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    BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    It's not called the 'right' wing for nothing, you know... :wink:
  • Options
    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,988
    RobD said:

    Barnesian said:

    Latest data
    London looks worrying. R=1.21. This is a not a small number effect. Cases average 20 a day without a concentration in one place.


    With only 20 cases this is surely extremely sensitive to one or two additional cases?
    No. It is a seven day moving average so we are talking about 140 cases. An extra case will add about 0.007 to R. Two extra cases will add 0.014. R is 1.21.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,854
    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    This sounds like pseudy wankery of the first order.

    Should I post some critical race theory? I really think I should.

    Coming soon ...
    I got to stephen daisley and fell about laughing , anything that trumpet spouts should be totally ignored.
  • Options
    OllyTOllyT Posts: 4,913
    edited June 2020

    OllyT said:

    OllyT said:

    OllyT said:

    MikeL said:

    Next season's PL odds are interesting:

    Man City 2.16
    Liverpool 2.66
    Man Utd 16
    Chelsea 17

    (Spurs and Arsenal not yet listed)

    So despite Liverpool losing just two games in two seasons and Man City being 23 points behind this season, Man City are favourites!

    Maybe reflects fact Man City expected to spend more this summer, though that may depend on CAS. CAS could go either way so seems unpredictable.

    Or perhaps punters are looking at the record of the 2 clubs over the past 5 seasons rather than 1.
    Is Vincent Kompany coming back and everyone else getting made a few years younger, then?

    Have to say I am surprised Man City are favourites for next year. It's not crazy to imagine them winning it, of course, but right now Liverpool are very significantly superior - they've just won the title with more ganes to spare than anyone else in history, and have lost two Premiership matches in two years.

    Man City have the resources to get people in, and might not have European football to distract them. But they don't just need to improve, they need to improve a LOT and hope Liverpool have a dip.

    People were saying exactly the same about City two years ago when they were breaking all the records. Nobody could see them being beaten ever again. They went on to win all 4 domestic trophies the next year.

    Liverpool have one title and won it very comfortably. I really don't see there is much difference between the 2 but all the hype is currently about Liverpool.

    Guardiola's a chequebook manager.

    His net spend at City is circa £431 million.

    In a similar time frame Klopp's net spend is less than £70 million.

    Just remember Guardiola's spent more on full backs than Klopp has on his defence.
    We weren't discussing the price of team we were discussing the quality and which one is likely to win the PL next season.

    If you believe Pep is just a cheque book manager then I would respectfully suggest you know bugger all about football
    If Guardiola wants to be spoken in the same category as Klopp then he should go manage Arsenal or Everton and turn them into World, European, and English champions within five years on a net spend of less than £100 million.
    You had better hope that he leaves Liverpool in better shape than he left his his only other club or it will be back to another 30 years in the wilderness for your lot.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:

    Barnesian said:

    Latest data
    London looks worrying. R=1.21. This is a not a small number effect. Cases average 20 a day without a concentration in one place.


    With only 20 cases this is surely extremely sensitive to one or two additional cases?
    No. It is a seven day moving average so we are talking about 140 cases. An extra case will add about 0.007 to R. Two extra cases will add 0.014. R is 1.21.
    One or two extra cases each day would do it though?
  • Options
    WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 8,503
    edited June 2020
    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances actually take even longer and render that even further away, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182
    edited June 2020


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,550
    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
  • Options
    JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,009
    Floater said:

    Is that right, civil service workers to WAH until next summer (obviously only where job role would allow it)?

    In some cases, maybe. I work for the DWP and am working from home (after a few weeks of special leave until they could supply me with the kit). I certainly don't think I'll be under pressure to go into the office this summer. We have been recruiting shitloads of people due to the spike in new claims, so particularly with social distancing requirements there just isn't space for us all in jobcentres. It's a huge, and potentially transformational change for an organisation that is a bit antediluvian in respect to staff management.
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,022

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Daisley used to self describe as a Zionist on his Times of Israel bio, now edited. I'm a bit confused, according to the prolapsing Unwokies on here use of that term is a stentorian klaxon of antsemitism. Perhaps he's now a reformed character?
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Back, back a .long time ago of course being pro-israel was a Left position. There were, IIRC, quite a few Tories who were pro-Arab, and hence Pro the Palestinians.

    That's right. Now pro-Israel is NOT a left position and the Jewish vote for Labour has declined dramatically. I guess there must be some causation there.

    Jewish people mainly vote Tory now, I believe - something which did not start with Jeremy Corbyn. Ed Miliband had a problem in this area despite being Jewish himself.
    The current issue with anti-semitism on the left didn't start with Corbyn.

    A particular red flag in the Jewish community was an aggressive campaign waged by some in the Labour party to eliminate the subsidy for security guards, provided by the government, for synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish graveyards.

    The problem was, apparently, that the money was "divisive" and prosecutions of those caught were "excessive" and not "balanced against community needs"
    OK. But my post to which are replying is not about antisemitism on the Left but about (i) the Left no longer being pro Israel and (ii) the decline in the Jewish vote for Labour - and postulating a degree of causation. So don't take this in a "down your throat" kind of way (since I don't mean it like that) but what you have done here is exactly what I was saying there is such a danger of. You have conflated "anti-Israel" with "antisemitism" and what is more - and this is key - you have done so on autopilot.
    You were talking about why Jewish people stopped voting Labour. One of the reasons was the above.
    Yes, I can well imagine that was the case.

    But what about my point - the Left no longer being pro Israel?
  • Options
    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,988
    RobD said:

    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:

    Barnesian said:

    Latest data
    London looks worrying. R=1.21. This is a not a small number effect. Cases average 20 a day without a concentration in one place.


    With only 20 cases this is surely extremely sensitive to one or two additional cases?
    No. It is a seven day moving average so we are talking about 140 cases. An extra case will add about 0.007 to R. Two extra cases will add 0.014. R is 1.21.
    One or two extra cases each day would do it though?
    Five or ten cases every day even more so.
  • Options
    brokenwheelbrokenwheel Posts: 3,352
    edited June 2020
    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances even more complex, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
    Yes, this is baby/bathwater stuff.

    It is entirely possible, indeed sensible, to wholly laud the aims of Black Lives Matter - racial equality and justice - and to fiercely decry the crime that catalysed it - George Floyd - while ALSO observing that the movement has acquired a strident, quasi-religious flavour, which may not necessarily be universally positive.

    I mean, when people are being baptised and witnessing miracles, at the murder site in Minneapolis, the devotional aspect is hard to deny.

    You make an interesting analogy with Brexit. But it needs more explanation.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,854
    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,189
    @TheScreamingEagles - Klopp owes a lot to Rodgers. He’s Kinnock to Klopp’s Blair. Without Rodgers there would have been no big pay day for Suarez, Stirling and Coutunho.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    Scott_xP said:

    The new Boris & Cummings cock-up might be spaffing half a billion quid on the wrong sort of satellites, according to the space boffins. The issue seems to be Oneweb makes satellites for internet services (hence the name, I suppose) and not for satnavs.

    https://twitter.com/Simon_Nixon/status/1276583134675570689
    The issue is rather more complex than that.

    Surrey Satellites proposed a new way to do satellite navigation using LEO sats, before the Galileo project kicked off.

