Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
Labour 2 points ahead of a party only standing in around half a dozen seats!
Reform will be on at least 20 seats on that result, and they'd be taking some constituencies. Tories would be in or close to single figures MSPs
The inability for many of those saying 'Green' if they cannot then vote for them does rather throw the figures out though
Unless the Greens are on 100% in the 6 they are standing in of course Greens 10 will be more like 1 to 2 if they only stand in 6 constituency seats Albas 2 can be removed as they might stand in a handful which gets them perhaps 0.2% nationally
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
Labour 2 points ahead of a party only standing in around half a dozen seats!
Reform will be on at least 20 seats on that result, and they'd be taking some constituencies. Tories would be in or close to single figures MSPs
The inability for many of those saying 'Green' if they cannot then vote for them does rather throw the figures out though
Unless the Greens are on 100% in the 6 they are standing in of course Greens 10 will be more like 1 to 2 if they only stand in 6 constituency seats Albas 2 can be removed as they might stand in a handful which gets them perhaps 0.2% nationally
Alba may dodge the constituencies altogether. I dunno where the money is coming from, but surely their days are numbered
Quite a few 'Sovereignty' candidates standing in constituencies
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
I stayed a couple of nights in Frome back in 2015, to do Longleat and also Bath.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
Labour 2 points ahead of a party only standing in around half a dozen seats!
Reform will be on at least 20 seats on that result, and they'd be taking some constituencies. Tories would be in or close to single figures MSPs
The inability for many of those saying 'Green' if they cannot then vote for them does rather throw the figures out though
Unless the Greens are on 100% in the 6 they are standing in of course Greens 10 will be more like 1 to 2 if they only stand in 6 constituency seats Albas 2 can be removed as they might stand in a handful which gets them perhaps 0.2% nationally
Alba may dodge the constituencies altogether. I dunno where the money is coming from, but surely their days are numbered
Quite a few 'Sovereignty' candidates standing in constituencies
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
Labour 2 points ahead of a party only standing in around half a dozen seats!
Reform will be on at least 20 seats on that result, and they'd be taking some constituencies. Tories would be in or close to single figures MSPs
The inability for many of those saying 'Green' if they cannot then vote for them does rather throw the figures out though
Unless the Greens are on 100% in the 6 they are standing in of course Greens 10 will be more like 1 to 2 if they only stand in 6 constituency seats Albas 2 can be removed as they might stand in a handful which gets them perhaps 0.2% nationally
Alba may dodge the constituencies altogether. I dunno where the money is coming from, but surely their days are numbered
Quite a few 'Sovereignty' candidates standing in constituencies
Yeah, for Alba i mean its £500 wasted every constituency as they are only getting an MSP if at all via the list The Greens are playing wise saving 30 grand as their strong suit is lists and theyd only be taking votes off 'semi allied' friends anyway in a lot of consituencies
Edit - so much Holyrood polling has 10% to 12% or so amongst parties that might score 1-2% in the constituencies DYOR
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
I stayed a couple of nights in Frome back in 2015, to do Longleat and also Bath.
Somerset in general is great.
I'm lucky to have friends who we stay with in Babcary and Ditcheat.
When in Ditcheat it's great to watch Mr Nicholls horses on the gallops early in the morning.
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
Fun fact: most domestic washing machines in Taiwan (and perhaps the laundrette too?) use exclusively cold water, lacking both a hot water supply and a heating element. Detergents are formulated accordingly.
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
I stayed a couple of nights in Frome back in 2015, to do Longleat and also Bath.
Since 2010 there have been 21 by elections defended by the sitting Government.
15 have been lost, many to excessive swings. 6 have been retained, all in uber safe Tory seats majority before 2019.
With the new 5 Party set up, and always a chance independents might add to the options will there ever be really safe seats again in any by election for a ruling Party.?
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
The last three came off the list of Derbyshire Welldressings - so links to tradition, and actually to washing.
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
Since 2010 there have been 21 by elections defended by the sitting Government.
15 have been lost, many to excessive swings. 6 have been retained, all in uber safe Tory seats majority before 2019.
With the new 5 Party set up, and always a chance independents might add to the options will there ever be really safe seats again in any by election for a ruling Party.?
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
I agree. Frome is good
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
I spent a lot of time in Scandinavia as a youngster.
I love Nordic Sports.
Sadly the increase in snow board, mucky mouse pipe acrobats and other north American crap has meant the core Nordic Sports and ski jumping barely get a look in.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
If they are in time to stand in May then they could prevent a Reform majority on Norfolk CC
Since 2010 there have been 21 by elections defended by the sitting Government.
15 have been lost, many to excessive swings. 6 have been retained, all in uber safe Tory seats majority before 2019.
With the new 5 Party set up, and always a chance independents might add to the options will there ever be really safe seats again in any by election for a ruling Party.?
You would hope that sometime in the future we would have a competent and popular government again but when, no idea
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
If they did, they would be performing a public service.
More and more young white men are looking at Britain, how the ENTIRE country operates, and thinking - why does EVERYBODY ELSE seem to get a helping hand? What have we done wrong?
The answer lads, is absolutely nothing.
How many young white men have lost out on decent jobs exactly because they are male, and exactly because they are white? Tens and tens of thousands.
Likely more. It is institutional and systemic bias against white British men. Anti-white racism is thriving in Britain. Poisonous DEI infects our institutions and corporations. Quotas steal professional opportunities away from bright young men who deserve it.
