If any of you can pull yourselves away from your computer screens, the hedgerows are full to bursting with blackberries; delicious with breakfast cereal, or yoghurt, or in pies, or for making jam (which can then make a nice gift for neighbours). Some people also use them for home-made wine. Likewise there are tons of apples going to waste growing on roadsides, presumably where drivers have thrown an apple core out of the car window. Damsons and sloes in abundance. We have had the most fantastic crop of potatoes and other veg this year, and more tomatoes than we know what to do with. Pears ready soon.
Don't let all this abundance go to waste. Give it away if you can't use it yourself
It certainly seems to be a good year for blackberries.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
Whatever the ruling Labour elite think - given the crowds he is attracting to these folksy town hall style meetings, there must come a point when instead of this group crying ABC from the top of their ever pathetic sounding voices, that they give some thought to how can we harness this enthusiasm:
That's part of what swayed me. Given a choice between "oh, I suppose so" options and a flood of huge enthusiasm, I feel we should go for the latter and roll the dice. I personally know five people who have rejoined the party because of Corbyn - all of them normal, non-Trot idealists who had given up on Labour - and I don't think we should tell them to go away.
But I know a lot of members with doubts, and I've been saying for a week that punters who are only green on Corbyn need to cover their bets.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
Or do you think there should be no limit at all?
Would you be happy with a society that was 30% Muslim, with all that entails? Or 40%? Or 50%? When homosexuality becomes illegal again, when sharia law is standard?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
I would be surprised if the population of London doesn't hit 30% Muslim in the next 20 years.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
Or do you think there should be no limit at all?
Would you be happy with a society that was 30% Muslim, with all that entails? Or 40%? Or 50%? When homosexuality becomes illegal again, when sharia law is standard?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
I would be surprised if the population of London doesn't hit 30% Muslim in the next 20 years.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
When India was Partitioned in 1947, the total Muslim % population was around 25%.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
This is going to bee one of the most interesting aspects of this.
Do the (apparent majority) of Lab MPs sit back and let their only spokespeople in the media be Diane Abbot, Dennis Skinner et al and watch Labour's popularity slide or do they have to toe the line in order to present what Dear Leader wants to be presented in as publicly acceptable a way as possible.
If they do the fomer, they are sunk and all but the safest seat needs to be wary of the future. If they do the latter, then they will be selling a message they can't wait to ditch and even if they survive to new leadership with any Labour voters intact, will then be hypocrites saying the opposite of what they have spent a couple of years arguing.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
One in three cases lost by Britain at the European Court of Human Rights are brought by terrorists, prisoners or criminals
94 of 297 cases won against UK in Strasbourg were by dangerous people Terrorists with links to the IRA and groups like Al Qaeda among winners Critics say 94 cases show Strasbourg has gone 'well beyond human rights' Campaigners today claim the figures support Human Rights argument
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Not entirely.
The Union of South Africa is a former state which is today dissolved into two seperate states.
Mr Dancer, as you're around. Early bets for the Belgian GP. Rosberg at 5/2 for the win seems generous, McLarens around evens for points less so. Safety car at 8/11 also looks to have value.
Mr. Sandpit, a fair assessment. The system is wide open to abuse, but for a bonkers candidate to get onto the ballot paper requires the assistance/idiocy of Labour MPs. It's their damned fault Corbyn's an option.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Sandpit, haven't really checked the markets. That McLaren bet, even if the engine is upgraded to Ferrari-type power, is not generous.
Perusing Ladbrokes. You can get better McLaren odds there. But I still wouldn't back it.
Maldonado not to be classified at 2.62 *might* be tempting.
Mr Dancer, as you're around. Early bets for the Belgian GP. Rosberg at 5/2 for the win seems generous, McLarens around evens for points less so. Safety car at 8/11 also looks to have value.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
Stamford I'd agree with, but Oakham? Jammed in by roads, and the building itself lacks proportion.
Your eyesight is obviously going with age ...
I took pics of Oakham, Kettering and Melton Mowbray last month. Didn't alight at Stamford station, but it looked reasonably impressive from the train - I read it's modelled on nearby Burghley House.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Cool. My parents live in one of the villages close by, occasionally one of the steam specials goes over and everyone turns out with cameras!!
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Cool. My parents live in one of the villages close by, occasionally one of the steam specials goes over and everyone turns out with cameras!!
Yes, the down-side was not being able to see my own train pass over the viaduct!
Whatever the ruling Labour elite think - given the crowds he is attracting to these folksy town hall style meetings, there must come a point when instead of this group crying ABC from the top of their ever pathetic sounding voices, that they give some thought to how can we harness this enthusiasm:
That's part of what swayed me. Given a choice between "oh, I suppose so" options and a flood of huge enthusiasm, I feel we should go for the latter and roll the dice. ....
? Less than six months ago you were urging on voters and pledging your own judgment based on these senior labour people who you now say were 'I suppose so'. Now you want to turn the labour party on its head and back to the stone age. You had better hope those members with doubts also have better judgement than you. 'Judgement' is what we pay MPs for. You do not need to roll the dice - the die was cast when a load of numpties nominated Corbyn.
This is going to be one of the most interesting aspects of this.
