FlyTheNest

Do people remember these articles from when the new polymer notes were launched?

https://news.sky.com/story/new-polymer- ... n-10576152" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The new plastic £5 note is beginning to enter circulation - and is designed to be safer and stronger.

It can survive a spin in the washing machine and is harder to counterfeit, according to the Bank of England.

Well I've just discovered that this is not in any way true. Not only will a new polymer £5 note be torn into several pieces by the spin cycle, but any pieces getting into the drainage system will create a complete blockage that can only be unblocked by emptying all the water in the washing machine onto your kitchen floor via the overflow pipe.

What an absolute joy (not).

At least the bank will exchange it - if you can find all the pieces, of course.

Willow904 wrote:Do people remember these articles from when the new polymer notes were launched?

https://news.sky.com/story/new-polymer- ... n-10576152" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The new plastic £5 note is beginning to enter circulation - and is designed to be safer and stronger.

It can survive a spin in the washing machine and is harder to counterfeit, according to the Bank of England.

Well I've just discovered that this is not in any way true. Not only will a new polymer £5 note be torn into several pieces by the spin cycle, but any pieces getting into the drainage system will create a complete blockage that can only be unblocked by emptying all the water in the washing machine onto your kitchen floor via the overflow pipe.

What an absolute joy (not).

At least the bank will exchange it - if you can find all the pieces, of course.

as if we didn't have enough to worry about
remember to go through your pockets, everyone, prior laundering garments
then wash your hands

Didn't take long...

Mark Sedwill to stand down as UK's top civil servant

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

Sir Mark Sedwill has announced he will stand down from his role as cabinet secretary, national security adviser and head of the civil service in September.

The move will be seen as a victory for Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s most senior aide, who has had a tense relationship with Sedwill. Sources said Cummings believed Sedwill was a barrier to Whitehall reform and has been backed by Johnson and Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister.

But the news has been met with concern from former mandarins who are worried that the government is trying to politicise the civil service.

Wouldn't mind betting that they want to move to the American system of being able to choose their team when they take office.

Wait. What?

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The new National Security Adviser is a political appointment and he's not a civil servant?

RogerOThornhill wrote:Wait. What?

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The new National Security Adviser is a political appointment and he's not a civil servant?

We have a problem

I had a friend from high school to my mid 40's, we were in a band together, shared a house, helped each other out when either needed it, until he upped sticks, moved to Canada and declared himself a woman. He demanded straight away that I use feminine pronouns when talking to him and when I refused (because he wasn't a woman) we had a massive argument which ultimately a few months later resulted in him giving my email address to a bunch of trans activists in Vancouver who sent me so much abuse I had to change my email address. And it wasn't just me, as far as I'm aware none of our mutual friends have anything to do with him anymore and he's cut his ties with his own family. And the saddest thing is it didn't have to be like that, none of us are raging transphobic bigots, the problem was ironically that he was a massive dick about it all.

There's a militancy in the trans scene (at least the part I was unfortunate enough to encounter) that precludes any debate. They have demands and if you don't accede to them you're automatically transphobic. There's no room for reason or compromise. And I find that genuinely upsetting, it's a horrifically complex issue with real life consequences for some of the most vulnerable people on this planet, and it's not going to be solved by demonising and harassing those who have qualms and questions that need answering.

Anyone who's read a bit of history or anthropology knows human sexuality is a fluid thing and different societies have taken very different views on it in the past and there's no reason that shouldn't be the case in the future. But getting to that future will require humane rationality and a willingness to listen. Sadly that seems to be in short supply.

And I still don't think someone with a cock and balls in lingerie is a woman no matter how many dick pics they send me (which was quite a few).

Shocked etc.

Revealed: Developers PM backed when London mayor give almost £1m to Tories

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

Property developers connected to major construction projects approved by Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London have donated almost £1m to the Conservative party over the past year, the Guardian can reveal.

Analysis of public records shows a significant cash injection from property tycoons linked to developments, including blocks of luxury flats with no affordable housing, which were signed off by Johnson and his deputy, Sir Edward Lister, who oversaw planning.

Richard Desmond, the former owner of the Daily Express, is among the donors, along with the billionaire Reuben family and the Mayfair-based property firm Delancey owned by Eton-educated Jamie Ritblat.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, but the fallout over a decision by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, to approve Desmond’s controversial £1bn development in east London has attracted scrutiny of the relationship between wealthy property developers and senior Tories.

But it stinks to high heaven.

RogerOThornhill wrote:Wait. What?

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The new National Security Adviser is a political appointment and he's not a civil servant?

David Frost isn't a civil servant, that's right.

This Tony Connelly piece suggests that UK want July/August Brexit talks but EU want to go to Autumn.
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2020/061 ... ly-brexit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Diplomats and EU officials say London has been lobbying hard in national capitals for a July tunnel and for member states to relax the negotiating mandate they have given Barnier.

"There is a very strong push to accelerate things in July, and that the autumn will be too late," says one diplomat. "[UK officials] have been saying this in [EU] capitals as well. There is an element that they don’t want to be backed into a corner, to mix metaphors, at a cliff edge, when everything is last minute."

......German officials have made it clear that when Berlin takes over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July their first priority will be the seven-year EU budget, known as the MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework), and the coronavirus recovery plan.

"There is an entrenched view in the EU now that the MFF comes first and Brexit second. Nobody is willing to engage in a detailed discussion, or a review of the negotiating mandate, now. That's all being looked at in September/October," says the diplomat.

