resulted in 4 other children being shipped in via taxi.
So once again I haven't got a clue as to WTF you are on about, just real world experience of how some of the very expensives Taxis are being used.
Equally the wheel chair taxi serves the purpose that it means child 1 is off to school, allowing the parents to get their none disabled siblings to their local school normally. You desire seems to be to make the parents of the disabled child do all the care work to the detriment of the disabled child's siblings.
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
These truths we hold, self evident and fancy free Take heed now, for we'll only say it once All points of the Lords are filled with mediocrities For Spielman is a terrible type of c (CUTS TO THE CUE CARD)
“We need to take care that we’re not characterising having to make an effort as proof of a special need”
Conservative peer and former Ofsted chair Baroness Spielman talks to @siennamarla about the SEND crisis, her time at the regulator including the Ruth Perry case, and why some parents need stigmatising
I think rather we need to make sure we're not paying attention to a lying, hypocritical and extremely unpleasant imbecile like Spielman.
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
Regardless of the merits of the lady or her career, she's right. Councils can't afford to taxi kids into school and back. Get your kids into school - it's your responsibility.
And if the school is 40 miles away because it's the nearest specialist school for children with particular special needs.
The issue is like Adult Social care due to savings elsewhere, other costs are pushed up.
That is not what is causing the SEND phenomenon, and you know it. It is especially corrosive because once a responsibility/cost has been passed to the state, it's very hard to give it back without a massive backlash.
Someone posted the data a couple of days ago.
Most home-to-school transport is by bus (which is obviously more efficient). Mostly taxis are used in situations where the geography for that doesn't work. That's a smallish number of children with really huge needs. Otherwise, you get nowhere near admission to a SEND school.
(There's a separate issue of lower-level SEND support in mainstream schools, which is costing more than anyone expected. But that's not taxis.)
Bottom line is that some people are expensive, more expensive than the value of any work they can ever do. Either the rest of us subsidise them, or we basically leave them to rot.
So how do you alll explain: 1. The absolute trouncing of the SNP (and Tories) by the LibDems in last night's East Dunbartonshire by-election. Labour, btw, "only" got 11% of the vote - but then East Dunbartonshire's a sort of Scottish rural Oxfordshire: ****ing rammed with poshos, Gails and Waitroses, solidly LibDem, and once so safely Tory it was thought they'd vote for a baboon wuth a blue rosette. Till they did in 2016, and have voted LD in every election since - including the 2019 Euros 2. The fact that in this year's British by elections so far, the LibDems total vote is about the same as the Tories and Reform COMBINED 3. And no British newspaper has bothered to mention any of this. Just like the politically blind TSE and all of the politically ignorant Starmer loathers infesting this site
Try investing a morning knocking on doors instead of reading opinion polls about an election that won't happen till at least 2028
There are no Gails in Scotland let alone Bearsden. You door knocking lads need another bourgeois signifier.
It looks like the Greens have chosen Hannah Spencer for candidate, a council group leader on Trafford council, plumber (specialising in heat pumps), former candidate for GM mayor and national spokesperson on migration and asylum.
The emails show that at one stage Jeffrey Epstein traded on his friendship with Lord Mandelson to promise a friend a visit to No 10 Downing Street and the House of Lords.
He wrote to Glenn Dubin, a billionaire hedge fund manager, in July 2009: “I will organize a trip to Number !O , and the house of Lords with Peter Mandelson for you guys [sic].”
Comments
There has been a lot of chatter about at least one Iranian government flight heading out to Moscow today but whether that is an indication of a sinking ship or just hiding out for a bit, no one knows. The problem Iran has is needs to look West, South and now also North for incoming and they just dont have the capability to close the gates in one direction never mind three.
The position of Israel is unclear if they will get involved offensively. Certainly the US resources have dual purpose, both to sustain there own actions but also potentially to fill in gaps in Israel's resources to maintain a high tempo effort for longer.
The US cannot leave so much metal there for long without doing something or just packing up and going home. The latter isnt really Trump's thing. Remember his motivation, he wants to get a proper big result and if he doesnt think he is going to get it he wont do it.
One problem the Pentagon faces I mentioned a week or so ago. Targeting. The US have been asking around for a bit now if anyone can help identify target locations, human targets. The Europeans have been asked, the Israelis have too. Its a gap for US intelligence.
