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”
Weston?
As in Weston-Super-Mare
A place which exists, is inoffensive, but no one would invent
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
It doesn't have to be, but it very likely will. Apart from theoretical point that helping to pay millions to hush up a sex crime might be in itself a crime (conspiracy to pervert the course of justice), there is quite a strong public interest in finding out why the monarch might have done so.
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 don’t think they can. Osborne sold the debt on the basis of RPi+
Follow the money might well be a faster way to the truth in the US, too.
The sexual assault crimes are awful, and people need to be held accountable.
BUT a lot of folks are missing this whole angle. Scott Bessent, a friend of the Trump family for 30 years, refuses to give over the financial records of Epstein showing where money was coming and going, who was funding the operation and trafficking, and what global elites may have been involved.
Wyden has been tirelessly working to force Bessent's hand, but Bessent has absolutely refused to show Congress any SAR's (Suspicious Activity Reports) including nearly 5,000 missing wire transfers that would certainly implicate many co-conspirators of Epstein's... https://x.com/TheTrueVanguard/status/2024834942522229054
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.
It's why it won't damage the monarchy.
AMW is on a totally different scale but so many people have a black sheep in their family, who has caused real problems or embarrassment.
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’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”
Weston?
As in Weston-Super-Mare
A place which exists, is inoffensive, but no one would invent
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
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
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 reiterate my suggestion of Chorleywood!
Isn’t that the sensation of fancying a mate’s girlfriend but regretfully deciding that it would wrong to try to pull her?
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 don’t think they can. Osborne sold the debt on the basis of RPi+
By failing to index the thresholds for imposing the earnings deduction, the government has already screwed the students who took out the debt on that basis.
Tying government's hands by that sale could well become a similar slow burning disaster/scandal along the lines of water privatisation.
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 can't see any reasons why the Greens won't win.
I suspect they will too. However what will be quite interesting is how sticky the traditional Labour vote proves. It's one thing to express displeasure with the government and say you're going to vote Green and a slightly different thing to actually do so.
I suspect Labour might have hung on if it hadn't been for the Mandelson stuff. (I've a small bet on them at diabolical odds)
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 don’t think they can. Osborne sold the debt on the basis of RPi+
It's Plan 1 loans that were sold off, no? I don't think any Plan 2 have been. So the loans are smaller, and have lower interest.
(The disadvantage of Plan 1 loans (like mine) is there is no 25 year write-off. It's retirement or death...)
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”
Weston?
As in Weston-Super-Mare
A place which exists, is inoffensive, but no one would invent
Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare is quite offensive, to democracy for starters.
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.
It's why it won't damage the monarchy.
AMW is on a totally different scale but so many people have a black sheep in their family, who has caused real problems or embarrassment.
There's a determined effort by the royals to distance themselves from the Andrew scandals, but there are serious and legitimate question about the extent to which they protected and enabled his behaviour.
Until they are answered one way or the other, I don't think this will go away. Charles has also, quite rightly, pledged openness on the matter, so we'll see how that works out.
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.
I was watching the bobsledding earlier and was only disappointed I didn't see the Jamaican team show up.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Dog owners thinking they have a right to leave shite all over playing fields infuriates me. I don't care if you've picked it up - some kid still has to play football in what remains.
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
IANAL but presumably “conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime” only becomes and issue of there is an ongoing criminal investigation? Otherwise any legal settlement could subsequently be defined as a criminal offence
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
Yes, for now they are a bundle of memes rather than a serious political party. In that respect, a bit like MAGA.
In their own distinct way they might also be disastrous in government.
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”
Weston?
As in Weston-Super-Mare
A place which exists, is inoffensive, but no one would invent
Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare is quite offensive, to democracy for starters.
Oh for the days when Jeffery Archer was the worst scandalist in our political class!
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
I honestly think this is quite easy to navigate for the Greens, for the reasons I set out above. But to be clear, it would require a bit of assertive leadership which I'm not sure Polanski is capable of, and I'm not suggesting that such a policy would actually work in practice.
It's not like other parties come out with policies that are obviously unworkable, is it? "1 million houses on derelict land" doesn't even come close to some of the crap we've been fed over the years.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
Green and Reform are both protest/plague on all your houses parties.
