Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Tony @TonyB_1997 · 4h I would have assumed you would celebrate white eggs getting prioritised over brown.
Brown eggs banned in store's tells you everything you need to know about Tice. A shocking rogue apostrophe. Not fit for public office. (And yes, that's in his Tweet).
In all the hysteria and the Sainsbury's spin on carbon footprint is being missed the real motive. The eggs have a lower carbon footprint because the hens need less feed... White eggs are cheaper to produce that's why Sainsburys are selling white eggs.
It's like when a hotel has a notice saying they're not going to wash your towels during your stay because of the climate...
I am currently in a hotel where not only no change of towels, "to save the planet" they don't even come and clean your room during your stay unless you request it, and its costing me a mere £250 a night and in this hotel for a week....absolute piss take.
In many hotels, especially cheap ones, asking for housekeeping at the desk is now a standard post-breakfast task to remember now.
Coming back to a clean room after being out all day on holiday is one of life's little pleasures.
Started during covid, then was laundered into "staff shortages". Now just expected.
At £250 a night, I don't expect to have to ask. Also apparently I have to ask today to get housekeeping tomorrow....
My experience of Asia they have it right, at least when you spend reasonable amount of money. The hotels I stayed in China for £150 a night were absolutely top notch from the rooms to the service. They couldn't do enough for you and of course being Asia, no bloody tipping like the States. Even a £70 / night one at a airport in China, I had my own fully equipped appartment.
Over the years I've stayed (not often) in some impressive hotels. In the eighties I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria at $185 a night and I have stayed in the New Otani in Tokyo, but enough of that. At £152 a night for the Premier Inn at Rhyddlan, I 'd rather save my money and sleep in the car.
So much for Sir Lenny Henry claiming ‘everything premier but the price’
They've been doing very well recently, which makes the lack of housekeeping even more galling.
Plenty of £25 - £75 rooms available at Travelodge if you're flexible on dates and location:
Was it 25 for pitching up in someone elses room and £75 for your own?
Hah!
Newcastle Central this Sunday, £12.50 each for two sharing.
I can remember when I was working in Peterborough getting the Eye and Alwalton Travelodges for £9 a room. Alwalton was a tip. An old hotel on a main road. But the Eye one was okay.
Racism against non-white people has been ingrained in society and institutions for a long time. Have attempts to address this sometimes led to overcorrective behaviour? Doubtless they have. But the idea we have created a pervasive anti-white racism that can be viewed in the same light as the problem we are trying to combat is a nonsense. All it really shows, believing that, is a lack of appreciation for the scale and nature and importance of the underlying issue - the fight for racial equality.
The pendulum has now swung too far the other way.
Martin Luther King was right, that we should see people as people and not see race everywhere.
Hardly a pendulum. That would imply a white person in England now suffers similar levels of discrimination to a black person before all this civil rights malarky kicked off. I'll do you the service of not ascribing that absurd view to you and assume you're simply expressing the admirable sentiment that skin colour should not impact how a person is treated.
That's not a logical argument.
If in the past there was strong anti-black* racism, then the pendulum of politics swung and now there is mild anti-white* racism, it's not a valid argument to say that it isn't a pendulum swing. All that argument says is that is the pendulum hasn't reached the end of the anti-white stroke yet. It's also possible for a pendulum to be stopped swinging if someone grabs hold of it!
And yes, skin colour should not alter how a person is treated one iota, hence why all the stuff discriminating in favour of minorities is so egregiously wrong.
* this isn't about skin colour anyway, it's more about cultural background.
There is still lots of anti-black racism and very little anti-white racism. Claims of anti-white racism come from the radical right in the US who are whipping up sentiment among people who object to being less racist than they used to be.
Shall I tell you the biggest hidden racism in the UK
In work progression, in life, in culture
Endemic
Thats regional accent Apartheid.
Pigeon holed by your accent and assumption of intelegence.
One if the biggest culprits and instigator were Pathe News and the BBC.
That is absolutely true. I hadn't made the connection between Brummies being considered as thick as mince and Benny from Crossroads and Barry from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Tony @TonyB_1997 · 4h I would have assumed you would celebrate white eggs getting prioritised over brown.
Brown eggs banned in store's tells you everything you need to know about Tice. A shocking rogue apostrophe. Not fit for public office. (And yes, that's in his Tweet).
In all the hysteria and the Sainsbury's spin on carbon footprint is being missed the real motive. The eggs have a lower carbon footprint because the hens need less feed... White eggs are cheaper to produce that's why Sainsburys are selling white eggs.
It's like when a hotel has a notice saying they're not going to wash your towels during your stay because of the climate...
I am currently in a hotel where not only no change of towels, "to save the planet" they don't even come and clean your room during your stay unless you request it, and its costing me a mere £250 a night and in this hotel for a week....absolute piss take.
In many hotels, especially cheap ones, asking for housekeeping at the desk is now a standard post-breakfast task to remember now.
Coming back to a clean room after being out all day on holiday is one of life's little pleasures.
Started during covid, then was laundered into "staff shortages". Now just expected.
At £250 a night, I don't expect to have to ask. Also apparently I have to ask today to get housekeeping tomorrow....
My experience of Asia they have it right, at least when you spend reasonable amount of money. The hotels I stayed in China for £150 a night were absolutely top notch from the rooms to the service. They couldn't do enough for you and of course being Asia, no bloody tipping like the States. Even a £70 / night one at a airport in China, I had my own fully equipped appartment.
Over the years I've stayed (not often) in some impressive hotels. In the eighties I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria at $185 a night and I have stayed in the New Otani in Tokyo, but enough of that. At £152 a night for the Premier Inn at Rhyddlan, I 'd rather save my money and sleep in the car.
