Recent posts

#91

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tamas - July 05, 2025, 02:57:09 PM

Putin Just talked about cutting military spending in the coming years. It's either complete BS he felt he had to say to placate worrying people at home, or going ahead of future criticism when he is forced to cut back because of a failing economy.

It took 4 years of naval blockade combined with a war much bigger in scale to bring Imperial Germany to its knees. Give it time.

#92

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Sheilbh - July 05, 2025, 02:56:03 PM

I think there's a problem in what goes together with AC.

If you're building a house for cold weather you will usually not just do heating. You'll do all sorts of other tricks to make it more efficient at keeping the heat in.

With AC meanwhile... It doesn't go together with traditional methods of cooling. Rather it's stereotypically applied to terribly built inefficient buildings.

An aesthetic prejudice then

British new builds have really high energy efficiency standards for insulation, as you say all of those things beyond heating. Which is fine except we are now a country that fairly regularly has temperatures north of 30 degrees and sometimes hitting 40. So that's all good but even more requires a system that can both heat and cool spaces.

#93

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tamas - July 05, 2025, 02:53:01 PM

I think one unfortunate truth is that in part corruption and other kickbacks made politics a viable prime  career path for talented and ambitious people. It is right to fight this but it does shrink the talent pool.

#94

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - July 05, 2025, 02:52:20 PM

Not that I would have ever been remotely in with a shot.
But it does sort of annoy me that when I was 20 the idea of a 20 year old politician was utter madness but now it happens.

Maybe - I think there's always been some of it (or maybe it's just a bit of growing up in Scotland which was a smaller pond). Charles Kennedy was famously first elected when I think he was 23, I think Alex Salmond was a similar age. And to an extent I think both of them in different ways maybe show the cost of choosing a life in politics like that.

I'd note some of Labour's very young MPs already saying they don't want to sit for 40 years, they want to move on from the Commons at some point - which I can't help but read as it's a useful step on the career ladder for them.

Not great pay, cutthroat competition, and public scrutiny that grows up to epic proportions as you advance. Only fools, criminals and lunatics go into politics nowadays.

Yeah - although at local levels with the death of the local press I think there's very, very little scrutiny at any level. That only really happens if you become an MP.

With some exceptions - so my local paper, Southwark News, is really good which I think is important in a one party area like mine where we've got 63 councillors, 52 Labour and 11 Lib Dems They're currently reporting (and this may astound you) an incredibly bitter factional fight over who Labour will elect as council leader - complete with the usual allegations of data breaches, procedural irregularities and appeals (by the local - right of party - MP) to the NEC.

But on this more generally Isabel Hardman has written a really good called Why We Get The Wrong Politicians.

#95

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Bauer - July 05, 2025, 02:15:36 PM

I can't imagine giving up steady income for my family to run in politics.  The very nature of it being unreliable income prevents a huge portion of society from ever considering it.

One day the entire system needs to be reimagined.  Maybe that day is now, with democracy under a lot of strain.

#96

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by HVC - July 05, 2025, 02:11:19 PM

And again I always think that literally no-one would respect any of these arguments if they were applied against central heating. I don't really get why heating = important, cooling = morally suspect/climate change denialist/American.

Because AC is an American thing, so ewww. Ignoring the fact it's used across Asia and South America too

#97

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Bauer - July 05, 2025, 02:10:37 PM

I just use portable ac that I wheel out from under the stairs for a couple months each year.  Eventually when my furnace goes I'll replace it with an electric heat pump.

#98

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Tamas - July 05, 2025, 02:06:15 PM

Not great pay, cutthroat competition, and public scrutiny that grows up to epic proportions as you advance. Only fools, criminals and lunatics go into politics nowadays.

#99

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by Josquius - July 05, 2025, 02:05:11 PM

This is an odd European affliction though as a/c works perfectly fine in dry, windy, desert climates like that in southern California.

I'd suggest affectation rather than affliction given that the rest of the world generally seems capable of using it. The climate is changing Europe is suffering more and more severe heatwaves more regularly in which, across the continent, hundreds of people die every year - but we won't adopt AC for fundamentally aesthetic reasons. It's very:


And again I always think that literally no-one would respect any of these arguments if they were applied against central heating. I don't really get why heating = important, cooling = morally suspect/climate change denialist/American.

I think there's a problem in what goes together with AC.

If you're building a house for cold weather you will usually not just do heating. You'll do all sorts of other tricks to make it more efficient at keeping the heat in.

With AC meanwhile... It doesn't go together with traditional methods of cooling. Rather it's stereotypically applied to terribly built inefficient buildings.

#100

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - July 05, 2025, 02:00:43 PM

Not that I would have ever been remotely in with a shot.
But it does sort of annoy me that when I was 20 the idea of a 20 year old politician was utter madness but now it happens.