Do the (apparent majority) of Lab MPs sit back and let their only spokespeople in the media be Diane Abbot, Dennis Skinner et al and watch Labour's popularity slide or do they have to toe the line in order to present what Dear Leader wants to be presented in as publicly acceptable a way as possible.
This is absurd. Parties change leaders and policies all the time - the Lib Dems used to believe in no tuition fees, the Conservatives used to support ID cards and the Iraq War.
A Corbyn-led Labour Party (and it wouldn't matter who was leader) would naturally review the Party's manifesto which was decisively rejected by the electorate in May. In a sense, Corbyn starts with a blank sheet of paper from which he has to build the 2020 Manifesto. To do that, I would argue and I believe he has as well, means encouraging internal debate and ideas.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Not entirely.
The Union of South Africa is a former state which is today dissolved into two seperate states.
The Union became a Republic (1961) long before Namibia gained independence (1990).
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
Or do you think there should be no limit at all?
Would you be happy with a society that was 30% Muslim, with all that entails? Or 40%? Or 50%? When homosexuality becomes illegal again, when sharia law is standard?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
I do not believe that current trends point to social liberalism (or indeed "British values") being unsustainable.
At present, around 12 or 13% of London's population is Muslim. At present rates of growth, it would take a generation before London becomes even 30% Muslim. And I don't believe the rate of growth will be sustained: the birth rate figures, for example, will equal out to the norm over that time.
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Mr Dancer, as you're around. Early bets for the Belgian GP. Rosberg at 5/2 for the win seems generous, McLarens around evens for points less so. Safety car at 8/11 also looks to have value.
Which side of the bet does VSC count for ?
Check carefully, bookies differ on this one! Statistically the bet should be about 1/4 for Spa, the track is narrow in places, the first corner is a tight hairpin and there's always the possibility of rain from nowhere.
In theory the SC or VSC combined are more likely than in previous seasons, with the SC-only slightly less likely. Thinking about the track, the long lap may move the decision towards the VSC where possible, with the SC only coming out for a pile of debris on the track itself or the need of a medical car to be deployed (as happened in Monaco).
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
The Trams in Croydon opened in 2000, long before those in Edinburgh.
One in three cases lost by Britain at the European Court of Human Rights are brought by terrorists, prisoners or criminals
94 of 297 cases won against UK in Strasbourg were by dangerous people Terrorists with links to the IRA and groups like Al Qaeda among winners Critics say 94 cases show Strasbourg has gone 'well beyond human rights' Campaigners today claim the figures support Human Rights argument
Whilst I am sure that the ECtHR has overstepped the mark in a number of cases, just because you're a terrorist or prisoner* does not somehow mean your claim is less valid. You're exactly the sort of person who ought to be captured by a universal human rights law, because you're not the sort of person protected by the ordinary machinery of the law. You're the one who needs your right to a fair trial, the one who has his liberty at stake.
*which is eliding two completely different groups. Most prisoners are not violent criminals.
I do not believe that current trends point to social liberalism (or indeed "British values") being unsustainable.
At present, around 12 or 13% of London's population is Muslim. At present rates of growth, it would take a generation before London becomes even 30% Muslim. And I don't believe the rate of growth will be sustained: the birth rate figures, for example, will equal out to the norm over that time.
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
ComRes @ComResPolls 19m19 minutes ago Reports we have a poll with Tories leading Lab in Scotland. Figs taken from small subset of a GB poll & shouldn't be taken as representative
That poll looks a more than a little suspect. Its subsamples show the Tories ahead of Labour in Scotland - Wales - and London. How likely is that?
ComRes @ComResPolls 19m19 minutes ago Reports we have a poll with Tories leading Lab in Scotland. Figs taken from small subset of a GB poll & shouldn't be taken as representative
That poll looks a more than a little suspect. Its subsamples show the Tories ahead of Labour in Scotland - Wales - and London. How likely is that?
The only place in Canada where the Conservatives may make gains is Quebec province:
"Poll Tracker: Quebec currently Conservatives' only hope for seat gains La belle province is leaning heavily towards the NDP, but Conservative prospects are up"
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Cool. My parents live in one of the villages close by, occasionally one of the steam specials goes over and everyone turns out with cameras!!
Yes, the down-side was not being able to see my own train pass over the viaduct!
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Not entirely.
The Union of South Africa is a former state which is today dissolved into two seperate states.
The Union became a Republic (1961) long before Namibia gained independence (1990).
While the timescale is a little long for my liking, that approach would be perfectly acceptable.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Cool. My parents live in one of the villages close by, occasionally one of the steam specials goes over and everyone turns out with cameras!!
Yes, the down-side was not being able to see my own train pass over the viaduct!
I do not believe that current trends point to social liberalism (or indeed "British values") being unsustainable.
At present, around 12 or 13% of London's population is Muslim. At present rates of growth, it would take a generation before London becomes even 30% Muslim. And I don't believe the rate of growth will be sustained: the birth rate figures, for example, will equal out to the norm over that time.
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
The birth rate in almost every majority Muslim country has decreased significantly over the last generation. In Pakistan, for example, it was 6 in 1990 and is now 3.1. The cultural factors weighing on this will surely be represented among those mothers coming to this country as well.
