The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
China isn't funding a thing, there are enough NIMBYs hating them without being paid.
It's nice to think that everyone with an agenda you dislike is being paid but reality is most of the time people simply like things as they are..
I think it's hard to say, what we do know is that using bunch of bots to produce clickbait and boost clickbait produced by other people is something that has been done very frequently by various people, and seems to have really good ROI. This doesn't contradict the fact that people are also inclined to like this stuff organically, they target messages that people will like.
What we know about AI datacenters is that there's very strong opposition to them based mainly on something that's totally fake (water usage). We also know that people are often using AI to make viral images to get people mad about AI.
Doubt he's win but if you bet at long odds, you might do well to trading it.
Peter.
I like John, but doubt if anyone campaigning on a "spend more on defence" ticket would get more than 10% of the vote of Labour members. It's a perfectly understandable decision for a Defence Secretary, but with no short-term threat to Britain visible it'd be a mistake IMO to prioritise a leap in defence spending, at a time when money is exceptionally short.
The Russians cutting cables and pipelines isn't a short term threat to Britain?
Besides which, defence spending is about long term decision making.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Today is the day that the war in Ukraine has outlasted World War I, the Great War.
Ukraine is still fighting back, and in the last few months actually making headway at a cost of over a thousand Russian soldiers a day.
The Peninsular War lasted almost six years.
I understand that many Ukrainians regard the war as having lasted twelve years already, since the 27th February 2014 Russian military occupation of Crimea.
Yes many Ukranians will say the war has been ongoing since 2014.
The WWI comparison today is from 24th Feb 2022, when the “SMO” started with the assault on Kiyv.
World War 2 arguably started in 1937 or even 1931vwith the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
One could also argue that it only really started in December 1941, when the Germans declared war on America, transforming what had been a EMEA struggle and a quite separate and localised Chinese/Japanese war that the Americans and British had just got involved in, into a truly global catastrophe.
And it was never really a world war for the Axis, who essentially ran two quite different conflicts, separated by the might of the Royal and US Navies and the endless Russian steppes.
But that's all semantics, as it largely depends how you define a "World" War.
Defence shambles as Starmer delays funding plan again with Ed Miliband 'refusing to cut Net Zero spending'
That’s a stupid dichotomy, even worse than the welfare one.
The two single most important national security measures we can make is bunging loads of cash to Ukraine and rapidly reducing our exposure to fossil fuels.
The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
China isn't funding a thing, there are enough NIMBYs hating them without being paid.
It's nice to think that everyone with an agenda you dislike is being paid but reality is most of the time people simply like things as they are..
I think it's hard to say, what we do know is that using bunch of bots to produce clickbait and boost clickbait produced by other people is something that has been done very frequently by various people, and seems to have really good ROI. This doesn't contradict the fact that people are also inclined to like this stuff organically, they target messages that people will like.
What we know about AI datacenters is that there's very strong opposition to them based mainly on something that's totally fake (water usage). We also know that people are often using AI to make viral images to get people mad about AI.
I think the main problem with them is they demonstrate that increasing supply of electricity doesn’t necessarily mean reduced costs for households in a free market.
A bit like house building doesn’t impact house prices much…
Today is the day that the war in Ukraine has outlasted World War I, the Great War.
Ukraine is still fighting back, and in the last few months actually making headway at a cost of over a thousand Russian soldiers a day.
The Peninsular War lasted almost six years.
I understand that many Ukrainians regard the war as having lasted twelve years already, since the 27th February 2014 Russian military occupation of Crimea.
Yes many Ukranians will say the war has been ongoing since 2014.
The WWI comparison today is from 24th Feb 2022, when the “SMO” started with the assault on Kiyv.
World War 2 arguably started in 1937 or even 1931vwith the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
If you consider the Hundred Years war as 1337 to about 1460, then arguably WW1 and WW2 are the same conflict.
1905-1945 - the war of the New Imperial powers, as the rising empires of japan and Germany rose to challenge the longer-established empires of Britain, France and Russia. Though you could make a case to extending the start back to 1864-ish, and Prussia's rise to create Imperial Germany.
Japan was allied to GB/UK/British Empire (depending on how you regard it) in WWI. Something the Americans allegedly fouled up.
Again depends on ones interpretation of history.
Japan fully annexed Korea in 1910. Their expansionist intentions were pretty clear well before WWI.
I don't really believe there was much the western powers could have done to change significantly what was essentially generated by domestic Japanese politics. The alliance during WWI was largely used by Japan to advance its own interests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishō_era
Battlecruiser Kongo, 8 x 14 inch guns, the last capital ship built for Japan by the UK (Vickers). Her three sisters were built in Japan, however.
Defence shambles as Starmer delays funding plan again with Ed Miliband 'refusing to cut Net Zero spending'
That’s a stupid dichotomy, even worse than the welfare one.