So much for Sir Lenny Henry claiming ‘everything premier but the price’
Hotels are expensive these days. If you want cheap it'll have to be a B&B. Premier Inn is the best mid-range hotel and is reliably better than say Leonardo and TravelLodge, but is not cheap.
I prefer Holiday Inn Express with a "free" breakfast, even if GBNews is playing in the breakfast room.
That sounds like the modern equivalent of enhanced interrogation techniques so beloved by the US.
On the upside, when you are being waterboarded in a black site, you can really irritate your interrogators by being entire unconcerned.
Tony @TonyB_1997 · 4h I would have assumed you would celebrate white eggs getting prioritised over brown.
Brown eggs banned in store's tells you everything you need to know about Tice. A shocking rogue apostrophe. Not fit for public office. (And yes, that's in his Tweet).
In all the hysteria and the Sainsbury's spin on carbon footprint is being missed the real motive. The eggs have a lower carbon footprint because the hens need less feed... White eggs are cheaper to produce that's why Sainsburys are selling white eggs.
It's like when a hotel has a notice saying they're not going to wash your towels during your stay because of the climate...
I am currently in a hotel where not only no change of towels, "to save the planet" they don't even come and clean your room during your stay unless you request it, and its costing me a mere £250 a night and in this hotel for a week....absolute piss take.
In many hotels, especially cheap ones, asking for housekeeping at the desk is now a standard post-breakfast task to remember now.
Coming back to a clean room after being out all day on holiday is one of life's little pleasures.
Started during covid, then was laundered into "staff shortages". Now just expected.
At £250 a night, I don't expect to have to ask. Also apparently I have to ask today to get housekeeping tomorrow....
My experience of Asia they have it right, at least when you spend reasonable amount of money. The hotels I stayed in China for £150 a night were absolutely top notch from the rooms to the service. They couldn't do enough for you and of course being Asia, no bloody tipping like the States. Even a £70 / night one at a airport in China, I had my own fully equipped appartment.
Over the years I've stayed (not often) in some impressive hotels. In the eighties I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria at $185 a night and I have stayed in the New Otani in Tokyo, but enough of that. At £152 a night for the Premier Inn at Rhyddlan, I 'd rather save my money and sleep in the car.
Should have gone here (£38.30, breakfast included):
A Dewsbury Lock-In: A Night in Britain’s Most Run-Down Town This destination guide recalls my unexpectedly enjoyable visit to Dewsbury, one of Britain’s most run-down towns. https://paliparan.com/2026/06/03/dewsbury-visit/
Tony @TonyB_1997 · 4h I would have assumed you would celebrate white eggs getting prioritised over brown.
Brown eggs banned in store's tells you everything you need to know about Tice. A shocking rogue apostrophe. Not fit for public office. (And yes, that's in his Tweet).
In all the hysteria and the Sainsbury's spin on carbon footprint is being missed the real motive. The eggs have a lower carbon footprint because the hens need less feed... White eggs are cheaper to produce that's why Sainsburys are selling white eggs.
It's like when a hotel has a notice saying they're not going to wash your towels during your stay because of the climate...
I am currently in a hotel where not only no change of towels, "to save the planet" they don't even come and clean your room during your stay unless you request it, and its costing me a mere £250 a night and in this hotel for a week....absolute piss take.
In many hotels, especially cheap ones, asking for housekeeping at the desk is now a standard post-breakfast task to remember now.
Coming back to a clean room after being out all day on holiday is one of life's little pleasures.
Started during covid, then was laundered into "staff shortages". Now just expected.
At £250 a night, I don't expect to have to ask. Also apparently I have to ask today to get housekeeping tomorrow....
My experience of Asia they have it right, at least when you spend reasonable amount of money. The hotels I stayed in China for £150 a night were absolutely top notch from the rooms to the service. They couldn't do enough for you and of course being Asia, no bloody tipping like the States. Even a £70 / night one at a airport in China, I had my own fully equipped appartment.
Over the years I've stayed (not often) in some impressive hotels. In the eighties I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria at $185 a night and I have stayed in the New Otani in Tokyo, but enough of that. At £152 a night for the Premier Inn at Rhyddlan, I 'd rather save my money and sleep in the car.
So much for Sir Lenny Henry claiming ‘everything premier but the price’
Hotels are expensive these days. If you want cheap it'll have to be a B&B. Premier Inn is the best mid-range hotel and is reliably better than say Leonardo and TravelLodge, but is not cheap.
I prefer Holiday Inn Express with a "free" breakfast, even if GBNews is playing in the breakfast room.
That sounds like the modern equivalent of enhanced interrogation techniques so beloved by the US.
I suspect it's a corporate thing to prevent residents from staying long enough to consider breakfast second helpings. Michelle Dewberry and an extra sausage or vacate as soon as possible?
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Fencing swords haven't been sharpened for decades. Every foil has a squareish blunt tip, with a button on the end. Sabre blades are made with edges so smooth that they struggle to slash anything more solid than air.
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
Racism against non-white people has been ingrained in society and institutions for a long time. Have attempts to address this sometimes led to overcorrective behaviour? Doubtless they have. But the idea we have created a pervasive anti-white racism that can be viewed in the same light as the problem we are trying to combat is a nonsense. All it really shows, believing that, is a lack of appreciation for the scale and nature and importance of the underlying issue - the fight for racial equality.
The pendulum has now swung too far the other way.
Martin Luther King was right, that we should see people as people and not see race everywhere.
Hardly a pendulum. That would imply a white person in England now suffers similar levels of discrimination to a black person before all this civil rights malarky kicked off. I'll do you the service of not ascribing that absurd view to you and assume you're simply expressing the admirable sentiment that skin colour should not impact how a person is treated.
That's not a logical argument.
If in the past there was strong anti-black* racism, then the pendulum of politics swung and now there is mild anti-white* racism, it's not a valid argument to say that it isn't a pendulum swing. All that argument says is that is the pendulum hasn't reached the end of the anti-white stroke yet. It's also possible for a pendulum to be stopped swinging if someone grabs hold of it!