The education system, stacked against you - the forgotten working class white lads who nobody even thinks about, nobody even talks about. Blocked from universities, taught to be ashamed of who you are. The rot MUST end.
In the justice system? Who gets the raw end of the deal? Young white men. They tried to implement sentencing guidelines that directly target you, and put you in prison over somebody else for the exact same crime. It is ENDLESS.
It seems everyone has a ‘protected characteristic’ apart from you.
Under a Restore Britain Government, it will all end.
The woke bullshit will end, I promise you that.
You now have a political party that will fight for you.
We would tear away all of the vile legislation that has made Britain such a hostile and unwelcoming place to its own young men.
Our message is clear.
There is NOTHING wrong with being white, and there is NOTHING wrong with being male.
You’re told that you’re racist for loving your country, chauvinistic for enjoying a few beers at the football, bigoted for having a joke with your mates. It must all end.
We must restore confidence to an entire generation of young white men who have been entirely forgotten and let down by the rotten political establishment.
My advice is this. Keep working hard, learn a skill, be respectful, have fun, and despite everything - enjoy yourselves.
Keep going. It will get better. You now have a political party that properly represents you.
Restore Britain. 6:30 AM · Feb 17, 2026 · 1.5M Views
A chap called Jeremy Carl, who is with the Claremont Institute *, proposed by Trump for a position dealing with international organisations ("Assistant Secretary of State (International Organizations)", being examined by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
For a Senate hearing, he gets a decent chance to explicate.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
I agree mostly, especially the events where the judges gave to tell you who won.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
Wrt the betting the culture is changing in this country. People are sick of dei and quotas for women and ethnic minorities. White men are angry and justifiably so. Soon it will find its political expression.
Wrt the betting the culture is changing in this country. People are sick of dei and quotas for women and ethnic minorities. White men are angry and justifiably so. Soon it will find its political expression.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
I have noticed people becoming more ravist in my day to day life. One said to me they are sick of ethnic minorities stealing our jobs.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
It was standard practice, once upon a time, for the aristocracy. Pay off the girl and she'd keep quiet; now she takes the money and still talks.
18-24: Green 40%, Ref 7%, Lab 18%, DK 2O% 25-34: Green 34%, Ref 17%, Lab 18%, DK 15% 35-44: Green 23%, Ref 9%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 45-54: Green 24%, Ref 22%, Lab 15%, DK 36% 55-64: Green 15%, Ref 30%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 65-74: Green 6%, Ref 36%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 75+: Green 4%, Ref 22%, Lab 28%, DK 43%
Makes me wonder if Greens are vulnerable to differential turnout as they are low with 65+ who are most likely to turn up
Although the 18-34 combined subsample is likely a bit small, I think the older DKs here are somewhat statistically significant if you take under and over 34 as your two subsamples.
Ask yourself who doesn't know, the right winger who has a choice of Reform or Reform, or the left winger who has the choice of Green or Labour. It's clearly the latter (I think Foxy mentioned that the data sets bore this out).
So a large number of older, probably left leaning, don't knows. Many will have a say.
I predicted that the Lab + Green vote would be more than double the Reform vote, although the poll doesn't say that, I see in those DKs the voter base for that to happen. I also see how the idea the Greens are at least competitive could lead to something of a domino effect in these older DKs, less clear cut than Caerphilly, but there nonetheless.
Basically, I see support for my standing prediction (Green 40, Ref 28, Lab 25), confirmation bias perhaps, in the polling data here. And a Reform third place as distinctly possible.
Sorry, that is rubbish.
The Greens are under 10% in Gorton and Denton with pensioners and Labour are ahead with over 75s. Who is most likely to turn out to vote in a by election in February or send in a postal vote? Pensioners.
Indeed on that poll I think the fact Reform lead with most voters over 50 in Gorton and Denton suggests Reform will win, Labour will probably end up a close second with the Greens a strong third so Reform will win due to the split Labour and Green vote.
Note both FON and the new poll had the Greens on 20-25% excluding DKs but Reform and Labour massively lower with this new poll than FON
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
18-24: Green 40%, Ref 7%, Lab 18%, DK 2O% 25-34: Green 34%, Ref 17%, Lab 18%, DK 15% 35-44: Green 23%, Ref 9%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 45-54: Green 24%, Ref 22%, Lab 15%, DK 36% 55-64: Green 15%, Ref 30%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 65-74: Green 6%, Ref 36%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 75+: Green 4%, Ref 22%, Lab 28%, DK 43%
Makes me wonder if Greens are vulnerable to differential turnout as they are low with 65+ who are most likely to turn up
Although the 18-34 combined subsample is likely a bit small, I think the older DKs here are somewhat statistically significant if you take under and over 34 as your two subsamples.
Ask yourself who doesn't know, the right winger who has a choice of Reform or Reform, or the left winger who has the choice of Green or Labour. It's clearly the latter (I think Foxy mentioned that the data sets bore this out).
So a large number of older, probably left leaning, don't knows. Many will have a say.
I predicted that the Lab + Green vote would be more than double the Reform vote, although the poll doesn't say that, I see in those DKs the voter base for that to happen. I also see how the idea the Greens are at least competitive could lead to something of a domino effect in these older DKs, less clear cut than Caerphilly, but there nonetheless.
Basically, I see support for my standing prediction (Green 40, Ref 28, Lab 25), confirmation bias perhaps, in the polling data here. And a Reform third place as distinctly possible.
Sorry, that is rubbish.