    This was rejected as the solution for Galileo because it wasn't grand enough, wasn't like GPS (shades of the Soviet shuttle and Concordski) and didn't feed the right industrial champions across Europe.

    OneWeb went bankrupt because they spent too much vs SpaceX's Starlink competitor - Mb/S/$ was too high.

    Part of the Surrey Satellites proposal was to piggy back on other constellations - there are large constellations of private pic taking satellites up there now.

    What the proposal that the government is talking about getting involved in, is a reboot of OneWeb, with existing costs written off by the bankruptcy. The UK would be part of a consortium.

    Part of the UK bid would be to add the Surrey Satellites style piggyback navigation idea to the future tranches of satellites (74 OneWeb satellites are in orbit currently). This would create a navigation system for a tiny fraction of the price of a Gallileo/GPS style system.

    One thing to bear in mind is that the Surrey satellite proposal was *hated* by the big UK aerospace contractors. If you start by reducing costs by billions, where would such things end?

    Another issue in this is that currently Starlink is walking away with what looks to be the Next Big Thing - cheap internet connection from space. This would allow you to roll out connectivity to the most remote parts of the world, cheaply. If OneWeb (which is the competitor with actually frequency allocations etc) doesn't go ahead, then the US will walk off with that for a generation.

    Yet another issue - OneWeb massively involves ESA, various European institutions and various European aerospace contractors. Saving it might have some rather interesting political follow on.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    RobD said:
    I would not say that yet. What I would say is that the latest numbers have some *indication* of an uptick. only time will tell.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961

    RobD said:
    I would not say that yet. What I would say is that the latest numbers have some *indication* of an uptick. only time will tell.
    The past four or so upticks have come and gone. The problem with the R number when there are a very low number of cases is that it swings around wildly. Didn't Germany get to 3 in recent weeks because of one localised outbreak?
  • Options
    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,988
    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,370
    tlg86 said:

    @TheScreamingEagles - Klopp owes a lot to Rodgers. He’s Kinnock to Klopp’s Blair. Without Rodgers there would have been no big pay day for Suarez, Stirling and Coutunho.

    Gah, Sterling and Suarez were signed long before Rodgers arrived.

    The real legend at Liverpool is Michael Edwards, he's a miracle worker.

    We're a club who can only spend what we earn, so getting for example

    £27 million for Mamadou Sakho

    £15 million for Jordan Ibe

    £12.5 million for Danny Ward

    £20 million for Dominic Solanke

    £8 million for Kevin Stewart (which effectively made the Andy Robertson transfer a no fee swap)

    Are possibly the best deals in the history of football.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances actually take even longer and render that even further away, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
    Some truth followed by much truth. :smile:
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
    If London has to go into lockdown again, I just...... shudder.

    I doubt that many would even accept it. The city would become ungovernable as the police tried to enforce it.

    Proper nightmare stuff.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances even more complex, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
    Yes, this is baby/bathwater stuff.

    It is entirely possible, indeed sensible, to wholly laud the aims of Black Lives Matter - racial equality and justice - and to fiercely decry the crime that catalysed it - George Floyd - while ALSO observing that the movement has acquired a strident, quasi-religious flavour, which may not necessarily be universally positive.

    I mean, when people are being baptised and witnessing miracles, at the murder site in Minneapolis, the devotional aspect is hard to deny.

    You make an interesting analogy with Brexit. But it needs more explanation.
    Not long after the Iraq war, the Green party registered a massive bump in the polls for the local elections IIRC.

    Lots of people thought (and think) environment = good.

    Then the Greens crashed in the polls, when the rest of their platform became a matter of public discourse.

    I would say that 70%+ of the population would be "Yay for the environment" but would never vote for the Green Party platform.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
    Well it certainly looks similar to the swings in the number of cases over the last few weeks as in my link.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,859

    Scott_xP said:

    The new Boris & Cummings cock-up might be spaffing half a billion quid on the wrong sort of satellites, according to the space boffins. The issue seems to be Oneweb makes satellites for internet services (hence the name, I suppose) and not for satnavs.

    https://twitter.com/Simon_Nixon/status/1276583134675570689
    The issue is rather more complex than that.

    Surrey Satellites proposed a new way to do satellite navigation using LEO sats, before the Galileo project kicked off.

    This was rejected as the solution for Galileo because it wasn't grand enough, wasn't like GPS (shades of the Soviet shuttle and Concordski) and didn't feed the right industrial champions across Europe.

    OneWeb went bankrupt because they spent too much vs SpaceX's Starlink competitor - Mb/S/$ was too high.

    Part of the Surrey Satellites proposal was to piggy back on other constellations - there are large constellations of private pic taking satellites up there now.

    What the proposal that the government is talking about getting involved in, is a reboot of OneWeb, with existing costs written off by the bankruptcy. The UK would be part of a consortium.

    Part of the UK bid would be to add the Surrey Satellites style piggyback navigation idea to the future tranches of satellites (74 OneWeb satellites are in orbit currently). This would create a navigation system for a tiny fraction of the price of a Gallileo/GPS style system.

    One thing to bear in mind is that the Surrey satellite proposal was *hated* by the big UK aerospace contractors. If you start by reducing costs by billions, where would such things end?

    Another issue in this is that currently Starlink is walking away with what looks to be the Next Big Thing - cheap internet connection from space. This would allow you to roll out connectivity to the most remote parts of the world, cheaply. If OneWeb (which is the competitor with actually frequency allocations etc) doesn't go ahead, then the US will walk off with that for a generation.

    Yet another issue - OneWeb massively involves ESA, various European institutions and various European aerospace contractors. Saving it might have some rather interesting political follow on.
    But why go to all that effort of having to do actual research on a highly-technical subject, when you can much more easily write "Boris and Cummings f*** up again" and have 100,000 likes and retweets by dinner time?
  • Options
    brokenwheelbrokenwheel Posts: 3,352
    edited June 2020
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,854

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
  • Options
    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,988
    LadyG said:

    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
    If London has to go into lockdown again, I just...... shudder.

    I doubt that many would even accept it. The city would become ungovernable as the police tried to enforce it.

    Proper nightmare stuff.
    I don't think it would be full lockdown. The numbers are small and the R is barely above 1. It could be a delay in opening pubs for instance or other measures. Not a full lockdown.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Sandpit said:

    Scott_xP said:

    The new Boris & Cummings cock-up might be spaffing half a billion quid on the wrong sort of satellites, according to the space boffins. The issue seems to be Oneweb makes satellites for internet services (hence the name, I suppose) and not for satnavs.

    https://twitter.com/Simon_Nixon/status/1276583134675570689
    The issue is rather more complex than that.

    Surrey Satellites proposed a new way to do satellite navigation using LEO sats, before the Galileo project kicked off.

    This was rejected as the solution for Galileo because it wasn't grand enough, wasn't like GPS (shades of the Soviet shuttle and Concordski) and didn't feed the right industrial champions across Europe.

    OneWeb went bankrupt because they spent too much vs SpaceX's Starlink competitor - Mb/S/$ was too high.

    Part of the Surrey Satellites proposal was to piggy back on other constellations - there are large constellations of private pic taking satellites up there now.