And yes, skin colour should not alter how a person is treated one iota, hence why all the stuff discriminating in favour of minorities is so egregiously wrong.
* this isn't about skin colour anyway, it's more about cultural background.
The stats, though, do not support that. Black suspects convicted receive heavier penalties than white suspects coinvicted for the same offences.
The evidence is out there, and white privilege is consistently a real thing.
There is a reason why Farage is a shouty, finger-jappy ranta-lotta who keeps changing the issue. That is because his case consists of leaning towers of BS built on an anecdote or small numbers of incidents, and he needs to prevent his supporters from finding out or they might start acting rationally and vote for somebody else. It is also why he focuses on outrage marketing.
Measures to mitigate that are reasonable. We can argue about specifics, but the principle is sound.
Racism against non-white people has been ingrained in society and institutions for a long time. Have attempts to address this sometimes led to overcorrective behaviour? Doubtless they have. But the idea we have created a pervasive anti-white racism that can be viewed in the same light as the problem we are trying to combat is a nonsense. All it really shows, believing that, is a lack of appreciation for the scale and nature and importance of the underlying issue - the fight for racial equality.
The pendulum has now swung too far the other way.
Martin Luther King was right, that we should see people as people and not see race everywhere.
Hardly a pendulum. That would imply a white person in England now suffers similar levels of discrimination to a black person before all this civil rights malarky kicked off. I'll do you the service of not ascribing that absurd view to you and assume you're simply expressing the admirable sentiment that skin colour should not impact how a person is treated.
That's not a logical argument.
If in the past there was strong anti-black* racism, then the pendulum of politics swung and now there is mild anti-white* racism, it's not a valid argument to say that it isn't a pendulum swing. All that argument says is that is the pendulum hasn't reached the end of the anti-white stroke yet. It's also possible for a pendulum to be stopped swinging if someone grabs hold of it!
And yes, skin colour should not alter how a person is treated one iota, hence why all the stuff discriminating in favour of minorities is so egregiously wrong.
* this isn't about skin colour anyway, it's more about cultural background.
There is still lots of anti-black racism and very little anti-white racism. Claims of anti-white racism come from the radical right in the US who are whipping up sentiment among people who object to being less racist than they used to be.
Shall I tell you the biggest hidden racism in the UK
In work progression, in life, in culture
Endemic
Thats regional accent Apartheid.
Pigeon holed by your accent and assumption of intelegence.
One if the biggest culprits and instigator were Pathe News and the BBC.
You’re not wrong there
Brummie and especially yam yam accents are somewhat looked down on
We’re thought of as being a denser version of Barry from Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Benny from Crossroads is the other one.
The yam yams suffer more I think.
I dunno. South Birmingham is the worst of all. I thought we all sounded like James Mason until I moved away and everyone laughed.
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Fencing swords haven't been sharpened for decades. Every foil has a squareish blunt tip, with a button on the end. Sabre blades are made with edges so smooth that they struggle to slash anything more solid than air.
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
It’s my understanding that some sects of Sikhism point to the original reason for the Kirpan - that it needs to be, in their view, a functional weapon.
Just the other day, someone here got upset because a couple of my Scottish relatives have non-functional sgian dubhs to stick in their socks. Apparently non-functionality for those is a Bad Thing.
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Fencing swords haven't been sharpened for decades. Every foil has a squareish blunt tip, with a button on the end. Sabre blades are made with edges so smooth that they struggle to slash anything more solid than air.
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
I agree, though esoterically literalist interpretations of "symbolic" may differ.
The technical debates around the precise meaning of "stunned" in ritual slaughter are similar.
In a less contentious debate, you can get a sense of it by trying to pin down a Roman Catholic priest on the meaning of how the Communion elements become the actual body and blood of Christ. I tried once when I was at University practising "understand before evaluating before deciding whether to accept" and experienced a whole new vocabulary.
Or you could have a journalistic conversation with Popgun Pete Hegseth about the meaning of "ceasefire" and "their forces are obliterated" !
Racism against non-white people has been ingrained in society and institutions for a long time. Have attempts to address this sometimes led to overcorrective behaviour? Doubtless they have. But the idea we have created a pervasive anti-white racism that can be viewed in the same light as the problem we are trying to combat is a nonsense. All it really shows, believing that, is a lack of appreciation for the scale and nature and importance of the underlying issue - the fight for racial equality.
The pendulum has now swung too far the other way.
Martin Luther King was right, that we should see people as people and not see race everywhere.
Hardly a pendulum. That would imply a white person in England now suffers similar levels of discrimination to a black person before all this civil rights malarky kicked off. I'll do you the service of not ascribing that absurd view to you and assume you're simply expressing the admirable sentiment that skin colour should not impact how a person is treated.
That's not a logical argument.
If in the past there was strong anti-black* racism, then the pendulum of politics swung and now there is mild anti-white* racism, it's not a valid argument to say that it isn't a pendulum swing. All that argument says is that is the pendulum hasn't reached the end of the anti-white stroke yet. It's also possible for a pendulum to be stopped swinging if someone grabs hold of it!
And yes, skin colour should not alter how a person is treated one iota, hence why all the stuff discriminating in favour of minorities is so egregiously wrong.
* this isn't about skin colour anyway, it's more about cultural background.
There is still lots of anti-black racism and very little anti-white racism. Claims of anti-white racism come from the radical right in the US who are whipping up sentiment among people who object to being less racist than they used to be.
Shall I tell you the biggest hidden racism in the UK
In work progression, in life, in culture
Endemic
Thats regional accent Apartheid.
Pigeon holed by your accent and assumption of intelegence.
One if the biggest culprits and instigator were Pathe News and the BBC.