The two single most important national security measures we can make is bunging loads of cash to Ukraine and rapidly reducing our exposure to fossil fuels.
Don’t forget cycle lanes !
“This machine fights murderous bastards like Putin, Trump and Khamenei” - sticker I had on for Pedal on Parliament.
On topic, this is why Farage's inability to keep any rising stars in his own party is so damaging. You need other faces when people get bored of yours. I know it's a stretch to call Lowe a fresh face but if he'd still been a Reform MP then he could be out there speaking to the elements of the Reform coalition that Farahe doesn't want to be seen with. That's how Blair used Prestcott back in the days of not wanting to be seen to be close to embarrassing old Union types.
When are the FT, Sunday Times et al going to start investigating Rupert Lowe's business career? His stewardship of Southampton Football Club wasn't without incident either.
Unfortunately I think the King in Orange proves that those inclined to vote for populist businessmen don't pay too much attention to the detail.
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I said here that this would happen many months ago. Sorry to gratuitously advertise my own foresight, but if I don't nobody else will.
On topic, this is why Farage's inability to keep any rising stars in his own party is so damaging. You need other faces when people get bored of yours. I know it's a stretch to call Lowe a fresh face but if he'd still been a Reform MP then he could be out there speaking to the elements of the Reform coalition that Farahe doesn't want to be seen with. That's how Blair used Prestcott back in the days of not wanting to be seen to be close to embarrassing old Union types.
When are the FT, Sunday Times et al going to start investigating Rupert Lowe's business career? His stewardship of Southampton Football Club wasn't without incident either.
Afteenoon, all.
I expect they'll get on to the large number of thugs, some with criminal convictions, from the BNPs era, in his party first.
John Healey deserves enormous credit for putting our defence first and Starmer and Reeves should be the ones to go
Labour could do worse than make him their leader
Not exactly enormous credit. He was the SecDef who thought that 2.5% of GDP would be sufficient, until it obviously wasn't.
But he deserves some credit for recognising the obvious.
The other point against him is that it's been nearly a year since the defence review, and it's taken him all that time to fail to make his case with the Treasury. If you're kicking out one leader for delay and muddle, he's hardly the guy to replace him.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Doubt he's win but if you bet at long odds, you might do well to trading it.
Peter.
I like John, but doubt if anyone campaigning on a "spend more on defence" ticket would get more than 10% of the vote of Labour members. It's a perfectly understandable decision for a Defence Secretary, but with no short-term threat to Britain visible it'd be a mistake IMO to prioritise a leap in defence spending, at a time when money is exceptionally short.
The Russians cutting cables and pipelines isn't a short term threat to Britain?
Besides which, defence spending is about long term decision making.
I agree in principle but the RAF and RN are both already perfectly capable of sinking or capturing the Russian shadow fleet hovering over our cables.
Zero point in increasing funding if we won’t use what we already have. Even a nerve agent attack on a British city didn’t stir anything.
Has Healey resigned because he couldn't find a bottom to put in the defense spending bucket or because he wanted to pour more money in? A difficult challenge but he should have been working to achieve more effective defense spending.
Given the subject matter and comparing it to the psychodrama that often governs cabinet resignations, Healey's decision to quit feels like the most consequential departure of the last 25 years
John Healey deserves enormous credit for putting our defence first and Starmer and Reeves should be the ones to go
Labour could do worse than make him their leader
Not exactly enormous credit. He was the SecDef who thought that 2.5% of GDP would be sufficient, until it obviously wasn't.
But he deserves some credit for recognising the obvious.
The other point against him is that it's been nearly a year since the defence review, and it's taken him all that time to fail to make his case with the Treasury. If you're kicking out one leader for delay and muddle, he's hardly the guy to replace him.
So, while it's devastating for Starmer's increasingly slim chances of hanging one, this is very far from the basis for a credible leadership bid. A senior post in the Burnham/Streeting/whoever government is likely the limits of his ambition.
Given the subject matter and comparing it to the psychodrama that often governs cabinet resignations, Healey's decision to quit feels like the most consequential departure of the last 25 years
It's not even the most consequential cabinet resignation in the last four years.
Good to see that Healey is prepared to resign, but he shouldn't have had to. Starmer has said repeatedly that the security of the country is his number one priority. Those words, like so many of his others, looking hollow now.
Given the subject matter and comparing it to the psychodrama that often governs cabinet resignations, Healey's decision to quit feels like the most consequential departure of the last 25 years
A bit confused by this. It's disturbed waters which were already disturbed. Burnham's election, if he is elected, would have triggered a leadership election even without this.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (DIP).
He has accused the Prime Minister of failing to “meet the moment” over his long-delayed proposal to boost the military.
Sir Keir is expected to set out details of the plan as soon as tomorrow, but it is thought to have been watered down following a row between No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey said the defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at a dangerous time”.