    What the proposal that the government is talking about getting involved in, is a reboot of OneWeb, with existing costs written off by the bankruptcy. The UK would be part of a consortium.

    Part of the UK bid would be to add the Surrey Satellites style piggyback navigation idea to the future tranches of satellites (74 OneWeb satellites are in orbit currently). This would create a navigation system for a tiny fraction of the price of a Gallileo/GPS style system.

    One thing to bear in mind is that the Surrey satellite proposal was *hated* by the big UK aerospace contractors. If you start by reducing costs by billions, where would such things end?

    Another issue in this is that currently Starlink is walking away with what looks to be the Next Big Thing - cheap internet connection from space. This would allow you to roll out connectivity to the most remote parts of the world, cheaply. If OneWeb (which is the competitor with actually frequency allocations etc) doesn't go ahead, then the US will walk off with that for a generation.

    Yet another issue - OneWeb massively involves ESA, various European institutions and various European aerospace contractors. Saving it might have some rather interesting political follow on.
    But why go to all that effort of having to do actual research on a highly-technical subject, when you can much more easily write "Boris and Cummings f*** up again" and have 100,000 likes and retweets by dinner time?
    Ah, but there's a character limit on twitter. ;)
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,393
    edited June 2020

    Scott_xP said:

    The new Boris & Cummings cock-up might be spaffing half a billion quid on the wrong sort of satellites, according to the space boffins. The issue seems to be Oneweb makes satellites for internet services (hence the name, I suppose) and not for satnavs.

    https://twitter.com/Simon_Nixon/status/1276583134675570689
    The issue is rather more complex than that.

    Surrey Satellites proposed a new way to do satellite navigation using LEO sats, before the Galileo project kicked off.

    This was rejected as the solution for Galileo because it wasn't grand enough, wasn't like GPS (shades of the Soviet shuttle and Concordski) and didn't feed the right industrial champions across Europe.

    OneWeb went bankrupt because they spent too much vs SpaceX's Starlink competitor - Mb/S/$ was too high.

    Part of the Surrey Satellites proposal was to piggy back on other constellations - there are large constellations of private pic taking satellites up there now.

    What the proposal that the government is talking about getting involved in, is a reboot of OneWeb, with existing costs written off by the bankruptcy. The UK would be part of a consortium.

    Part of the UK bid would be to add the Surrey Satellites style piggyback navigation idea to the future tranches of satellites (74 OneWeb satellites are in orbit currently). This would create a navigation system for a tiny fraction of the price of a Gallileo/GPS style system.

    One thing to bear in mind is that the Surrey satellite proposal was *hated* by the big UK aerospace contractors. If you start by reducing costs by billions, where would such things end?

    Another issue in this is that currently Starlink is walking away with what looks to be the Next Big Thing - cheap internet connection from space. This would allow you to roll out connectivity to the most remote parts of the world, cheaply. If OneWeb (which is the competitor with actually frequency allocations etc) doesn't go ahead, then the US will walk off with that for a generation.

    Yet another issue - OneWeb massively involves ESA, various European institutions and various European aerospace contractors. Saving it might have some rather interesting political follow on.
    Thanks for a well informed, helpful elucidation. Meanwhile, thousands in simplistic Twitter world think that CuBo (my new portmanteau for Cummings and Boris) were so stupid they didn't check what company they were buying a share of, and nobody in the civil service did either.
  • Options
    AndreaParma_82AndreaParma_82 Posts: 4,714
    French PM Eduard Philippe on route for re-election as mayor of Le Havre

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbnXOm_XgAEQnv6?format=jpg&name=large
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    edited June 2020
    Florida has just reported 10,600 new cases in a day. Another record

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

    For comparison, on the worst day of the outbreak in the UK, we recorded 8,600 cases, and then it fell away quite steeply. Florida is still going up fast.

    A disaster is potentially unfolding there

  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    Barnesian said:

    LadyG said:

    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
    If London has to go into lockdown again, I just...... shudder.

    I doubt that many would even accept it. The city would become ungovernable as the police tried to enforce it.

    Proper nightmare stuff.
    I don't think it would be full lockdown. The numbers are small and the R is barely above 1. It could be a delay in opening pubs for instance or other measures. Not a full lockdown.
    I pray you are right. Also, thankyou for your very helpful daily illuminations of this crisis.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,189

    tlg86 said:

    @TheScreamingEagles - Klopp owes a lot to Rodgers. He’s Kinnock to Klopp’s Blair. Without Rodgers there would have been no big pay day for Suarez, Stirling and Coutunho.

    Gah, Sterling and Suarez were signed long before Rodgers arrived.

    The real legend at Liverpool is Michael Edwards, he's a miracle worker.

    We're a club who can only spend what we earn, so getting for example

    £27 million for Mamadou Sakho

    £15 million for Jordan Ibe

    £12.5 million for Danny Ward

    £20 million for Dominic Solanke

    £8 million for Kevin Stewart (which effectively made the Andy Robertson transfer a no fee swap)

    Are possibly the best deals in the history of football.
    I know Suarez and Stirling were there before Rodgers. The point is, he turned them into world class players.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,137

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances actually take even longer and render that even further away, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
    Interesting post. You are indeed a whispering oracle.
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,393
    LadyG said:

    Florida has just reported 10,600 new cases in a day. Another record

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

    For comparison, on the worst day of the outbreak in the UK, we recorded 8,600 cases, and then it fell away quite steeply. Florida is still going up fast.

    A disaster is potentially unfolding there

    I wonder if it's too late for Trump to get behind masks. Perhaps if they were red masks, with Make America Great Again on them.

    I'm really not clear on the right wing objection to masks. You protect yourself with a gun, why not protect yourself with a mask? It has the added benefit of stopping the deep state from applying facial recognition software on you successfully. Lockdown - I completely see the objection to. Masks, not so much.
  • Options
    FloaterFloater Posts: 14,195

    Floater said:

    Is that right, civil service workers to WAH until next summer (obviously only where job role would allow it)?

    In some cases, maybe. I work for the DWP and am working from home (after a few weeks of special leave until they could supply me with the kit). I certainly don't think I'll be under pressure to go into the office this summer. We have been recruiting shitloads of people due to the spike in new claims, so particularly with social distancing requirements there just isn't space for us all in jobcentres. It's a huge, and potentially transformational change for an organisation that is a bit antediluvian in respect to staff management.
    To be fair I am private sector and can't think I will be in office this year.


    By the way - your colleagues dealt with my sons claim after covid lay off really quickly and helped keep his stress levels down.

    Mind you his council has been in touch yesterday (he still not earning) to say as Covid is ending they want 280 notes by end of July

    Nice..................
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,983

    French PM Eduard Philippe on route for re-election as mayor of Le Havre

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbnXOm_XgAEQnv6?format=jpg&name=large

    How can he be a Mayor and PM at the same time?
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    LadyG said:

    Florida has just reported 10,600 new cases in a day. Another record

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

    For comparison, on the worst day of the outbreak in the UK, we recorded 8,600 cases, and then it fell away quite steeply. Florida is still going up fast.

    A disaster is potentially unfolding there

    I wonder if it's too late for Trump to get behind masks. Perhaps if they were red masks, with Make America Great Again on them.