I am optimistic even if the views of Muslims didn't change, simply because I do not believe that they could displace a trend among the wider population. Nevertheless, I am confident they will - when looked at as a whole. We have "imported" a cohort of young Muslims with stricter views, but the evidence suggests that Muslims resident in Britain for longer mellow in this regard.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
ComRes @ComResPolls 19m19 minutes ago Reports we have a poll with Tories leading Lab in Scotland. Figs taken from small subset of a GB poll & shouldn't be taken as representative
That poll looks a more than a little suspect. Its subsamples show the Tories ahead of Labour in Scotland - Wales - and London. How likely is that?
ComRes @ComResPolls 19m19 minutes ago Reports we have a poll with Tories leading Lab in Scotland. Figs taken from small subset of a GB poll & shouldn't be taken as representative
That poll looks a more than a little suspect. Its subsamples show the Tories ahead of Labour in Scotland - Wales - and London. How likely is that?
Not at all likely in my view. As I said, "It's all just a bit of fun, remember....".
My impish sense of fun makes me poke a stick into the PB wasp's nest sometimes.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
I wonder which two candidates would have been put forward to the Labour membership by MPs using the Tory system of electing leaders, (assuming that is still the system).
ComRes @ComResPolls 19m19 minutes ago Reports we have a poll with Tories leading Lab in Scotland. Figs taken from small subset of a GB poll & shouldn't be taken as representative
That poll looks a more than a little suspect. Its subsamples show the Tories ahead of Labour in Scotland - Wales - and London. How likely is that?
Not at all likely in my view. As I said, "It's all just a bit of fun, remember....".
My impish sense of fun makes me poke a stick into the PB wasp's nest sometimes.
Still can't believe Shadsy was offering 1/3 at the last election on Labour beating the Tories in Scotland, voteswise.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
To answer your question, it's a few miles southeast of Alloa.
''FPTP will ensure Labour remain as the Loyal Opposition but in such a diminished fashion as to allow the Conservatives a free run for the foreseeable future.''
I'm trying to imagine the likes of Chukka, Liz and Danczuk spouting Corbynite rubbish for two years while they wait for decent leader.
It isn't easy.
Not easy but the effort is worth the humungous chortle.
Having seen an upper class Tory Twit from central casting called Tristram who claimed to be Labour's education spokesman on Newsnight last night it is difficult to know what to make of the Labour party.
But Jack, as most old Labourites are now in the HoL the correct term is surely My Lord Comrade or informally Honourable Comrade.
Noble Comrade is the correct form or Nobble Comrade for those Labour peers attempting to resist the blandishments of Comrade Corbyn.
Corbyn as LotO will also become a member of the Privy Council - The Rt Hon Comrade Corbyn.
Jack have just moved - finally sold - now live in a small Leicestershire village population 412. We only have one Labour peer in the village (shadow attourney general)
My word, you've had your pad on the market for longer than I said :
Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister.
You should have taken the plunge and edged into the Grand Duchy of Rutland.
That's the one that goes via Corby, over the Welland Viaduct?
Yes, I did it in both directions on 20th July. 1727 from Oakham to Kettering (1636 ex-Derby), returned 1900 from Kettering towards Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
Cool. My parents live in one of the villages close by, occasionally one of the steam specials goes over and everyone turns out with cameras!!
Yes, the down-side was not being able to see my own train pass over the viaduct!
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
From that left-wing rag, the Telegraph
No sex please we’re British now – first fall in births to migrants in a decade Immigrants to the UK having fewer babies in break with long-term trend as fertility rate among foreign-born women falls to lowest ever level
I wonder which two candidates would have been put forward to the Labour membership by MPs using the Tory system of electing leaders, (assuming that is still the system).
We know from the nominations... Burnham and Cooper.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
Consider those birth rates in conjunction with employment rates - Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Somali are all substantially below average, and then consider them in line with current social welfare policy on overall benefit caps and caps on the numbers of eligible children.
Any political party siding with limitless benefit entitlements is effectively siding with certain minority elements of society, and against the mainstream.
It will be interesting to see whether the cap works and delivers social change (smaller families, more employment) among these groups of people. If it does it may well do more to generate social assimilation than countless community initiatives as families start to look the same in terms of size.
In turn, public services such as social housing, schools, midwifery departments, GPs etc, may also start to develop greater uniformity of demand, rather than the ludicrously stilted situation we see now where certain areas become bottomless pits of demand.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
they were only engaged in the contracts and ensuring it was overbudget and late , but their needs were sorted out.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
But is there supposed to be a station at Kincardine?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
Labour were in charge, Labour set up the oversight, Labour failed.
Every major project undertaken by the Labour/Liberal administration at Holyrood has been a disaster, usually in multiple ways. A series of Omni-Disasters one might say.
Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh Trams, Alloa Link, all utterly shambolic, costly and late.
Meanwhile the SNP have delivered or are delivering major projects like the Death Star and Forth Crossing, on time and under budget. They even managed to undo Labour incompetence in terms of the Waverley Line, cancelling the Labour project and delivering a new scheme, on time and under budget.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
But is there supposed to be a station at Kincardine?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
The Kincardine extension is a goods line (for coal to Longannet).
