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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 22, 2022 18:41:24 GMT
Carfrew
This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems?
I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past.
I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows.
Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too.
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Aug 22, 2022 18:46:34 GMT
c-a-r-f-r-e-w - when is Nick Timothy taking out his Socialist Workers Party membership card? I think Starmer would be a bit too right-wing for him. Pity he never mentioned any of that to Theresa May.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 18:46:41 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. You may well be right… can’t say I have kept track of his views over time, but indeed part of the reason I posted it was because there seems to be less enthusiasm for the market these days in those quarters. Redwood was on the radio earlier ruling out austerity as costing more than it saves. Timothy stopped short of recommending nationalisation of course, it’s not exactly an utter conversion!
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 18:48:27 GMT
c-a-r-f-r-e-w - when is Nick Timothy taking out his Socialist Workers Party membership card? I think Starmer would be a bit too right-wing for him. Pity he never mentioned any of that to Theresa May. She might have got a few more votes if he had. (I suppose it’s possible he did but she didn’t want to know?) Edit… just reading around a bit, I was reading “The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares” on Google Books, and it looks like Timothy might have been trying to get May’s Tories to shift a bit more but was thwarted. Unfortunately there are only excerpts which cut off before it becomes clearer.
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Aug 22, 2022 18:54:13 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. Nick Timothy? Oh my aching sides.. Credibility level -5000
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Aug 22, 2022 19:09:16 GMT
It wasn’t so long ago that right wing Anglo-Saxon exceptionalists would bark on about how the Anglo-Saxon model of low economic regulation was what gave us the march on those more statist, regulated, protectionist, social market oriented Europeans. The UK apparently had to leave the EU to sent it’s freedom loving economic spirit free.
Now it seems some on the populist right are saying this was all wrong and we should have been more like the French and Germans all along, without of course ever making that connection as of course everything European is by definition beyond the pale to their tiny narrow minds. I find it very amusing..
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Post by shevii on Aug 22, 2022 19:15:14 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. Agreed and I'd also add into this equation a whole string of centrist journalists who are now wringing their hands with woe at the state of the country but were actively working against the possibility of a Corbyn government in 2017 and 2019 (and a minority one at that with checks on him from rebellious centrist MPs in his own party if things got too extreme for their tastes). Not like you have to be a fan of Corbyn, but Corbyn v May and especially Corbyn v Johnson- any doubt if you are a liberal minded type of writer? What I don't understand with this current Conservative Party is why they are so reluctant to strengthen fines for sewage discharges or get a grip on the energy producers. I can understand the traditional low taxes vs public services philosophy because that's core to Conservative thinking and to some extent giving freedom to "entrepreneurs" is part of that and you don't have to agree with the philosophy to understand there might be a logic to it. But when they see something failing so badly like the energy markets or the sewage discharges and leaks then surely you can compromise your philosophy on markets that aren't functioning and hurting your country so badly?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 19:21:40 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. Agreed and I'd also add into this equation a whole string of centrist journalists who are now wringing their hands with woe at the state of the country but were actively working against the possibility of a Corbyn government in 2017 and 2019 (and a minority one at that with checks on him from rebellious centrist MPs in his own party if things got too extreme for their tastes). Not like you have to be a fan of Corbyn, but Corbyn v May and especially Corbyn v Johnson- any doubt if you are a liberal minded type of writer? What I don't understand with this current Conservative Party is why they are so reluctant to strengthen fines for sewage discharges or get a grip on the energy producers. I can understand the traditional low taxes vs public services philosophy because that's core to Conservative thinking and to some extent giving freedom to "entrepreneurs" is part of that and you don't have to agree with the philosophy to understand there might be a logic to it. But when they see something failing so badly like the energy markets or the sewage discharges and leaks then surely you can compromise your philosophy on markets that aren't functioning and hurting your country so badly? Corruption - the Conservative party is owned by these special interests
