#Breaking: A senior Israeli diplomatic official tells me: "The assessment in Israel and the U.S. that the fall of the Iranian regime is a real possibility is strengthening."
A real possibility? Weeks of war and misery for a non-zero chance of something happening. Result.
BREAKING: Trump plans to take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force, in a move that could also last several weeks, according to an Israeli source - Kann News
Israel is also preparing to increase operations in the Strait of Hormuz
You might get a different answer if you ask someone other than an Israeli podcaster who has hardly any followers
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
Destroying the reputation with whom? Trump already holds the UK, along with everyone else in Europe, with contempt and disdain, they've made that very clear despite then getting smoother talkers like Rubio in to try to calm things down. So there's no reputation to damage there anyway.
With others? Less clear perhaps, definitely a hit if people think we simply are incapable of acting rather than deciding to not act, but very few others seem to be getting involve either.
I am always extremely suspicious about appeals to our 'reputation with our allies', 'international standing', 'standing shoulder to shoulder' - all meaning we should spend money and lives bombing some brown people. Fuck off.
I don't reject the premise entirely, alliances are significant, but I've never liked the type of complaint that just because people overseas dislike a particular politician that is a sign you are doing the wrong thing. Sometimes you may have to upset others to do what is best for your country. So when people bemoaned Europe laughing at Boris or whatever I wouldn't think that was particularly relevant vs whether or not what he was doing was working or not.
I would even apply that to the USA and Trump to a degree, they shouldn't worry in itself that a lot of the Western world dislikes Trump if they believe he will make them stronger, but he has rather pushed that idea beyond breaking point, in that it's not that he just doesn't care about allies, he's outright antagonistic and that has negative consequences.
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
What do they want us to do? I gather we don't have much in the way of armaments to send. If we must get involved anywhere, surely it should be supporting Ukraine more? First come, first served, at least. We don't need two fronts.
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
Presumably not just the British economy and presumably not just his reputation as most of Europe seems to be in the doghouse.
Obviously, the Americans are not just going to leave Hormuz blocked so they will force it and escort tankers, the oil price will fall back and everyone will be happy.
The question is why, given they have such a powerful presence in the area, they didn't secure Hormuz on day one and why it's taken them so long.
#Breaking: A senior Israeli diplomatic official tells me: "The assessment in Israel and the U.S. that the fall of the Iranian regime is a real possibility is strengthening."
This from the same people that said the Iranians wouldn’t close the Strait of Hormuz and wouldn’t attack other Gulf nations .
Donald has a feeling in his bones that the regime will fall in...erm... two weeks!
I am not sure which of the regimes in Iran or the United States is the most superstitious, but I wouldn't trust Trumps "feelings".
BREAKING: Trump plans to take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force, in a move that could also last several weeks, according to an Israeli source - Kann News
Israel is also preparing to increase operations in the Strait of Hormuz
Having trawled the internet all day to find a Trump positive story, that is a piss- poor result.
I am writing to Mr Putin asking to have your wages docked!
#Breaking: A senior Israeli diplomatic official tells me: "The assessment in Israel and the U.S. that the fall of the Iranian regime is a real possibility is strengthening."
It is absolutely certain that the Iranian regime will fall.
The only question is the timespan.
I would like it to be sooner rather than later, because (a) people are getting hosed around the world by high oil prices*, and (b) it would be nice to see one of Russia's supporters fall.
However, given that the US and Israeli strategy has been to bomb the cities where the opponents of the regime live, I'm not convinced the fall is imminent.
* Including, most importantly, my customers in Arizona and Nevada
I didn't realise they'd gone so far as to bomb Arizona and Nevada. All deserts look the same I suppose.
But the asterisk denotes.... blast it, where's a grammar pedant when you need one ?
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
What do they want us to do? I gather we don't have much in the way of armaments to send. If we must get involved anywhere, surely it should be supporting Ukraine more? First come, first served, at least. We don't need two fronts.
I understand that we are doing a roaring trade on the joint Ukrainian/UK drone and anti-drone systems.
Talk of “extra factories being built” levels of purchase.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
Why am I always told when I board a train that my behaviour will not be tolerated?
That "Inter City Firm" tee-shirt might not be what you think it is.....
When I was doing A levels at Worcester Tech I would sometimes wander over to the magistrates court to watch the fun. On one occasion a local hooligan had stolen a Cadbury's Cream Egg from Woolworth, the value in 1980 as I recall was 12p. He got a custodial sentence from the stipendiary magistrate presumably for wearing a tee shirt with the word "bollocks" emblazoned on the front.