He added: “Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.”
Wow. Starmer and Reeves are finished.
Utterly devastating. The defence of the realm is the Government's highest priority. All over for those two surely. And an extraordinary example of Starmer's complete ineptitude in managing his own government. How could he have let this happen? He knew that Healey would have to stand down if he didn't provide the funding, and that would make his own position untenable.
All eyes on Andy now. Who's the priority? Our armed forces, or the WASPI women?
Is Burnham really going to pander full on to the WASPI cause? Can he see money down the back of the sofa that the others cant?
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
Given the subject matter and comparing it to the psychodrama that often governs cabinet resignations, Healey's decision to quit feels like the most consequential departure of the last 25 years
It's not even the most consequential cabinet resignation in the last four years.
Rishi Sunak wears that crown.
Maybe Reeves can break the final glass ceiling and become the first female Chancellor to bring down the PM.
Doubt he's win but if you bet at long odds, you might do well to trading it.
Peter.
I like John, but doubt if anyone campaigning on a "spend more on defence" ticket would get more than 10% of the vote of Labour members. It's a perfectly understandable decision for a Defence Secretary, but with no short-term threat to Britain visible it'd be a mistake IMO to prioritise a leap in defence spending, at a time when money is exceptionally short.
The Russians cutting cables and pipelines isn't a short term threat to Britain?
Besides which, defence spending is about long term decision making.
That might be true, but Nick is quite right that a manifesto of increasing defence spending is not the basis for a Labour leadership bid (even if Healey were slightly more credible than he actually is).
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I said here that this would happen many months ago. Sorry to gratuitously advertise my own foresight, but if I don't nobody else will.
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I've noticed people who foolishly wreck their brains spending time on Twitter are reposting dumber and dumber AI-generated clickbait, but I definitely haven't noticed the models getting worse at writing, absolutely the opposite.
IIUC the main thing that makes their output kind of samey is the RLHF tacked on at the end of the training process. If you use some if the uncensored models they sound a lot less like the standard worthy corporately lobotomized sycophant.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
He’s a moron
It was not unfair
Another flip flop. He’s lucky the Reform candidate is a duffer
Huge if true. A genuinely election losing moment unless she reverses.
For 'election losing' I'm reading 'something I don't like'.
Personally I think she's being honest, and I think honesty in this case is probably the best policy.
She's fighting a by-election (Aberdeen South) where she's depending on Tory-Reform switchers switching back or lending their vote. Declaring that she'd be prepared to contemplate a progressive coalition rather than let Farage get a sniff of power is not a good message for that audience. Or frankly for most Tory supporters who aren't centrist ninnies.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (DIP).
He has accused the Prime Minister of failing to “meet the moment” over his long-delayed proposal to boost the military.
Sir Keir is expected to set out details of the plan as soon as tomorrow, but it is thought to have been watered down following a row between No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey said the defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at a dangerous time”.
He added: “Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.”
Wow. Starmer and Reeves are finished.
Utterly devastating. The defence of the realm is the Government's highest priority. All over for those two surely. And an extraordinary example of Starmer's complete ineptitude in managing his own government. How could he have let this happen? He knew that Healey would have to stand down if he didn't provide the funding, and that would make his own position untenable.
All eyes on Andy now. Who's the priority? Our armed forces, or the WASPI women?
Is Burnham really going to pander full on to the WASPI cause? Can he see money down the back of the sofa that the others cant?
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
Plenty of precedents for broken pledges on WASPI. If Burnham threads the needle to PM it could be the first moment to see if he’s going to be different from Starmer (or just the same).
The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
In the US that’s almost certainly true.
It’s a US v China competition, and the Chinese know they can easily fund opposition movements in the US, in a way that the US can’t do in China.
That is not the conclusion of the article.
I think a more plausible explanation is like the Iranians using bots to agitate on Scottish Independence this is just a contentious and potentially divisive issue they can cause trouble with.
They have two clear motives.
Firstly like Russia and Iran they view the US as a threat and so the weaker it is the safer they feel, thus they do what they can to disrupt it, in this case internally.
Secondly domestically the more they can point to disorder is Western Democracies the easier it is to proclaim and argue to their own people that their system is superior.
The CPC knows that many particularly the older generation remember the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap forwards, as do they.
So they emphasis stability and order…Not like the west with their riots and disorder.
Huge if true. A genuinely election losing moment unless she reverses.
It's poor politics on her part, but also doesn't tell anyone anything they didn't already know. It was blisteringly obvious that the Tories would be more likely to support a Reform government that some rag-tag coalition of the centre and left.