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 19:30:02 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. Agreed and I'd also add into this equation a whole string of centrist journalists who are now wringing their hands with woe at the state of the country but were actively working against the possibility of a Corbyn government in 2017 and 2019 (and a minority one at that with checks on him from rebellious centrist MPs in his own party if things got too extreme for their tastes). Not like you have to be a fan of Corbyn, but Corbyn v May and especially Corbyn v Johnson- any doubt if you are a liberal minded type of writer? What I don't understand with this current Conservative Party is why they are so reluctant to strengthen fines for sewage discharges or get a grip on the energy producers. I can understand the traditional low taxes vs public services philosophy because that's core to Conservative thinking and to some extent giving freedom to "entrepreneurs" is part of that and you don't have to agree with the philosophy to understand there might be a logic to it. But when they see something failing so badly like the energy markets or the sewage discharges and leaks then surely you can compromise your philosophy on markets that aren't functioning and hurting your country so badly? reading a bit more about it, it seems as though Timothy was in cahoots with Cummings etc. and they were keen on chasing the Red Wall, but Tories under Boris bought into the line a bit more than May’s Tories. of course part of the interest was to play to them for the EU ref., incorporating the immigration aspect
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 19:33:10 GMT
Carfrew This seems more like journalese from Timothy to me rather than insightful analysis. As a former adviser to May, and sacked by her when things got a bit fractious, I don't remember any of this critique of modern capitalism and globalisation from either him or May when it mattered.. Hasn't he, all his political life, supported a party, and orthodoxy, that advocated and promoted a lot of what he now claims is the malaise that underpins many of our economic and social problems? I'm all for sinners repenting, and hindsight soul searching too, but it's a bit rich of him to be writing this sort of stuff now in the Telegraph after all he's said and done in the past. I rather think it's a belated attempt to intellectually distance himself from a philosophy he once supported but now apparently disavows. Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too. Nick Timothy? Oh my aching sides.. Credibility level -5000 plenty of them might lack cred., including some of the LibDems you’ve championed. Of interest to me is how their lines change over time, and if the changes are effective.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 19:37:00 GMT
Agreed and I'd also add into this equation a whole string of centrist journalists who are now wringing their hands with woe at the state of the country but were actively working against the possibility of a Corbyn government in 2017 and 2019 (and a minority one at that with checks on him from rebellious centrist MPs in his own party if things got too extreme for their tastes). Not like you have to be a fan of Corbyn, but Corbyn v May and especially Corbyn v Johnson- any doubt if you are a liberal minded type of writer? What I don't understand with this current Conservative Party is why they are so reluctant to strengthen fines for sewage discharges or get a grip on the energy producers. I can understand the traditional low taxes vs public services philosophy because that's core to Conservative thinking and to some extent giving freedom to "entrepreneurs" is part of that and you don't have to agree with the philosophy to understand there might be a logic to it. But when they see something failing so badly like the energy markets or the sewage discharges and leaks then surely you can compromise your philosophy on markets that aren't functioning and hurting your country so badly? Corruption - the Conservative party is owned by these special interests a big problem with the idea of leaving it to the market, and hoping to rely on regulation, is that as Capital buys out rivals, corners markets, it gets more money and power, and so can over time get politicians to favour them more. (They can also afford to pay more to hire and lure the most experienced regulators away)
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oldnat
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Extremist - Undermining the UK state and its institutions
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Post by oldnat on Aug 22, 2022 19:56:18 GMT
Pro Irish Unity parties 40% : Pro UK Union parties 41% : "Neutral" 18%
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Post by ladyvalerie on Aug 22, 2022 19:59:07 GMT
crossbat11 “ I have to disappoint you on this. Crofty's avatar is not a photograph of himself. It is instead a scanned and then cropped image from a very obscure old album made by a short-lived skiffle band called the "The Plinky Plonkers". Crofty was a fan of the band and one of only about 75 people to have bought the album.” Since you know the history Batty, you might actually be interested in a spare copy of my tribute cassette “Crofty does Plinky Plonky”. I’ve still got a few hundred of the buggers as I had anticipated a higher sales volume. Well - just anticipated a sale I suppose. Anyway, pm me for a very fair price - they’re all signed. I’ll buy one Crofty but at the price I paid for my first single. 6s Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan 😎
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Post by robbiealive on Aug 22, 2022 20:03:07 GMT
“ On the basis of existing trends, the Czech and Polish economies will catch up with ours within 12 to 15 years. Our infrastructure is rotting, our economy stagnating and, with the NHS in crisis and the police unwilling to police, our state services are hollowing out. This is not the result of Brexit or austerity, nor the mistakes of an individual politician or two. This is the culmination of the failure of a political consensus that prized wafer-thin efficiency over solid resilience, market ideology over state capacity, financial services over a balanced economy , imported goods over domestic production, foreign ownership over strategic capabilities, and globalisation over the national interest.