This doesn't bother me tbh, I don't think Harry should have got the opprobrium he did either for his fancy dress back in the 90s. The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
Complete rubbish. The invasion was illegal which is why Starmer isn't and wont get involved. At last Starmer is at one with the public.
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
Presumably not just the British economy and presumably not just his reputation as most of Europe seems to be in the doghouse.
Obviously, the Americans are not just going to leave Hormuz blocked so they will force it and escort tankers, the oil price will fall back and everyone will be happy.
The question is why, given they have such a powerful presence in the area, they didn't secure Hormuz on day one and why it's taken them so long.
Also it seems that they do not want to use their 3 mine countermeasures vessels in the theatre. 2 are in Malaysia, the other one in Kerala.
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
BREAKING: Trump plans to take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force, in a move that could also last several weeks, according to an Israeli source - Kann News
Israel is also preparing to increase operations in the Strait of Hormuz
Having trawled the internet all day to find a Trump positive story, that is a piss- poor result.
I am writing to Mr Putin asking to have your wages docked!
I couldn't find any. Is it just a sad cry for attention?
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
"The Johnson Variant"
Well he could hardly complain about cheap tacky attack lines.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
"The Johnson Variant"
Well he could hardly complain about cheap tacky attack lines.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
"Reports indicate clashes between security forces and citizens around Chaharbagh Square in Tehran. The sound of gunfire can be heard", according to activist Ilia Hashemi
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
The COVID Inquiry has concluded that Johnson generally was too optimistic and went for control measures too late, with the upshot that they then had to be in place for longer.
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
I bet you’re glad you didn’t work for Odey. I met him when I was working. He was like an extra posh version of Boris. I can imagine him as a Wodehouse character.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
The UK Military and Foreign Service agree with me - the situation is now changed, ignore how it started, the National Interest is now on UK stepping up to the mark.
"Britain's national interests, those of our very important Gulf allies like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar also is at stake, as is our reputation," he explained.
Starmer is destroying the UKs reputation with his fence sitting non action and his bickering with Trump, whilst ships burn in the strait of Hormuz and the British Economy burns with them.
Complete rubbish. The invasion was illegal which is why Starmer isn't and wont get involved. At last Starmer is at one with the public.
I'm glad SKS isn't going with the flow that legality doesn't matter. Ok, international law is far from a fully developed concept, but it should surely be an aspiration to promote it rather than give up on it entirely, mock it even. If having the rule of law within a country is a good thing, which everyone agrees it is, how can the same not apply between countries? It clearly does. International law is a good thing. Far better than might is right. So it should be supported.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
The real receptionists have locked the doors between 1 and 2pm so they can concentrate on undermining the system uninterrupted.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
"The Johnson Variant"
Well he could hardly complain about cheap tacky attack lines.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
Currently Class 1 Medical Device, they are applying for Class IIa...
#Breaking: A senior Israeli diplomatic official tells me: "The assessment in Israel and the U.S. that the fall of the Iranian regime is a real possibility is strengthening."
It is absolutely certain that the Iranian regime will fall.
The only question is the timespan.
I would like it to be sooner rather than later, because (a) people are getting hosed around the world by high oil prices*, and (b) it would be nice to see one of Russia's supporters fall.
However, given that the US and Israeli strategy has been to bomb the cities where the opponents of the regime live, I'm not convinced the fall is imminent.
* Including, most importantly, my customers in Arizona and Nevada
If insurance is paid per mile, presmably your revenue goes down when oil goes up. But perhaps the claims reduce so as to exactly cancel this out?
Yes, there's definitely a degree of correlation.
On the other hand, our fixed costs remain the same.
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
The COVID Inquiry has concluded that Johnson generally was too optimistic and went for control measures too late, with the upshot that they then had to be in place for longer.
One interpretation of that might be 'too optimistic', but another interpretation might be 'commendably reluctant to restrict freedoms'.
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
I bet you’re glad you didn’t work for Odey. I met him when I was working. He was like an extra posh version of Boris. I can imagine him as a Wodehouse character.
I dealt with him once, he seemed okay, but this industry is full of cockwombles who appear nice on the outside...
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
That and the "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" spiel.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
My experience of attempting to call the actual meatbag receptionists at my local GP lead me to suspect there were in fact a badly functioning robot. Particularly endearing was the occasion when after an hour on hold, they told me that they couldn't get me an appointment today, nor book me one for some time in the future, but if I managed to ring up at exactly 8am the following morning then they might be able to book me one then, on a first come, first served basis.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
That and the "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" spiel.
The EMH would make a terrible receptionist - far too human.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
How many callers can it deal with at once?
All of them, it seems! It makes a nice change from calling at 08:00:01 and being 74th in the queue...