They get traction because mainstream parties aren't serious about owning up to our problems and delivering solutions, but engage in gestures of their own, and then prove incompetent in office.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel are
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
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.
I've had a great idea, which is that they should move all winter sports to the Winter Olympics. So you could have soccer in the winter as it is supposed to be, and proper cross country (the XC world championships take place on very tame courses that typically don't involve any mud).
I have alway wondered when it is our turn to hold the World Cup, we don't hold it in say November (to avoid problems with snow/ice cancellations although that's not so much a problem these days and holding a tournament Jan/Feb would be s possibility)
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.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
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
If the late Queen wished to spend some of her money for a civil settlement between Andrew and Giuffre that was her business, she is dead now anyway so can't be questioned on 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.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
People are entitled to settle civil suits in whatever manner they wish, that’s the underpinning of the civil law. Plenty of people do pay others money to make problems go away.
People are also completely free to draw whatever conclusions they wish from those doing so.
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.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel are
It is, but it is a 2003 Act and I don't know if it was illegal before then. So it may have been legal at the time.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
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 time difference in the seeding runs between skis and snowboards (men) was 0.24s
Given the conditions, I suspect the snowboard final was considerably faster than the ski final
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
OLB might be thinking of the minimum age for marriage which was recently raised to 18 from 16.
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.
It's why it won't damage the monarchy.
AMW is on a totally different scale but so many people have a black sheep in their family, who has caused real problems or embarrassment.
There's a determined effort by the royals to distance themselves from the Andrew scandals, but there are serious and legitimate question about the extent to which they protected and enabled his behaviour.
Until they are answered one way or the other, I don't think this will go away. Charles has also, quite rightly, pledged openness on the matter, so we'll see how that works out.
I think this surely now results in AMW being removed from the succession and any final constitutional position (Counsellor of State etc). There’s always been a fundamental unwillingness to take this step, and I don’t think it’s just because the Commonwealth Realms need to agree. I think this step would have been taken some time ago if the palace wasn’t quite so squeamish about the idea of Parliament interfering in the succession for alleged wrongdoing.
It does open a can of worms that anyone in the direct line that the public/parliament aren’t keen on could be removed, cutting across the hereditary principle. Cast your minds back, if you will, to those days in the 90s and early 00s where the now King was deeply unpopular with the public for his infidelity and the way he treated his first wife. That level of unpopularity could in future be used by politicians as a way of engineering the succession. That will deeply trouble the palace.
(However, Parliament has interfered in the succession for centuries, so I don’t think they should be too perturbed).
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
I honestly think this is quite easy to navigate for the Greens, for the reasons I set out above. But to be clear, it would require a bit of assertive leadership which I'm not sure Polanski is capable of, and I'm not suggesting that such a policy would actually work in practice.
It's not like other parties come out with policies that are obviously unworkable, is it? "1 million houses on derelict land" doesn't even come close to some of the crap we've been fed over the years.
Such a policy would mean starting a fight with a good chunk of the party members and activists.
It would be bigger for the Greens than Clause 4 for Labour.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The alleged offence was in 2001. I am not clear what the law was then.
The major revision of laws around sexual offences was 2003.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
Giuffre was paid by Epstein
However the current law dates from 2003 and I don't know what it replaced
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
Not even then provided the prostitute wasn't obtained kerb crawling
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
However, it is an offence to pay for or promise payment for sexual services of a person under 18 where the client does not reasonably believe that person is over 18, or in any event for a person under 13.
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 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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
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 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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
Lots of (rich) commoners get away with buying the silence of victims of crime. Didn't Mohamed Al-Fayed make lots of payments?
Yes. The system of hidden payoffs linked to NDAs is one thing. And is a long running issue. A certain business man, somewhat bearded, is a fan of such settlements.
Settling a civil lawsuit, through the court system, is a different thing, though.
How should that be changed? Ban settlements to end cases early? How would that work? Ban NDAs?
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
Not even then provided the prostitute wasn't obtained kerb crawling
I've provided you with a link to an Act of Parliament. So if you believe that it is legal to have sex with an under-18 prostitute, let's see your source.