The financial crash, pandemic and energy crunch exposed our weaknesses, but the crises will keep coming. Geopolitical reality will keep testing us, and our social and economic weaknesses will mean we will keep falling short.” Nick Timothy lecturing us on the evils of capitalism & globalization. Don't make me f--king laugh. Note he blames government, not any particular government, blames politicians, without ever mentioning any particular administration, exculpates Brexit & Austerity, well he f--king would wouldn't he as he was a leaver & wrote May's 2017 manifesto which called for more austerity; babbles about the collapse of the infrastructure & the NHS as the failure of a consensus which prized wafer-thin efficiency over resilience, (whatever the f that means) a consensis that he & the new Tory right didn't for one minute attempt to bring about. Brexit is not about consensus. He seeks to naturalise a deterioration in public provision which in fact is the result of decisions taken by specific governments, the last 12 years a Tory one. Even today in the Guardian there is a story about Truss at Environment cutting indeed slashing & burning the agencies which inter alia were responsible for policing pollution on beaches. The key statement is Crossbat's: Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too.
Only there is not a hint of a humbug, but a sweetshop full of it & and the attempt to exculpate his government is not thinly veiled but f--king blatant. And I don't even like swearing on this site.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 20:07:15 GMT
robbiealive Yes, the reason I posted it was precisely because of his prior affiliations. That’s what’s notable about it, if the right are now saying this stuff. Although a few more on the supposed left could do with saying a bit more of it perhaps. By the looks of things, he’s been saying some of it for a while, but it’s now rather prominent in the Telegraph. obviously it’s an opportunity to do the activist thing and just chuck some ad homs his way, but after all that the issues remain. Incidentally he does give inductions as to who to blame: he blamed “successive governments of the past two decades” when it comes to lack of nuclear, he also says “Gas storage facilities were dismantled” which presumably points the finger at a more recent government. (Overall though, one might go back further…)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 20:13:04 GMT
crossbat11 “ I have to disappoint you on this. Crofty's avatar is not a photograph of himself. It is instead a scanned and then cropped image from a very obscure old album made by a short-lived skiffle band called the "The Plinky Plonkers". Crofty was a fan of the band and one of only about 75 people to have bought the album.” Since you know the history Batty, you might actually be interested in a spare copy of my tribute cassette “Crofty does Plinky Plonky”. I’ve still got a few hundred of the buggers as I had anticipated a higher sales volume. Well - just anticipated a sale I suppose. Anyway, pm me for a very fair price - they’re all signed. I’ll buy one Crofty but at the price I paid for my first single. 6s Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan 😎 Blimey! You can two for that Val!! I’ll even rub my signature out if you prefer?
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Post by robbiealive on Aug 22, 2022 20:19:24 GMT
robbiealive Yes, the reason I posted it was precisely because of his prior affiliations. That’s what’s notable about it, if the right are now saying this stuff. By the looks of things, he’s been saying some of it for a while, but it’s now rather prominent in the Telegraph. Although a few more on the supposed left could do with saying a bit more of it perhaps. obviously it’s an opportunity to do the activist thing and just chuck some ad homs his way, but after all that the issues remain. Incidentally he did say who to blame: he blamed governments of the past few decades, though one might go back further… But where are his nostrums, his solutions, his proposals, his new ideas. Truss & her crew are offering more of the same, more of the past, more of the globalising small-state tragedy that has reduced him to hand-wringing lamentations, a mea culpa. When he writes an article trashing Truss, which is the logic of his conversion, he will be getting somewhere, But we ain't going to get that in the Truss-supporting Telegraph are we sport/
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 22, 2022 20:25:38 GMT
