Whoopee cushionesque farting sounds?

Mostly whining from ‘centrists’, actually. I think the less Blairite types are fed up with the Blairites, and there’s privately quite a bit of internal squabbling going on. There’s probably quite a bit of farting too; they do eat a lot of Quinoa. It’s very popular on the menu at Ottolenghis.

First off, I have to ask why you’d want to use vinyl as your music source? Practically everything that has ever been released on vinyl is now available in a digital format, so why would you want to use an inferior audio source? Vinyl offers nowhere near the same dynamic range and ‘fidelity’ of good digital sources, because of the inherent physical limitations of the medium. To get anywhere near the quality of even a basic digital source set up, you’d need to be spending a lot more than £500, in my opinion, having heard countless systems over the decades.

Personally; Id forget any idea of using vinyl, and instead invest in a decent amplifier and speakers, to which you can attach all manner of digital/streaming sources. In my experience of wireless digital sources, Airplay has consistently been way above any alternatives, although newer Bluetooth systems are reputedly very good (I’ve not had a chance to compare, yet). Google Chromecast is fairly cheap and versatile though.

The other option is a streaming amp/receiver; Richer Sounds have plenty of decent option on their website:

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/hi-fi-separates/wireless-streaming-separates.html

My personal pick would be to go for the Yamaha MusicCast WXA50, as I’ve heard a system base don one of those, and it was really surprisingly good for such a small, ‘inexpensive’ unit. Or something like the Yamaha CRXN470D, which uses Airplay and Bluetooth, plus incorporates a CD player.

For speakers; you won’t have so much left over from your amp, but again Richer Sounds have some decent options around the £140-200 mark. The Dali Spektor, Mission LX-1, and Wharfedale Diamond 12s look good in that sort of range. You won’t get big, earth shaking bass at that kind of price, but you will get a decent sounding setup that will give you lots of listening pleasure.

Sonos; in my experience, style over substance. Listened to most of what they have on offer, and there’s always better sounding options for less money, in my opinion. The Yamaha WXA-50 is a better sounding amplifier than Sonos’ Amp, and nearly half the price. Plus it might actually still work in 5 years from now…

I don’t really recognize “blindly cling to a leadership with no redeeming features”. I see no evidence anyone is clinging to Starmer. If he loses the next GE he’ll be gone. There is no “Starmerism”.

There is, however, still ‘Blairism’. Of which Starmer is simply the current face. Noises I’m hearing in London (from people ‘in the know’, not in some shithole pub) are that many in the Labour elite are thoroughly fed up with how useless Starmer has actually turned out to be. Problem is, there is no suitable replacement from their ranks at least. And word has it that there is a growing feeling amongst some, that Mandelson’s continued involvement is poisonous. There may well be a schism within the elite, quite soon. You heard it here first…

There is no “Starmerism”

And herein lies a big part of the problem; he’s so devoid of any real substance, that no ‘cult of personality’ has formed round him, like it did with Thatcher, Blair and Corbyn. So there’s no strong ‘brand’ to try to sell to the electorate. Of course, politics shouldn’t be like this, but they are, so any party has to ensure its ‘brand’ is strong. This is why UKIP gained so much traction. My sources tell me that the adulation Corbyn still receives from many party members, is a source of utter frustration and anger amongst the party elite; ‘why haven’t we got our own messiah??’

Starmer’s not the messiah; he’s just a very useless ****.

Ok lets just keep the infighting going and resign ourselves to Tory rule forever. Great!

If you want my vote, how are you going to earn it then? Please tell me.

lost, lost, lost, lost, Blair, Blair, Blair, Lost, lost lost lost

Tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory, tory.

it’s pretty much exactly what I’ve been posting here myself

No it’s not. More deluded revisionism. You’ve been attacking the left constantly. So please; don’t make shit up.

Does this sound familiar…?

Well, your selective revisionism does, yes. Because you conveniently omitted this bit:

It is not confined to the left. As a despairing section of the left reacts to suspensions and expulsions with the kind of aimless, random and vindictive heckling Starmer faced during his speech, parts of the right – especially those schooled in Trot-baiting during the period of “high Blairism” – are responding in kind. “Crawl back to the undergrowth where you belong,” one Starmer staffer said of the left. A Labour councillor asked a senior politician to my face, as if I wasn’t actually there, “can we trust him?”

But it’s actually a pretty good article; I don’t agree with all of what Mason says there, but I like him generally as an analyst. (Hey Kimbers; here’s an alternative to Marina Hyde for you!). But from his tone, it is clear Mason has spent a little too long enjoying a comfortable middle class affluent life in bohemia, and has become a little disconnected from his working class roots. It happens. Bottom line is that he’s right though; Labour is split right down the middle, and is at war with itself. Which is precisely what Blair wanted.

So; the Labour Party conference was a complete failure for Starmer, and all he’s done has reaffirmed his position on dividing the party even further (funny, cos he claimed he was going to unify the party, when he got elected leader) and making it less democratic. And to see the usual deluded suspects on here, lapping up his bullshit in the mistaken belief it might actually be sincere, is quite depressing. And we are where we are. Labour in tatters; tory rule for the foreseeable. Hey ho.