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
they were only engaged in the contracts and ensuring it was overbudget and late , but their needs were sorted out.
So their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work of writing contracts?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
But is there supposed to be a station at Kincardine?
Day in day I out I argue that BBC isn't biased against the Tories, or at least not in a major way.
Then they come out and tweet things like:
"BBC News (UK) @BBCNews 4m4 minutes ago You've been sharing some #fakeDWPstories after department admitted inventing stories like this http://bbc.in/1UR6wEL "
Presumably because it is "reporting on reporting". Urgh.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
Or do you think there should be no limit at all?
Would you be happy with a society that was 30% Muslim, with all that entails? Or 40%? Or 50%? When homosexuality becomes illegal again, when sharia law is standard?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
I would be surprised if the population of London doesn't hit 30% Muslim in the next 20 years.
... and that will mean London becomes more like Pakistan, not that Muslims become more like Englishmen
I do not believe that current trends point to social liberalism (or indeed "British values") being unsustainable.
At present, around 12 or 13% of London's population is Muslim. At present rates of growth, it would take a generation before London becomes even 30% Muslim. And I don't believe the rate of growth will be sustained: the birth rate figures, for example, will equal out to the norm over that time.
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
The birth rate in almost every majority Muslim country has decreased significantly over the last generation. In Pakistan, for example, it was 6 in 1990 and is now 3.1. The cultural factors weighing on this will surely be represented among those mothers coming to this country as well.
I am optimistic even if the views of Muslims didn't change, simply because I do not believe that they could displace a trend among the wider population. Nevertheless, I am confident they will - when looked at as a whole. We have "imported" a cohort of young Muslims with stricter views, but the evidence suggests that Muslims resident in Britain for longer mellow in this regard.
The areas of very high concentration of Muslim families, a problem which in an earlier post you said you found worrying, would seem to suggest that your sanguinity about assimilation and integration may be somewhat misplaced.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
You haven't answered my question, just waffled on some other point.
I said: do you think there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK, a figure we should not exceed as it would change our society for ever, in ways we do not want? And if there is a maximum proportion, what is it? 10%, 20%? Or 50%?
Or do you, as you perhaps imply, see no need for any limit, as British liberal values will endure unharmed even if the country is 20% or 50% Muslim?
If you're a bit shy, I'll go first. I reckon 10% Muslim should be the limit. Beyond that we would risk serious damage to our liberal society. Arguably, we already have.
OK, Sean. I shan't bother about defending my opinion too much.
It would only start to bother me if London's Muslim population hit 25%. Assuming the views of Muslims have not changed by that point.
That would probably indicate about 10% of England's population.
Wow, the average Pakistani woman in the UK has 3.82 children, the average Somalia woman has 4.19 and the average Afghan woman in the UK has 4.25. This compares to the average UK-born woman having 1.79.
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Do you agree there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK population, i.e. a figure beyond which our society is Islamised so much it becomes unrecognisable, and a figure which therefore must not be exceeded?
Or do you think there should be no limit at all?
Would you be happy with a society that was 30% Muslim, with all that entails? Or 40%? Or 50%? When homosexuality becomes illegal again, when sharia law is standard?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
I would be surprised if the population of London doesn't hit 30% Muslim in the next 20 years.
... and that will mean London becomes more like Pakistan, not that Muslims become more like Englishmen
When India was Partitioned in 1947, the total Muslim % population was around 25%.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
The Kincardine extension is a goods line (for coal to Longannet).
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
There might be other problems aside from population: e.g. pathing on the connecting lines. And where would the traffic flows go (i.e. where would people want to go): Edinburgh? Stirling? Journey-pair diagrams might a useful first step.
I can imagine another passenger service from Stirling-Alloa-Edinburgh might be popular, but can the service be fitted in?
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
The birth rate in almost every majority Muslim country has decreased significantly over the last generation. In Pakistan, for example, it was 6 in 1990 and is now 3.1. The cultural factors weighing on this will surely be represented among those mothers coming to this country as well.
I am optimistic even if the views of Muslims didn't change, simply because I do not believe that they could displace a trend among the wider population. Nevertheless, I am confident they will - when looked at as a whole. We have "imported" a cohort of young Muslims with stricter views, but the evidence suggests that Muslims resident in Britain for longer mellow in this regard.
The areas of very high concentration of Muslim families, a problem which in an earlier post you said you found worrying, would seem to suggest that your sanguinity about assimilation and integration may be somewhat misplaced.
Sean talked about sustainability. I am confident beliefs will change, and the rate of growth in any case will lessen. In the interim it will only be areas where the number of Muslims who hold extreme views are much higher than the UK % that are problematic. That will not be true for London as a whole but it may be true for smaller areas.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
But is there supposed to be a station at Kincardine?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
The Kincardine extension is a goods line (for coal to Longannet).
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
But Baker has given a mention to Longannet-Scottish Power "to close".
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
they were only engaged in the contracts and ensuring it was overbudget and late , but their needs were sorted out.
So their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work of writing contracts?