I knew Crispin a little: he was friends with a former boss of mine from Goldman.
Later, however, when Goldman was sued and I was a peripheral witness in a case, I discovered one of his employees conspiring with the management of Lernout & Hauspie to get me fired for being negative on their accounting policies.
"Reports indicate clashes between security forces and citizens around Chaharbagh Square in Tehran. The sound of gunfire can be heard", according to activist Ilia Hashemi
I lose track. Does this mean that the ground operation you reported on to secure Strait of Hormuz isn’t necessary now?
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
That and the "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" spiel.
The EMH would make a terrible receptionist - far too human.
Starmer would make an excellent medical receptionist. Apart from getting nothing done, he has the perfect annoying voice.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
The number of Britons saying health is a top national issue has fallen to 26%, the lowest level in YouGov's tracker since February 2014
Meanwhile, the number giving a good rating to NHS services in their local area (59%) or nationally (30%) reach their highest levels since mid-2022
Labour is working.
I still can't get a GP appointment for love nor money, in fact I constantly getting auto-text spam messages saying don't call us for anything this week, we can't see anybody else, if you need anything go to A&E.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
Prioritising cases would mean they come under MHRA Software as a Medical Device Class 2 rules. I doubt they have Class 2 approval.
Ah, good point, perhaps they don't. I wonder who is selling the service? It does actually seem to work well - the surgery have said so too.
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
The not trying to block you getting an appointment is the dead giveaway.
That and the "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" spiel.
The EMH would make a terrible receptionist - far too human.
Starmer would make an excellent medical receptionist. Apart from getting nothing done, he has the perfect annoying voice.
When you ring up about your follow up information or things being lost, never touched his desk....
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
They should take the OU students out of the equation (being accessible to people without conventional qualifications is a fundamental part of its remit, and its curricula and pathways through have been designed to reflect that).
Trump: "I originate -- to put it nicely -- I originate -- many of us do -- from Europe. I love Europe. I've spent a lot of time in Europe. It's a different place. Bad, bad things have happened to Europe. Very bad things. And you better do something about immigration and energy or you won't have a Europe"
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
I was just about to read a new paper about how good a range of different LLMs are at disagreeing / rejecting requests that are clearly not true, illilogical etc. The CliffNotes seems to be that Claude Code with Opus is quite a long way ahead and suggestion why people are having so many positive experiences because it actually will so no to you (or discount when humans are talking shit) compared to ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.
Farage has done lots of these videos for money, unless it emerges he clearly knew he was endorsing a far right event I suspect he cam brush it off
He brushed off one saying ‘up the Ra’, even when vehemently quizzed about it by Irish Tv so, of course he will.
I am puzzled it's being debated. It is quite literally a reheat of something from last year.
Sure, but there are elections are coming up, so worth reprising what a rentagob the old soak is.
As far as I could gather, The Guardian piece is claiming to be a comprehensive comb through of his entire Cameo history, including financials of each transaction and out-takes and off the cuff comments. I do recall the 'up the Ra' stuff from previous which could be dismissed as a mistake, but the knowingness in his repetition of phrases that he had previously demurred from may be new - I won't repeat not out of censorship but that I can't quite recall or do justice to the variations he did use. They are certainly claiming new videos in and amongst this and they may have background on the people who were asking for these things.
The summary, he knowingly sent messages providing neo-Nazi phrasing to neo-Nazi supporters, and if we did know that last year, then it flew too far under the radar and deserved rehashing.
This doesn't bother me tbh, I don't think Harry should have got the opprobrium he did either for his fancy dress back in the 90s. The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
Equating what Farage is doing to Harry's ill judged high jinks really doesn't cut it, and "outrage archaeology" for stuff Farage had been doing throughout THIS decade. Jeez, I actually have damaged small electrical equipment in my kitchen after reading that one and it has taken me an hour to reply with this level of restraint. I guess that's outrage - but tbh, I think it is an absolute outrage. I didn't think you were one that came from this angle, possibly without reading the source article?
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
Farage has done lots of these videos for money, unless it emerges he clearly knew he was endorsing a far right event I suspect he cam brush it off
He brushed off one saying ‘up the Ra’, even when vehemently quizzed about it by Irish Tv so, of course he will.
I am puzzled it's being debated. It is quite literally a reheat of something from last year.
Sure, but there are elections are coming up, so worth reprising what a rentagob the old soak is.
As far as I could gather, The Guardian piece is claiming to be a comprehensive comb through of his entire Cameo history, including financials of each transaction and out-takes and off the cuff comments. I do recall the 'up the Ra' stuff from previous which could be dismissed as a mistake, but the knowingness in his repetition of phrases that he had previously demurred from may be new - I won't repeat not out of censorship but that I can't quite recall or do justice to the variations he did use. They are certainly claiming new videos in and amongst this and they may have background on the people who were asking for these things.