The Greens are under 10% in Gorton with pensioners and Labour are ahead with over 75s. Who is most likely to turn out to vote in a by election in February or send in a postal vote? Pensioners.
Indeed on that poll I think the fact Reform lead with most voters over 50 in Gorton and Denton suggests Reform will win, Labour will probably end up a close second with the Greens a strong third so Reform will win due to the split Labour and Green vote.
Note both FON and the new poll had the Greens on 20-25% excluding DKs but Reform and Labour massively lower with this new poll than FON
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
It was standard practice, once upon a time, for the aristocracy. Pay off the girl and she'd keep quiet; now she takes the money and still talks.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
That would be the Australia where anti immigration One Nation are now also over 20% in the polls?
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
18-24: Green 40%, Ref 7%, Lab 18%, DK 2O% 25-34: Green 34%, Ref 17%, Lab 18%, DK 15% 35-44: Green 23%, Ref 9%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 45-54: Green 24%, Ref 22%, Lab 15%, DK 36% 55-64: Green 15%, Ref 30%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 65-74: Green 6%, Ref 36%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 75+: Green 4%, Ref 22%, Lab 28%, DK 43%
Makes me wonder if Greens are vulnerable to differential turnout as they are low with 65+ who are most likely to turn up
Although the 18-34 combined subsample is likely a bit small, I think the older DKs here are somewhat statistically significant if you take under and over 34 as your two subsamples.
Ask yourself who doesn't know, the right winger who has a choice of Reform or Reform, or the left winger who has the choice of Green or Labour. It's clearly the latter (I think Foxy mentioned that the data sets bore this out).
So a large number of older, probably left leaning, don't knows. Many will have a say.
I predicted that the Lab + Green vote would be more than double the Reform vote, although the poll doesn't say that, I see in those DKs the voter base for that to happen. I also see how the idea the Greens are at least competitive could lead to something of a domino effect in these older DKs, less clear cut than Caerphilly, but there nonetheless.
Basically, I see support for my standing prediction (Green 40, Ref 28, Lab 25), confirmation bias perhaps, in the polling data here. And a Reform third place as distinctly possible.
Sorry, that is rubbish.
The Greens are under 10% in Gorton and Denton with pensioners and Labour are ahead with over 75s. Who is most likely to turn out to vote in a by election in February or send in a postal vote? Pensioners.
Indeed on that poll I think the fact Reform lead with most voters over 50 in Gorton and Denton suggests Reform will win, Labour will probably end up a close second with the Greens a strong third so Reform will win due to the split Labour and Green vote.
Note both FON and the new poll had the Greens on 20-25% excluding DKs but Reform and Labour massively lower with this new poll than FON
I think you may have to look at this post again next friday am
I expect green, labour, reform but it could be close
The Burnham effect will help labour [apparently he is there most days canvassing ]
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
It was standard practice, once upon a time, for the aristocracy. Pay off the girl and she'd keep quiet; now she takes the money and still talks.
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
I do not think you realise just how serious this is, especially with the payment made to Virginia Giuffre with the knowledge of the late queen and charles
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
A set of standard buildings, with environmentally practical design features should be designed. They can then be built in estates of up to 100 houses, or singly, without requiring planning consent. This will also encourage smaller builders and prevent the oligopoly building everything. Estates over 100 houses permitted only if the necessary infrastructure is built before any house building is commenced.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
That would be the Australia where anti immigration One Nation are now also over 20% in the polls?
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
They keep adding "new" sports to the summer Olympics too, but running gets a bum deal. There is no cross country, no trail races, no mountain running, the only road race is the marathon which is the only distance over 10,000m,and there is no ultra distance. The vast majority of runners in the world are distance runners, not track athletes.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
I have noticed people becoming more ravist in my day to day life. One said to me they are sick of ethnic minorities stealing our jobs.
On the bright side, there's a vacancy for "PB Putinbot".
It's only a Saturday job, but we all have to start somewhere.
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
They keep adding "new" sports to the summer Olympics too, but running gets a bum deal. There is no cross country, no trail races, no mountain running, the only road race is the marathon which is the only distance over 10,000m,and there is no ultra distance. The vast majority of runners in the world are distance runners, not track athletes.
They are looking at adding cross country to the winter olympics.
18-24: Green 40%, Ref 7%, Lab 18%, DK 2O% 25-34: Green 34%, Ref 17%, Lab 18%, DK 15% 35-44: Green 23%, Ref 9%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 45-54: Green 24%, Ref 22%, Lab 15%, DK 36% 55-64: Green 15%, Ref 30%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 65-74: Green 6%, Ref 36%, Lab 17%, DK 37% 75+: Green 4%, Ref 22%, Lab 28%, DK 43%
Makes me wonder if Greens are vulnerable to differential turnout as they are low with 65+ who are most likely to turn up
Although the 18-34 combined subsample is likely a bit small, I think the older DKs here are somewhat statistically significant if you take under and over 34 as your two subsamples.
Ask yourself who doesn't know, the right winger who has a choice of Reform or Reform, or the left winger who has the choice of Green or Labour. It's clearly the latter (I think Foxy mentioned that the data sets bore this out).
So a large number of older, probably left leaning, don't knows. Many will have a say.
I predicted that the Lab + Green vote would be more than double the Reform vote, although the poll doesn't say that, I see in those DKs the voter base for that to happen. I also see how the idea the Greens are at least competitive could lead to something of a domino effect in these older DKs, less clear cut than Caerphilly, but there nonetheless.