It's worth noting that quite a lot of Reform supporters (I am one such, I think @Luckyguy1983 is in a similar place) think that an optimal government is probably about 2/3rds Reform, 1/3rd Tory, as the Tories would bring some reality to the party (e.g. we need to fix income tax *rates*, rather than just bump all the thresholds up, and we will need to cut spending as well as tax), but Reform would prevent the usual Tory "talk right, govern left" problems we've had every time the Tories have had a majority since Thatcher.
2 child benefit cap and Burnham waspi women v defence of the country and Healey's letter is a cruise missile straight at Starmer and Reeves [Burnham's] choices
Removal of the two child benefit cap and giving WASPI women what they were promised over some shiny boondoggles for the defence top brass that won't do anything to help our country's defence anyday.
Defence matters of course, but what in this magic 0.32% of GDP is actually going to make a difference to this nation's security?
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
He’s a moron
It was not unfair
Another flip flop. He’s lucky the Reform candidate is a duffer
I have the suspicion that some people think the Waspi women were at their retirement do and someone from the government came, handed them an envelope with a letter telling them that they had to go back to work for 5 more years.
In reality - Yes - the retirement age changed (to become equal to men - I thought women were all over equality) and - Yes - it didn't happen overnight. There was time to adjust and I am sure it led to some women working longer than they would have liked to.
Well boo hoo. Thats equality right there. The men forced to go on for 5 more years with (a) a shorter life expectancy and (b) often physically tougher jobs don't get an extra pay out because they didn't watch the news or read a newspaper.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Yesterday he will compensate. Today after a bit of a backlash he'll give them a free bus pass or something (that they probably get anyway now due to their age). He's quicker at u-turns than Starmer. Can you imagine the response of Waspi women to this. £50k vs free off peak travel. Laughable
He's going to be a disaster, there's no intellect or thought behind him, just like Starmer, but more left wing. Surely Labour have someone better than this, Healey or Dan Jarvis.
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and Khan is right that Soho is the party area of London. Don’t move there of you’re not a fan of the nightlife.
I rented a place from a friend opposite Ronnie Scotts. The people weren't the problem. What was sleep-destroying was the 3.00am trash collections. Chucking hundreds of bottles into a vehicle.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
Strontian is probably a lengthy bus ride twice a day for some of those 100 kids...
Nightlife in London is hardly thriving and his nightime czar was useless
This govts policies is not helping either
But a few words on social media. Job done
Soho in particular has been hollowed out. Not just the nightlife, but the cool little shops selling things like 1940s magazines.
By day and by night, Soho is already dead.
I thought this was entirely true until recently as well, but I foumd there's still a few traces of the old life left. It"s certainly not the same as a few decades back, but some bizarre, grubby, kooky and/or interesting cafes and venues are still there, left over from the golden age.
What makes the Healey resignation devastating is that he's not doing it because of the Labour leadership contest but because of Starmer's judgement - and on an issue where the few remaining Starmerites thought their man was strong.
Burnham is home and dry, 35% of the outstanding 17% puts him on a minimum of 41%. That is a winning figure in itself. I know the constituency he is comfortably ahead. Suspect he may hit 50% On another note Badenoch has apparently said an interview that the she would put Farage in office if he was short of a majority. I cannot believe this but it seems correct.That alone will horrify enough current Tory voters to give the Lib Dems another 25 seats-30 seats off the Tories, let alone other seats going to Labour on tactical voting.. As for the impact of Healey's resignation letter anything could happen.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
My primary school closed when it got down to 5 pupils. Spent two hours a day on the bus after that.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (DIP).
He has accused the Prime Minister of failing to “meet the moment” over his long-delayed proposal to boost the military.
Sir Keir is expected to set out details of the plan as soon as tomorrow, but it is thought to have been watered down following a row between No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey said the defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at a dangerous time”.
He added: “Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.”
Wow. Starmer and Reeves are finished.
Utterly devastating. The defence of the realm is the Government's highest priority. All over for those two surely. And an extraordinary example of Starmer's complete ineptitude in managing his own government. How could he have let this happen? He knew that Healey would have to stand down if he didn't provide the funding, and that would make his own position untenable.
All eyes on Andy now. Who's the priority? Our armed forces, or the WASPI women?
Is Burnham really going to pander full on to the WASPI cause? Can he see money down the back of the sofa that the others cant?
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
Plenty of precedents for broken pledges on WASPI. If Burnham threads the needle to PM it could be the first moment to see if he’s going to be different from Starmer (or just the same).
Can't believe how many politicians openly backed the WASPI cause who now back track on it. If you can't make good on a pledge, don't make it!
In Starmer's case, it seems he was standing beside WASPI campaigners supporting their cause as late as 2022 (they are wearing covid masks in the photo)
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I've noticed people who foolishly wreck their brains spending time on Twitter are reposting dumber and dumber AI-generated clickbait, but I definitely haven't noticed the models getting worse at writing, absolutely the opposite.