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
It's perhaps best known as the last crossing of the Forth, upstream of the Forth (soon to be 3) bridges, and the diversion for when the road bridge is closed. And the place I crossed the Forth on my walk before my triumphal last couple of days to Edinburgh Castle.
But is there supposed to be a station at Kincardine?
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
I am curious, Mr. J., what odd views can one have about electrification of railways? Where it is really necessary the third rail method of the Southern Railway seems to work satisfactorily and where it isn't really necessary steam trains are perfectly capable of getting people and freight from A to B in a reasonable timescale. Surely these matters were settled many years ago.
Catenary towers and other foreign mumbo-jumbo masquerading as engineering are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money
A thread suggestion: would a Burnham triumph be worse than a Corbyn victory?
Burnham's said he'll take Corbyn on board. If he does, that means taking on the mad policies. If he doesn't [really] then the Corbynites will cry betrayal.
And that's without considering that Burnham's a lightweight. He's Ed Miliband without the intellectual self-confidence or unorthodox yet beguiling owl policies.
Utter rubbish. Burnham was the only one of the 4 with a positive poll rating in Sunday's comets and even Blair had some leftwingers like Meacher and Cook in his team
I'm not surprised and I don't see it as problematic. It was only two or three generations ago that 4+ children was commonplace in this country.
How many of those children were born before they came to the UK?
Eventually, if things continue as they are, all European countries will have to address this horrible question, or their voters will address it for them, by electing far right governments.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
You haven't answered my question, just waffled on some other point.
I said: do you think there is a maximum tolerable percentage of Muslims in the UK, a figure we should not exceed as it would change our society for ever, in ways we do not want? And if there is a maximum proportion, what is it? 10%, 20%? Or 50%?
Or do you, as you perhaps imply, see no need for any limit, as British liberal values will endure unharmed even if the country is 20% or 50% Muslim?
If you're a bit shy, I'll go first. I reckon 10% Muslim should be the limit. Beyond that we would risk serious damage to our liberal society. Arguably, we already have.
I think your figure is far too high, unless they are really going to integrate and embrace British life.
I do not believe that current trends point to social liberalism (or indeed "British values") being unsustainable.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Why do you believe birth rates will fall, or that the social views of Muslims will become more liberal? It hasn't happened over the last thirty years. It seems mistaken to use the behaviour of one group as evidence that another group will behave in the same way.
The birth rate in almost every majority Muslim country has decreased significantly over the last generation. In Pakistan, for example, it was 6 in 1990 and is now 3.1. The cultural factors weighing on this will surely be represented among those mothers coming to this country as well.
I am optimistic even if the views of Muslims didn't change, simply because I do not believe that they could displace a trend among the wider population. Nevertheless, I am confident they will - when looked at as a whole. We have "imported" a cohort of young Muslims with stricter views, but the evidence suggests that Muslims resident in Britain for longer mellow in this regard.
This is actively specious. Just a bunch of lies. The evidence points in quite the opposite direction: that British Muslim views have echoed the world of Islam as a whole (which you'd expect) and become MORE conservative over time.
A decade ago burqas and niqabs were barely seen. Now they're on every high street. Look at the polling of British Muslims, 2nd and 3rd generation, on things like sharia, homosexuality, apostasy, ISIS. It is alarming. Look at the kids running off to Syria to behead people and enslave Yazidi girls. Unimaginable ten years ago.
Yet you prattle on about Muslims resident in Britain "mellowing out".
Idiot.
The main study was done on age, not a change of study viewpoint.
Younger Muslims do tend to hold more extreme views than older ones.
You can say that is the mass conversion of young Muslims to alternative creeds, or you can see it as a mellowing out. Probably both. I don't really want to take issue on that front.
But I cannot countenance being called an idiot when it is quite clear none of this stuff was "unimaginable ten years ago".
10 years ago, we had the 7/7 bombings carried out by young, Muslim extremists.
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
The Kincardine extension is a goods line (for coal to Longannet).
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
There might be other problems aside from population: e.g. pathing on the connecting lines. And where would the traffic flows go (i.e. where would people want to go): Edinburgh? Stirling? Journey-pair diagrams might a useful first step.
I can imagine another passenger service from Stirling-Alloa-Edinburgh might be popular, but can the service be fitted in?
Weirdly, as it doesn't seem to be used for anything, it appears there is an intact line between Kincardine and Dunfermline (therefore linking to the Forth Bridge
I read that in September HMtQ will open a new railway in Scotland and will travel on it, in a steam train built in 1937 and called the "Union of South Africa".
It might be just me, but there is something not quite right about this event that I just can't put my finger on.
Oh, an A4. Well, at least it's prototypical as they used to work the route. Although as they're an express passenger train, and the new line is just a single-track branch, I'd much prefer a grimy Class 5.
The Scottish government deserves some credit for the reopening of the line. Although I hope it;s been built to a better standard than the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine link, which is having to be rebuilt just a few years after it was reopened ...
The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link was built by New Labour with construction beginning in 2005. As with other New Labour projects, it was delivered two and a half years late and at twice its original budget.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
According to the GB Rail Atlas it's just Stirling to Alloa. Where's Kincardine?
The Kincardine extension is a goods line (for coal to Longannet).