Basically, I see support for my standing prediction (Green 40, Ref 28, Lab 25), confirmation bias perhaps, in the polling data here. And a Reform third place as distinctly possible.
Sorry, that is rubbish.
The Greens are under 10% in Gorton and Denton with pensioners and Labour are ahead with over 75s. Who is most likely to turn out to vote in a by election in February or send in a postal vote? Pensioners.
Indeed on that poll I think the fact Reform lead with most voters over 50 in Gorton and Denton suggests Reform will win, Labour will probably end up a close second with the Greens a strong third so Reform will win due to the split Labour and Green vote.
Note both FON and the new poll had the Greens on 20-25% excluding DKs but Reform and Labour massively lower with this new poll than FON
I think you may have to look at this post again next friday am
I expect green, labour, reform but it could be close
The Burnham effect will help labour [apparently he is there most days canvassing ]
I agree if Reform lose it will be to Labour not the Greens though I think Reform will win, just, due to the split on the left between Labour and the Greens.
If it was inner city Manchester I would expect the Greens to win but half the seat is classic white working class Old Labour pro Brexit territory of the type now strong Reform
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
They keep adding "new" sports to the summer Olympics too, but running gets a bum deal. There is no cross country, no trail races, no mountain running, the only road race is the marathon which is the only distance over 10,000m,and there is no ultra distance. The vast majority of runners in the world are distance runners, not track athletes.
And yet they find room for breakdancing, and synchronised swimming.
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
It's perverse, because many Green policies, like rent controls and a minimum wage of £15/hour, would devastate the prospects of young adults in particular. The former would deprive them of housing and the latter of work.
Evidence perhaps that judgement is something that tends to come with experience.
A Green government would be a disaster for the young on every level. Older voters save Green voters from themselves.
Nevertheless, it's not just the policy (bad as that is) but the rhetoric around younger voters that is a big problem.
My daughter will vote Green for one reason and one reason only: tuition fees. I don't think adults understand what a massive fuck-off to the young this policy continues to be. England and Wales, along with the USA, is a massuve outlier in the west in starting half its young out in life with tens of thousands of pounds of debt. It's no wonder the young are willing to give the Greens - who in general, I agree with CR, are a bunch of batshit extremists who make Reform look like the Sensible Party - a look.
Yes, tuition fees are heinous.
It was such an Osbornite thing to do: screw the young, and protect the old; Cameron totally failed to see around the corner, because he outsourced his thinking on anything fiscal to him.
It would cost £10bn a year to reverse it (at least, which we don't have) but I'd do it and fund by replacing the triple-lock with the smoothed earnings approach recommended by the IFS.
According to my ish calculations the other day, £10bn is the amount freed up by a reduction of 0.33% on the interest payable on 3 trillion of National Debt.
Which is roughly where we are over the last 12 months.
But the correct step is to set the interest rate to the rate of inflation to be neutral, as the first step. That would remove the most blatant screwage.
I'm not sure where that relates to debt the Cons sold off to the private sector, and what the cost would be to unwind it.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
I do not think you realise just how serious this is, especially with the payment made to Virginia Giuffre with the knowledge of the late queen and charles
Andrew has not been arrested in relation to Giuffre let alone charged, only in relation to leaking information as a trade envoy to Epstein, even if he did have sex with her she was 17 so over the UK age of consent and clearly the police have no evidence as yet Andrew knew she was trafficked
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
They keep adding "new" sports to the summer Olympics too, but running gets a bum deal. There is no cross country, no trail races, no mountain running, the only road race is the marathon which is the only distance over 10,000m,and there is no ultra distance. The vast majority of runners in the world are distance runners, not track athletes.
Drones should make it possible for mountain running to be a great piece of TV entertainment.
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
It's pretty simple: "Council housing at medium-high density uses fewer materials for lower carbon impact in the short and long term, build on derelict ground only, bypass evil private sector developers, compulsory land purchases, all powered with communal heat pump and solar systems"
Stuff like that. You could easily come up with some fun stats - Scotland has 11,000 hectares of derelict land, enough to house 1.4 million people at the population density of current Green voting areas.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
"Liked"the first half, but that doesn't apply as much to the second. I've no objection to team sports in the Olympics.
Fair enough. It's not team sporta so much as the knockout format I find unsatisfactory. That is very much a personal prefernce, that one though.
They keep adding "new" sports to the summer Olympics too, but running gets a bum deal. There is no cross country, no trail races, no mountain running, the only road race is the marathon which is the only distance over 10,000m,and there is no ultra distance. The vast majority of runners in the world are distance runners, not track athletes.
And yet they find room for breakdancing, and synchronised swimming.
Who are these people?
No squash either, which always seems odd. Or British Bulldogs.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
I do not think you realise just how serious this is, especially with the payment made to Virginia Giuffre with the knowledge of the late queen and charles
Andrew has not been arrested in relation to Giuffre let alone charged, only in relation to leaking information as a trade envoy to Epstein, even if he did have sex with her she was 17 so over the UK age of consent and clearly the police have no evidence as yet Andrew knew she was trafficked
The police are actively investigating AMW and part of that must relate to why the royal family, including charles, agreed a 12 million payment to the alleged victim who later committed suicide
Despite the theme of white man's rage being at least tangentially on-topic, it was a case of blink and you'll have missed it for this Saturday morning's visitor. A measly four posts only - poorest performance in a long while - and while TSE was on holiday too.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
The Greens are standing in more Holyrood constituencies than ever before. On the evidence of the poll you just posted the SCon vote has collapsed to Reform, Reform on 21% are polling the same as what the SCons got in 2021 and the SCons are now 6th on the constituency vote on a mere 7% behind even the Greens and LDs as well as behind the SNP, Reform and Labour
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
It's pretty simple: "Council housing at medium-high density uses fewer materials for lower carbon impact in the short and long term, build on derelict ground only, bypass evil private sector developers, compulsory land purchases, all powered with communal heat pump and solar systems"
Stuff like that. You could easily come up with some fun stats - Scotland has 11,000 hectares of derelict land, enough to house 1.4 million people at the population density of current Green voting areas.