IIUC the main thing that makes their output kind of samey is the RLHF tacked on at the end of the training process. If you use some if the uncensored models they sound a lot less like the standard worthy corporately lobotomized sycophant.
This is perhaps more significant, though ? Unless you have access to unrestricted versions, improvements are now effectively crippled.
Anthropic also said it had identified large-scale attempts to extract its technology to train competing AI models in authoritarian countries, and these type of queries will also fall back to the less powerful model...
Nightlife in London is hardly thriving and his nightime czar was useless
This govts policies is not helping either
But a few words on social media. Job done
Soho in particular has been hollowed out. Not just the nightlife, but the cool little shops selling things like 1940s magazines.
By day and by night, Soho is already dead.
I thought this was entirely true until recently as well, but I foumd there's still a few traces of the old life left. It"s certainly not the same as a few decades back, but some bizarre, grubby, kooky and/or interesting cafes and venues are still there, left over from the golden age.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
Strontian is probably a lengthy bus ride twice a day for some of those 100 kids...
It is indeed, and single track/passing places for a lot of road out in Ardnamurchan.
Wonder if some of the kids could get across to Mull for high school? May have been a factor in why the council decided to build the new high in Tobermory instead of closer to the ferry
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (DIP).
He has accused the Prime Minister of failing to “meet the moment” over his long-delayed proposal to boost the military.
Sir Keir is expected to set out details of the plan as soon as tomorrow, but it is thought to have been watered down following a row between No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey said the defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at a dangerous time”.
He added: “Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.”
Wow. Starmer and Reeves are finished.
Utterly devastating. The defence of the realm is the Government's highest priority. All over for those two surely. And an extraordinary example of Starmer's complete ineptitude in managing his own government. How could he have let this happen? He knew that Healey would have to stand down if he didn't provide the funding, and that would make his own position untenable.
All eyes on Andy now. Who's the priority? Our armed forces, or the WASPI women?
Is Burnham really going to pander full on to the WASPI cause? Can he see money down the back of the sofa that the others cant?
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
He’s offering them cheaper bus fares when most of them are now of an age where they already get to ride for free ?
Huge if true. A genuinely election losing moment unless she reverses.
It's poor politics on her part, but also doesn't tell anyone anything they didn't already know. It was blisteringly obvious that the Tories would be more likely to support a Reform government that some rag-tag coalition of the centre and left.
It's worth noting that quite a lot of Reform supporters (I am one such, I think @Luckyguy1983 is in a similar place) think that an optimal government is probably about 2/3rds Reform, 1/3rd Tory, as the Tories would bring some reality to the party (e.g. we need to fix income tax *rates*, rather than just bump all the thresholds up, and we will need to cut spending as well as tax), but Reform would prevent the usual Tory "talk right, govern left" problems we've had every time the Tories have had a majority since Thatcher.
You recognise the point which Lucky tries to brush off. Farage is, as numerous opinion polls show, quite toxic to a large section of the electorate, some of whom Kemi needs for a Tory recovery.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
My primary school closed when it got down to 5 pupils. Spent two hours a day on the bus after that.
I was fortunate, never needed a bus for primary.
Rural schools give a great education, but there comes a time when the roll is so poor it inhibits a childs social development
Which begs the question how will Burnham if he becomes PM find the money for all the goodies he’s promised and also up the money for defence .
Given that there looks like no practical way of reducing state spending, at least in the short term, he will need to set out a plan to raise taxes sufficient to fund the needs of the state.
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I've noticed people who foolishly wreck their brains spending time on Twitter are reposting dumber and dumber AI-generated clickbait, but I definitely haven't noticed the models getting worse at writing, absolutely the opposite.
IIUC the main thing that makes their output kind of samey is the RLHF tacked on at the end of the training process. If you use some if the uncensored models they sound a lot less like the standard worthy corporately lobotomized sycophant.
YouTube is full of AI slop videos that presumably someone is making money from posting and then collecting advertising revenue. I see tons of them about doggy related matters but I am sure that any popular interest attracts the same.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
There was a discussion about why businesses are no longer lobbying the Conservatives. The basic answer is that there's no point. The Conservatives are only likely to be in the next government as a junior partner to Reform.
I would add Badenoch's ideology is essentially the same as Reform, with some of the cruder edges removed. Even as a standalone government hers would be Reform except in name.
NEW: Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden tells @AlexofBrown
“John Healey has been a cabinet colleague of mine for the last three years, and in fact, well beyond that. I have enormous respect for him, and I am sorry to see him go.
"I haven’t read the letter, but I think the PM is both able to make changes and strongly committed to the defence of the country, and that’s everything I have seen in working with the PM since the election tells me that.”
NEW: Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden tells @AlexofBrown
“John Healey has been a cabinet colleague of mine for the last three years, and in fact, well beyond that. I have enormous respect for him, and I am sorry to see him go.
