Saturday, 8th and Sunday, 9th June 2019

[HindleA]

PF please don't call me "muchly'

[HindleA]

If anything is "woke" it is using the word "woke".

[PorFavor]

Sorry.

Muttley.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Here you go

[PaulfromYorkshire]

I think he's using it in the way he might have used PC

[PorFavor]

How big?

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[RogerOThornhill]

There was a good thread on TY's article by David Weston who I used to follow when I had my old account - a highly respected edu professional.

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[RogerOThornhill]

Larry the Cat
@Number10cat
·
2h
I’ve tried catnip. Loads. Still do it. Great stuff.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Listening to Kate Bush's magnificent Aerial and wondering whether she's had second thoughts on Theresa May.

[HindleA]

Watching "Killing Eve" and sharing her disgust at necessary adornment of atrocious clothes and shoewear to enact escape after nonchalently breaking someone's neck.

[adam]

I think he's using it in the way he might have used PC

I think he's making the desperately dull and utterly absurd argument, often made by wealthy straight white christian upper middle class men, that they are the threatened minority now.

It's an interesting point to make about the slow trawl towards civil rights in all sorts of areas that it so often is going to involve disrupting and undermining privilige - I understand how the arrival in the marketplace of everyday life of millions of black americans was going to have an effect on the lives of millions of white americans. Two kinds of utilitarianism are at work in this - the straightforward one about the greatest happiness of the greatest number and a moral one about the state of society and how, unlike in economics, when it comes to liberty a rising tide really does lift all boats.

I really don't understand, however, and have never really understood, why people are threatened so much by sexuality/gender/identity liberation campaigns, especially not in the west. Really, what does it matter to you? If there are claims on moral/religious grounds, all of those arguments on those grounds were made in defence of slavery.

[adam]

Watching "Killing Eve" and sharing her disgust at necessary adornment of atrocious clothes and shoewear to enact escape after nonchalently breaking someone's neck.

Spoilers! (I've watched episode one of season one and am not not allowed to watch the rest until everyone else here is ready to watch it with me, but nobody is).

Waiting for the baseball to start. Going to watch Yankees/Red Sox in London at the end of this month - I've been watching as many Red Sox games as I can because I know it means so much more to see the game when you understand who you're watching and what they're likely to do.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Chuka to stand for the Libs in his own seat apparently.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

I think he's using it in the way he might have used PC

I think he's making the desperately dull and utterly absurd argument, often made by wealthy straight white christian upper middle class men, that they are the threatened minority now.

It's an interesting point to make about the slow trawl towards civil rights in all sorts of areas that it so often is going to involve disrupting and undermining privilige - I understand how the arrival in the marketplace of everyday life of millions of black americans was going to have an effect on the lives of millions of white americans. Two kinds of utilitarianism are at work in this - the straightforward one about the greatest happiness of the greatest number and a moral one about the state of society and how, unlike in economics, when it comes to liberty a rising tide really does lift all boats.

I really don't understand, however, and have never really understood, why people are threatened so much by sexuality/gender/identity liberation campaigns, especially not in the west. Really, what does it matter to you? If there are claims on moral/religious grounds, all of those arguments on those grounds were made in defence of slavery.

Good post Adam

[RogerOThornhill]

Oh dear, Michael Gove has some economic plans...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... t-economy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Headline says "scrap VAT"
Sub-headline says "replace VAT with a “lower, simpler” alternative"

Well, that's not confusing at all is it?

VAT receipts are forecast to be £137bn this year so any radical reduction might well be pretty costly. I can imagine Philip Hammond sighing deeply at this one

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... rexit-vote" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Emily Thornberry may face reshuffle after Labour split over new EU vote
Move would punish shadow foreign secretary for backing second Brexit referendum

This article makes no sense. It says Corbyn wants to move her because of her support for a referendum - but what of John McDonnell, Keir Starmer and Diane Abbott? They've all said similar things about the need for a referendum. Abbott didn't just say remain should be on any ballot but she would campaign for it as well. I thought with so many of the shadow front bench indicating the Eu elections needed some kind of unequivocal response in favour of a referendum that it would be impossible for Corbyn to blunder on with his ambiguous hints in both directions. I can't see how Thornberry can be "punished" and not others, so I'll take this article with a pinch of salt, but it is odd that Thornberry didn't stand in at PMQs as normal this week

[AnatolyKasparov]

Its the Observer, nuff said.

[Willow904]

Oh dear, Michael Gove has some economic plans...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... t-economy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Headline says "scrap VAT"
Sub-headline says "replace VAT with a “lower, simpler” alternative"

Well, that's not confusing at all is it?

VAT receipts are forecast to be £137bn this year so any radical reduction might well be pretty costly. I can imagine Philip Hammond sighing deeply at this one

Cutting VAT is the go to solution to support the economy in the face of recession. With interest rates still floundering at emergency low levels from the last downturn, tools for tackling recession are limited. This is trying to turn what would be a desperate measure to stop the economy from tanking as a consequence of Brexit into a vote winning policy.