I would add that an excellent, actually green policy would be to equalise the tax burden on renovating a home (e.g. VAT) with building a new one. That would reduce pressure on land (though that is usually monoculture farming, so a real environmentalist wouldn't really care), while massively reducing the carbon emissions associated with demolition and rebuilding.
If Polanski came out with that I'd be genuinely impressed. But he won't.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
That would be the Australia where anti immigration One Nation are now also over 20% in the polls?
So near 80% against that policy
No as some Coalition voters would also back a harder line on immigration
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
A civil settlement but he has faced no criminal charges or even been arrested in connection with Giuffre
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
A civil settlement but he has faced no criminal charges or even been arrested in connection with Giuffre
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
It's pretty simple: "Council housing at medium-high density uses fewer materials for lower carbon impact in the short and long term, build on derelict ground only, bypass evil private sector developers, compulsory land purchases, all powered with communal heat pump and solar systems"
Stuff like that. You could easily come up with some fun stats - Scotland has 11,000 hectares of derelict land, enough to house 1.4 million people at the population density of current Green voting areas.
The Build Build Build thing is one area where I hear pushback on Green policies, locally, among the young.
“But it’s evil property developers building expensive properties that aren’t appropriate for the locality…”
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
I have Teversal and Swadlincote.
But I sense you want something more evocative.
So perhaps Heanor, Heage, Loscoe, or even Via Gellia.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
It is an admission of guilt. AMW would never have made such a payment, unless he knew full well that sex with a 17 year old prostitute breached local laws.
Do I blame the Queen for putting up the money? No, because any mother with sufficient money would do the same.
I too have been in the position of having to dig a couple of people who are close to me, out of legal holes of their own making.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
A civil settlement but he has faced no criminal charges or even been arrested in connection with Giuffre
A civil settlement for what ?
That has to be investigated
No it doesn't, there is a much lower burden of evidence required in a civil than criminal case
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
The Greens will continue to hoover up the votes of the under 35s for as long as all other mainstream parties seem entirely uninterested in younger voters.
Someone yesterday - forget who, sorry - made the interesting point that the Greens' standard anti-development stance could cause then problems with young voters struggling to find somewhere to live - because of developments being blocked.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
It's pretty simple: "Council housing at medium-high density uses fewer materials for lower carbon impact in the short and long term, build on derelict ground only, bypass evil private sector developers, compulsory land purchases, all powered with communal heat pump and solar systems"
Stuff like that. You could easily come up with some fun stats - Scotland has 11,000 hectares of derelict land, enough to house 1.4 million people at the population density of current Green voting areas.
The Build Build Build thing is one area where I hear pushback on Green policies, locally, among the young.
“But it’s evil property developers building expensive properties that aren’t appropriate for the locality…”
“Shut up - Build, Build, Build.”
You're right - but if the Green come out and say "we're gonna build 1 million council houses in our cities and towns" then I think people my age and younger would well up for that, particularly if they point out the abject failure of the Labour/private alliance.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
I think Reform will do fairly well in the North east, but they have no physical presence. No one knows who is standing yet, a seatclike Banff could fall a 3 way split between them, the Tories and SNP.
The Tories seem to have a good residual core in the rural south, even in their nadir. Reform will do very well in white working class areas, so they could poll fairly well towns in the Central belt. There is a tipping point where they go from winning none/1 or 2 constituencies to winning half a dozen but I don't think we are there (yet)
I agree that Caithness really should be a Lib Dem gain this time
Despite the theme of white man's rage being at least tangentially on-topic, it was a case of blink and you'll have missed it for this Saturday morning's visitor. A measly four posts only - poorest performance in a long while - and while TSE was on holiday too.
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
The Greens are standing in more Holyrood constituencies than ever before. On the evidence of the poll you just posted the SCon vote has collapsed to Reform, Reform on 21% are polling the same as what the SCons got in 2021 and the SCons are now 6th on the constituency vote on a mere 7% behind even the Greens and LDs as well as behind the SNP, Reform and Labour
The Greens are standing in 6 seats - all Lothian/Glasgow Reform look, on council by election strength, like their vote is stronger in central, west, lothian and buiit up fife. They did well in Stranraer but not from the Tory vote collapsing to them.
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
That would be the Australia where anti immigration One Nation are now also over 20% in the polls?
Wonder if they will send back the £10 poms and all the criminals? That really would be a good idea and leave the place for the Aborigines
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
I think Reform will do fairly well in the North east, but they have no physical presence. No one knows who is standing yet, a seatclike Banff could fall a 3 way split between them, the Tories and SNP.
The Tories seem to have a good residual core in the rural south, even in their nadir. Reform will do very well in white working class areas, so they could poll fairly well towns in the Central belt. There is a tipping point where they go from winning none/1 or 2 constituencies to winning half a dozen but I don't think we are there (yet)
I agree that Caithness really should be a Lib Dem gain this time
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
I find it all rather fun.