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
I honestly think this is quite easy to navigate for the Greens, for the reasons I set out above. But to be clear, it would require a bit of assertive leadership which I'm not sure Polanski is capable of, and I'm not suggesting that such a policy would actually work in practice.
It's not like other parties come out with policies that are obviously unworkable, is it? "1 million houses on derelict land" doesn't even come close to some of the crap we've been fed over the years.
Such a policy would mean starting a fight with a good chunk of the party members and activists.
It would be bigger for the Greens than Clause 4 for Labour.
This is bonkers, sorry. I think the Greens are full of contradictions like any other party but I think you've read too much into the level of extremism that might exist there. It's certainly not going to have a significant influence on how people vote.
The Lib Dems in Edinburgh fight all cycle infrastructure, while their leader cycles to conference. Being able to sustain these inconsistent positions is just normal politics.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
'However, it is an offence to pay for or promise payment for sexual services of a person under 18 where the client does not reasonably believe that person is over 18, or in any event for a person under 13.
First you need to prove payment was made for the sex, secondly that the person did not reasonably believe a 17 year old was not 18 which given they are almost the same age is near impossible
Dog owners thinking they have a right to leave shite all over playing fields infuriates me. I don't care if you've picked it up - some kid still has to play football in what remains.
This is true, but on an open field, you can never keep it free of animal faeces of all kinds.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
Not sure wibbling over the difference between having a 17 year old trafficked to London so you can have sex with them and kerb crawling & brothel keeping is quite the win for royalists.
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.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
Not even then provided the prostitute wasn't obtained kerb crawling
I've provided you with a link to an Act of Parliament. So if you believe that it is legal to have sex with an under-18 prostitute, let's see your source.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
'However, it is an offence to pay for or promise payment for sexual services of a person under 18 where the client does not reasonably believe that person is over 18, or in any event for a person under 13.
First you need to prove payment was made for the sex, secondly that the person did not reasonably believe a 17 year old was not 18 which given they are almost the same age is near impossible
If someone has just arrived from the USA, for example, you could ask to see their passport
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
Not even then provided the prostitute wasn't obtained kerb crawling
I've provided you with a link to an Act of Parliament. So if you believe that it is legal to have sex with an under-18 prostitute, let's see your source.
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”
Pronounced Froom?
Therefore the sensation of being somewhat underwhelmed when you arrive at a place expecting noom.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
Not sure wibbling over the difference between having a 17 year old trafficked to London so you can have sex with them and kerb crawling & brothel keeping is quite the win for royalists.
The King and Prince William of course never even met Epstein, unlike say President Trump or Bill Clinton or plenty of US billionaires and celebrities who socialised regularly with Epstein, many even going to his island, Mandelson too of course
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
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.
The problem there is that, in the U.K., the Greens accreted from various anti- groups. “I’ll oppose your pet hate and you’ll oppose mine”
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
I honestly think this is quite easy to navigate for the Greens, for the reasons I set out above. But to be clear, it would require a bit of assertive leadership which I'm not sure Polanski is capable of, and I'm not suggesting that such a policy would actually work in practice.
It's not like other parties come out with policies that are obviously unworkable, is it? "1 million houses on derelict land" doesn't even come close to some of the crap we've been fed over the years.
Such a policy would mean starting a fight with a good chunk of the party members and activists.
It would be bigger for the Greens than Clause 4 for Labour.
This is bonkers, sorry. I think the Greens are full of contradictions like any other party but I think you've read too much into the level of extremism that might exist there. It's certainly not going to have a significant influence on how people vote.
The Lib Dems in Edinburgh fight all cycle infrastructure, while their leader cycles to conference. Being able to sustain these inconsistent positions is just normal politics.
Being opposed to development isn’t extremism - it’s basic Greenery.
It’s about the internal politics of the party.
Suddenly going pro-the-right-kind-of-development would be massive, massive change for them.
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
Caithness is a contender, for the word that means “enjoyment of a humdrum pleasure in tough exotic arenas”
Ah, it was total Caithnesss…. Sounds like bliss and bless and grace and its inherently pretty as a word
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
No, if over 16, unless paid. Then yes.