    I'm really not clear on the right wing objection to masks. You protect yourself with a gun, why not protect yourself with a mask? It has the added benefit of stopping the deep state from applying facial recognition software on you successfully. Lockdown - I completely see the objection to. Masks, not so much.
    The Trump campaign is ahead of you on that

    https://twitter.com/luis_0224/status/1277294852246470657?s=20
  • Options

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The rise of coercive progressivism
    Stephen Daisley

    What has followed the killing of George Floyd did not begin with the death of a man under the knee of a police officer. The rioting and the statue-toppling, the shunnings and the firings, the institutional genuflections and the gleeful marching through newly conquered territory are the fruits of ideas and impulses long in germination. Critics interpret these events as the work of either a political movement or a new religion, but it is more accurate to say that it is both. A secular millenarianism is trying to tear down the liberal order and erect in its place a new order that we might call coercive progressivism. It is an ideological project to enforce a progressive moral code through law, social convention and brute force, but the morality itself emerges from and satisfies a post-Christian search for meaning."

    (£)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-of-coercive-progressivism

    Finely written, but also chilling:

    'But where Christianity offers salvation, sin is eternal in this religion and the hope of deliverance absent. There is only the cross, no resurrection.'
    What a load of pseudo-intellectual masturbation. If people put half as much thought into what has prompted Black Lives Matter and how to rid the world of the kind of prejudice that disfigures and limits people's life chances as they do into coming up with reasons why actually we can continue to ignore it then perhaps we'd make some progress.
    There are none so blind as will not see.
    Yep. It's a dud. When it comes to the issue of anti-black racism the effort which goes into deflecting and obscuring and lurid extrapolation is quite something. It's as if there is an aversion to saying what is truly on the mind - Blacks are hardly discriminated against at all. It's one big whinge. They need to shape up and stop playing the victim card - and so instead we get the invention of a whole new imaginary monolithic monster (!) called the Woke which seeks to take away all that we hold dear and thus must be fought at all costs (a fight which conveniently requires much focus and means doing sweet FA about racism).
    It can be true that there are genuine reasons for grievance, and a new more abrasive form of personal politics that can sometimes make eventual resolution of these grievances actually take even longer and render that even further away, though. I personally would equally apply this to the misdirected white working-class grievances throughout the Brexit movement.
    Interesting post. You are indeed a whispering oracle.
    Haha, thanks ;.)
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,137
    LadyG said:

    Barnesian said:

    RobD said:
    These are the reported case for London over the last two weeks or so.

    108 cases up to w/e 18 June.
    164 cases up to w/e 25 June

    You can console yourself that it is just noise if you like. Maybe it is.
    I think that is significant.
    We shall see fairly soon.
    If London has to go into lockdown again, I just...... shudder.

    I doubt that many would even accept it. The city would become ungovernable as the police tried to enforce it.

    Proper nightmare stuff.
    If it gets a bit lairy, you could always decamp to Penarth like Eadric and SeanT. did during Covid part one.

    James Sommerin might have reopened which would be a bonus for you.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,915
    edited June 2020
    As opposed to the hard-left activists who are the official, American ones!

    Who are the people organising the demos etc in the UK?

  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,915
    edited June 2020
    Yes, important to know that the British public have been duped and that Starmer's on his knees to the hard left
  • Options
    https://twitter.com/AnnelieseDodds/status/1276439429620645888

    Blair has his fingers all over this. If the Tories get caught up in Civil Service reform compared to Labour offering jobs, Labour will walk over them, as another journalist said earlier.
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    edited June 2020

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    edited June 2020

    Scott_xP said:

    The new Boris & Cummings cock-up might be spaffing half a billion quid on the wrong sort of satellites, according to the space boffins. The issue seems to be Oneweb makes satellites for internet services (hence the name, I suppose) and not for satnavs.

    https://twitter.com/Simon_Nixon/status/1276583134675570689
    The issue is rather more complex than that.

    Surrey Satellites proposed a new way to do satellite navigation using LEO sats, before the Galileo project kicked off.

    This was rejected as the solution for Galileo because it wasn't grand enough, wasn't like GPS (shades of the Soviet shuttle and Concordski) and didn't feed the right industrial champions across Europe.

    OneWeb went bankrupt because they spent too much vs SpaceX's Starlink competitor - Mb/S/$ was too high.

    Part of the Surrey Satellites proposal was to piggy back on other constellations - there are large constellations of private pic taking satellites up there now.

    What the proposal that the government is talking about getting involved in, is a reboot of OneWeb, with existing costs written off by the bankruptcy. The UK would be part of a consortium.

    Part of the UK bid would be to add the Surrey Satellites style piggyback navigation idea to the future tranches of satellites (74 OneWeb satellites are in orbit currently). This would create a navigation system for a tiny fraction of the price of a Gallileo/GPS style system.

    One thing to bear in mind is that the Surrey satellite proposal was *hated* by the big UK aerospace contractors. If you start by reducing costs by billions, where would such things end?

    Another issue in this is that currently Starlink is walking away with what looks to be the Next Big Thing - cheap internet connection from space. This would allow you to roll out connectivity to the most remote parts of the world, cheaply. If OneWeb (which is the competitor with actually frequency allocations etc) doesn't go ahead, then the US will walk off with that for a generation.

    Yet another issue - OneWeb massively involves ESA, various European institutions and various European aerospace contractors. Saving it might have some rather interesting political follow on.
    Thanks for a well informed, helpful elucidation. Meanwhile, thousands in simplistic Twitter world think that CuBo (my new portmanteau for Cummings and Boris) were so stupid they didn't check what company they were buying a share of, and nobody in the civil service did either.
    What is interesting, is the breadth of vision in the idea -

    1) Use the latest technology - GPS and Galileo are following a satellite architecture from the 1970s.
    2) Use the ideas of a genuine British success story - Surrey Satellites is a real, world beating company
    3) The navigation system becomes and add on - and hopefully much cheaper
    4) The UK helps to build a consortium to complete with the US in a new aerospace market - think Airbus Part Deux.
    5) The international nature of the bid (UK is 20%) is interesting.
    6) The bid will help save money and face across the European aerospace industry - if OneWeb goes ahead, ESA's launch schedule will be rebuilt, for example.
    7) A giant finger to the usual suspects in British aerospace - who were counting on the full cost of a second Galileo to make they're shareholders happy.
    8) UK control over satellite delivered data services to the UK, potentially.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,370
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    @TheScreamingEagles - Klopp owes a lot to Rodgers. He’s Kinnock to Klopp’s Blair. Without Rodgers there would have been no big pay day for Suarez, Stirling and Coutunho.

    Gah, Sterling and Suarez were signed long before Rodgers arrived.

    The real legend at Liverpool is Michael Edwards, he's a miracle worker.

    We're a club who can only spend what we earn, so getting for example

    £27 million for Mamadou Sakho

    £15 million for Jordan Ibe

    £12.5 million for Danny Ward

    £20 million for Dominic Solanke

    £8 million for Kevin Stewart (which effectively made the Andy Robertson transfer a no fee swap)

    Are possibly the best deals in the history of football.
    I know Suarez and Stirling were there before Rodgers. The point is, he turned them into world class players.
    I get frustrated with Rodgers, the way he railed and sabotaged the 'transfer committee' is a mark against him.