As someone who finds the appeal of football almost entirely incomprehensible, I hesitate to criticise sports which someone else enjoys.
Apart from golf.
Though golf in the snow, with white balls, might be fun.
Theres new Holyrood polling out from Find Out Now in the National. Lets just say its sub optimal for Tory and Lab!
Constituency SNP 36 Ref 21 Lab 12 (lol) Green 10 LD 9 Con 7 (lol) Alba 2
Regional SNP 29 Ref 20 Green 14 Lab 12 Con 10 LD 9 Alba 2
53 47 for Indy
SNP down 12% on the constituency vote since 2021 and a swing of 15% from SNP to Reform on the regional list vote too since 2021
The SNP are only going to win constituency seats. Therefore their SNP 1 and 2 mantra is absurd.
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
In practical terms though seats like Ayr, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Aberdeen S and North Kincardine, Aberdeenshire East, Angus North and Mearns, Moray and Perthshire South and Kinrosshire, all won by the SNP in 2021 could go Reform if the 2021 Tory vote collapses in Reform's favour and the Greens stand in those Holyrood constituencies too.
The Greens show no signs if standing in those seats though. And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
The Greens are standing in more Holyrood constituencies than ever before. On the evidence of the poll you just posted the SCon vote has collapsed to Reform, Reform on 21% are polling the same as what the SCons got in 2021 and the SCons are now 6th on the constituency vote on a mere 7% behind even the Greens and LDs as well as behind the SNP, Reform and Labour
HYUFD, they've only 6 constituency candidates so far. I'd be surprised if they were to stand in say, 20, I think 12 or less would be sensible. They'll push hard for a 2nd list seat in a lot of regions
The Tories will poll more constituency votes than the Greens by virtue of the latter not standing in every seat
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
The chances of a Restore overall majority are near zero. However they could take enough votes off Reform to prevent them winning a majority or even most seats
They could also push reform more to the right. Many in restore dont see someone of brown skin as british even if they have a british passport.
I sometimes wonder about the prospects for my half-Thai granddaughters, if they come here. At the moment the elder two are looking towards Australia, though, so that's problem not a problem nowadays.
I have noticed people becoming more ravist in my day to day life.
I'm just trying to think through how this might manifest itself.
Blood is Pumping by Voodoo & Serano and becoming No. 1 download on Spotify?
Morning all. Restore have now put in their application to the Electoral Commission on Feb 20 but its unlikely they get approved in time for May nominations. The local project Great Yarmouth First went in on Feb 3rd and may also miss out in which case he will have to run Indies who later 'defect' but good luck informing the electorate who is Lowe and who is not. If he does get GYF on the ballot in the 9 wards for the county council, what effect? Im not sure. It might well take enough off Reform to allow Con or Lab to hold some wards, they might win some, they might clean up. Lowe has an effect locally and Yarmouth has a habit of moving hard when it moves.
Lowe is probably best known as having been Chair of Southampton FC. They were an established premier league club when he took over and were about to go into administration by the time he left. So possibly some indicator of his likely impact on the UK, were all his dreams to be realised.
Indeed. Although his profile and knowledge of him in East Norfolk is rather different now. The monthly salary donation to a local charity always hits the local paper and there is the attraction of having a local rabble rouser/pot stirrer. The 9 wards in Yarmouth are in 2 halves so different groups to fight for. Broadly (pun), the Yarmouth wards and Caister are Blackpool/Skeggy a bit run down, poorer than the rest of the county, former glory seaside town etc and Ormesby and the Fleggburgh/Flegg wards are sleepy Tory shire Broads villages without the usual LD incursions (it is perhaps no coincidence there is no decent road connection from the Fleggs into the LD dominated North Norfolk next door!)
I’m at a laundrette in deepest Tainan, in the tropical south of Taiwan
There should be an elaborate mandarin phrase for “the peculiar joy of accomplishing humdrum tasks in challengingly exotic environments”
I had the same feeling when I got a haircut in Odessa during an air raid
You will no doubt be aware of Douglas Adams' delightful little volume named The Meaning Of Liff in which he connects place names with familiar sentiments which lack a simple satisfactory word. Thus, 'Woking' means to stand in the kitchen wondering why you came in: an 'Ely' is the first inkling that something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. And so on.
I would tentatively offer Fort William for the phenomenon you describe, but am sure other posters can do better.
I would suggest Heckmondwike.
Or Tissington. Or Hoylandswaine. Or Frome.
Frome is good.
Frome is the aroma of French cheese that has been left in the car boot on a hot day
Dammit you’ve ruined it, because yes that’s better
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
Right. Winter Olympics nearly over: I shall favour this board with my views on the subject.
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything involving knockout tournaments. Ice Hockey, Curling, etc. These clearly genuinely are sports, and are genuinely entertaining, but the knockout nature of them makes them a bit unsatisfactory as an Olympic event. The ideal Olympic event is something like the marathon - everyone does it and somebody wins, and two other people come second and third. Simple and effective. Knockout tournaments are not this.
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
I find it all rather fun.
There are typically 20-30 sports, I find it baffling the number of people who get annoyed by the ones they are not interested in, rather than just enjoy the ones that take their interest. Something for nearly everyone. Not everyone enjoys the same things shocker.
I have posted on PB a few times over the years that a senior politician once told me that they wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s bodyguards had shot and killed AMW.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
I wonder if he sometimes now wishes they had.