Not even then provided the prostitute wasn't obtained kerb crawling
I've provided you with a link to an Act of Parliament. So if you believe that it is legal to have sex with an under-18 prostitute, let's see your source.
Even then provided you believed they were 18, yes
And on the day of the offence?
Provided you thought they were 18 it would have been legal
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
Caithness is a contender, for the word that means “enjoyment of a humdrum pleasure in tough exotic arenas”
Ah, it was total Caithnesss…. Sounds like bliss and bless and grace and its inherently pretty as a word
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
People are entitled to settle civil suits in whatever manner they wish, that’s the underpinning of the civil law. Plenty of people do pay others money to make problems go away.
People are also completely free to draw whatever conclusions they wish from those doing so.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
People are entitled to settle civil suits in whatever manner they wish, that’s the underpinning of the civil law. Plenty of people do pay others money to make problems go away.
That's not entirely true, since there are circumstances where doing so could be construed as conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Which was almost certainly the case with Fayed, for example.
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
'However, it is an offence to pay for or promise payment for sexual services of a person under 18 where the client does not reasonably believe that person is over 18, or in any event for a person under 13.
First you need to prove payment was made for the sex, secondly that the person did not reasonably believe a 17 year old was not 18 which given they are almost the same age is near impossible
If someone has just arrived from the USA, for example, you could ask to see their passport
You could do if as a double check but if a reasonable person would have thought they looked 18 it wasn't a legal requirement. You would also have to prove payment was made for the sex as if no payment was made sex with the 17 year old is perfectly legal if no position of trust with them
Just seen Royal Mail trying to cut Sat deliveries for non 1st class post. Meanwhile my postman confirmed there were no deliveries on my round on one day this week Horsham has 18 vacancies that cannot be filled and if a round doesn't happen its cheaper to.pay the fine than deliver the post.
Something is v wrong if this is true
If you can't be bothered to pay for a first class stamp why should you expect to see your letter or parcel delivered on a Saturday?
I normally use 1st class stamps but letters posted in this neck of the woods usually take about a week to be delivered.
So still can be delivered within the week on a Saturday then if sent first class
"Horsham has 18 vacancies that cannot be filled"
And yet millions of young people are sat on the sofa without work or education.
But there are two further questions. Are those unemployed in Horsham? And, if not, can they afford to move to Horsham and live there? Bear in mind their salaries will need to cover their moving costs. Plus a premium for cutting off their friends and family support network.
if there are job vacancies anywhere in the country and they don't take one then benefits should stop immediately. Not for the state to pay for people to chose where and where not they will live. Lazy barstewards.
By anywhere in the country, do you mean anywhere in the UK, or just anywhere in England? Should the unemployed in Scotland be forced to leave their country?
I don’t think it’s been discussed here but unemployment in Scotland (both general and youth) is noticeably lower in Scotland than England, so I guess the migration of jobseekers would tend to one direction.
AI says Scotland's Labour force participation is 74.7%, somewhat below the UK average of 75.1%.
I imagine that's the result of a larger aging population, no doubt including all those pensioners migrating for the Scotch good life.
What does AI say about my point, the unemployment rate in Scotland (both general and youth) compared to England?
It says this:
The key reason Scotland has a lower unemployment rate but also a lower labour force participation (employment rate) than the UK is higher economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, not retirement or other factors.
Long-term illness is the primary driver: As of October 2024 to September 2025, 33.8% of economically inactive people in Scotland cited “long-term sick or disabled” as their main reason for not working—significantly higher than the UK average of around 28.7%. This proportion has been rising in recent years and is the highest in the time series since 2004.
Higher inactivity rate: Scotland’s economic inactivity rate (those not in work and not seeking it) was 23.1% for ages 16–64 in mid-2024, contributing to the lower employment rate despite fewer unemployed individuals.
Data reliability concerns: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has acknowledged reliability issues with the Labour Force Survey due to low response rates and methodological changes, potentially affecting accuracy. However, administrative data (e.g., payroll and benefits) support the trend of high inactivity due to health issues.