"I haven’t read the letter, but I think the PM is both able to make changes and strongly committed to the defence of the country, and that’s everything I have seen in working with the PM since the election tells me that.”
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and Khan is right that Soho is the party area of London. Don’t move there of you’re not a fan of the nightlife.
Its like those people who move next to a church and complain about the bells, or next to a cricket pitch and complain about balls...
It's a natural evolution of the NIMBY mindest: Not Anymore In My Back Yard (NAIMBY for a naice area).
My mother in law used to complain endlessly about noise. For a while the cul de sac that she was in was home to a bunglow being knocked to the ground and rebuilt as a huge 6 bedroom house. For about a year. Two houses away... Oh the noise!
And yet she also loved gossiping endlessly with the nieghbours...
How you get the perfectly quiet location but with gossipy neighbours on tap is the challenge.
The armed forces minister Al Carns has told Times Radio's political editor Anna Mikhailova that the defence investment plan is "not fit for purpose" in reaction to John Healey's resignation.
He then said of Keir Starmer "he has got to sort it out."
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and Khan is right that Soho is the party area of London. Don’t move there of you’re not a fan of the nightlife.
Its like those people who move next to a church and complain about the bells, or next to a cricket pitch and complain about balls...
It's a natural evolution of the NIMBY mindest: Not Anymore In My Back Yard (NAIMBY for a naice area).
My mother in law used to complain endlessly about noise. For a while the cul de sac that she was in was home to a bunglow being knocked to the ground and rebuilt as a huge 6 bedroom house. For about a year. Two houses away... Oh the noise!
And yet she also loved gossiping endlessly with the nieghbours...
How you get the perfectly quiet location but with gossipy neighbours on tap is the challenge.
In other defence news... this sounds implausible to me. It's just as likely France trying to frustrate a German deal with Saab.
#France may be pivoting toward #Sweden’s Saab for its next-generation fighter ambitions as the Franco-German #FCAS program unravels. If confirmed, this would mark a significant shift in Europe’s defense landscape and reshape the continent’s next-generation fighter jet plans. https://x.com/Tom_Antonov/status/2064748878746779801
The armed forces minister Al Carns has told Times Radio's political editor Anna Mikhailova that the defence investment plan is "not fit for purpose" in reaction to John Healey's resignation.
He then said of Keir Starmer "he has got to sort it out."
BBC News understands that John Healey has asked the government's other defence ministers to stay in post to minimise disruption.
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and Khan is right that Soho is the party area of London. Don’t move there of you’re not a fan of the nightlife.
Its like those people who move next to a church and complain about the bells, or next to a cricket pitch and complain about balls...
It's a natural evolution of the NIMBY mindest: Not Anymore In My Back Yard (NAIMBY for a naice area).
My mother in law used to complain endlessly about noise. For a while the cul de sac that she was in was home to a bunglow being knocked to the ground and rebuilt as a huge 6 bedroom house. For about a year. Two houses away... Oh the noise!
And yet she also loved gossiping endlessly with the nieghbours...
How you get the perfectly quiet location but with gossipy neighbours on tap is the challenge.
Live in the Countryside!
Peter.
No - the neighbours will be too noisy, is the point. She wanted complete isolation AND neighbours
You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.
You thought it was you. It is not you.
Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.
Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.
I've noticed people who foolishly wreck their brains spending time on Twitter are reposting dumber and dumber AI-generated clickbait, but I definitely haven't noticed the models getting worse at writing, absolutely the opposite.
IIUC the main thing that makes their output kind of samey is the RLHF tacked on at the end of the training process. If you use some if the uncensored models they sound a lot less like the standard worthy corporately lobotomized sycophant.
YouTube is full of AI slop videos that presumably someone is making money from posting and then collecting advertising revenue. I see tons of them about doggy related matters but I am sure that any popular interest attracts the same.
What worries me is the number of unqualified cats doing dodgy electrics!
A stopped clock is right twice a day, and Khan is right that Soho is the party area of London. Don’t move there of you’re not a fan of the nightlife.
Its like those people who move next to a church and complain about the bells, or next to a cricket pitch and complain about balls...
It's a natural evolution of the NIMBY mindest: Not Anymore In My Back Yard (NAIMBY for a naice area).
My mother in law used to complain endlessly about noise. For a while the cul de sac that she was in was home to a bunglow being knocked to the ground and rebuilt as a huge 6 bedroom house. For about a year. Two houses away... Oh the noise!
And yet she also loved gossiping endlessly with the nieghbours...
How you get the perfectly quiet location but with gossipy neighbours on tap is the challenge.
In rural Ireland everywhere is an opportunity for a gossip - the supermarket, the church porch, open water swimming, the hairdressers - everywhere. My father-in-law is always picking up local news from the postman (I don't yet have that relationship with ours, but give it time).
Unless every part of the phone is made unusable, people will still be able to make profits from the screen and other parts.