    It has worked brilliantly under Klopp.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,137
    LadyG said:

    LadyG said:

    Florida has just reported 10,600 new cases in a day. Another record

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

    For comparison, on the worst day of the outbreak in the UK, we recorded 8,600 cases, and then it fell away quite steeply. Florida is still going up fast.

    A disaster is potentially unfolding there

    I wonder if it's too late for Trump to get behind masks. Perhaps if they were red masks, with Make America Great Again on them.

    I'm really not clear on the right wing objection to masks. You protect yourself with a gun, why not protect yourself with a mask? It has the added benefit of stopping the deep state from applying facial recognition software on you successfully. Lockdown - I completely see the objection to. Masks, not so much.
    The Trump campaign is ahead of you on that

    https://twitter.com/luis_0224/status/1277294852246470657?s=20
    There are none so blind as those that will not see.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    edited June 2020
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
  • Options
    eristdooferistdoof Posts: 4,887
    RobD said:

    RobD said:
    I would not say that yet. What I would say is that the latest numbers have some *indication* of an uptick. only time will tell.
    The past four or so upticks have come and gone. The problem with the R number when there are a very low number of cases is that it swings around wildly. Didn't Germany get to 3 in recent weeks because of one localised outbreak?
    It was 2.7 I think, which is curiously close to that number special to exponential mathematics.

    But you're right that this estiamte is sensitive to small denominators and natural variation. This number R0 was not initially intended as a variable, but a constant relating to how virilant the virus is in a mathematical model. It seems that this has mutated into R which is a time variable parameter relating to the practical transmission value and is subject to the vaguaries of lockdown and demonstrations etc.

  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    LadyG said:

    LadyG said:

    Florida has just reported 10,600 new cases in a day. Another record

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

    For comparison, on the worst day of the outbreak in the UK, we recorded 8,600 cases, and then it fell away quite steeply. Florida is still going up fast.

    A disaster is potentially unfolding there

    I wonder if it's too late for Trump to get behind masks. Perhaps if they were red masks, with Make America Great Again on them.

    I'm really not clear on the right wing objection to masks. You protect yourself with a gun, why not protect yourself with a mask? It has the added benefit of stopping the deep state from applying facial recognition software on you successfully. Lockdown - I completely see the objection to. Masks, not so much.
    The Trump campaign is ahead of you on that

    https://twitter.com/luis_0224/status/1277294852246470657?s=20
    I would have thought the Meal Team Six LARPers would have gone wild for N99, BioChemicalNuclear respirators.
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,022

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
    Now we've got an authority on the subject, can you analyse Griffin's period of supporting Israel? Was he a white supremacist before, stopped being a white supremacist while he was Israel's pal and then started being a white supremacist again when he decided he didn't like Israel any more?

    'BNP leader Nick Griffin, friend of Israel?

    For supporters of Israel, it was the shot heard around the UK.

    Last night, BNP leader Nick Griffin told the entire country on Question Time that the BNP was the only party to support Israel in its war "against the terrorists" during Operation Cast Lead.'

    https://tinyurl.com/ycbuk38c
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    eristdoof said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:
    I would not say that yet. What I would say is that the latest numbers have some *indication* of an uptick. only time will tell.
    The past four or so upticks have come and gone. The problem with the R number when there are a very low number of cases is that it swings around wildly. Didn't Germany get to 3 in recent weeks because of one localised outbreak?
    It was 2.7 I think, which is curiously close to that number special to exponential mathematics.

    But you're right that this estiamte is sensitive to small denominators and natural variation. This number R0 was not initially intended as a variable, but a constant relating to how virilant the virus is in a mathematical model. It seems that this has mutated into R which is a time variable parameter relating to the practical transmission value and is subject to the vaguaries of lockdown and demonstrations etc.

    Indeed -

    image
  • Options
    AndreaParma_82AndreaParma_82 Posts: 4,714
    edited June 2020
    Louis Aliot (Front National) wins Perpignan 53 to 47%

    Greens win Besancon mayoralty taking over from PS
  • Options
    eristdooferistdoof Posts: 4,887

    eristdoof said:

    RobD said:

    RobD said:
    I would not say that yet. What I would say is that the latest numbers have some *indication* of an uptick. only time will tell.
    The past four or so upticks have come and gone. The problem with the R number when there are a very low number of cases is that it swings around wildly. Didn't Germany get to 3 in recent weeks because of one localised outbreak?
    It was 2.7 I think, which is curiously close to that number special to exponential mathematics.

    But you're right that this estiamte is sensitive to small denominators and natural variation. This number R0 was not initially intended as a variable, but a constant relating to how virilant the virus is in a mathematical model. It seems that this has mutated into R which is a time variable parameter relating to the practical transmission value and is subject to the vaguaries of lockdown and demonstrations etc.

    Indeed -

    image
    That diagram has nothing to do with my comment.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,192
    RobD said:
    That tweet mentions Cummings and the PM. :lol: Johnson hasn't a clue what's happening around him. This is all Cummings work.
  • Options
    AndreaParma_82AndreaParma_82 Posts: 4,714
    Mathieu Klein (PS) gains Nancy ousting the incumbent (who is MP for Mouvement radical and was supported by Macronistes).
  • Options
    Is this the former labour activist Lewis Goodall ?
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,854
    edited June 2020

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
    Not if you are drinking malts though, the cheap stuff is for mixers and cocktails. I only ever drink good stuff so no idea what it is like at bottom end of the market
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
    Hopkins could well be a pretend white supremacist - wearing the hat for clicks and money - but this is if anything worse than believing it.

    And she had a million followers.
  • Options
    brokenwheelbrokenwheel Posts: 3,352
    edited June 2020

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
    Now we've got an authority on the subject, can you analyse Griffin's period of supporting Israel? Was he a white supremacist before, stopped being a white supremacist while he was Israel's pal and then started being a white supremacist again when he decided he didn't like Israel any more?

    'BNP leader Nick Griffin, friend of Israel?

    For supporters of Israel, it was the shot heard around the UK.

    Last night, BNP leader Nick Griffin told the entire country on Question Time that the BNP was the only party to support Israel in its war "against the terrorists" during Operation Cast Lead.'

    https://tinyurl.com/ycbuk38c
    I think you've just proven my point that white supremacists don't actually like Israel or Jews. If I remember correctly Griffin did a few things that riled the rank-and-file, this included.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited June 2020
    Lots of focus on Florida run away covid and idiot policies, California isn't far behind, 7000 cases the other day.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    I like the idea of a hypothecated tax to pay down the coronavirus debt/interest. Money that otherwise would have been spent on debt interest/repayment is then freed up, most likely to make up for shortfalls in revenue.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
    Now we've got an authority on the subject, can you analyse Griffin's period of supporting Israel? Was he a white supremacist before, stopped being a white supremacist while he was Israel's pal and then started being a white supremacist again when he decided he didn't like Israel any more?

    'BNP leader Nick Griffin, friend of Israel?

    For supporters of Israel, it was the shot heard around the UK.

    Last night, BNP leader Nick Griffin told the entire country on Question Time that the BNP was the only party to support Israel in its war "against the terrorists" during Operation Cast Lead.'

    https://tinyurl.com/ycbuk38c
    The extreme right supporting Israel has several factors - a one is "look at us, we can't be Nazis, we like Jews. We are all nice and cuddly now".