In short, more working-age people in Scotland are out of the labour force due to long-term health conditions, particularly mental and physical illnesses, which reduces both unemployment and participation rates. This contrasts with lower rates of inactivity due to retirement or student status
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
The age of consent in the UK is 16.
Yes unless the adult was in a position of trust with the 17 year old eg their teacher or sports coach then sex between an adult and 17 year old is perfectly legal in the UK
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
If the late Queen wished to spend some of her money for a civil settlement between Andrew and Giuffre that was her business, she is dead now anyway so can't be questioned on it
1.5m of it apparently came from one of the other crowned thieves. Probably Chaz as I doubt any of the others would have the means or motivation to drop a seven figure sum in hush money to a teenage sex slave. He has Questions To Answer.
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.
Re any mother, possibly, but would a commoner get away with conspiring to buy the silence of a victim of a crime?
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
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
If the late Queen wished to spend some of her money for a civil settlement between Andrew and Giuffre that was her business, she is dead now anyway so can't be questioned on it
1.5m of it apparently came from one of the other crowned thieves. Probably Chaz as I doubt any of the others would have the means or motivation to drop a seven figure sum in hush money to a teenage sex slave. He has Questions To Answer.
Philip paid most of the rest and he is also dead but a civil settlement is not a criminal conviction but a private matter between the parties
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
It was a shakedown. And they flapped up to try and protect the Queen’s reputation (and especially the Jubilee).
There’s really not much to investigate
Sex with a 17 year old prostitute is a criminal offence
Not in the UK it isn't, only kerb crawling and running a brothel is
I would dispute the term "17 year old prostitute" but sex between an adult and a child (under 18) is a criminal offence surely?
FPT: Two solutions for the difficulties that young people may have getting to jobs:
In the US, young people in Hispanic families often have an advantage of many supportive relatives. So, for example, a young man looking for a warehouse job might be able to get both a recommendation -- and a ride from one of his uncles, who already works there. (Some places in the US actually subsidize car pools, which work best when you are traveling with friends.)
In the not too long run, another solution will be self-driving cars. (If they aren't blocked by regulators.)
MAGA is so often performative. It’s about generating social media headlines. A big increase in military spending sounds good. They don’t care that there’s no actual plan what to do with money.
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
Caithness is a contender, for the word that means “enjoyment of a humdrum pleasure in tough exotic arenas”
Ah, it was total Caithnesss…. Sounds like bliss and bless and grace and its inherently pretty as a word
I vote for Caithness
Think of it like a Scottish Cornwall, stuck away out at the end of a peninsula, it only borders one other county , with its own unique flora and fauna. One of the few Scottish counties I've never been to
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
You shouldn't have put it through his door, and thoroughly deserved the response, though the picture is a bit much. It's exceedingly pompous to imagine that there was an exception for your junk mail.
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
It does seem like a lot of people are on a hair trigger these days. It's weird. Whatever happened to the rule that if you haven't got something nice to say then don't say anything at all? People do annoying things to me all day long, but do I ever say anything to them about it? Of course I don't! I go home and complain to my wife about it instead.
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
You shouldn't have put it through his door, and thoroughly deserved the response, though the picture is a bit much. It's exceedingly pompous to imagine that there was an exception for your junk mail.
It's a tough call, personally I don't think election related materials are junk mail. Elections are important. If I see a 'no junk mail' sticker and I'm delivering an election leaflet I will usually post it. If it says 'no leaflets' explicitly I won't post it.
MAGA is so often performative. It’s about generating social media headlines. A big increase in military spending sounds good. They don’t care that there’s no actual plan what to do with money.
Reform or Restore would be the same here.
What do you think Britain is doing at the moment? We are touting a big increase in the headline figure military spend, and planning to use it to pay for Chagos. Presumably we can deter the enemy parachute regiments by waving the Chagos agreement at them.
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
You shouldn't have put it through his door, and thoroughly deserved the response, though the picture is a bit much. It's exceedingly pompous to imagine that there was an exception for your junk mail.
It's a tough call, personally I don't think election related materials are junk mail. Elections are important. If I see a 'no junk mail' sticker and I'm delivering an election leaflet I will usually post it. If it says 'no leaflets' explicitly I won't post it.