You’re not wrong there
Brummie and especially yam yam accents are somewhat looked down on
We’re thought of as being a denser version of Barry from Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Benny from Crossroads is the other one.
The yam yams suffer more I think.
I dunno. South Birmingham is the worst of all. I thought we all sounded like James Mason until I moved away and everyone laughed.
Tony @TonyB_1997 · 4h I would have assumed you would celebrate white eggs getting prioritised over brown.
Brown eggs banned in store's tells you everything you need to know about Tice. A shocking rogue apostrophe. Not fit for public office. (And yes, that's in his Tweet).
In all the hysteria and the Sainsbury's spin on carbon footprint is being missed the real motive. The eggs have a lower carbon footprint because the hens need less feed... White eggs are cheaper to produce that's why Sainsburys are selling white eggs.
It's like when a hotel has a notice saying they're not going to wash your towels during your stay because of the climate...
I am currently in a hotel where not only no change of towels, "to save the planet" they don't even come and clean your room during your stay unless you request it, and its costing me a mere £250 a night and in this hotel for a week....absolute piss take.
In many hotels, especially cheap ones, asking for housekeeping at the desk is now a standard post-breakfast task to remember now.
Coming back to a clean room after being out all day on holiday is one of life's little pleasures.
Started during covid, then was laundered into "staff shortages". Now just expected.
At £250 a night, I don't expect to have to ask. Also apparently I have to ask today to get housekeeping tomorrow....
My experience of Asia they have it right, at least when you spend reasonable amount of money. The hotels I stayed in China for £150 a night were absolutely top notch from the rooms to the service. They couldn't do enough for you and of course being Asia, no bloody tipping like the States. Even a £70 / night one at a airport in China, I had my own fully equipped appartment.
Over the years I've stayed (not often) in some impressive hotels. In the eighties I stayed in the Waldorf Astoria at $185 a night and I have stayed in the New Otani in Tokyo, but enough of that. At £152 a night for the Premier Inn at Rhyddlan, I 'd rather save my money and sleep in the car.
Should have gone here (£38.30, breakfast included):
A Dewsbury Lock-In: A Night in Britain’s Most Run-Down Town This destination guide recalls my unexpectedly enjoyable visit to Dewsbury, one of Britain’s most run-down towns. https://paliparan.com/2026/06/03/dewsbury-visit/
In the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s I worked for a company in Bradford called Tanks and Drums. When I started there I used to stay at the THF Hotel by Bradford Exchange Station, then over the years we were put into the Guide Post which was OK, then a pub in Queensbury and finally in a pub in a pit village called Kinsley, where they had a subsidiary, which was £12 a night, and not good value for money. The restaurant was quite pleasant and one of our number commented so. "Shame no one around here can use a knife and fork" came the reply from the waiter.
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Fencing swords haven't been sharpened for decades. Every foil has a squareish blunt tip, with a button on the end. Sabre blades are made with edges so smooth that they struggle to slash anything more solid than air.
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
Actually as a PS, there is also the issue of the "point".
Early bayonets (eg American war of independence) were often triangular in cross section, and were stabbing not cutting weapons.
Equally, proposals for "safe kitchen knives" involve rounded ends, and make things like killing lobsters or gutting fish difficult.
Stephen Bush in the FT argues that the Nowak case demonstrates a problem with how the police treat suspects, and it's not about ethnicity:
If you make a 999 call, as Vikrum Digwa’s brother did, the information you give will be treated as the base case by police officers when they arrive at the scene — regardless of your ethnicity. Nowak’s murder, and the vile lies that Digwa told in a failed attempt to get away with his crime, is not usefully understood with reference to debates about either the policy response to the Metropolitan Police’s failure to catch the killers of Stephen Lawrence, or with police-wide or societal responses to Black Lives Matter from 2020.
Nowak’s treatment in his final moments is the typical way that suspects — which Nowak became the moment that Digwa’s brother placed that 999 call — are treated by police. This is all too familiar with anyone who follows the work of the charity Inquest — which works with bereaved families following deaths involving the state — or the reports from the Independent Office of Police Conduct. As I said yesterday, if you want to learn the lessons from this specific case, then you need to focus on the treatment of suspects full stop.
He then goes to separately suggest that some targets to reduce racism are poorly thought out and stats need to be interpreted with care, e.g. "aiming to eliminate ethnic disparities when the total numbers are incredibly small is not a good way to combat racism".
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Stephen Bush in the FT argues that the Nowak case demonstrates a problem with how the police treat suspects, and it's not about ethnicity:
If you make a 999 call, as Vikrum Digwa’s brother did, the information you give will be treated as the base case by police officers when they arrive at the scene — regardless of your ethnicity. Nowak’s murder, and the vile lies that Digwa told in a failed attempt to get away with his crime, is not usefully understood with reference to debates about either the policy response to the Metropolitan Police’s failure to catch the killers of Stephen Lawrence, or with police-wide or societal responses to Black Lives Matter from 2020.
Nowak’s treatment in his final moments is the typical way that suspects — which Nowak became the moment that Digwa’s brother placed that 999 call — are treated by police. This is all too familiar with anyone who follows the work of the charity Inquest — which works with bereaved families following deaths involving the state — or the reports from the Independent Office of Police Conduct. As I said yesterday, if you want to learn the lessons from this specific case, then you need to focus on the treatment of suspects full stop.
He then goes to separately suggest that some targets to reduce racism are poorly thought out and stats need to be interpreted with care, e.g. "aiming to eliminate ethnic disparities when the total numbers are incredibly small is not a good way to combat racism".
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
Fencing swords haven't been sharpened for decades. Every foil has a squareish blunt tip, with a button on the end. Sabre blades are made with edges so smooth that they struggle to slash anything more solid than air.
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
It’s my understanding that some sects of Sikhism point to the original reason for the Kirpan - that it needs to be, in their view, a functional weapon.