Yes but the current theft model is to take iphones for sale and (obviously) re-use; that is why you sometimes see reports of phones being stolen then thrown away 50 yards up the road when the thief looks at it.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (DIP).
He has accused the Prime Minister of failing to “meet the moment” over his long-delayed proposal to boost the military.
Sir Keir is expected to set out details of the plan as soon as tomorrow, but it is thought to have been watered down following a row between No 10, the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury.
In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey said the defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at a dangerous time”.
He added: “Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.”
Wow. Starmer and Reeves are finished.
Utterly devastating. The defence of the realm is the Government's highest priority. All over for those two surely. And an extraordinary example of Starmer's complete ineptitude in managing his own government. How could he have let this happen? He knew that Healey would have to stand down if he didn't provide the funding, and that would make his own position untenable.
All eyes on Andy now. Who's the priority? Our armed forces, or the WASPI women?
Is Burnham really going to pander full on to the WASPI cause? Can he see money down the back of the sofa that the others cant?
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
He’s offering them cheaper bus fares when most of them are now of an age where they already get to ride for free ?
He could offer free buses to the Army as an alternative to Ajax?
My eldest was one of them. First class English degree. A year applying for everything and anything. Not even getting replies for most applications. Is now completing a Masters in HR and I have created a job for them in my business. Its *dire* out there. Catastrophic. And not just the lack of jobs, its the Fuck You attitude of recruiters that really damages them.
I hope you call him a nepo baby at least once a month. Good for you; good luck for your ungendered offspring but there's an awful lot without the connections.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
Strontian is probably a lengthy bus ride twice a day for some of those 100 kids...
It is indeed, and single track/passing places for a lot of road out in Ardnamurchan.
Wonder if some of the kids could get across to Mull for high school? May have been a factor in why the council decided to build the new high in Tobermory instead of closer to the ferry
Mull isn't part of Highland Council...It's Argyll & Bute.
Comments
What we know about AI datacenters is that there's very strong opposition to them based mainly on something that's totally fake (water usage). We also know that people are often using AI to make viral images to get people mad about AI.
Besides which, defence spending is about long term decision making.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying:
"Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
And it was never really a world war for the Axis, who essentially ran two quite different conflicts, separated by the might of the Royal and US Navies and the endless Russian steppes.
But that's all semantics, as it largely depends how you define a "World" War.
Wow wow wow
Head of NATO haa just said all allies will be looking at how this defence spending crisis pans out
Wow wow wow
A bit like house building doesn’t impact house prices much…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/11/solar-energy-us-coal
https://x.com/johnhealey_mp/status/2065028766540145140
I expect they'll get on to the large number of thugs, some with criminal convictions, from the BNPs era, in his party first.
https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-keir-starmer-peter-mandelson-files-defence-investment-kemi-badenoch-12593360
https://x.com/mayoroflondon/status/2064951696732635447?s=46
He was the SecDef who thought that 2.5% of GDP would be sufficient, until it obviously wasn't.
But he deserves some credit for recognising the obvious.
The other point against him is that it's been nearly a year since the defence review, and it's taken him all that time to fail to make his case with the Treasury. If you're kicking out one leader for delay and muddle, he's hardly the guy to replace him.
Zero point in increasing funding if we won’t use what we already have. Even a nerve agent attack on a British city didn’t stir anything.
A difficult challenge but he should have been working to achieve more effective defense spending.
Given the subject matter and comparing it to the psychodrama that often governs cabinet resignations, Healey's decision to quit feels like the most consequential departure of the last 25 years
A senior post in the Burnham/Streeting/whoever government is likely the limits of his ambition.
Rishi Sunak wears that crown.
Ukraine and defence should be priorities for any UK government for the foreseeable
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/stolen-phones-london-met-police-apple-iphones-b1285635.html
IIUC the main thing that makes their output kind of samey is the RLHF tacked on at the end of the training process. If you use some if the uncensored models they sound a lot less like the standard worthy corporately lobotomized sycophant.
It was not unfair
Another flip flop. He’s lucky the Reform candidate is a duffer
Personally I think she's being honest, and I think honesty in this case is probably the best policy.
She's fighting a by-election (Aberdeen South) where she's depending on Tory-Reform switchers switching back or lending their vote. Declaring that she'd be prepared to contemplate a progressive coalition rather than let Farage get a sniff of power is not a good message for that audience. Or frankly for most Tory supporters who aren't centrist ninnies.
Nightlife in London is hardly thriving and his nightime czar was useless
This govts policies is not helping either
But a few words on social media. Job done
They have two clear motives.
Firstly like Russia and Iran they view the US as a threat and so the weaker it is the safer they feel, thus they do what they can to disrupt it, in this case internally.
Secondly domestically the more they can point to disorder is Western Democracies the easier it is to proclaim and argue to their own people that their system is superior.