I hate to break it to you, but the recipients probably consider political literature to be junkier than sofa sales and parish newsletters.
MAGA is so often performative. It’s about generating social media headlines. A big increase in military spending sounds good. They don’t care that there’s no actual plan what to do with money.
Reform or Restore would be the same here.
What do you think Britain is doing at the moment? We are touting a big increase in the headline figure military spend, and planning to use it to pay for Chagos. Presumably we can deter the enemy parachute regiments by waving the Chagos agreement at them.
We haven’t increased our military budget by 50% and left an alcoholic misogynist in charge of how to spend the money, so, no, I don’t see the similarity.
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.
In the last week I have twice had run-ins with crazy angry people while out and about. The first case was at our local railway station, where I misunderstood where someone was going and inadvertently blocked them (or they blocked me) and was shouted at to look where I was going, the second in our local supermarket carpark where I accidentally tapped the door of the car next to mine while opening my car door, way too lightly to leave any kind of mark but the person in the car got out and remonstrated with me about it like I had done it deliberately. Both these people were middle aged women so it seems that rage is well distributed across the sexes.
Yesterday a youngish man ran after me after I'd posted a leaflet through his door that had "No Junk Mail" on his letterbox. I said that it had info in it he might find useful. He tore the leaflet into pieces and threw it at me. Next he took out his phone and took my picture. I suspect it'll go up in the street WhatsApp Group!
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
You shouldn't have put it through his door, and thoroughly deserved the response, though the picture is a bit much. It's exceedingly pompous to imagine that there was an exception for your junk mail.
Mine wasn't junk mail. It had useful information on it. He thought it was junk mail but I wasn't to know that and didn't want to deny him the choice.
MAGA is so often performative. It’s about generating social media headlines. A big increase in military spending sounds good. They don’t care that there’s no actual plan what to do with money.
Reform or Restore would be the same here.
For once, I agree with you.
However, by the same token, a mainstream UK political party that pledged to invest in rearming properly by 2035 and, say, increased the basic and higher rates to 22p and 42p respectively to fund it would win a level of respect for following through even if it hurt in the short-term.
Comments
As in Weston-Super-Mare
A place which exists, is inoffensive, but no one would invent
Apart from theoretical point that helping to pay millions to hush up a sex crime might be in itself a crime (conspiracy to pervert the course of justice), there is quite a strong public interest in finding out why the monarch might have done so.
The sexual assault crimes are awful, and people need to be held accountable.
BUT a lot of folks are missing this whole angle. Scott Bessent, a friend of the Trump family for 30 years, refuses to give over the financial records of Epstein showing where money was coming and going, who was funding the operation and trafficking, and what global elites may have been involved.
Wyden has been tirelessly working to force Bessent's hand, but Bessent has absolutely refused to show Congress any SAR's (Suspicious Activity Reports) including nearly 5,000 missing wire transfers that would certainly implicate many co-conspirators of Epstein's...
https://x.com/TheTrueVanguard/status/2024834942522229054
AMW is on a totally different scale but so many people have a black sheep in their family, who has caused real problems or embarrassment.
Rugby player ends up in hospital after falling in dog poo
https://x.com/bbcnews/status/2025135774300070300?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
There’s really not much to investigate
Trump with his relentless addiction to pardons thinks the queen should pardon Andrew, from beyond the grave presumably.
https://x.com/dave43law/status/2024949230876409947?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Tying government's hands by that sale could well become a similar slow burning disaster/scandal along the lines of water privatisation.
I suspect Labour might have hung on if it hadn't been for the Mandelson stuff. (I've a small bet on them at diabolical odds)
(The disadvantage of Plan 1 loans (like mine) is there is no 25 year write-off. It's retirement or death...)
Until they are answered one way or the other, I don't think this will go away.
Charles has also, quite rightly, pledged openness on the matter, so we'll see how that works out.
The problem with building is that it means telling some people that their cause is being rejected.
Further, there is a strand of thought that all development and technology is wrong, and the only answer is less of everything.
So even nominally green tech is opposed. See opposition, by local Green parties to Solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage projects.
Building houses?
In that respect, a bit like MAGA.