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
There might be other problems aside from population: e.g. pathing on the connecting lines. And where would the traffic flows go (i.e. where would people want to go): Edinburgh? Stirling? Journey-pair diagrams might a useful first step.
I can imagine another passenger service from Stirling-Alloa-Edinburgh might be popular, but can the service be fitted in?
Weirdly, as it doesn't seem to be used for anything, it appears there is an intact line between Kincardine and Dunfermline (therefore linking to the Forth Bridge
Weirdly, as it doesn't seem to be used for anything, it appears there is an intact line between Kincardine and Dunfermline (therefore linking to the Forth Bridge
It appears there's still a line there but perhaps it is just an illusion on the google satellite view.
The Culross line? ISTR that was used for Longannet coal supplies before the new line opened. Not sure if it's been used for anything since then or just mothballed.
Edit: there was also another line between Clakmannanan and Dunfermline.
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
I am curious, Mr. J., what odd views can one have about electrification of railways? Where it is really necessary the third rail method of the Southern Railway seems to work satisfactorily and where it isn't really necessary steam trains are perfectly capable of getting people and freight from A to B in a reasonable timescale. Surely these matters were settled many years ago.
Catenary towers and other foreign mumbo-jumbo masquerading as engineering are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money
I agree, I think 3rd Rail is much less visually intrusive - I imagine what Epping Ongar might have looked like with rusty catenary gantries as opposed to the odd 3rd/4th rail insulator still visible on the route.
Weirdly, as it doesn't seem to be used for anything, it appears there is an intact line between Kincardine and Dunfermline (therefore linking to the Forth Bridge
It appears there's still a line there but perhaps it is just an illusion on the google satellite view.
It's marked in red (ie. freight-only) on Baker all the way to Dunfermline.
I guess that is how the coal must have gotten to Longannet before the new line was constructed. It is all landed at Hunterston (for most of the UK North of Watford) so presumably went over the Forth Bridge.
It seems quite stupid to have an extant line and not run a train direct to Edinburgh from Alloa. The whole of Clackmannanshire and Fife is basically a dormitory for Edinburgh, it would surely generate plenty of traffic.
Perhaps there are capacity issues on the Forth Bridge. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the main problem.
I wonder which two candidates would have been put forward to the Labour membership by MPs using the Tory system of electing leaders, (assuming that is still the system).
We know from the nominations... Burnham and Cooper.
A thread suggestion: would a Burnham triumph be worse than a Corbyn victory?
Burnham's said he'll take Corbyn on board. If he does, that means taking on the mad policies. If he doesn't [really] then the Corbynites will cry betrayal.
And that's without considering that Burnham's a lightweight. He's Ed Miliband without the intellectual self-confidence or unorthodox yet beguiling owl policies.
I'm considering this myself: at the moment I am planning on voting LK, YC and not giving either Andy or Jez a preference.
If we are going to have a Labour leader pandering to the left he might as well be authentic and make a decent go of it, rather than Andy who has gone down in my estimation
SeanT - I was at work so wasn't able to respond the other day, but thank you for pointing out the murders in the Ikea in Sweden. I see the Express website has a limited report about the incident, but I cannot see it being reported on any other mainstream UK media website.
There's a little bit of me that wonders if this is a new tactic - i.e. ignore the terrorists, but given the situation in Calais I suspect that it's more about the media not wanting to be seen to be stirring it up. Quite how it's being reported in Sweden I don't know, but it does make you wonder what else our media isn't telling us.
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
I am curious, Mr. J., what odd views can one have about electrification of railways? Where it is really necessary the third rail method of the Southern Railway seems to work satisfactorily and where it isn't really necessary steam trains are perfectly capable of getting people and freight from A to B in a reasonable timescale. Surely these matters were settled many years ago.
Catenary towers and other foreign mumbo-jumbo masquerading as engineering are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money
I agree, I think 3rd Rail is much less visually intrusive - I imagine what Epping Ongar might have looked like with rusty catenary gantries as opposed to the odd 3rd/4th rail insulator still visible on the route.
I am glad you see the sense in tried and tested methods, Cap'n Comrade Doc (or should that be Comrade Cap'n Doc - the former seems more correct but the latter has more of the authentic bolshevik feel to it).
I didn't realise that the Labour MPs were on site, shovelling ballast and carrying sleepers as their shirtless bodies glistened from the good, honest work.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
I am curious, Mr. J., what odd views can one have about electrification of railways? Where it is really necessary the third rail method of the Southern Railway seems to work satisfactorily and where it isn't really necessary steam trains are perfectly capable of getting people and freight from A to B in a reasonable timescale. Surely these matters were settled many years ago.
Catenary towers and other foreign mumbo-jumbo masquerading as engineering are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money
The odd view was that we were very late in getting rid of steam and moving to electric / diesel, when in fact it was done far too fast,
As for electrification: AIUI ( and IANAE), third-rail DC is okay for relatively slow regularly-stopping passenger services, such as commuter lines, which is why the Southern Railway and Merseyrail chose it, along with a couple of LNWR branches in London.
It is not very good for heavy freights or fast expresses, as they require more grunt. Hence why the 'Electric spine' from Southampton is/was going to replace third-rail with 25kv knitting.