I do wonder in all this if AMW may compromise his brother, or even if Charles is interviewed over just what he knew when his mother and himself paid the money to Virginia Giuffre
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
If anything Charles has come out well this week, especially once it became clear he advised against his brother being appointed the trade envoy where he leaked inforrmation but his mother overruled him and Mandelson ensured Andrew got the job anyway.
As PB’s premier royalist, what do your think of Andrew paying £12m of the queen’s (and possibly others’) money with her full support to a woman he said he’d never met, for something he never did?
A civil settlement but he has faced no criminal charges or even been arrested in connection with Giuffre
A civil settlement for what ?
That has to be investigated
No it doesn't, there is a much lower burden of evidence required in a civil than criminal case
I do not think you quite understand how serious all this is
The question is why did such a huge sum of money have to be paid with the late queen and charles knowledge to an accuser of AMW, and who sadly committed suicide
Comments
Greens 10 will be more like 1 to 2 if they only stand in 6 constituency seats
Albas 2 can be removed as they might stand in a handful which gets them perhaps 0.2% nationally
From henceforth let it be known that, in Ye Great Lexicon of PB, to experience Frome is to experience “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic location”
Quite a few 'Sovereignty' candidates standing in constituencies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Scottish_Parliament_election
The Greens are playing wise saving 30 grand as their strong suit is lists and theyd only be taking votes off 'semi allied' friends anyway in a lot of consituencies
Edit - so much Holyrood polling has 10% to 12% or so amongst parties that might score 1-2% in the constituencies
DYOR
I'm lucky to have friends who we stay with in Babcary and Ditcheat.
When in Ditcheat it's great to watch Mr Nicholls horses on the gallops early in the morning.
frome here to eternity......
Since 2010 there have been 21 by elections defended by the sitting Government.
15 have been lost, many to excessive swings.
6 have been retained, all in uber safe Tory seats majority before 2019.
With the new 5 Party set up, and always a chance independents might add to the options will there ever be really safe seats again in any by election for a ruling Party.?
(Underdressed lady bartenders also available)
I do enjoy the winter Olympics very much, but even I would concede that they are fundamentally silly. I can sit and watch them for hours in a thank-God-there's some-actual-sport-on-the-telly way, and can even forgive the inanity of the BBC coverage of them almost all of the time. But few of the sports are terribly satisfactory. Let's consider them.
First, ice dancing. This is the one 'sport' amongst all others that makes me genuinely angry. It is not a sport. If it has an aesthetic aspect, it is not a sport. If it requires costumes, it is not a sport. If it requires music, it is not a sport. Particularly not the depressing timbres you get in an ice arena. Turn it off. That's not to say that these people don't have genuine skill and athletic prowess - but it's not a sport. It's dancing, and therefore light entertainment. It can fuck off. People say to me, when I advance this opinion, 'but what about Torvill and Dean', to which I reply 'just because the British once had some success in a thing doesn't make it a sport, or entertaining, or worth watching.' As I said, genuinely angry. Let's move on to happier things.
Next, all the sports which require judges to tell us how well things were done: I wouldn't really consider these proper sports either. To which people say to me 'but what about gymnastics?', which I put in the same bag. Now, I do genuinely find the half pipe and the big air and so on genuinely entertaining and have enjoyed watching people do improbable things on snow - but not really a sport. So that's quite a lot struck off too.
...[cont]
Next, anything which is a race but which for sensible logistical reasons, people have to do one at a time. Downhill skiiing, for example. Now clearly this is a blue riband event, and I like watching it, but it is, I would argue, a little bit unsatisfactory that the racers go one at a time rather than all at once. In this category, I will also place a fundamental objection to anything in the toboggan category that the difference in time between winner and loser, and the variation between what happens on each run, appears so small as to be almost purposeless.
Next, anything which is superfluous. To take a summer olympics example: I consider the breast stroke or the walk superfluous: why would you swim in a way in which causes you to go slower? In this category, sadly, I would have to place snowboard cross. This is, I think, the most exciting event of the whole winterolympics, but you could do it quicker on skis. The ski version is less interesting: one person tends to get to the front and stays there - but the snowboard version seems to be to be superfluous (as one who snowboards rather than skis, I am slightly sad to draw this conclusion, but there it is.)
And finally, anything which is fundamentally stupid. I place the ski mountaineering in this category. It is essentially a contrived race to be ready for skiing. The ski-down-the-hill at the end is redundant: the order never changes in that bit. It's who's ready to go skiing first.
Which, I think, leaves two events: cross-country skiing (including biathlon) or short track speed skating. Those two are the Winter Olympic ideal. Cross country skiing has better scenery and history and is more noble, but short track speed skating is more entertaining: it is genuinely exciting, and has more of the winter Olympic essential of people falling over. So I am going for best event: short track speed skating, though anything cross-country skiing-ish is an acceptable answer too.
Getting Indiraed is the technical term.
It was ok I guess.
I love Nordic Sports.
Sadly the increase in snow board, mucky mouse pipe acrobats and other north American crap has meant the core Nordic Sports and ski jumping barely get a look in.
It is increasingly an X games circus.
More and more young white men are looking at Britain, how the ENTIRE country operates, and thinking - why does EVERYBODY ELSE seem to get a helping hand? What have we done wrong?
The answer lads, is absolutely nothing.
How many young white men have lost out on decent jobs exactly because they are male, and exactly because they are white? Tens and tens of thousands.