    Another is the extreme right acquiring extreme Islamaphobia - and going for the enemy-of-my-new-enemy.

    As with anything that involves the extreme right, it's all over the place.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    edited June 2020
    LadyG said:

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
    Here's a little something I made reference to a few days back:


    Dominic Jackman, the founder of Escape from City, which helps people find work beyond London, said inquiries over the last fortnight revealed “a fundamental change in jobseeker preferences”.

    Of 1,000 people signing up to the service, 51% wanted to leave the capital compared with 20% for the same period in 2019.

    “Pre-Covid, while our jobseekers wanted to ‘escape the rat race’, a lot of them actually were happy living and working in London,” he said. “For the first time ever we have more people wanting to leave London than stay in it which is a huge shift in aspirations.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/covid-19-sparks-exodus-of-middle-class-londoners-in-search-of-the-good-life


    An awful lot of people who previously stayed in London because of its cultural attractions and nightlife - which are now, of course, all shut - have discovered what exceptionally shitty places cities are to be trapped in the midst of public health crises (and this one could drag on for years, and it may not be the last occasion on which this happens in our lifetimes, either.) Many of those same people have also found out that they don't need to travel into the city centre to do their jobs, and have realised through simple internet property searches that they can exchange paying an extortionate rent on a shoebox flat for buying a substantial house with a garden, through the simple expedient of shaping up and shipping out.

    I've read elsewhere that a quarter-of-a-million Londoners fled in the run-up to lockdown and haven't come back, and the phenomenon of middle-class flight is being observed, at a smaller scale, in other urban centres across the country. The only limiting factor here isn't even property prices in the commuter belts of cities, but imagination: if you're considering leaving London for Buckinghamshire then cost might still give you pause for thought but, if you are one of the many well-paid Londoners who really can work from home full-time, then why not just up sticks to somewhere like Lincolnshire and buy a detached house, or move to Powys and trade up to a small mansion and several acres?

    I don't know, perhaps if you're a twentysomething singleton who's desperate to go out clubbing, get pissed and try to get laid every other night then perhaps you might want to stick with a shoebox flat with a convenient nearby Tube station, but once you've grown up then why bother?
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,181
    Scott_xP said:
    If he's as epically shite at this as he was at negotiating Brexit, it would be quicker and less painful to declare the UK a Caliphate now.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited June 2020
    This BLM UK isnt the official BLM movement....official BLM has also had issues with anti-Semitism.

    I guess just taking their cues from all their reading of Marx they have done.
  • Options
    Medea85Medea85 Posts: 3
    Who was it that said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"?
  • Options
    AndreaParma_82AndreaParma_82 Posts: 4,714
    Estimations by TF1 have Martine Aubry behind the Green candidate Stephane Baly in Lille 40 to 39%
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    People "on the right", yes. And, as you say it is mostly just reactionary to the left's obsession.

    Phew, so it's still the left's faults reely.
    All's right with the world.
    :smile: - Yes it's just trolling when it's them. Don't mean nothing by it. Bit of a laugh.
    What exactly are you trying to imply they mean? Are you saying being pro-Israel is "white supremacy"?
    No! - Just that many white supremacists ARE very pro Israel.
    No, they aren't. If you are pro-jewish you are not white supremacist, they are incompatible.

    Just lefty antisemites love playing with/demeaning words to call other people white supremacists who aren't, much like calling anyone you disagree with Nazis. E.g. you called Katie Hopkins a white supremacist. No, she isn't. She's a shock-jock and a baiter, but you are demeaning the term.
    Now we've got an authority on the subject, can you analyse Griffin's period of supporting Israel? Was he a white supremacist before, stopped being a white supremacist while he was Israel's pal and then started being a white supremacist again when he decided he didn't like Israel any more?

    'BNP leader Nick Griffin, friend of Israel?

    For supporters of Israel, it was the shot heard around the UK.

    Last night, BNP leader Nick Griffin told the entire country on Question Time that the BNP was the only party to support Israel in its war "against the terrorists" during Operation Cast Lead.'

    https://tinyurl.com/ycbuk38c
    I think you've just proven my point that white supremacists don't actually like Israel or Jews. If I remember correctly Griffin did a few things that riled the rank-and-file, this included.
    It's the "no true white supremacist" argument!
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330

    LadyG said:

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
    Here's a little something I made reference to a few days back:


    Dominic Jackman, the founder of Escape from City, which helps people find work beyond London, said inquiries over the last fortnight revealed “a fundamental change in jobseeker preferences”.

    Of 1,000 people signing up to the service, 51% wanted to leave the capital compared with 20% for the same period in 2019.

    “Pre-Covid, while our jobseekers wanted to ‘escape the rat race’, a lot of them actually were happy living and working in London,” he said. “For the first time ever we have more people wanting to leave London than stay in it which is a huge shift in aspirations.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/covid-19-sparks-exodus-of-middle-class-londoners-in-search-of-the-good-life


    An awful lot of people who previously stayed in London because of its cultural attractions and nightlife - which are now, of course, all shut - have discovered what exceptionally shitty places cities are to be trapped in the midst of public health crises (and this one could drag on for years, and it may not be the last occasion on which this happens in our lifetimes, either.) Many of those same people have also found out that they don't need to travel into the city centre to do their jobs, and have realised through simple internet property searches that they can exchange paying an extortionate rent on a shoebox flat for buying a substantial house with a garden, through the simple expedient of shaping up and shipping out.

    I've read elsewhere that a quarter-of-a-million Londoners fled in the run-up to lockdown and haven't come back, and the phenomenon of middle-class flight is being observed, at a smaller scale, in other urban centres across the country. The only limiting factor here isn't even property prices in the commuter belts of cities, but imagination: if you're considering leaving London for Buckinghamshire then cost might still give you pause for thought but, if you are one of the many well-paid Londoners who really can work from home full-time, then why not just up sticks to somewhere like Lincolnshire and buy a detached house, or move to Powys and trade up to a small mansion and several acres?

    I don't know, perhaps if you're a twentysomething singleton who's desperate to go out clubbing, get pissed and try to get laid every other night then perhaps you might want to stick with a shoebox flat with a convenient nearby Tube station, but once you've grown up then why bother?
    I would not be surprised if many people who were living the flat-in-town-house-in-the-country plan are thinking about basing themselves in the house, rather than the flat they use to be near work during the week.

    I know a few people, who bought/inherited houses, near where they originally came from. Many hours commute from London, so when they got married, they kept a flat in London. Weekends + a couple of days working from home at the house.

    They are all currently at the house in that setup. Pretty easy for them to continue that....
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,181

    LadyG said:

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
    Here's a little something I made reference to a few days back:


    Dominic Jackman, the founder of Escape from City, which helps people find work beyond London, said inquiries over the last fortnight revealed “a fundamental change in jobseeker preferences”.

    Of 1,000 people signing up to the service, 51% wanted to leave the capital compared with 20% for the same period in 2019.