Just the other day, someone here got upset because a couple of my Scottish relatives have non-functional sgian dubhs to stick in their socks. Apparently non-functionality for those is a Bad Thing.
I'd like to hear from one of our Scottish experts.
I am told that a beer-bottle opener is much preferred, since in 2026 the desire to open up beer comes before the desire to open up an Englishman.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
It's been downhill ever since Italia 90. Perhaps like everything else.
No apology for the Law introducrd by the Tories in 2022.
Apart from that she has clearly handled the matter far better than Farage. May be he should get her scriptwriter to defect
These must be difficult days for you
For those of us not of a Conservative flavour, Kemi Badenoch surviving as LOTO into the next General Election creates rather a warm feeling in the heart.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
It's been downhill ever since Italia 90. Perhaps like everything else.
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Size of hens are smaller and use up less resources. Heard it on WATO. Lady Brook was banging on about the eggs being smaller, but apparently not necessarily bso. It all depends on the breed of hen.
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Whie eggs and brown eggs come from different breeds of chicken. The taste and nutritional value are the same but white laying hens live longer and eat less, hence the carbon and presumably financial benefit.
Andrei Bezrukov, a political analyst and adviser to Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia should prepare for a prolonged war lasting "the next two decades."
"We need to learn to live with this war. This doesn't mean we have to stop everything and cease developing the economy," said Bezrukov, a retired colonel in Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.
"On the contrary — we need to build our state system and economy in such a way that it fulfils not only the task of development, but also the task of defense."
You only have to prepare for a war lasting decades if you cannot win it in years, let alone months or days. I take this as a sign of Russia adjusting to the reality of not being able to win the war against Ukraine. Once they accept that they can't win, it surely won't be long until they realise that the longer the war goes on the worse things get for them, and then they will be eager to agree to a ceasefire on the current front line.
But will Putin be able to admit to the failure of his war?
The Ukrainians have absolutely no incentive to freeze the lines in their current positions. It seems they currently have fire control over the roads that supply Crimea & the western part of the Ukrainian land that Russia holds - if they can maintain that, then a collapse of the front in the west is entirely possible. Why would they freeze the front now?
The enemy always gets a say of course & it’s entirely possible that Russia will find a way to adapt & reinforce Crimea & the west but right now the advantage appears to lie with Ukraine.
Yep. The Ukrainians' next move should be offering to take the surrender of the Crimea garrison. They can even offer to drive them over the Kersh Bridge in buses. (They can't be allowed to leave on their own - or they'd take every flushing toilet in the place).
Then when the last bus is safely back - dynamite the bloody thing. As the world press watches.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
FIFA + Donald Trump = Godawful Mess
I'd avoid it entirely if I wasn't into football and therefore can't. He has the Olympics too in 28 and that could be even worse.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
FIFA + Donald Trump = Godawful Mess
I'd avoid it entirely if I wasn't into football and therefore can't. He has the Olympics too in 28 and that could be even worse.
What have we done to deserve this? Beats me.
One can only imagine the jingoism on steroids that the 2028 Olympics will serve up!
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
FIFA + Donald Trump = Godawful Mess
I'd avoid it entirely if I wasn't into football and therefore can't. He has the Olympics too in 28 and that could be even worse.
What have we done to deserve this? Beats me.
Shirley, what the world needs is that Donald Trump is bribed in crypto currency to step down as US president and become chairman of FIFA.
That was he can do Byzantine corruption, absurd nepotism etc all he likes without breaking anything valuable. At least, more than it was broken already.
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Went on Bloomberg - Anthropic and OpenAI are dangerous and unsustainable companies that shouldn’t IPO. The AI bubble is a con and retail investors are the marks. AI doesn’t have ROI, it’s nothing like AWS/Uber, and it’s got no post-bubble recovery story. https://x.com/edzitron/status/2061940946095292688
I'm not sure I agree with his "there's no post-bubble future" claim (some survivors will be huge businesses in the future), but I'd agree it is likely a very large valuation bubble indeed.
Went on Bloomberg - Anthropic and OpenAI are dangerous and unsustainable companies that shouldn’t IPO. The AI bubble is a con and retail investors are the marks. AI doesn’t have ROI, it’s nothing like AWS/Uber, and it’s got no post-bubble recovery story. https://x.com/edzitron/status/2061940946095292688
I'm not sure I agree with his "there's no post-bubble future" claim (some survivors will be huge businesses in the future), but I'd agree it is likely a very large valuation bubble indeed.
Given that people can run the existing models on local machines to do useful work, there is some value in the AI space.
The question is how much performance actually costs. How much do the bleeding edge models cost, when run in data centres?
We are seeing a steady upward pressure in pricing of the online models. Most presume that this is an attempt to pivot towards profitability.
What I expect to happen is that a cascade/collapse will occur - think dot.com. A few big players and some smaller ones will offer stuff the other side.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
FIFA + Donald Trump = Godawful Mess
I'd avoid it entirely if I wasn't into football and therefore can't. He has the Olympics too in 28 and that could be even worse.
What have we done to deserve this? Beats me.
The western world is over obsessed by all things American, probably due to the influence of the entertainment industry. It is also over obsessed by football. The combination makes a football tournament in the USA an unprecedented opportunity for corruption on a grand scale when both the USA and FIFA are run by corrupt grifters.
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Whie eggs and brown eggs come from different breeds of chicken. The taste and nutritional value are the same but white laying hens live longer and eat less, hence the carbon and presumably financial benefit.
I believe white eggs are the norm in the USA.
I'm geninely puzzled by the fuss about this. Sainsbury's have never offered any choice of egg colour previously in their own brand eggs. Nor do Tesco. In my adult life until recently they've always been brown. A few times in the last few months I have been surprised to get white eggs from Tesco. So what?