What I don't understand with this current Conservative Party is why they are so reluctant to strengthen fines for sewage discharges or get a grip on the energy producers. I can understand the traditional low taxes vs public services philosophy because that's core to Conservative thinking and to some extent giving freedom to "entrepreneurs" is part of that and you don't have to agree with the philosophy to understand there might be a logic to it. But when they see something failing so badly like the energy markets or the sewage discharges and leaks then surely you can compromise your philosophy on markets that aren't functioning and hurting your country so badly? when you seek to understand motives, look at outcomes. There was a massive transfer of wealth from the state to a quite small proportion of the population, by a party much funded by this same group of citizens. QED. Putin learnt much from Thatcher. The water companies are neither here nor there at the moment. They aren't fleecing the nation any more currently than for the last 30 years. The problem is an absolutely massive rise in payments to privatised energy companies. Partly the fault for that lies in the privatisation schemes. Partly it's an international problem. Partly it seems to be financial markets making an astronomical profit in futures narkets. But behind this also lies brexit, which caused the pound to fall 20%. That had not before now fed through to prices as it inevitably must. Independent bank suggesting 18% inflation next year. Mainly because of energy. But that's just the first tranche. Hopefully energy prices will fall back, but we will have at least that 20% increase in prices overall left in the system. The price of brexit was 20% of our national wealth..And counting.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 20:26:07 GMT
robbiealive Yes, the reason I posted it was precisely because of his prior affiliations. That’s what’s notable about it, if the right are now saying this stuff. By the looks of things, he’s been saying some of it for a while, but it’s now rather prominent in the Telegraph. Although a few more on the supposed left could do with saying a bit more of it perhaps. obviously it’s an opportunity to do the activist thing and just chuck some ad homs his way, but after all that the issues remain. Incidentally he did say who to blame: he blamed governments of the past few decades, though one might go back further… But where are his nostrums, his solutions, his proposals, his new ideas. Truss & her crew are offering more of the same, more of the past, more of the globalising small-state tragedy that has reduced him to hand-wringing lamentations, a mea culpa. When he writes an article trashing Truss, which is the logic of his conversion, he will be getting somewhere, But we ain't going to get that in the Truss-supporting Telegraph are we sport/ Probably not robbie, given their leanings, and the Guardian supported austerity, also not that great a surprise. One can find many things assorted media and politicians might choose to leave out that maybe they ought to include, but nonetheless one can still note if there is a shift. There’s lots I don’t like about Tory policy, but one can note a shift away from austerity. The left might have issues with quite a lot of Starmer’s position, but you can still note some moves left on things like the EU. Or maybe if Labour nick LD policy on energy, and then Tories nick it from Labour, as someone in the Times alleged the other day. (even a mea culpa, can be significant. Did LDs do a mea culpa about austerity? Blair and Iraq ?)
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Post by robbiealive on Aug 22, 2022 20:41:07 GMT
Probably not robbie, given their leanings, and the Guardian supported austerity, also not that great a surprise. One can find many things assorted media and politicians might choose to leave out that maybe they ought to include, but nonetheless one can still note if there is a shift. There’s lots I don’t like about Tory policy, but one can note a shift away from austerity. The left might have issues with quite a lot of Starmer’s position, but you can still note some moves left on things like the EU. Or maybe if Labour nick LD policy on energy, and then Tories nick it from Labour, as someone in the Times alleged the other day. (even a mea culpa, can be significant. Did LDs do a mea culpa about austerity? Blair and Iraq ?)I agree politicians don't do mea culpa(s), whatever their stripe. . I doubt we'll get any from the Catholics in Truss's cabinet. Still nice to think their spiritual home will be in the heart of the Continent (what used to be known as allegiance to a foreign power.)
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 20:44:21 GMT
robbiealive Yes, the reason I posted it was precisely because of his prior affiliations. That’s what’s notable about it, if the right are now saying this stuff. By the looks of things, he’s been saying some of it for a while, but it’s now rather prominent in the Telegraph. Although a few more on the supposed left could do with saying a bit more of it perhaps. obviously it’s an opportunity to do the activist thing and just chuck some ad homs his way, but after all that the issues remain. Incidentally he did say who to blame: he blamed governments of the past few decades, though one might go back further… But where are his nostrums, his solutions, his proposals, his new ideas. Truss & her crew are offering more of the same, more of the past, more of the globalising small-state tragedy that has reduced him to hand-wringing lamentations, a mea culpa. Well yes, there is not much of that, of solutions, though you can infer that he would consider a partial solution for him would be to row back on what he calls the “ultra-liberalism”: all the globalism and all that leaving capital to do its thing. Elsewhere he argues for better regulation, but I would argue that’s not necessarily a panacea. For me, for the right to actually start seeing the problem, is something at least.