The summary, he knowingly sent messages providing neo-Nazi phrasing to neo-Nazi supporters, and if we did know that last year, then it flew too far under the radar and deserved rehashing.
This doesn't bother me tbh, I don't think Harry should have got the opprobrium he did either for his fancy dress back in the 90s. The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
Equating what Farage is doing to Harry's ill judged high jinks really doesn't cut it, and "outrage archaeology" for stuff Farage had been doing throughout THIS decade. Jeez, I actually have damaged small electrical equipment in my kitchen after reading that one and it has taken me an hour to reply with this level of restraint. I guess that's outrage - but tbh, I think it is an absolute outrage. I didn't think you were one that came from this angle, possibly without reading the source article?
Seeing as the Guardian wants £4 to read said article, nope.
Trump: "I originate -- to put it nicely -- I originate -- many of us do -- from Europe. I love Europe. I've spent a lot of time in Europe. It's a different place. Bad, bad things have happened to Europe. Very bad things. And you better do something about immigration and energy or you won't have a Europe"
He's not wrong there, is he?
Is he talking about the Russian immigrants who are trying to settle in Ukraine perchance?
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
The obvious scam I would imagine would be the "chef" route. What is a cook vs chef is very difficult to define, what is a restaurant requiring highly skilled staff vs microwave heaters again difficult to tell on paper, and £40-50k a year for a highly qualified chef isn't out of the question. And of course if you do have a takeaway or restaurant, you put your new immigrant employee to work and on paper you might pay them the £40-50k a year but either never pay them or "charge" them £40k a year for food and board, equipment, clothing etc.
Trump: "Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Guess that is sorted then, decision made for western leaders that Trump doesn't need nor want their help. Like a toddler desperate for some toys then when he does not get the attention he wants throwing them out of his pram!
Farage has done lots of these videos for money, unless it emerges he clearly knew he was endorsing a far right event I suspect he cam brush it off
He brushed off one saying ‘up the Ra’, even when vehemently quizzed about it by Irish Tv so, of course he will.
I am puzzled it's being debated. It is quite literally a reheat of something from last year.
Sure, but there are elections are coming up, so worth reprising what a rentagob the old soak is.
As far as I could gather, The Guardian piece is claiming to be a comprehensive comb through of his entire Cameo history, including financials of each transaction and out-takes and off the cuff comments. I do recall the 'up the Ra' stuff from previous which could be dismissed as a mistake, but the knowingness in his repetition of phrases that he had previously demurred from may be new - I won't repeat not out of censorship but that I can't quite recall or do justice to the variations he did use. They are certainly claiming new videos in and amongst this and they may have background on the people who were asking for these things.
The summary, he knowingly sent messages providing neo-Nazi phrasing to neo-Nazi supporters, and if we did know that last year, then it flew too far under the radar and deserved rehashing.
This doesn't bother me tbh, I don't think Harry should have got the opprobrium he did either for his fancy dress back in the 90s. The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
Equating what Farage is doing to Harry's ill judged high jinks really doesn't cut it, and "outrage archaeology" for stuff Farage had been doing throughout THIS decade. Jeez, I actually have damaged small electrical equipment in my kitchen after reading that one and it has taken me an hour to reply with this level of restraint. I guess that's outrage - but tbh, I think it is an absolute outrage. I didn't think you were one that came from this angle, possibly without reading the source article?
Seeing as the Guardian wants £4 to read said article, nope.
What, more than the "You've read 42 articles this year, support our journalism" click through? I got straight in to it today.
I note that Yorkshire Live is now saying, to my great shame, that I've hit their article limit!
Trump: "Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Guess that is sorted then, decision made for western leaders that Trump doesn't need nor want their help. Like a toddler desperate for some toys then when he does not get the attention he wants throwing them out of his pram!
There is an actual paywall from the Gruadian thats news to me, pretty sure that isn't correct as their policy was they wouldn't go down that route. Its normally just the begging letter which can be disposed of.
Farage has done lots of these videos for money, unless it emerges he clearly knew he was endorsing a far right event I suspect he cam brush it off
He brushed off one saying ‘up the Ra’, even when vehemently quizzed about it by Irish Tv so, of course he will.
I am puzzled it's being debated. It is quite literally a reheat of something from last year.
Sure, but there are elections are coming up, so worth reprising what a rentagob the old soak is.