Let us not forget. 🙏
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9jkdx1gp8o
Treblinka’s not bad. Not much left but you do get some sense of abysmal horror and they’ve got death pits 👌
When I’m in Cambodia I can’t ever decide between Tuol
Sleng and Cheong Ek. Both are great but in different ways. Tuol Sleng has this kind of dreadful creeping claustrophobia which makes you want to kill yourself 👍. But Cheong Ek has the stupas full of skulls and you can still find teeth in the dirt
Hard to beat that. Actual human teeth. Think it came top of TripAdvisor Death Camps 2025, and fair play. They put in a lot of effort
Perhaps the craziest 4 weeks in British politics ever
*strives to suppress personal knowledge of Finland rumour*
It’s moaning minnies like you that are putting death camps out of business. Dozens close every year. I hear even Birkenau is in trouble because of whining reviews like this. Moan moan moan
I was reminded of Sachsenhausen when watching Zone of Interest. The camp commandant has to go there, to the central offices of the camp inspectorate. I could swear the streets he walked down looked familiar but apparently the whole film was shot in Poland.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/29/oxford-ditches-entry-exams-for-classics/
Online interviews, off site essay writing....they do know at that second rate institution that AI can ace these kind of tests.
Even Oxford. Incredible
Open to suggestions. I accept I'm highly unlikely to win but the main point is to humiliate TSE. Perhaps others can join. I missed the roundabout stuff but I understand someone said something daft? IDK.
Bearsden South (East Dunbartonshire) by-election first preferences:
Lib Dem: 1744 (38.1%, +14.9)
SNP: 789 (17.2%, -6.2)
Reform UK: 709 (15.5%, new)
Labour: 650 (14.2%, -1.9)
Green: 371 (8.1%, +0.9)
Conservative: 283 (6.2%, -17)
Family: 35 (0.8%, new)
Lib Dem elected stage 5.
It's held by the SNP at Holyrood, with the Lib Dems some way behind them
Trackdays are fucking expensive and don't allow "racing". So it would have do be some sort of time attack but then it's almost impossible to balance the performance of the cars. Even if we swap cars (if somebody stacked my Clubsport I would smile but there would be a lot of teeth showing) that wouldn't work because you're always going to be way slower in an unfamiliar car.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathkelvin_and_Bearsden_(Scottish_Parliament_constituency)
The previous ward councillor Andrew Polson was elected a Tory then resigned having been jailed for fraud - worth a read
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7nl7nrn5po
https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2017026011968188581
President Donald J. Trump announces that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be decertifying Bombardier Global Expresses, and all other aircraft made in Canada, until Canada certifies the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Business Jets produced in the United States. Additionally, Trump states that if the issue is not immediately corrected, he will impose a 50% on all Canadian aircraft sold in the United States.
Everyone will be using the same unfamiliar car.
@Benpointer
Number of net gains for the Dems in the House? 30
Number of net gains for the Dems in the Senate? 4
Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 58
Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 30
UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage (British Polling Council registered pollsters only)? Reform 14%
Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 15%
Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 9
The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Sir Keir Starmer
Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? No
UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025)? £125bn
UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025)? 1.5%
Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup? Argentina
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Maybe it’s those social media algorithms - everyone says they are dangerous. Or, being booted out of politics altogether, so fast, is hard to come to terms with?
Let’s hope Liz is still switched on enough to be making lots of money from having been Prime Minister. Boris, Blair and Dave are raking it in.
If you are up for a serious crime, whether you shouted at your wife a fortnight ago is not of very much relevance.
I think the serious issues here, which have been highlighted to Trump's marginal supporters perhaps because they assumed that white people were safe, are around no training, unlawful deployment, and a deliberate policy of casual violence to intimidate and both deport without due process, and manipulate future elections.
"Nexus Card" applications, which are the "fast border crossing cards" from Canada to the USA, fell by more than half from 2024 to 2025. They are similar to the various "Trusted Traveller" programmes, with background checks done which then persist for 5 years.
(Average spend is of the order of $1200 per trip, but "frequent traveller" may distort the number.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nexus-applications-trump-second-term-cut-in-half-9.7061960
Here's a video in similar vein from House of El, with a range of mainly financial and trade stats. I like her vids, but I'm not 100% on board yet; she overdoes headlines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKOS3WN6mg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnIulQYIQss
Fact#1 Plaid are surging in the polls
Fact#2 Plaid have ruled out independence in first term
However, there is zero evidence to suggest #1 is dependent on #2 - statistically this is called a 'spurious correlation'. There may be a few floating voters swayed by this but is a secondary effect at best.
Plaid surge is due to 'change' voters coalescing around Plaid. The Senedd election will be a repeat of Caerffili.
This morning Trump is threatening to decertify the lot, until Canada has certified Gulfstream Xs, Ys, and Zs.
According to me, Bombadier aircraft carry something like just under 10% of passengers in the US.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/29/business/trump-canada-aircraft-tariff
Let's hope he does not try it with Airbus, as that would ground much of ICE and CBD.
Starting with Trump not being certified.