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 22, 2022 20:44:40 GMT
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 22, 2022 20:55:58 GMT
Of course, the D Tel is desperate to write off the carnage in the NHS as nothing to do with 12 years of under-funding or a relentlessly stupid policy of doing nothing to prevent repeated mass covid infection, so in August it's time to pretend that the problems we are facing are just part of normal winter crises. I already reported some spokesperson being interviewed saying that covid vaccines were still important for the over 75s. That is a measure of the realism which has now reached the NHS on the subject of covid. This winter it will be treated like seasonal flu. Zoe data shows the most recent peak of cases has now fallen back to the background 1.5 million concurrent cases or so which has existed all summer. Truth may well be that in a normal year there would be plenty of flu cases all summer, but hardly anyone would notice they were infected. Had anyone bothered to test, no doubt there would be plenty of deaths 'with flu' in a normal summer just as we now have 'with covid'. We have to forget about covid and concentrate on diseases we can do something about. That was always true incidentally. Be nice to have some of those bilions wasted on lockdown available now. Though the current crisis is itself a reaction to lockdown ending and normal economic activity resuming.
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Aug 22, 2022 20:58:10 GMT
Probably not robbie, given their leanings, and the Guardian supported austerity, also not that great a surprise. One can find many things assorted media and politicians might choose to leave out that maybe they ought to include, but nonetheless one can still note if there is a shift. There’s lots I don’t like about Tory policy, but one can note a shift away from austerity. The left might have issues with quite a lot of Starmer’s position, but you can still note some moves left on things like the EU. Or maybe if Labour nick LD policy on energy, and then Tories nick it from Labour, as someone in the Times alleged the other day. (even a mea culpa, can be significant. Did LDs do a mea culpa about austerity? Blair and Iraq ?)I agree politicians don't do mea culpa(s), whatever their stripe. . I doubt we'll get any from the Catholics in Truss's cabinet. Still nice to think their spiritual home will be in the heart of the Continent (what used to be known as allegiance to a foreign power.) ‘Note a shift away from austerity’ - They used to call that damning with the faintest of faint praise. I guess that ‘shift’ is why you can’t move these days for new leisure centres, subsidised nurseries, NHS dentists and of course, Sure Start centres.. Or maybe it’s all useless, deceptive rhetoric and we won’t see any infrastructure improvements until we get a Labour govt.. Maybe none of that matters as long as we might get a new 60’s style, defiantly British, spaceport (despite still being members of the esa) to excite those who enjoyed Thunderbirds when they were kids..
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 22, 2022 21:05:11 GMT
I was recently invited to fill in a health survey as part of the react study, following up I guess what by now are millions of people they have surveyed in their rolling covid studies.They are asking about long covid.
As part of the survey they ask how many times people have had covid and when. Naturally I was happy to report I had covid in 2019, only to find the survey prevented me entering this date.
Anyone reading a react study which says there wasn't any covid in 2019 needs to bear in mind they don't allow people to report it!
None so blind as those who will not see.
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Post by hireton on Aug 22, 2022 21:07:38 GMT
domjg Ah yes, old CBX1985 was a bit of a case. He got rumbled on the old board and was unmasked as a faux Remainer. He used to claim to have voted remain in the 2016 Referendum and to have subsequently become resigned, stoically and reluctantly, to Brexit. Accordingly he urged us all "to get over it", like he had, and to concentrate instead on making Brexit work. Unfortunately for old CBX, some diligent poster identified someone, using exactly the same moniker, as being an ardent Brexiteer on another forum during the referendum campaign. It seemed like he was trying to have his cake and eat it with us naïve and credulous dupes. After the unmasking and shaming we heard no more from him. I rather miss him and he certainly used to take me in with his tales from the campaign doorstep in deeply pro-Labour parts of Wales. He regaled us with stories of him taking the Tory message into hostile territory, detecting a slow turning of the tide for his beloved Blues. Go left on economics, he used to say, and right on culture and the future will be blue. He saw no future for Labour, just doom and more doom. Sadly, it turned out that he was pulling our plonkers all along. I wonder if he's on Truss's campaign team? I wonder if cbx1985 is with us still but sailing under another name.
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Aug 22, 2022 21:08:09 GMT
“ On the basis of existing trends, the Czech and Polish economies will catch up with ours within 12 to 15 years. Our infrastructure is rotting, our economy stagnating and, with the NHS in crisis and the police unwilling to police, our state services are hollowing out. This is not the result of Brexit or austerity, nor the mistakes of an individual politician or two. This is the culmination of the failure of a political consensus that prized wafer-thin efficiency over solid resilience, market ideology over state capacity, financial services over a balanced economy , imported goods over domestic production, foreign ownership over strategic capabilities, and globalisation over the national interest.