As far as I could gather, The Guardian piece is claiming to be a comprehensive comb through of his entire Cameo history, including financials of each transaction and out-takes and off the cuff comments. I do recall the 'up the Ra' stuff from previous which could be dismissed as a mistake, but the knowingness in his repetition of phrases that he had previously demurred from may be new - I won't repeat not out of censorship but that I can't quite recall or do justice to the variations he did use. They are certainly claiming new videos in and amongst this and they may have background on the people who were asking for these things.
The summary, he knowingly sent messages providing neo-Nazi phrasing to neo-Nazi supporters, and if we did know that last year, then it flew too far under the radar and deserved rehashing.
This doesn't bother me tbh, I don't think Harry should have got the opprobrium he did either for his fancy dress back in the 90s. The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
Equating what Farage is doing to Harry's ill judged high jinks really doesn't cut it, and "outrage archaeology" for stuff Farage had been doing throughout THIS decade. Jeez, I actually have damaged small electrical equipment in my kitchen after reading that one and it has taken me an hour to reply with this level of restraint. I guess that's outrage - but tbh, I think it is an absolute outrage. I didn't think you were one that came from this angle, possibly without reading the source article?
Seeing as the Guardian wants £4 to read said article, nope.
You might just be getting their subscriptions page as a pop up. You can probably get to the article proper after closing that.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
Don't need AI to make a mess of that. One company I had to book an engineer with had a bizarre system. Phone Customer Services to book appointment, but CS can only see engineer's diary not update it. CS has to email Engineer Dept to book your chosen date/time and by the time your email is read that space has probably gone. So they call you to fix an alternative.
Hi everyone, YouTuber and X influencer here. I make money by making and posting video content. Some of that revenue comes from sponsors who both pay my business to produce either a stand-alone review or sponsored segments to include in the main video. I also receive sales commission on products which are sold using my referral links.
Why is this relevant? Because I have turned down far more money from refused sponsors than I have made from contracted sponsors. If I don't like the product or the brand or the company I'm not doing it. I'm a performing monkey, but I choose for whom I will be performing.
Farage knows very well what he is doing. What he is saying. For whom. Why. So if he is shilling for neo-nazis its by choice.
He is the leader of what is billed as a moderately hard right party. If we give the benefit of the doubt and count that as his day job, it is absolutely critical to that v role to know where the line is.
And he doesn't.
He is shilling neo-nazis for the cash. In that respect, he is Trump, he is a cancer on our politics and he needs to be excised from it now before he shills for neo-nazis for grift as PM.
We saw where the parroting of neo-nazis nearly led after Southport, I've banged on about that a few times, but it triggered me to how evil some elements of the opposition were prepared to be to slur this Labour government, and there are some of the amateurs on here I've not forgiven on here for shilling for neo-nazis even unwittingly and at second or third hand.
I do not tolerate this stuff, Farage needs to go and this needs to be the thing on which his political career dies. No compromise.
Keir Starmer was happily a member - not just someone vaguely associated by video - of a Shadow Cabinet led by a traitorous, pro-IRA, pro-Sinn Fein, pro-Putin, pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-anyone-who-hates-Britain leader, Jezbollah Corbyn
Reeves - This government will make the UK the best place in the world for quantum and AI companies to start, scale and stay.
The lobbyists for Quantum computers have done a fantastic job for their clients. Government being sold a sinker again like the AI Skills Hub. LIterally no company has any revenue generating business with any real world applications from quantum computers yet and all the uses are still very much a pipe dream. All the claims from the likes of Google about progress and usefulness are very iffy. Certainly there isn't 100k jobs just sitting waiting to for people to be hired into.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
However well one designs (or enforces) rules, there will always be people who will seek loopholes. They will always exist and it's always a profitable business to find them. Or even to lie about having found them.
(That doesn't mean that simple rules, well enforced don't help, but the serpent will always try its luck.)
While Kemi major weakness is always going two footed into every challenge without any thought, I think it worth remembering most people have massively short memories and people move on e.g. if Starmer had been in charge during COVID, we might just now be coming out of lockdown.....most of his calls were totally wrong, we would have had just as much COVID fraud / money pissed up the wall (remember their dossier of all these companies should be given contracts and it was basically all chancers and fraudsters) and some right bonkers suggestions, but nobody really remembers or cares. Or look at the platform he stood on to become Labour leader and early couple of years, none of that is what he stood on at the GE, again nobody really cares.
Kemi's problem isn't going away, too rash, too quick to do the attack dog mode, too online, and not very smart. Plus super weak team around her.
Starmer played Covid well politically as LOTO. Recognised that the public didn't really want to hear from Labour on it, so didn't try to muscle in that much. Broadly supportive of the government, pitched himself just to the prudent side of where they were. It was a win v flat position in betting parlance.