    “Pre-Covid, while our jobseekers wanted to ‘escape the rat race’, a lot of them actually were happy living and working in London,” he said. “For the first time ever we have more people wanting to leave London than stay in it which is a huge shift in aspirations.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/covid-19-sparks-exodus-of-middle-class-londoners-in-search-of-the-good-life


    An awful lot of people who previously stayed in London because of its cultural attractions and nightlife - which are now, of course, all shut - have discovered what exceptionally shitty places cities are to be trapped in the midst of public health crises (and this one could drag on for years, and it may not be the last occasion on which this happens in our lifetimes, either.) Many of those same people have also found out that they don't need to travel into the city centre to do their jobs, and have realised through simple internet property searches that they can exchange paying an extortionate rent on a shoebox flat for buying a substantial house with a garden, through the simple expedient of shaping up and shipping out.

    I've read elsewhere that a quarter-of-a-million Londoners fled in the run-up to lockdown and haven't come back, and the phenomenon of middle-class flight is being observed, at a smaller scale, in other urban centres across the country. The only limiting factor here isn't even property prices in the commuter belts of cities, but imagination: if you're considering leaving London for Buckinghamshire then cost might still give you pause for thought but, if you are one of the many well-paid Londoners who really can work from home full-time, then why not just up sticks to somewhere like Lincolnshire and buy a detached house, or move to Powys and trade up to a small mansion and several acres?

    I don't know, perhaps if you're a twentysomething singleton who's desperate to go out clubbing, get pissed and try to get laid every other night then perhaps you might want to stick with a shoebox flat with a convenient nearby Tube station, but once you've grown up then why bother?
    Five miles from where I live is a station, with ample parking. Trains get to Euston in one hour forty minutes.

    And when HS2 is working, there will be trains to Euston from a station two miles away along an easy bike track, which will also take about an hour and forty minutes.

    It costs forty quid return.

    The house has three bedrooms, front and back garden, kitchen diner, living room, conservatory and garage. It costs around £150,000.

    Why would you pay ten times that to live in a worse house in London when it will probably take you about the same amount of time to reach London?
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
    Not if you are drinking malts though, the cheap stuff is for mixers and cocktails. I only ever drink good stuff so no idea what it is like at bottom end of the market
    Some of the alleged high end stuff tastes as if they think the price will make it taste better.

    Giving away the bottom end of the market would be very, very stupid. Think gateway.... How many people start with the £100 a bottle single malts?

    If the Japanese et al are offering the same quality at (say) half the price, then it will take a while, but things will change.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182

    LadyG said:

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
    Here's a little something I made reference to a few days back:


    Dominic Jackman, the founder of Escape from City, which helps people find work beyond London, said inquiries over the last fortnight revealed “a fundamental change in jobseeker preferences”.

    Of 1,000 people signing up to the service, 51% wanted to leave the capital compared with 20% for the same period in 2019.

    “Pre-Covid, while our jobseekers wanted to ‘escape the rat race’, a lot of them actually were happy living and working in London,” he said. “For the first time ever we have more people wanting to leave London than stay in it which is a huge shift in aspirations.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/covid-19-sparks-exodus-of-middle-class-londoners-in-search-of-the-good-life


    An awful lot of people who previously stayed in London because of its cultural attractions and nightlife - which are now, of course, all shut - have discovered what exceptionally shitty places cities are to be trapped in the midst of public health crises (and this one could drag on for years, and it may not be the last occasion on which this happens in our lifetimes, either.) Many of those same people have also found out that they don't need to travel into the city centre to do their jobs, and have realised through simple internet property searches that they can exchange paying an extortionate rent on a shoebox flat for buying a substantial house with a garden, through the simple expedient of shaping up and shipping out.

    I've read elsewhere that a quarter-of-a-million Londoners fled in the run-up to lockdown and haven't come back, and the phenomenon of middle-class flight is being observed, at a smaller scale, in other urban centres across the country. The only limiting factor here isn't even property prices in the commuter belts of cities, but imagination: if you're considering leaving London for Buckinghamshire then cost might still give you pause for thought but, if you are one of the many well-paid Londoners who really can work from home full-time, then why not just up sticks to somewhere like Lincolnshire and buy a detached house, or move to Powys and trade up to a small mansion and several acres?

    I don't know, perhaps if you're a twentysomething singleton who's desperate to go out clubbing, get pissed and try to get laid every other night then perhaps you might want to stick with a shoebox flat with a convenient nearby Tube station, but once you've grown up then why bother?
    What if you want to meet interesting people?
  • Options
    Peter_the_PunterPeter_the_Punter Posts: 13,293
    Medea85 said:

    Who was it that said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"?

    It's Churchill. Not sure you've got it word perfect but right in substance.
  • Options
    FishingFishing Posts: 4,561

    Andy_JS said:

    Floater said:

    Oh, speaking of that mural.

    https://twitter.com/icecube/status/1269277079914209282

    Twitter will delete your account for saying "Men aren't women tho", or hide tweets in case they "cause offense", but is totally fine with this.

    This for me rings enormous alarm bells.

    Today you can lose your job for saying "white lives matter"

    and get promoted for saying "white lives don't matter"

    Strange old world...........
    We need a new political movement that will oppose this nonsense, one that people on the non-woke left, centre and right can support.
    'Common Sense Matters'?
    Free Speech Matters?
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    LadyG said:

    Andy_JS said:

    stodge said:

    Nearly evening all :)

    So we are supposed to be building - the era of the major capital project is upon us - and from where I sit in lowland East London, the future is flats, flats and more flats.

    I'm thinking about all these flats and all the people in them, whether owners or renters, and thinking how well they will get to know their new accommodation if we have to lockdown once again.

    Perhaps in the not-too-distant the notion of living in a little box flat in a huge clock with no external space to call your own will go the same way as the idea of travelling for 4 hours on trains and tubes to go to and from an office.

    I can see the attraction of rural life and life well away from the capital.

    Whenever I see those new flats in east London, they always look like you'd have to practically be a millionaire in order to afford to buy one.
    We're only at the very start of the transformation of working and living in this country that will be delivered by coronavirus, and the resultant realisation that (a) most commuting and centralised office activity is without value and (b) low density living beats high density living hands down for quality of life and of health.

    Much of London's commercial property is now obsolete, and many of the well-heeled customers who might previously have been willing to pay telephone number sums for poky little flats in the capital will be emigrating to its more upmarket suburbs or right out into the Home Counties.

    Outside of the leafiest areas and the Government and tourist theme park zones in the centre, the future of London is as a giant slum for those too poor to be able to afford to leave. One vast banlieue on the Parisian model.
    Possibly a little hyperbolic, but probably not entirely wrong. I have friends talking of leaving London, whereas before they were avid fans of the city.

    The same forces will also hollow out crowded cities across the West, from Paris and New York, to San Francisco and Madrid. Indeed cities outside Britain could suffer more, as rural property overseas is cheaper - because America, Spain and France are simply bigger, and emptier.

    New York in particular could be entirely screwed. Why live in a small apartment in a newly desolate Manhattan, which freezes every winter and costs a fortune in heating, when you can move to sunny New Mexico and have acres of land?

    The ramifications of all this are enormous
    Here's a little something I made reference to a few days back:


    Dominic Jackman, the founder of Escape from City, which helps people find work beyond London, said inquiries over the last fortnight revealed “a fundamental change in jobseeker preferences”.