The financial crash, pandemic and energy crunch exposed our weaknesses, but the crises will keep coming. Geopolitical reality will keep testing us, and our social and economic weaknesses will mean we will keep falling short.” Nick Timothy lecturing us on the evils of capitalism & globalization. Don't make me f--king laugh. Note he blames government, not any particular government, blames politicians, without ever mentioning any particular administration, exculpates Brexit & Austerity, well he f--king would wouldn't he as he was a leaver & wrote May's 2017 manifesto which called for more austerity; babbles about the collapse of the infrastructure & the NHS as the failure of a consensus which prized wafer-thin efficiency over resilience, (whatever the f that means) a consensis that he & the new Tory right didn't for one minute attempt to bring about. Brexit is not about consensus. He seeks to naturalise a deterioration in public provision which in fact is the result of decisions taken by specific governments, the last 12 years a Tory one. Even today in the Guardian there is a story about Truss at Environment cutting indeed slashing & burning the agencies which inter alia were responsible for policing pollution on beaches. The key statement is Crossbat's: Some of what he says of course is undoubtedly true, but there is more than a hint of humbug about it, and I detect a thinly veiled attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as he can too.
Only there is not a hint of a humbug, but a sweetshop full of it & and the attempt to exculpate his government is not thinly veiled but f--king blatant. And I don't even like swearing on this site. I don’t normally approve of slap on the back posts but thank you Robbiealive, that was cathartic. I’ve always despised Timothy and his wannabe Victorianism.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
Member
A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
Posts: 6,190
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 22, 2022 21:08:48 GMT
I agree politicians don't do mea culpa(s), whatever their stripe. . I doubt we'll get any from the Catholics in Truss's cabinet. Still nice to think their spiritual home will be in the heart of the Continent (what used to be known as allegiance to a foreign power.) ‘Note a shift away from austerity’ - They used to call that damning with the faintest of faint praise. I guess that ‘shift’ is why you can’t move these days for new leisure centres, subsidised nurseries, NHS dentists and of course, Sure Start centres.. Or maybe it’s all useless, deceptive rhetoric and we won’t see any infrastructure improvements until we get a Labour govt.. Maybe none of that matters as long as we might get a new 60’s style, defiantly British, spaceport (despite still being members of the esa) to excite those who enjoyed Thunderbirds when they were kids.. Yes, as I said, there’s lots missing that I would like, but at least they didn’t do what Clegg and Cameron did. Can you imagine Cameron and Osborne beaming money into most people’s accounts for energy bills? Even Blair only gave a winter fuel allowance to the boomers. Regarding space ports, a new development: apparently a British firm has developed… a mobile spaceport. (which, let’s face it, is a little bit Thunderbirds) “ The UK has never sent a rocket into space from home turf. Every British satellite currently in orbit has left the planet from foreign soil — often blasting off from somewhere in America, or Kourou in French Guiana, or Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Lee Rosen, Skyrora’s chief operations officer, said: “We really didn’t know where we were going to be able to launch from.” Necessity, as is so often the case, was the mother of invention. Skyrora, based in Edinburgh, started developing a “spaceport in a box” — a mobile launch system which can be packed into a dozen shipping containers and taken anywhere in the world.
One container holds the 22.7m-tall XL rocket and unfurls to become its launchpad and gantry, another container hosts the command centre, one holds a power centre, and another contains the fuel filling equipment.
“If you look at any other launchpad — and I’ve built a lot of them — it’s like a small city,” said Rosen, who joined Skyrora in May from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. “Having this mobile capability does give us really a great amount of flexibility. We could deploy anywhere in the world where we get permission to launch.”” … Next year the company is aiming to send its first rocket into space from UK soil, launching from Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland Islands.
But in the future, Rosen believes, the ability to send a rocket and everything needed for a launch to any spot on the globe could give the UK a huge diplomatic advantage.”Times
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Post by mercian on Aug 22, 2022 21:13:16 GMT
Good article. It could have mentioned that Grealish, though already a star, stayed with Villa after they got relegated.
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Post by somerjohn on Aug 22, 2022 21:27:19 GMT
Carfrew: "a mobile launch system which can be packed into a dozen shipping containers and taken anywhere in the world.... One container holds the 22.7m-tall XL rocket"
The longest shipping container is 40 feet (12.2m).
Of course, by 'shipping container' they may mean not a shipping container, ie the familiar standard steel boxes, but a bespoke box 25m or so long. Or they may mean the rocket is dismantled into three or more shorter sections. In which case, I hope their engineering is a bit more precise than their language.
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