Tory supporters do seem to love tax cuts, while never quite making the obvious connection to crumbling services, so it might work for him in a leadership contest but I would (optimistically?) hope this sort of policy would get destroyed in an election about the state of health care, social care, education, local council services etc etc.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

@willow @ak

Agree. The Thornberry thing I is just trouble causing IMHO.

[Willow904]

Its the Observer, nuff said.

Actually, they might be right, I hadn't seen this before:

https://www.newscabal.co.uk/emily-thorn ... it-policy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the aftermath of the sounding defeat suffered by her party at the European elections on May 26, Mrs Thornberry said Labours should have openly campaigned for a second referendum.

She told the BBC: “We went into an election where the most important issue was what was our view on leaving the European Union and we were not clear about it.

“We were not clear on the one single thing that people wanted to hear and that wasn’t the candidates’ fault.

I hadn't realised she had been quite so critical of Labour's EU election strategy. She is right, though, it does seem that what was coming from the doorsteps was that voters felt Labour's strategy was unclear. It may be frustrating for the leadership to hear but Corbyn has to accept his EU strategy is proving a hard sell with voters. Thornberry must have been pretty frustrated to have been so openly critical. I guess she felt it worth any subsequent retaliation.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

If the choice of Long-Bailey for PMQs was really calculated, it would most likely have been with one eye on Peterborough.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

@willow I heard her say that. What I heard was not a criticism of others, rather an acceptance that the message from the leadership had been unclear.

Unlike many election nights, it had been pretty obvious for days that the results would be bad for Labour. Labour chose her to go on the show and she chose to say that.

[Willow904]

@willow I heard her say that. What I heard was not a criticism of others, rather an acceptance that the message from the leadership had been unclear.

Unlike many election nights, it had been pretty obvious for days that the results would be bad for Labour. Labour chose her to go on the show and she chose to say that.

I certainly wouldn't want to see her demoted for that, I just don't think any of the others coming behind supporting a referendum were critical of the election strategy so it makes the Observer story more plausible. Only time will tell if it's actually true. Her not being moved isn't equivalent of Corbyn changing stance, though. He still needs to give a clear speech where he shows enthusiasm for a further referendum being the best way forward if he wants Labour supporters to believe he's listening and not still intent on delivering Brexit despite the economic and social costs.

[AnatolyKasparov]

If the choice of Long-Bailey for PMQs was really calculated, it would most likely have been with one eye on Peterborough.

That was the suggestion of Sienna Rodgers on LabourList - and if so, it quite possibly worked.

[citizenJA]

Good morning, everyone.

[citizenJA]

Especially good posts here from everyone

[AnatolyKasparov]

Chuka to stand for the Libs in his own seat apparently.

There's the little matter of him actually joining the party and then getting selected, but such things have always seemed not grand enough for him.

[RogerOThornhill]

Oh dear, this is slightly embarrassing...

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[refitman]

Oh.

[AnatolyKasparov]

He will probably be in another party a few months from now

[citizenJA]

dance with the one that brought you

[RogerOThornhill]

This is excellent news.

Private health firm loses NHS treatment centre contract

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... e-contract

A private health firm has lost one of the biggest and longest-running contracts to treat NHS patients, in a significant blow to the creeping privatisation of care.

Circle is losing the contract it has held for 11 years to run the Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre, which provides 240,000 operations and checkups a year. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust (NUH) has been handed a £320m contract to run the centre for the next five years after a bitter legal battle between Circle and the NHS.

Circle has run the centre since it opened in 2008 as one of the independent treatment centres (ISTCs) that the last Labour government set up to reduce the number of NHS patients waiting for non-urgent treatment.

yes, one of New Labour's attempts at "public sector reform"...

[citizenJA]

I'm confused by the names of hospital and/or care facilities used in that article. I'll read it again later. It's not clear to me what's private and what isn't.

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

[Sky'sGoneOut]

There was a crack head on the bus coming back from Halifax. I was sitting across from him and he pissed himself at least twice.

Just let it go while pointlessly holding a half drunk bottle of beer between his knees.

When I eventually asked if he was ok that bottle seemed all he cared about.

He looked like a wizened rat in a hoodie.

But I would guess he was in his mid thirties.

Some of us have been brought up in nice houses with lovely parents and some of us have not.

I'm nowhere near that level of debasement and I suspect none of you are either.

And to be honest I pulled his hood down a couple of times from behind to see if he understood what was happening around him.

The answer was no. He did not.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I watched his wee dribble down the bus and a couple in front of me also pointed it out.

So I sat next to him and asked if he was ok and he told me to fuck off.

Which I did while he pissed himself again.

It got quite smelly.