So what is the difference between white eggs and brown? Why are they different and do they taste different? I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
Whie eggs and brown eggs come from different breeds of chicken. The taste and nutritional value are the same but white laying hens live longer and eat less, hence the carbon and presumably financial benefit.
I believe white eggs are the norm in the USA.
They don’t live longer according to this chicken breeder.
Went on Bloomberg - Anthropic and OpenAI are dangerous and unsustainable companies that shouldn’t IPO. The AI bubble is a con and retail investors are the marks. AI doesn’t have ROI, it’s nothing like AWS/Uber, and it’s got no post-bubble recovery story. https://x.com/edzitron/status/2061940946095292688
I'm not sure I agree with his "there's no post-bubble future" claim (some survivors will be huge businesses in the future), but I'd agree it is likely a very large valuation bubble indeed.
It will be like the dotcom bubble. Plenty of losers but the winners do really well.
In the US, bird flu was a serious problem in recent years. As I understand it, chickens would catch it from wild birds, so free range chickens are at greater risk, and, of course, there is the risk from predators, too.
(So I buy eggs from "cage free", but not "free range", chickens.)
Went on Bloomberg - Anthropic and OpenAI are dangerous and unsustainable companies that shouldn’t IPO. The AI bubble is a con and retail investors are the marks. AI doesn’t have ROI, it’s nothing like AWS/Uber, and it’s got no post-bubble recovery story. https://x.com/edzitron/status/2061940946095292688
I'm not sure I agree with his "there's no post-bubble future" claim (some survivors will be huge businesses in the future), but I'd agree it is likely a very large valuation bubble indeed.
I don't think anyone has a clue as to the size of the final business once customers are paying the real price for tokens. That business could well be far smaller than the 2.5 trillion the 3 firms involved Anthropic, OpenAI (and a small part) of SpaceX are valued at...
Here's a thought about Keir Starmer: Suppose he knew that economies were better in the US states where labor unions were weak, than where they were strong. (Which has been true for years and years.)
What could he do, knowing that, and still keep his union support?
Is there a reason Kirpans (yes I know one wasn’t actually used in this situation) have to have a sharp blade and point?
Surely as they are symbolic and shouldn’t be used as a weapon in the UK there could be no objection to them having to be non-bladed/pointed and then totally safe to carry as a symbolic object.
Christians who are so inclined to demonstrate their beliefs through objects don’t literally carry around a wooden crucifix with a body nailed on, Jews funnily enough don’t lug around and actual star and Muslims aren’t packing a crescent moon in their pockets.
No, no reason, except perhaps for sects making theological (in both senses) arguments with a view that "it is not a real symbolic Kirpan unless it is a real weapon", or that "we think it needs to be a real weapon" or similar - despite the general view being that this is not "required". I think the offender was an adherent of such a group.
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
As someone coming from a position of near total ignorance, I watched a Sikh being interviewed on the news about the religious significance of the Kirpan. He seemed very reasonable but it did occur to me that his explanation of it being seen as a symbol of your readiness to defend your family and community certainly wouldn't fly if a youth in a hoody said the same thing after being picked up by the police.
After setting the price of train tickets to World Cup games at $98, a 7.5x increase on the regular $12.90 fare, NJ Transit is finding that hardly anybody is buying them. Only 4,000 tickets have been sold. 320,000 tickets are still available. First game is in 9 days time.
In a detail which will surprise no one, the first of the "patriots" to plead guilty to offences connected to the rioting in Southampton on Tuesday night has a criminal record as long as your arm, including.... possessing a knife.
I really am not bothered about the colour of eggs, but what does annoy me is how Sainsbury (and others) have altered their packaging on taramasalta etc. They are no longer resealable so either eaten at one go, or I have to use my own SUP to reseal. It is both pointless and annoying.
After setting the price of train tickets to World Cup games at $98, a 7.5x increase on the regular $12.90 fare, NJ Transit is finding that hardly anybody is buying them. Only 4,000 tickets have been sold. 320,000 tickets are still available. First game is in 9 days time.
There is certainly the risk that Trumpistan faces humiliatingly empty stadiums for match after match... They will probably start giving the tickets away early after the weekend.
A piece in support of robotic, identikit political candidates (it doesn't phrase it that way in fairness) - as doing otherwise can sometimes end up with candidates who are, essentially, unreliable screwups.
Klippenstein says Americans are tired of “clean-cut types who’ve harbored ambitions for political office since they were on high school student council and have lived every waking moment accordingly,” but one virtue of the consistently-striving Tracy Flick archetype is that these people are consistent. They’ve had a plan since they climbed out of the womb and that helps us know what they will do if they get into office. Leftists have turned “McKinsey” into an epithet, but getting a job at McKinsey is damned hard. My college GPA wasn’t high enough to get hired there. Having worked there is a signal that you work hard, you complete your assignments, you adapt well to new tasks and requirements, and you’re ready to take on new challenges. Is that so bad? We don’t want politicians who are full of surprises. We want ones who set clear goals and then achieve them.
I really am not bothered about the colour of eggs, but what does annoy me is how Sainsbury (and others) have altered their packaging on taramasalta etc. They are no longer resealable so either eaten at one go, or I have to use my own SUP to reseal. It is both pointless and annoying.
The day each year when Mr Dog and I take the old Algund-Vellau chairlift and then the bucket lift up to the Meraner high alpine path, slog along in the usually hot beating sun, passing almost always Germans or German-speaking South tirolers, the very occasional Italian and never any English or Americans, eat a hearty alpine lunch washed down with a flagon of German beer, then retrace our steps to get the chairlift back down, is always one of my happiest. This year we might even get the chance to do it twice, since we will hopefully be back here in September.