1. The absolute trouncing of the SNP (and Tories) by the LibDems in last night's East Dunbartonshire by-election. Labour, btw, "only" got 11% of the vote - but then East Dunbartonshire's a sort of Scottish rural Oxfordshire: ****ing rammed with poshos, Gails and Waitroses, solidly LibDem, and once so safely Tory it was thought they'd vote for a baboon wuth a blue rosette. Till they did in 2016, and have voted LD in every election since - including the 2019 Euros
2. The fact that in this year's British by elections so far, the LibDems total vote is about the same as the Tories and Reform COMBINED
3. And no British newspaper has bothered to mention any of this. Just like the politically blind TSE and all of the politically ignorant Starmer loathers infesting this site
Try investing a morning knocking on doors instead of reading opinion polls about an election that won't happen till at least 2028
Cramer says hardware is the future.
https://x.com/jimcramer/status/2016892599659790376
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7nl7nrn5po
Not sure a baboon would be too flattered by your comparison either.
https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2016919756440240479?s=20
She has never done anything in her life that hasn't been a disaster, and she's always put her own ego and ambition ahead of the welfare of children (a subject she knows nothing about and cares less about).
It's one reason why in a career of catastrophic misjudgements Gove's suggestion of elevating the old fool to a peerage was one of the worst mistakes he made.
But it’s Cramer, and he’s never right. Inverse Cramer beat Nancy Pelosi and Warren Buffet last year.
I know, misleading headline in the Telegraph that winds people up. Shocking.
Take heed now, for we'll only say it once
All points of the Lords are filled with mediocrities
For Spielman is a terrible type of c (CUTS TO THE CUE CARD)
https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/2016972617744257221
The university has axed all of its Oxford-specific entrance tests, spelling an end to traditional exams such as the Classics Admissions Test (CAT). The three-hour written assessment judged pupils’ abilities in Latin and ancient Greek. Oxford University confirmed to The Telegraph that it has also dropped its bespoke entrance tests for history, English, philosophy, ancient history and Classical archaeology, and materials science.
So the first paragraph is what you are talking about and here is the list of subjects that it applies to
https://firstclasseducation.org.uk/guides/oxford-admissions-tests-are-changing
The second bit is saying no entrance exam at all for certain subjects now. And the whole article goes into more depth explaining what you said about standardised test used by other universities for some subjects.
Exactly my point to @HYUFD but he cannot ever admit to being wrong
He is an expert on Welsh politics because he actually voted for Plaud and independence once would anyone believe
In his world polls are sacrosanct and there to be juggled
President Trump has filed a lawsuit against the IRS, in which he demands that the IRS, which he as president controls, pay him $10 billion.
https://bsky.app/profile/bradheath.bsky.social/post/3mdm3tacibc2o
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/30/reform-uk-enlists-boris-johnson-ally-ben-goldmsmith-write-party-nature-policies
Whilst the number is crazy, the lawsuit itself doesn't seem to be. May fail, but it's not complete batshit. (IANAL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzdares
From her Mayoral profile:https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c84zwzdz0qno
If so, surely notable for the first time ever that the Tories have been fourth in a national poll?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/top-stocks/why-microsoft-s-stock-is-getting-punished-after-earnings/ar-AA1VcGqB
Everyone has always done it a bit, but the Telegraph currently does it rather more than is healthy.
On the other, Find Out Now.
The issue is like Adult Social care due to savings elsewhere, other costs are pushed up.
They are all excellent episodes. You’re right.
Robert Culp was a great baddie too.
AIUI this is around US law to require compulsory disclosure of data.
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-ban-officials-us-video-tools-zoom-teams-visio/
I’m not sure that the EU can replicate much of what’s currently done by American companies, the new laws appear (from the US viewpoint) as much about generating income from fines as stimulating a homegrown European software market.
Dislike and distrust of the USA and its regime may encourage European (both EU and non-EU) desire for non-American firms, the way China has Weibo[sp] instead of Twitter.
If they hadn't Labour would likely still be the main Welsh alternative to Reform
So once again I haven't got a clue as to WTF you are on about, just real world experience of how some of the very expensives Taxis are being used.
Equally the wheel chair taxi serves the purpose that it means child 1 is off to school, allowing the parents to get their none disabled siblings to their local school normally. You desire seems to be to make the parents of the disabled child do all the care work to the detriment of the disabled child's siblings.
NEW THREAD
Lecturing the UK about China . One can only imagine the furore if another country did the same to the USA .
It's a bubble...
Most home-to-school transport is by bus (which is obviously more efficient). Mostly taxis are used in situations where the geography for that doesn't work. That's a smallish number of children with really huge needs. Otherwise, you get nowhere near admission to a SEND school.
(There's a separate issue of lower-level SEND support in mainstream schools, which is costing more than anyone expected. But that's not taxis.)
Bottom line is that some people are expensive, more expensive than the value of any work they can ever do. Either the rest of us subsidise them, or we basically leave them to rot.
That's the downside of civilization.
He wrote to Glenn Dubin, a billionaire hedge fund manager, in July 2009: “I will organize a trip to Number !O , and the house of Lords with Peter Mandelson for you guys [sic].”
Pizza Express?