The CPC knows that many particularly the older generation remember the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap forwards, as do they.
So they emphasis stability and order…Not like the west with their riots and disorder.
Peter.
It's worth noting that quite a lot of Reform supporters (I am one such, I think @Luckyguy1983 is in a similar place) think that an optimal government is probably about 2/3rds Reform, 1/3rd Tory, as the Tories would bring some reality to the party (e.g. we need to fix income tax *rates*, rather than just bump all the thresholds up, and we will need to cut spending as well as tax), but Reform would prevent the usual Tory "talk right, govern left" problems we've had every time the Tories have had a majority since Thatcher.
Defence matters of course, but what in this magic 0.32% of GDP is actually going to make a difference to this nation's security?
By day and by night, Soho is already dead.
Peter.
In reality - Yes - the retirement age changed (to become equal to men - I thought women were all over equality)
and - Yes - it didn't happen overnight. There was time to adjust and I am sure it led to some women working longer than they would have liked to.
Well boo hoo. Thats equality right there. The men forced to go on for 5 more years with (a) a shorter life expectancy and (b) often physically tougher jobs don't get an extra pay out because they didn't watch the news or read a newspaper.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
He's going to be a disaster, there's no intellect or thought behind him, just like Starmer, but more left wing. Surely Labour have someone better than this, Healey or Dan Jarvis.
What makes the Healey resignation devastating is that he's not doing it because of the Labour leadership contest but because of Starmer's judgement - and on an issue where the few remaining Starmerites thought their man was strong.
https://x.com/theobertram/status/2065046120720408745
Healey describes the PM as 'unable' to commit and the Treasury as 'unwilling'. The distinction is notable. And reflects worse on the PM.
I know the constituency he is comfortably ahead. Suspect he may hit 50%
On another note Badenoch has apparently said an interview that the she would put Farage in office if he was short of a majority. I cannot believe this but it seems correct.That alone will horrify enough current Tory voters to give the Lib Dems another 25 seats-30 seats off the Tories, let alone other seats going to Labour on tactical voting..
As for the impact of Healey's resignation letter anything could happen.
In Starmer's case, it seems he was standing beside WASPI campaigners supporting their cause as late as 2022 (they are wearing covid masks in the photo)
Unless you have access to unrestricted versions, improvements are now effectively crippled.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/09/anthropic-claude-mythos-ai-model
..Anthropic says most queries about cybersecurity or biology and chemistry to Fable 5 will be routed instead to the lower-tier model, Opus 4.8, which was made public in late May and is billed as less capable.
Anthropic also said it had identified large-scale attempts to extract its technology to train competing AI models in authoritarian countries, and these type of queries will also fall back to the less powerful model...
Wonder if some of the kids could get across to Mull for high school? May have been a factor in why the council decided to build the new high in Tobermory instead of closer to the ferry
https://x.com/dominic2306/status/2065047737389781043
Fair to say he thinks that most of the problems go back decades.
Farage is, as numerous opinion polls show, quite toxic to a large section of the electorate, some of whom Kemi needs for a Tory recovery.
Rural schools give a great education, but there comes a time when the roll is so poor it inhibits a childs social development
The smell?
I wrote about it before the election, and this one goes back all the way to Mrs Thatcher.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/03/30/they-shall-have-wars-and-pay-for-their-presumption/
I would add Badenoch's ideology is essentially the same as Reform, with some of the cruder edges removed. Even as a standalone government hers would be Reform except in name.
https://x.com/LizzyBuchan/status/2065042448057807131
NEW: Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden tells @AlexofBrown
“John Healey has been a cabinet colleague of mine for the last three years, and in fact, well beyond that. I have enormous respect for him, and I am sorry to see him go.
"I haven’t read the letter, but I think the PM is both able to make changes and strongly committed to the defence of the country, and that’s everything I have seen in working with the PM since the election tells me that.”
(Him, not you.)
And yet she also loved gossiping endlessly with the nieghbours...
How you get the perfectly quiet location but with gossipy neighbours on tap is the challenge.
The armed forces minister Al Carns has told Times Radio's political editor Anna Mikhailova that the defence investment plan is "not fit for purpose" in reaction to John Healey's resignation.
He then said of Keir Starmer "he has got to sort it out."
Peter.
It's just as likely France trying to frustrate a German deal with Saab.
#France may be pivoting toward #Sweden’s Saab for its next-generation fighter ambitions as the Franco-German #FCAS program unravels.
If confirmed, this would mark a significant shift in Europe’s defense landscape and reshape the continent’s next-generation fighter jet plans.
https://x.com/Tom_Antonov/status/2064748878746779801
https://x.com/TrumpTruthOnX/status/2065047317221392649
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.tiktok.com/@cat_funnytime666/video/7564348418819231031
Peter.
Peter.
Peter.