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
The day each year when Mr Dog and I take the old Algund-Vellau chairlift and then the bucket lift up to the Meraner high alpine path, slog along in the usually hot beating sun, passing almost always Germans or German-speaking South tirolers, the very occasional Italian and never any English or Americans, eat a hearty alpine lunch washed down with a flagon of German beer, then retrace our steps to get the chairlift back down, is always one of my happiest. This year we might even get the chance to do it twice, since we will hopefully be back here in September.
I really am not bothered about the colour of eggs, but what does annoy me is how Sainsbury (and others) have altered their packaging on taramasalta etc. They are no longer resealable so either eaten at one go, or I have to use my own SUP to reseal. It is both pointless and annoying.
After setting the price of train tickets to World Cup games at $98, a 7.5x increase on the regular $12.90 fare, NJ Transit is finding that hardly anybody is buying them. Only 4,000 tickets have been sold. 320,000 tickets are still available. First game is in 9 days time.
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Andy hasn’t even won his byelection yet!
Well he's the only plan Labour have to beat Reform, and no one else has a plan which is working, so he had better!
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Andy hasn’t even won his byelection yet!
Well he's the only plan Labour have to beat Reform, and no one else has a plan which is working, so he had better!
The strange aspect in this is Reform seems to be adding to their lead
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Andy hasn’t even won his byelection yet!
Well he's the only plan Labour have to beat Reform, and no one else has a plan which is working, so he had better!
The strange aspect in this is Reform seems to be adding to their lead
The day each year when Mr Dog and I take the old Algund-Vellau chairlift and then the bucket lift up to the Meraner high alpine path, slog along in the usually hot beating sun, passing almost always Germans or German-speaking South tirolers, the very occasional Italian and never any English or Americans, eat a hearty alpine lunch washed down with a flagon of German beer, then retrace our steps to get the chairlift back down, is always one of my happiest. This year we might even get the chance to do it twice, since we will hopefully be back here in September.
Ooh, a dynamic shot this time
There must have been some mountain goats down there, in need of herding.
Sleazy, broken Greens, Tories, Labour, and LibDems on the slide!
No sign yet of Reform crossing the line with the public. It may not come if 25-30% like what they stand for, and the rest don't know who to vote for instead.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Andy hasn’t even won his byelection yet!
Well he's the only plan Labour have to beat Reform, and no one else has a plan which is working, so he had better!
The strange aspect in this is Reform seems to be adding to their lead
Is Burnham really in danger of losing ?
Nigel has had a good if cynical week and Rob the Plumber is getting loads of comedy exposure.
Propaganda, propaganda, what we need is propaganda (or something like it) as Nigel Farage might have said in the 1930s.
In a detail which will surprise no one, the first of the "patriots" to plead guilty to offences connected to the rioting in Southampton on Tuesday night has a criminal record as long as your arm, including.... possessing a knife.
To be fair that would make him more concerned than your law abiding gent with the alleged two tier policing model*.
* Aka police applying a Thatcher government law that has been in place for 40 years without significant issue but being used as an excuse by both a vicious, cynical murderer and the social media "patriots".
For some time I have been wondering what will happen here with our part of the World Cup, when fans from overseas come in contact with our drug and gun cultures. As I understand it, soccer/football fans can sometimes be a little boisterous, and even just a little xenophobic.
Interestingly, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is refusing to turn on some surveillance cameras -- until the games actually start.
Comments
My preferred update would simply be the withdrawal of that exception, and requiring that a sharp bladed kirpan comply with standard UK knife law, which means the blade is under 3" and non-locking. That's why the personal steak knife I sometimes take to pubs if out for lunch and I know they have blunt knives meets this spec - it is an exception to the "bladed items" law.
Since the claim that "they are the only group treated like this" by Farage and co is a lie, it would also mean a look at other exceptions.
Compare, for example, with Muslim views on Guide Dogs, and the traditional view that dogs are ritually unclean, which I think is the category. The UK Sharia Authority ruled a couple of decades ago that there was no problem because iirc these are working animals, but there still regular problems around Muslim private hire drivers not stopping when the passenger is a VIP with a Guide Dog.
It does not help that I think the only licensing authority that takes this suitably seriously is London.
https://x.com/i/status/2062495789776097342
A Dewsbury Lock-In: A Night in Britain’s Most Run-Down Town
This destination guide recalls my unexpectedly enjoyable visit to Dewsbury, one of Britain’s most run-down towns.
https://paliparan.com/2026/06/03/dewsbury-visit/
If a Kirpan is purely ceremonial, there's no reason why it needs weapons-grade sharpness to serve its purpose, no?
The evidence is out there, and white privilege is consistently a real thing.
There is a reason why Farage is a shouty, finger-jappy ranta-lotta who keeps changing the issue. That is because his case consists of leaning towers of BS built on an anecdote or small numbers of incidents, and he needs to prevent his supporters from finding out or they might start acting rationally and vote for somebody else. It is also why he focuses on outrage marketing.
Measures to mitigate that are reasonable. We can argue about specifics, but the principle is sound.
Apart from that she has clearly handled the matter far better than Farage. May be he should get her scriptwriter to defect
Just the other day, someone here got upset because a couple of my Scottish relatives have non-functional sgian dubhs to stick in their socks. Apparently non-functionality for those is a Bad Thing.
The technical debates around the precise meaning of "stunned" in ritual slaughter are similar.
In a less contentious debate, you can get a sense of it by trying to pin down a Roman Catholic priest on the meaning of how the Communion elements become the actual body and blood of Christ. I tried once when I was at University practising "understand before evaluating before deciding whether to accept" and experienced a whole new vocabulary.
Or you could have a journalistic conversation with Popgun Pete Hegseth about the meaning of "ceasefire" and "their forces are obliterated" !
Early bayonets (eg American war of independence) were often triangular in cross section, and were stabbing not cutting weapons.
Equally, proposals for "safe kitchen knives" involve rounded ends, and make things like killing lobsters or gutting fish difficult.