In their own distinct way they might also be disastrous in government.
It's not like other parties come out with policies that are obviously unworkable, is it? "1 million houses on derelict land" doesn't even come close to some of the crap we've been fed over the years.
They get traction because mainstream parties aren't serious about owning up to our problems and delivering solutions, but engage in gestures of their own, and then prove incompetent in office.
I have alway wondered when it is our turn to hold the World Cup, we don't hold it in say November (to avoid problems with snow/ice cancellations although that's not so much a problem these days and holding a tournament Jan/Feb would be s possibility)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membury,_Devon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeal_Monachorum
People are also completely free to draw whatever conclusions they wish from those doing so.
https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Results_HolyroodVI_Jan26_formatted_w.pdf
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/part/1/crossheading/abuse-of-children-through-prostitution-and-pornography
It is designed to avoid trials.
Given the conditions, I suspect the snowboard final was considerably faster than the ski final
It does open a can of worms that anyone in the direct line that the public/parliament aren’t keen on could be removed, cutting across the hereditary principle. Cast your minds back, if you will, to those days in the 90s and early 00s where the now King was deeply unpopular with the public for his infidelity and the way he treated his first wife. That level of unpopularity could in future be used by politicians as a way of engineering the succession. That will deeply trouble the palace.
(However, Parliament has interfered in the succession for centuries, so I don’t think they should be too perturbed).
It would be bigger for the Greens than Clause 4 for Labour.
The major revision of laws around sexual offences was 2003.
However the current law dates from 2003 and I don't know what it replaced
She previously competed for TeamGB as one of her parents is Welsh
Settling a civil lawsuit, through the court system, is a different thing, though.
How should that be changed? Ban settlements to end cases early? How would that work? Ban NDAs?
The Lib Dems in Edinburgh fight all cycle infrastructure, while their leader cycles to conference. Being able to sustain these inconsistent positions is just normal politics.
They are stronger in the central belt etc
It’s about the internal politics of the party.
Suddenly going pro-the-right-kind-of-development would be massive, massive change for them.
Ah, it was total Caithnesss…. Sounds like bliss and bless and grace and its inherently pretty as a word
I vote for Caithness
Some people are wired, on a trigger. Perhaps the long run of dull rainy days has got to them. Or the news.
Which was almost certainly the case with Fayed, for example.
Long-term illness is the primary driver: As of October 2024 to September 2025, 33.8% of economically inactive people in Scotland cited “long-term sick or disabled” as their main reason for not working—significantly higher than the UK average of around 28.7%. This proportion has been rising in recent years and is the highest in the time series since 2004.
Higher inactivity rate: Scotland’s economic inactivity rate (those not in work and not seeking it) was 23.1% for ages 16–64 in mid-2024, contributing to the lower employment rate despite fewer unemployed individuals.
Data reliability concerns: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has acknowledged reliability issues with the Labour Force Survey due to low response rates and methodological changes, potentially affecting accuracy. However, administrative data (e.g., payroll and benefits) support the trend of high inactivity due to health issues.
In short, more working-age people in Scotland are out of the labour force due to long-term health conditions, particularly mental and physical illnesses, which reduces both unemployment and participation rates. This contrasts with lower rates of inactivity due to retirement or student status
SCOOP: Trump aides are struggling to spend an extra $500 billion on the military, delaying budget
Trump agreed to Hegseth’s bid for *~50%~* military spending boost
Vought & others objected internally
It’s so much $ they can’t figure out how to spend it
https://x.com/JStein_WaPo/status/2025187555189150155?s=20
In the US, young people in Hispanic families often have an advantage of many supportive relatives. So, for example, a young man looking for a warehouse job might be able to get both a recommendation -- and a ride from one of his uncles, who already works there. (Some places in the US actually subsidize car pools, which work best when you are traveling with friends.)
In the not too long run, another solution will be self-driving cars. (If they aren't blocked by regulators.)
Reform or Restore would be the same here.
However, by the same token, a mainstream UK political party that pledged to invest in rearming properly by 2035 and, say, increased the basic and higher rates to 22p and 42p respectively to fund it would win a level of respect for following through even if it hurt in the short-term.