A thread suggestion: would a Burnham triumph be worse than a Corbyn victory?
Burnham's said he'll take Corbyn on board. If he does, that means taking on the mad policies. If he doesn't [really] then the Corbynites will cry betrayal.
And that's without considering that Burnham's a lightweight. He's Ed Miliband without the intellectual self-confidence or unorthodox yet beguiling owl policies.
I'm considering this myself: at the moment I am planning on voting LK, YC and not giving either Andy or Jez a preference.
If we are going to have a Labour leader pandering to the left he might as well be authentic and make a decent go of it, rather than Andy who has gone down in my estimation
Burnham has said Labour spent too much unlike Cooper and has a positive poll rating unlike Cooper. I take the contrary view that a Corbyn win would be better for Labour than a Cooper win as Corbyn would at least unite the left and have some appeal in Scotland but Cooper would not only fail to do that but would also completely turn off floating voters as all the polling shows
Quite right, Mr. W., another of its advantages. Also toerags don't nick the third rail to get the copper causing me to be stranded in Doncaster overnight - a grim fate as you will appreciate.
Comments
But I know a lot of members with doubts, and I've been saying for a week that punters who are only green on Corbyn need to cover their bets.
1. LK 2. JC 3. YC
1. AE 2. SC 3. TW 4. CF
Kendall then Corbyn? It's almost as if you're not taking it seriously.
Your eyesight is obviously going with age ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33976474
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom#Religion
Do the (apparent majority) of Lab MPs sit back and let their only spokespeople in the media be Diane Abbot, Dennis Skinner et al and watch Labour's popularity slide or do they have to toe the line in order to present what Dear Leader wants to be presented in as publicly acceptable a way as possible.
If they do the fomer, they are sunk and all but the safest seat needs to be wary of the future. If they do the latter, then they will be selling a message they can't wait to ditch and even if they survive to new leadership with any Labour voters intact, will then be hypocrites saying the opposite of what they have spent a couple of years arguing.
The Union of South Africa is a former state which is today dissolved into two seperate states.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Sandpit, haven't really checked the markets. That McLaren bet, even if the engine is upgraded to Ferrari-type power, is not generous.
Perusing Ladbrokes. You can get better McLaren odds there. But I still wouldn't back it.
Maldonado not to be classified at 2.62 *might* be tempting.
@theobertram: I'm trying to imagine Andy in that situation. Or confronting Benn. Or Hatton. 'Come on lads, let's not do this terrible infighting...'
https://secure2.votebyinternet.com/V2-3-5/(S(9c5581d2-284d-4596-a80e-ad24f94630c0AMIBS8AAAAAAAA=auiq3WP2Vw6oV--6uSq))/labour/en/login?bbp=-1&x=-1
It says owned by ERS.
And people wonder why the SNP are guaranteed to run Scotland for years...
Less than six months ago you were urging on voters and pledging your own judgment based on these senior labour people who you now say were 'I suppose so'. Now you want to turn the labour party on its head and back to the stone age. You had better hope those members with doubts also have better judgement than you. 'Judgement' is what we pay MPs for.
You do not need to roll the dice - the die was cast when a load of numpties nominated Corbyn.
A Corbyn-led Labour Party (and it wouldn't matter who was leader) would naturally review the Party's manifesto which was decisively rejected by the electorate in May. In a sense, Corbyn starts with a blank sheet of paper from which he has to build the 2020 Manifesto. To do that, I would argue and I believe he has as well, means encouraging internal debate and ideas.
At present, around 12 or 13% of London's population is Muslim. At present rates of growth, it would take a generation before London becomes even 30% Muslim. And I don't believe the rate of growth will be sustained: the birth rate figures, for example, will equal out to the norm over that time.
Sometimes the "born outside the UK" category is used, because it gives a much higher figure. I live in Leyton, an area popular with various immigrant groups who share almost nothing with each other. We have synagogues, mosques, west African churches and Baptist ones. It is difficult to imagine British views being challenged my such a multiplicity of opinions. Their grouping together is almost entirely artificial. There are parts of London, in particular, where a single community dominates, sharing a language, ethnic background and religion. That is far more worrying, lest they become a country within a country. But nevertheless I have no reason to believe London as a whole will ever become that place.
In the last thirty years, the proportion of people believing that sex between same-sex is "morally wrong" has fallen by more than half, whether Christian or not. Civil partnerships have gone from a minority view to one supported by the vast majority - and we are in the middle of a seismic shift over same-sex marriage. I do not believe the countervailing factors are enough to change that.
Statistically the bet should be about 1/4 for Spa, the track is narrow in places, the first corner is a tight hairpin and there's always the possibility of rain from nowhere.
In theory the SC or VSC combined are more likely than in previous seasons, with the SC-only slightly less likely. Thinking about the track, the long lap may move the decision towards the VSC where possible, with the SC only coming out for a pile of debris on the track itself or the need of a medical car to be deployed (as happened in Monaco).
Edited extra bit: congrats, Mr. Hassett, and welcome to pb.com.
*which is eliding two completely different groups. Most prisoners are not violent criminals.