That is some serious rewriting of history. By the time we got past the inital phase, he was classic of well you should go further and faster about every decision. Lockdown sooner, locker, harder, longer. Even post vaccination, he was very keen on zero covid BS. His calls for test every time you leave the house for any reason was particually nuts call, especially as we already had a problem with people overusing home testing kits multiple times a day. More money should be thrown at everything. And as soon as government messed anything up, well I wouldn't have done that.
You're exaggerating. He tended to place the Opposition to the cautious side of where the government were but not to a ludicrously extreme degree. This made sound political sense for two reasons. First it was where the majority of the public were. They were more scared of the virus than they were outraged by restrictions. Second, if death and illness numbers rose due to the government being too slow, too lax etc it would allow a vindicated 'told you so'. Otoh if they didn't, everybody happy anyway. Win v flat, like I say.
"The Johnson Variant"
Well he could hardly complain about cheap tacky attack lines.
No, but others can.
But not Johnson fans.
Anyone can. Sir Keir’s USP was grown up, non sleazy politics. It was obvious with that nonsense that he couldn’t do the first, and his Premiership so far proves he can’t do the second.
It was the equivalent of what people are criticising Kemi Badenoch now for, attacking the PM at a time of national importance to score a cheap point.
Reeves - This government will make the UK the best place in the world for quantum and AI companies to start, scale and stay.
The lobbyists for Quantum computers have done a fantastic job for their clients. Government being sold a sinker again like the AI Skills Hub. LIterally no company has any revenue generating business with any real world applications from quantum computers yet and all the uses are still very much a pipe dream. All the claims from the likes of Google about progress and usefulness are very iffy. Certainly there isn't 100k jobs just sitting waiting to for people to be hired into.
And luckily none of our top universities will be flogging 'Quantum - it's the future!' degrees to students for ££££ on the back of it. Otherwise it might look a bit... dodgy.
Farage is diminished by the fact he does cameos for , and the ones where he said ‘Up the RA’ and have condolences to Ian Watkins should see him off as far as being PM goes, but when he loses his rag it makes me warm to him! Very relatable
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
The obvious scam I would imagine would be the "chef" route. What is a cook vs chef is very difficult to define, what is a restaurant requiring highly skilled staff vs microwave heaters again difficult to tell on paper, and £40-50k a year for a highly qualified chef isn't out of the question. And of course if you do have a takeaway or restaurant, you put your new immigrant employee to work and on paper you might pay them the £40-50k a year but either never pay them or "charge" them £40k a year for food and board, equipment, clothing etc.
Most of it is nowhere near that sophisticated.
Remember that being caught is factored into these scams. The enforcement is so poor that they can last years, despite multiple people making allegations to the police etc. When they do get closed down, the classic is that the names on the company paperwork are all people who've had their IDs stolen (or rented).
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
There is an actual paywall from the Gruadian thats news to me, pretty sure that isn't correct as their policy was they wouldn't go down that route. Its normally just the begging letter which can be disposed of.
Not a total paywall. Only on iPad, and now maybe iPhone
But they are - painfully - inching towards the real thing. Years late. But inevitable
Reeves - This government will make the UK the best place in the world for quantum and AI companies to start, scale and stay.
The lobbyists for Quantum computers have done a fantastic job for their clients. Government being sold a sinker again like the AI Skills Hub. LIterally no company has any revenue generating business with any real world applications from quantum computers yet and all the uses are still very much a pipe dream. All the claims from the likes of Google about progress and usefulness are very iffy. Certainly there isn't 100k jobs just sitting waiting to for people to be hired into.
And luckily none of our top universities will be flogging 'Quantum - it's the future!' degrees to students for ££££ on the back of it. Otherwise it might look a bit... dodgy.
Do a Masters By Research in Quantum computing (even though we have no access to a Quantum computer). I can see it now.
Whilst getting appointments is still a bit of a lottery, our local GP has very recently taken on two new receptionists, Emma and Sofia. They are very pleasant and don't go on long lunch breaks or head off to pick up the kids at 3pm. In fact, I don't think they sleep at all...
The company that services my gas boiler now has an AI answering customer calls. It's quite amusing how much effort has gone in to masking that fact; the bot speaks in a distinct Glasgow accent and there are call centre noises in the background.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
Don't need AI to make a mess of that. One company I had to book an engineer with had a bizarre system. Phone Customer Services to book appointment, but CS can only see engineer's diary not update it. CS has to email Engineer Dept to book your chosen date/time and by the time your email is read that space has probably gone. So they call you to fix an alternative.