Greengrocer's apostrophe.
If you make a 999 call, as Vikrum Digwa’s brother did, the information you give will be treated as the base case by police officers when they arrive at the scene — regardless of your ethnicity. Nowak’s murder, and the vile lies that Digwa told in a failed attempt to get away with his crime, is not usefully understood with reference to debates about either the policy response to the Metropolitan Police’s failure to catch the killers of Stephen Lawrence, or with police-wide or societal responses to Black Lives Matter from 2020.
Nowak’s treatment in his final moments is the typical way that suspects — which Nowak became the moment that Digwa’s brother placed that 999 call — are treated by police. This is all too familiar with anyone who follows the work of the charity Inquest — which works with bereaved families following deaths involving the state — or the reports from the Independent Office of Police Conduct. As I said yesterday, if you want to learn the lessons from this specific case, then you need to focus on the treatment of suspects full stop.
He then goes to separately suggest that some targets to reduce racism are poorly thought out and stats need to be interpreted with care, e.g. "aiming to eliminate ethnic disparities when the total numbers are incredibly small is not a good way to combat racism".
Why are they different and do they taste different?
I've never noticed any. But then brown seem more ubiquitous than they did in my youth.
More fleecing of fans with the latest announcement on water bottles . FIFA are a cesspit and I’m finding it difficult to muster my normal excitement over a WC.
I am told that a beer-bottle opener is much preferred, since in 2026 the desire to open up beer comes before the desire to open up an Englishman.
I believe white eggs are the norm in the USA.
It’s all BS
https://x.com/ajaon_of_all/status/2062493231267344729?s=61
*Reform's Robert Kenyon runs away*
https://x.com/implausibleblog/status/2062510867657240891
Then when the last bus is safely back - dynamite the bloody thing. As the world press watches.
Just looked at the cricket again. That's it for this test.
https://www.theregister.com/databases/2026/06/04/palantir-wins-9m-contract-to-run-uk-firearms-licensing-cia-backed-biz-to-hold-gun-bomb-and-poison-records/5251132
I'd avoid it entirely if I wasn't into football and therefore can't. He has the Olympics too in 28 and that could be even worse.
What have we done to deserve this? Beats me.
That was he can do Byzantine corruption, absurd nepotism etc all he likes without breaking anything valuable. At least, more than it was broken already.
We have had 437 posts about this today.
Went on Bloomberg - Anthropic and OpenAI are dangerous and unsustainable companies that shouldn’t IPO. The AI bubble is a con and retail investors are the marks.
AI doesn’t have ROI, it’s nothing like AWS/Uber, and it’s got no post-bubble recovery story.
https://x.com/edzitron/status/2061940946095292688
I'm not sure I agree with his "there's no post-bubble future" claim (some survivors will be huge businesses in the future), but I'd agree it is likely a very large valuation bubble indeed.
The question is how much performance actually costs. How much do the bleeding edge models cost, when run in data centres?
We are seeing a steady upward pressure in pricing of the online models. Most presume that this is an attempt to pivot towards profitability.
What I expect to happen is that a cascade/collapse will occur - think dot.com. A few big players and some smaller ones will offer stuff the other side.
https://x.com/ajaon_of_all/status/2062493231267344729?s=61
(So I buy eggs from "cage free", but not "free range", chickens.)
Went to Lidl just down the road along the Eastern Avenue. They sell all Free-Range eggs, but some are white, and some are brown!
Used to get a 10% off voucher once a month that would apply to the entire shop. Now get points that are bloody useless in comparison.
But are you a Big Endian or a Little Endian?
What could he do, knowing that, and still keep his union support?
Man in his 50s taken to hospital after crossbow shooting at University of Surrey accommodation, with suspect arrested on suspicion of attempted murder
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 27% (+2)
GRN: 17% (-2)
CON: 17% (-1)
LAB: 15% (-1)
LDM: 11% (-1)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @FindoutnowUK, 3-4 Jun.
Changes w/ 27 May.
After setting the price of train tickets to World Cup games at $98, a 7.5x increase on the regular $12.90 fare, NJ Transit is finding that hardly anybody is buying them. Only 4,000 tickets have been sold. 320,000 tickets are still available. First game is in 9 days time.
https://bsky.app/profile/princetonyimby.bsky.social/post/3mnhyflirdk2z
https://bsky.app/profile/peterwalker99.bsky.social/post/3mnhxtojnpc2k
Edit 2-3!!
FIFA could also lose billions... what a blow, eh?
Klippenstein says Americans are tired of “clean-cut types who’ve harbored ambitions for political office since they were on high school student council and have lived every waking moment accordingly,” but one virtue of the consistently-striving Tracy Flick archetype is that these people are consistent. They’ve had a plan since they climbed out of the womb and that helps us know what they will do if they get into office. Leftists have turned “McKinsey” into an epithet, but getting a job at McKinsey is damned hard. My college GPA wasn’t high enough to get hired there. Having worked there is a signal that you work hard, you complete your assignments, you adapt well to new tasks and requirements, and you’re ready to take on new challenges. Is that so bad? We don’t want politicians who are full of surprises. We want ones who set clear goals and then achieve them.
https://www.joshbarro.com/p/low-conscientiousness-losers-are
But goes to show however bad a team is, always wait for the other side to have a go. It'll still be bad, but it can be relative.
Andy may have a lot of work to do once he gets in.
Just kidding, that has already happened.
Is Burnham really in danger of losing ?
Propaganda, propaganda, what we need is propaganda (or something like it) as Nigel Farage might have said in the 1930s.
* Aka police applying a Thatcher government law that has been in place for 40 years without significant issue but being used as an excuse by both a vicious, cynical murderer and the social media "patriots".
Interestingly, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is refusing to turn on some surveillance cameras -- until the games actually start.