"Poll Tracker: Quebec currently Conservatives' only hope for seat gains
La belle province is leaning heavily towards the NDP, but Conservative prospects are up"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-grenier-quebec-aug17-1.3193588?cmp=rss
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4064486
https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=XbEicro5c5M
Bring out the Gallows.
Thanks for posting!
I am optimistic even if the views of Muslims didn't change, simply because I do not believe that they could displace a trend among the wider population. Nevertheless, I am confident they will - when looked at as a whole. We have "imported" a cohort of young Muslims with stricter views, but the evidence suggests that Muslims resident in Britain for longer mellow in this regard.
BTW, have you learnt anything about railway electrification yet? You seemed to have some rather odd views a few weeks ago.
My impish sense of fun makes me poke a stick into the PB wasp's nest sometimes.
To answer your question, it's a few miles southeast of Alloa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine_rail_link
I'm usually more of a planes and cars guy, but can do the occasional bit of train research!
No sex please we’re British now – first fall in births to migrants in a decade
Immigrants to the UK having fewer babies in break with long-term trend as fertility rate among foreign-born women falls to lowest ever level
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11061508/No-sex-please-were-British-now-first-fall-in-births-to-migrants-in-a-decade.html
Any political party siding with limitless benefit entitlements is effectively siding with certain minority elements of society, and against the mainstream.
It will be interesting to see whether the cap works and delivers social change (smaller families, more employment) among these groups of people. If it does it may well do more to generate social assimilation than countless community initiatives as families start to look the same in terms of size.
In turn, public services such as social housing, schools, midwifery departments, GPs etc, may also start to develop greater uniformity of demand, rather than the ludicrously stilted situation we see now where certain areas become bottomless pits of demand.
Every major project undertaken by the Labour/Liberal administration at Holyrood has been a disaster, usually in multiple ways. A series of Omni-Disasters one might say.
Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh Trams, Alloa Link, all utterly shambolic, costly and late.
Meanwhile the SNP have delivered or are delivering major projects like the Death Star and Forth Crossing, on time and under budget. They even managed to undo Labour incompetence in terms of the Waverley Line, cancelling the Labour project and delivering a new scheme, on time and under budget.
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/it-s-full-steam-ahead-with-discussions-on-kincardine-rail-station-1.221175
It does seem a bit redundant not to simply put a station in Kincardine but it is quite small so maybe the numbers just don't justify it. Although it's a New Labour project so it might just be standard SLAB incompetence.
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/it-s-full-steam-ahead-with-discussions-on-kincardine-rail-station-1.221175
Day in day I out I argue that BBC isn't biased against the Tories, or at least not in a major way.
Then they come out and tweet things like:
"BBC News (UK) @BBCNews 4m4 minutes ago
You've been sharing some #fakeDWPstories after department admitted inventing stories like this http://bbc.in/1UR6wEL "
Presumably because it is "reporting on reporting". Urgh.
It would only start to bother me if London's Muslim population hit 25%. Assuming the views of Muslims have not changed by that point.
That would probably indicate about 10% of England's population.
I can imagine another passenger service from Stirling-Alloa-Edinburgh might be popular, but can the service be fitted in?
Catenary towers and other foreign mumbo-jumbo masquerading as engineering are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money
Younger Muslims do tend to hold more extreme views than older ones.
You can say that is the mass conversion of young Muslims to alternative creeds, or you can see it as a mellowing out. Probably both. I don't really want to take issue on that front.
But I cannot countenance being called an idiot when it is quite clear none of this stuff was "unimaginable ten years ago".
10 years ago, we had the 7/7 bombings carried out by young, Muslim extremists.
Three were born in this country.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.0512798,-3.6568777,2454m/data=!3m1!1e3
It appears there's still a line there but perhaps it is just an illusion on the google satellite view.
Wiki says "The opening is now expected to be by August 2016"
White Rabbit may be interested to know that Lea Bridge in east London is also due to reopen next year.
https://twitter.com/Corbyn4Leader/status/633697492656390144
Edit: there was also another line between Clakmannanan and Dunfermline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_and_Dunfermline_Railway
It seems quite stupid to have an extant line and not run a train direct to Edinburgh from Alloa. The whole of Clackmannanshire and Fife is basically a dormitory for Edinburgh, it would surely generate plenty of traffic.
Perhaps there are capacity issues on the Forth Bridge. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the main problem.
If we are going to have a Labour leader pandering to the left he might as well be authentic and make a decent go of it, rather than Andy who has gone down in my estimation
There's a little bit of me that wonders if this is a new tactic - i.e. ignore the terrorists, but given the situation in Calais I suspect that it's more about the media not wanting to be seen to be stirring it up. Quite how it's being reported in Sweden I don't know, but it does make you wonder what else our media isn't telling us.
The odd view was that we were very late in getting rid of steam and moving to electric / diesel, when in fact it was done far too fast,
As for electrification: AIUI ( and IANAE), third-rail DC is okay for relatively slow regularly-stopping passenger services, such as commuter lines, which is why the Southern Railway and Merseyrail chose it, along with a couple of LNWR branches in London.
It is not very good for heavy freights or fast expresses, as they require more grunt. Hence why the 'Electric spine' from Southampton is/was going to replace third-rail with 25kv knitting.