I think one of the mistakes people are making with the AI shizzle is to compare it to some sort of Platonic ideal of that perfect call centre call they never had, the absolutely amazing powerpoint slide deck they didn't quite have time to put together after they spent too long trying to find that background image they definitely downloaded last year - or was in 2022? - and can't find now, the absolutely perfect ...
If we compare it to a more realistic 'meh' then I think we'd get a more realistic appraisal of it's capabilities.
Shortly to be sponsored by Manscaped, NordVPN, AG1, Fume, Ground News....
...Squarespace, IONOS, Thomas Cook, War Thunder, CoPilot365, some stupid things about investing...
War Thunder must be absolutely raking it in given I don't think I can go a day without seeing that bloody thing and I don't play such games, never played such games, have no interest in playing such games....
Paul's Jihad is exterminating billions (61 billion, in fact) and extirpating forty major religions. Somehow, he's reconciled to Chani, so she will not, seemingly, become an antagonist after all. Alia is preaching to the Faithful. She is not God, but rather, God's Prophet. I'm not sure. I wonder if the blond-haired antagonist is Faraddn Corriono.
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
Wasn't the report today that the number of Romanians doing such courses has seen a big bump in recent years.
Then we have the Master by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
I'm out of touch - what do you mean?
The "Masters by Reserch" is a fiddle in two ways,
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
In related news, the next employment immigration scam is scaling up nicely.
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
The obvious scam I would imagine would be the "chef" route. What is a cook vs chef is very difficult to define, what is a restaurant requiring highly skilled staff vs microwave heaters again difficult to tell on paper, and £40-50k a year for a highly qualified chef isn't out of the question. And of course if you do have a takeaway or restaurant, you put your new immigrant employee to work and on paper you might pay them the £40-50k a year but either never pay them or "charge" them £40k a year for food and board, equipment, clothing etc.
Most of it is nowhere near that sophisticated.
Remember that being caught is factored into these scams. The enforcement is so poor that they can last years, despite multiple people making allegations to the police etc. When they do get closed down, the classic is that the names on the company paperwork are all people who've had their IDs stolen (or rented).
The 24/7 corner shoppie (that doesn't have any real stock) seems to be the new Turkish barbers / American Candy Store, but rather than just laundering money they will sell under the counter sell to anybody at any time of day or night staffed by people who we are talking about e,g, Birmingham 'Bob Shop'.
Comments
I would even apply that to the USA and Trump to a degree, they shouldn't worry in itself that a lot of the Western world dislikes Trump if they believe he will make them stronger, but he has rather pushed that idea beyond breaking point, in that it's not that he just doesn't care about allies, he's outright antagonistic and that has negative consequences.
Obviously, the Americans are not just going to leave Hormuz blocked so they will force it and escort tankers, the oil price will fall back and everyone will be happy.
The question is why, given they have such a powerful presence in the area, they didn't secure Hormuz on day one and why it's taken them so long.
I am writing to Mr Putin asking to have your wages docked!
Talk of “extra factories being built” levels of purchase.
They take all your details (Emma on the phone, Sofia on chat), note down all your symptoms (repeated back to you carefully) and leave a note for a GP or Practice Nurse to call you back. I expect they also prioritise cases.
They work surprisingly well. They key part is that someone does actually call back.
The actual meatbag receptionists are currently locking people out of the surgery between 1 and 2pm, despite elderly people turning up for appointments. I expect they are working to rule.
The digging hasn't been too deep here but I find all the outrage archaeology that goes on these days tiresome.
Crispin Odey ‘offered compliance chief £1m and top job’ after row
The hedge fund founder tried to keep Jack Satt on board by offering a seven-figure sum and the firm’s chief executive role, court told
Crispin Odey clashed with the outgoing head of compliance at his hedge fund and then offered him £1 million and the chance to become chief executive of the firm, a London court has been told.
Jack Satt said the offer in mid-2022, which he declined, came after an earlier conversation with Odey, 67, when the financier had asked Satt to support his application to the Financial Conduct Authority to be approved to act as a partner under the regulator’s senior manager rules.
In a written witness statement released on Tuesday as part of a legal battle in the Upper Tribunal between Odey and the authority, Satt said he had told Odey he would not support his application and that Satt “would not draw a conclusion on whether he was fit and proper”.
https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/crispin-odey-offered-compliance-chief-1m-and-top-job-after-row-5zsk6cmmr
Not only did you behave terribly poorly* with young female employees, but it appears you also tried to bribe your compliance head.
* That's a very nice way of me putting it
"Reports indicate clashes between security forces and citizens around Chaharbagh Square in Tehran. The sound of gunfire can be heard", according to activist Ilia Hashemi
They've had to put an actual human voice at the beginning of the interactions with Emma, because I'd bet that half the callers didn't realise it was a bot for quite some time.