    Of 1,000 people signing up to the service, 51% wanted to leave the capital compared with 20% for the same period in 2019.

    “Pre-Covid, while our jobseekers wanted to ‘escape the rat race’, a lot of them actually were happy living and working in London,” he said. “For the first time ever we have more people wanting to leave London than stay in it which is a huge shift in aspirations.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/covid-19-sparks-exodus-of-middle-class-londoners-in-search-of-the-good-life


    An awful lot of people who previously stayed in London because of its cultural attractions and nightlife - which are now, of course, all shut - have discovered what exceptionally shitty places cities are to be trapped in the midst of public health crises (and this one could drag on for years, and it may not be the last occasion on which this happens in our lifetimes, either.) Many of those same people have also found out that they don't need to travel into the city centre to do their jobs, and have realised through simple internet property searches that they can exchange paying an extortionate rent on a shoebox flat for buying a substantial house with a garden, through the simple expedient of shaping up and shipping out.

    I've read elsewhere that a quarter-of-a-million Londoners fled in the run-up to lockdown and haven't come back, and the phenomenon of middle-class flight is being observed, at a smaller scale, in other urban centres across the country. The only limiting factor here isn't even property prices in the commuter belts of cities, but imagination: if you're considering leaving London for Buckinghamshire then cost might still give you pause for thought but, if you are one of the many well-paid Londoners who really can work from home full-time, then why not just up sticks to somewhere like Lincolnshire and buy a detached house, or move to Powys and trade up to a small mansion and several acres?

    I don't know, perhaps if you're a twentysomething singleton who's desperate to go out clubbing, get pissed and try to get laid every other night then perhaps you might want to stick with a shoebox flat with a convenient nearby Tube station, but once you've grown up then why bother?
    Yes, the Rona is a perfect storm for large western cities. Especially ones big on skyscrapers, where you have to take a virus-loaded elevator to an apartment with no outside space.

    London might just do a bit better because of it large number of parks and private gardens.

    Should be noted, this is cyclical. Humans will always like cities, because sex, food, art, music, company; moreover once the cost of housing in big cities comes down then young people will flock back to gentrify all over again.

    But for now, go long on Cornish cottages, short on Shoreditch lofts.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,181
    Medea85 said:

    Who was it that said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"?

    Nobody knows. It's attributed to Churchill but never conclusively proved to be his, and doesn't sound very like him.

    https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-141/red-herrings-famous-quotes-churchill-never-said/

    If I had to guess at who might have said it, I would have guessed Birkenhead, whose wonderfully acid wit was justly famous. Samples:

    'It was possible to say without fear of contradiction that the miners' leaders are the stupidest men in England, had we not frequent occasion to meet the owners.'

    Judge: 'Why do you suppose I am a judge, Mr Smith?'
    Birkenhead: 'It is not for me to fathom the inscrutable workings of providence, m'lud.'

    Judge: 'I fear I am none the wiser after those remarks.'
    Birkenhead: 'Perhaps not, but you are at least better informed.'
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,182
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
    Not if you are drinking malts though, the cheap stuff is for mixers and cocktails. I only ever drink good stuff so no idea what it is like at bottom end of the market
    Morrison's own brand half bottle is £6.95.

    There are worse ways to spend £6.95.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,854

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
    Not if you are drinking malts though, the cheap stuff is for mixers and cocktails. I only ever drink good stuff so no idea what it is like at bottom end of the market
    Some of the alleged high end stuff tastes as if they think the price will make it taste better.

    Giving away the bottom end of the market would be very, very stupid. Think gateway.... How many people start with the £100 a bottle single malts?

    If the Japanese et al are offering the same quality at (say) half the price, then it will take a while, but things will change.
    you would hope the numpties running it know what they are doing, but most are owned by global businesses now so its just quick buck thinking.
  • Options
    JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,009
    edited June 2020
    The BBC is banging on about being able to go to Spain or Greece on holiday, but I have absolutely no intention of going to either place in the summer. Will we be able to go somewhere more interesting (or temperate)? I have a working plan to do a train trip round Transylvania in Sept or Oct, but I admit to a sneaky plan to get away for a few days before the school holidays. Maybe Germany if available, although it's a bit complicated as each Land has different rules.
  • Options
    DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 24,324
    Sounds like Mark Francois is grandstanding.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,330
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    LadyG said:

    kicorse said:

    LadyG said:

    J K Rowling delicately gutting that Labour MP in this thread

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1277263814552100866?s=20

    "Hate" is obviously way too strong, and he was right to apologise, but JK Rowling does come across as viewing the issue to be much simpler than it is. She could have found space in nine tweets to acknowledge that discrimination against transgender people is a serious issue (or for that matter that the proportion of domestic abuse victims who are male is far from negligible), and that this discrimination often turns to hatred and even violence.

    There's no smoking gun, but she has consistently come across as intolerant on the issue. Maybe she can be excused this due to her own experiences. Nevertheless, considering the profile she has, we shouldn't blame those with similarly terrible experiences who speak out against her.
    I confess I don't know the nuances of the trans-TERF debate, even though I do try. I feel like an American realy trying to understand cricket.

    I therefore don't feel confident enough to express a forthright opinion. I merely observe that is is a very vicious battle
    I too know little on the topic other than they seem to be vicious bunch and hunt down anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint. Rowling was correct and no-one with bollocks should be in womens changing areas, fine if they have had their tackle removed , otherwise it is open to abuse by men. If that is a controversial view then so be it.
    Lets have a fighting debate on a really contentious topic - Japanese Whisky.
    rotgut, you cannot beat the real thing. I see last week Westminster did one to promote Scottish product and termed it the Scottish Whiskey Association, one wonders if deliberate.
    I would say that the best Japanese stuff is deserving of respect - they have worked very hard to produce a very good product.

    Some of the Scottish producers seem to think that turps in a bottle with a picture of bloke in a kilt, is a product plan.

    This is the kind of thinking that gave the Australians and Chileans their opportunity in the wine market. The French were lazy and arrogant. First they gave up the low price sector, then realised that the competition was moving up the rankings...

    In business you have 2 choices - either your product will be surpassed by a new product belonging to you, or a new product belonging to someone else.
    Not if you are drinking malts though, the cheap stuff is for mixers and cocktails. I only ever drink good stuff so no idea what it is like at bottom end of the market
    Some of the alleged high end stuff tastes as if they think the price will make it taste better.

    Giving away the bottom end of the market would be very, very stupid. Think gateway.... How many people start with the £100 a bottle single malts?

    If the Japanese et al are offering the same quality at (say) half the price, then it will take a while, but things will change.
    you would hope the numpties running it know what they are doing, but most are owned by global businesses now so its just quick buck thinking.
    Same idiocy killed a lot of producers in France. "Bang another 10 euro on the price. The idiot foreigners will always buy French"...
  • Options
    Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 2,743
    isam said:

    As opposed to the hard-left activists who are the official, American ones!

    Who are the people organising the demos etc in the UK?

    From my casual observation they are (a) white (b) female (c) 20-30 (d) on furlough from a London 'creative' job (e) back home living with their parents and, crucially, (f) bored silly.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Andy_JS said:
    Yeah, not really surprising given the 96% number is it?
This discussion has been closed.