Critics will say the EU can run down the clock until the autumn in order to keep the pressure on London.

It's not very long ago that govt was appearing very sanguine at the prospect of negotiations going to the wire and talking about the EU blinking at the last minute.
Is what's changed the desire for Frost to move on?
Sounds every bit as bonkers as their usual antics.

Election results today - in France, Poland and Austria - have all been modestly encouraging in their own way.

(but maybe more heartening still is that elections are happening on a significant scale again - how long before we in the UK get at least a few council results to analyse?)

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Election results today - in France, Poland and Austria - have all been modestly encouraging in their own way.

(but maybe more heartening still is that elections are happening on a significant scale again - how long before we in the UK get at least a few council results to analyse?)

I look forward to voting as soon as I can.

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

On the mesmerising power of big numbers - Johnson announces investmentin education with £1billion over ten years to build and rebuild schools.

Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme invested about £47billion over about fifteen yeas.

I don't know about anyone else but I have a bad feeling about all this.

I wore a face covering in Tesco today because I thought it was going to be mayhem and when I got in any notion of social distancing was gone completely. At least you can mutter and swear at idiots with plausible deniability if they can't see your lips move.

And there's not a chance in hell I'll be going anywhere near a pub next weekend, it's going to be carnage, thousands of people turning up in city and town centres trying to get into pubs with limited access and time limits, that's going to be fun, I'm sure an atmosphere of bonhomie shall prevail.

The ONS say we still have around 3000 new infections a day, which is where Florida was (or claimed to be) a week ago, Texas was at 2000. Johnson and his cronies assure us that only 1 in 1700 people (or thereabouts) have the disease. Imagine how many people will be crammed into cities and towns next Saturday going from pub to pub breathing, shouting, coughing, spitting. And each of those 1 in 1700 can infect 3 other people, then 9, then 27, then 81, then 243, then 729, then I need a calculator.

So while Tesco might be horrible and full of idiots at least most of them aren't drunk and I'm unlikely to get shouted at, spat on, punched or stabbed in the queue and that being the case I'll be sticking to supermarket booze and drinking away from the masses for the foreseeable future.

adam wrote:On the mesmerising power of big numbers - Johnson announces investmentin education with £1billion over ten years to build and rebuild schools.

My brother's CofE school is still waiting for Gove's bibles.

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:

adam wrote:On the mesmerising power of big numbers - Johnson announces investmentin education with £1billion over ten years to build and rebuild schools.

My brother's CofE school is still waiting for Gove's bibles.

Which Gove made a big deal over, even though the Everyman Library had given every school in the country a complete set of the Everyman library as a millennium gift in 2000,which included a King James Bible.

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:I don't know about anyone else but I have a bad feeling about all this.

I wore a face covering in Tesco today because I thought it was going to be mayhem and when I got in any notion of social distancing was gone completely. At least you can mutter and swear at idiots with plausible deniability if they can't see your lips move.

And there's not a chance in hell I'll be going anywhere near a pub next weekend, it's going to be carnage, thousands of people turning up in city and town centres trying to get into pubs with limited access and time limits, that's going to be fun, I'm sure an atmosphere of bonhomie shall prevail.

The ONS say we still have around 3000 new infections a day, which is where Florida was (or claimed to be) a week ago, Texas was at 2000. Johnson and his cronies assure us that only 1 in 1700 people (or thereabouts) have the disease. Imagine how many people will be crammed into cities and towns next Saturday going from pub to pub breathing, shouting, coughing, spitting. And each of those 1 in 1700 can infect 3 other people, then 9, then 27, then 81, then 243, then 729, then I need a calculator.

So while Tesco might be horrible and full of idiots at least most of them aren't drunk and I'm unlikely to get shouted at, spat on, punched or stabbed in the queue and that being the case I'll be sticking to supermarket booze and drinking away from the masses for the foreseeable future.

One of my neighbours runs a pub in town. He's a big bloke, and a former Paratrooper. He says he has no financial choice but to reopen next Saturday and he's never been so scared.

adam wrote:One of my neighbours runs a pub in town. He's a big bloke, and a former Paratrooper. He says he has no financial choice but to reopen next Saturday and he's never been so scared.

"Yes I know sir but we have an hour and a half 3 pint limit and you and your friends knew that before y...ahhh fuck, right I'm calling the police...'hello yes, I've got a group of young males refusing to leave the premises, one of them stabbed me in the arm with one of our brass horseshoe wall ornaments...what do you mean overstretched?' Alright lads, you can have one more but after that I'm getting old Ken here to raise Pazuzu to deal with you.'

You seem to think that people will be inclined to be - what's the phrase? oh, yes - "taking liberties".

PorFavor wrote:You seem to think that people will be inclined to be - what's the phrase? oh, yes - "taking liberties".

'Be dickheads'.

That's not how Boris Johnson put it. And I always take my lead from Boris Johnson. So "taking liberties" it is.

Anyone who tells you being an amatuer naturalist is fun punch them in the face then leave.

I've been watching this caterpillar dangling from a nettle leaf for nearly 12 hours now waiting until it becomes a chrysalis, I've even employed extra lighting from my camping stuff but it's just not performing.

Night night.

Fuck it.

[youtube]Kfm_vQYqGLk[/youtube]

[youtube]1nik3ccW6yI[/youtube]

[youtube]ZhdAWM60-0I[/youtube]

[youtube]hmFDxCdCIKE[/youtube]

[youtube]I8uj7QUzCSA[/youtube]