I knew straight away because a real receptionist wouldn't give a name, despite the voice being very good.
That's the way you do it
Money for nothing
And your vids for free
https://www.quantumloopai.com/
On the other hand, our fixed costs remain the same.
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/2033934038407209443?s=20
Shortly to be sponsored by Manscaped, NordVPN, AG1, Fume, Ground News....
One in ten new university students do not have a single A-level
Vice-chancellor warns that poorly qualified undergraduates are unlikely to pass their degrees yet benefit from taxpayer investment in the form of student loans
Almost one in ten university freshers do not have a single A-level or equivalent, official figures show.
The numbers have more than doubled in a decade, from 31,000 — or 5 per cent of the intake — in 2014-15 to 75,000 — 9 per cent — in the academic year 2024-25.
Of those, 50,000 students did not have a GCSE or equivalent, up from 12,000 ten years before.
The figures, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, cover undergraduates and postgraduates, part and full-time students and those studying at the Open University.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/a-levels-university-students-z76bnsj8t
Then we have the Masters by Research scam that is nowing taking off....
Later, however, when Goldman was sued and I was a peripheral witness in a case, I discovered one of his employees conspiring with the management of Lernout & Hauspie to get me fired for being negative on their accounting policies.
a) because its supposedly research the clamp down the government introduced on bringing your family if you are an international student doesn't apply so backdoor dodgy immigrantion,
and b) (not all but many) because its "research" there isn't any teaching, its a way some shitty universities can run a course which cost them basically nothing but charge masters fees (and crucially most don't come with any sort of research body funding, so you aren't supported like you would doing a PhD level research). There has been a big explosion among some universities that have no reputation at all for doing research.
They are sold as a stepping stone to getting onto a PhD programme, but in fact when I talk to a lot of academics at top tier institutions they not impressed at all, in fact many have a negative take i.e. if you were really good, you wouldn't mess around with that. A lot of very dodgy named MRes where people will spend a year writing some extended project of dubious quality.
I tried to use it to book a service, when seemed to go well. Until the engineer didn't actually turn up. When I phoned to complain the bot put me through to a human who, when I explained the situation, let out a deep sigh and asked if it was the AI that booked the appointment. Apparently it is prone to just agreeing to any day and time the customer requests, even if there are no engineer available then.
The summary, he knowingly sent messages providing neo-Nazi phrasing to neo-Nazi supporters, and if we did know that last year, then it flew too far under the radar and deserved rehashing.
Equating what Farage is doing to Harry's ill judged high jinks really doesn't cut it, and "outrage archaeology" for stuff Farage had been doing throughout THIS decade. Jeez, I actually have damaged small electrical equipment in my kitchen after reading that one and it has taken me an hour to reply with this level of restraint. I guess that's outrage - but tbh, I think it is an absolute outrage. I didn't think you were one that came from this angle, possibly without reading the source article?
Some here may remember the Government closing the scheme for care homes to recruit abroad. Amid wailing form the usual suspects as to "But who will wipe bottoms?". In the case of that program, the answer was no-one, since nearly no-one who bought* a work visa from the care homes ended up working in a care home.
Well, it seems that the same kind of people have gone to work in other parts of the immigration work visas. The new(er) scam is to invent a non-existent job that pays well above whatever wage level the government sets as a minimum. So a visa is sold. Some of the poor dupes arrive and expect a job.
Apparently the Indian government ic complaining about its nationals getting fleeced, by this crap. Just as with the care home visa story.
*Yes, buying a work visa like this is illegal.
I note that Yorkshire Live is now saying, to my great shame, that I've hit their article limit!
So your point is..... what??
The lobbyists for Quantum computers have done a fantastic job for their clients. Government being sold a sinker again like the AI Skills Hub. LIterally no company has any revenue generating business with any real world applications from quantum computers yet and all the uses are still very much a pipe dream. All the claims from the likes of Google about progress and usefulness are very iffy. Certainly there isn't 100k jobs just sitting waiting to for people to be hired into.
(That doesn't mean that simple rules, well enforced don't help, but the serpent will always try its luck.)
It was the equivalent of what people are criticising Kemi Badenoch now for, attacking the PM at a time of national importance to score a cheap point.
Remember that being caught is factored into these scams. The enforcement is so poor that they can last years, despite multiple people making allegations to the police etc. When they do get closed down, the classic is that the names on the company paperwork are all people who've had their IDs stolen (or rented).
But they are - painfully - inching towards the real thing. Years late. But inevitable
If we compare it to a more realistic 'meh' then I think we'd get a more realistic appraisal of it's capabilities.