Likely more. It is institutional and systemic bias against white British men. Anti-white racism is thriving in Britain. Poisonous DEI infects our institutions and corporations. Quotas steal professional opportunities away from bright young men who deserve it.
The education system, stacked against you - the forgotten working class white lads who nobody even thinks about, nobody even talks about. Blocked from universities, taught to be ashamed of who you are. The rot MUST end.
In the justice system? Who gets the raw end of the deal? Young white men. They tried to implement sentencing guidelines that directly target you, and put you in prison over somebody else for the exact same crime. It is ENDLESS.
It seems everyone has a ‘protected characteristic’ apart from you.
Under a Restore Britain Government, it will all end.
The woke bullshit will end, I promise you that.
You now have a political party that will fight for you.
We would tear away all of the vile legislation that has made Britain such a hostile and unwelcoming place to its own young men.
Our message is clear.
There is NOTHING wrong with being white, and there is NOTHING wrong with being male.
You’re told that you’re racist for loving your country, chauvinistic for enjoying a few beers at the football, bigoted for having a joke with your mates. It must all end.
We must restore confidence to an entire generation of young white men who have been entirely forgotten and let down by the rotten political establishment.
My advice is this. Keep working hard, learn a skill, be respectful, have fun, and despite everything - enjoy yourselves.
Keep going. It will get better. You now have a political party that properly represents you.
Restore Britain.
6:30 AM · Feb 17, 2026
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1.5M
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https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/2023646198679163153?s=20
For a Senate hearing, he gets a decent chance to explicate.
Questioned about his opinions on "white culture". He's very much into "anti-white racism" and the Great Replacement Conspiracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1dQboF6TlY
Does anyone know about the guy?
This could get even more of a problem for the royals
The Greens are under 10% in Gorton and Denton with pensioners and Labour are ahead with over 75s. Who is most likely to turn out to vote in a by election in February or send in a postal vote? Pensioners.
Indeed on that poll I think the fact Reform lead with most voters over 50 in Gorton and Denton suggests Reform will win, Labour will probably end up a close second with the Greens a strong third so Reform will win due to the split Labour and Green vote.
Note both FON and the new poll had the Greens on 20-25% excluding DKs but Reform and Labour massively lower with this new poll than FON
I suspect mainly a technical swing from SNP to Reform. Although there will be some SNP to Reform switchers, the bare statistics will be masking switches from SNP to Labour and Labour to Reform.
I think the Greens need to find a way to reconcile building with environmental protection. It would be impressive if they can manage it
Andrew has of course faced no charges as yet about sex and was only arrested in relation to leaking information as a trade envoy
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38288484/mandelson-pushed-prince-andrew-trade-envoy-despite-king-concerns/
I expect green, labour, reform but it could be close
The Burnham effect will help labour [apparently he is there most days canvassing ]
“If he still possesses any shred of manhood, he knows what he must do.”
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross should also be a LD gain from SNP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2021_Scottish_Parliament_election#Results_by_constituency
It's only a Saturday job, but we all have to start somewhere.
So we still need a word which means “the pleasure of accomplishing a humdrum task in a challengingly exotic environment”
Polperro?
“I had my shoes repaired in Kamchatka last week and I got an absolute dose of Polperro. It was heavenly”
If it was inner city Manchester I would expect the Greens to win but half the seat is classic white working class Old Labour pro Brexit territory of the type now strong Reform
Who are these people?
Which is roughly where we are over the last 12 months.
But the correct step is to set the interest rate to the rate of inflation to be neutral, as the first step. That would remove the most blatant screwage.
I'm not sure where that relates to debt the Cons sold off to the private sector, and what the cost would be to unwind it.
Stuff like that. You could easily come up with some fun stats - Scotland has 11,000 hectares of derelict land, enough to house 1.4 million people at the population density of current Green voting areas.
And its far from clear why the SCon vote should collapse to Reform. There isnt particular evidence of Reform attracting the rural Tory vote in Scotland any more than, say, SLab votes
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-greens-look-to-cause-upset-at-the-2026-holyrood-election-5606049
If Polanski came out with that I'd be genuinely impressed. But he won't.
That has to be investigated
“But it’s evil property developers building expensive properties that aren’t appropriate for the locality…”
“Shut up - Build, Build, Build.”
But I sense you want something more evocative.
So perhaps Heanor, Heage, Loscoe, or even Via Gellia.
Do I blame the Queen for putting up the money? No, because any mother with sufficient money would do the same.
I too have been in the position of having to dig a couple of people who are close to me, out of legal holes of their own making.
Which is both humdrum and charmingly exotic.
The Tories seem to have a good residual core in the rural south, even in their nadir. Reform will do very well in white working class areas, so they could poll fairly well towns in the Central belt. There is a tipping point where they go from winning none/1 or 2 constituencies to winning half a dozen but I don't think we are there (yet)
I agree that Caithness really should be a Lib Dem gain this time
Reform look, on council by election strength, like their vote is stronger in central, west, lothian and buiit up fife.
They did well in Stranraer but not from the Tory vote collapsing to them.
Apart from golf.
Though golf in the snow, with white balls, might be fun.
The Tories will poll more constituency votes than the Greens by virtue of the latter not standing in every seat
Blood is Pumping by Voodoo & Serano and becoming No. 1 download on Spotify?
The question is why did such a huge sum of money have to be paid with the late queen and charles knowledge to an accuser of AMW, and who sadly committed suicide