Have you ever seen one of these @Bridges ?
Stanley No51 and No52
https://www.jimbodetools.com/products/extra-fine-stanley-no-51-52-chute-shoot-board-and-plane-complete-79467
Rare enough to cost more than a large Kapex.

Nice, but a ridiculous price. Pre-Covid, you’d have picked something like that up for £50, probably. I’m using a standard low angle block plane, but I’d like something like this:

https://www.axminstertools.com/veritas-shooting-board-plane-rh-c-w-pm-v11-blade-25-717195

If such things were ever available…

49. Full set of teeth. Not a single filling. I seem to be somewhat unique on here, in that respect. I find it quite disturbing how many teeth some of you have lost, and the problems you’ve had. A big factor in dental health is childhood diet. Were you all malnourished as children??

& if Bridges could point me to some of his far better comentators thatd be great

There’s actually plenty in the Guardian, for starters. Happy to help. :D

Of course it bloody is! It’s given us some of the greatest comedy ever

Oh I totally get comedy; it’s just that you’re not funny. You just think you are. In the same way someone like Jim Davidson does.

Mind you, you don’t strike me as someone who laughs at much, to be honest

Au contraire; I laugh at you a lot. :D

That’s AT you, not WITH you….

That really is pathetic. You slag off MH’s writing, which gets me interested, but in your follow up you don’t actually come up with any evidence or support for your statement, you just quote some crap about how hideously privileged and rich she is…

That comes across really bitter and chippy.
I think MH is awesome, but am happy to be re-educated by someone more literate and clued up than me ( most people TBH)

Perhaps you could try and educate me

Lol!

you just quote some crap about how hideously privileged and rich she is…

That comes across really bitter and chippy.

I actually made no comment about her wealth, privilege or anything else. Merely posted up something from Wikipedia, about her. You’ve made some massive judgments all on your own. The only one coming across as ‘bitter and chippy’ is you. If only you could see that…

Perhaps you could try and educate me

I could try, but I doubt I’d get very far. Therefore I won’t bother wasting my time. :D

I’m definitely not inviting you to my next book burning if you’re going to be like that about it.

Because Nazism is something to joke about, of course. Classy.

Depends on how much you want to use it, and how accurate and reliable you want it. The Evolution saws are pretty popular, I’ve seen a fair few about, and you don’t have to go Festool Kapex for a decent saw, but for occasional use, where accuracy isn’t paramount, it’ll be fine. As above, the £400 mark is about where a ‘professional’ tool will sit, going right up to the £800, £1100+ the Festool stuff costs. I think mine is a Makita, I haven’t actually used it in so long I’m not actually sure if it’s that, or a Bosch! I actually use hand saws for most stuff, as it’s just quicker and easier for me to do it that way, but I’ll be cutting relatively small pieces of material, and then getting that fine accuracy using a chuting/shooting board and plane.

Still no actual ‘whinging’, as you imagine, Kimbers. Simply statement of fact I’m afraid.

Definitely a shy Tory then

Got to love the irony of this comment, coming from someone who claimed to want:

“…. that the first thing Kier Starmer is going to do is have a night of the long knives to clear out every last one of the utterly useless Corbynites”

Just to be clear; the original Night of the Long Knives was an event where Hitlers Brownshirts murdered many Left wing politicians and activists, in order to consolidate power. So; Binners espouses and endorses fascist actions. It’s right there in black and white, people.

Bridges, would you prefer a Tory government or a Labour one run by the likes of SKS?

Neither, thanks.

class warrior whinging about Marina Hyde?

Erm, there wasn’t actually any ‘whinging’, other than in your imagination. As for her actual piece; it’s basic cut n paste formulaic unimaginative dross, without any real insight or nuance. There are far better, more intelligent commentators I’d pay attention to first.
But then; I don’t really read the Guardian much. It’s become a bit of a tabloid; Hyde’s position there only confirms that.

Lol! Ok then. You carry on believing that. Like all the other shite you believe. That is, after all, your choice. The only ‘shy tories’ are people like you. Blairites who think neoliberalism is the way forward. Christ on a bike. :D

Why do I have to say who I’m voting for? I thought it was a ‘secret’ ballot?

Is it?

Not sure that is the message you are sending on a thread on SKS and labour politics, if you secretly vote conservative to stick it to the red Tory establishment stooges it’s not a problem you know.

Seriously, lay off the caffeine or whatever it is that’s making you think up such nonsense.

Oh, is she? I hadn’t noticed. We obviously have different senses of humour. But then, you like what Greggs call ‘food’, so…

So are you voting at all? If you are who for?

Yes. None of your business.

Or do you just spoil the ballot paper by writing “f*** off Tory scum and your establishment stooges in the labour party!”

Or do you just stay at home/ go to some protest or other/ go to the pub / ride your bike

What? Have you had too much caffeine today or something?

Oh surely not the ‘Marina Hyde is a champagne socialist’ trope again. Marvellous.

Where did anyone say she was a ‘socialist’?

Ah, Marina Hyde. Uses a lot of words; doesn’t really say very much.

Hyde is the daughter of Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams, 2nd Baronet, and his wife, the former Diana Elizabeth Jane Duncan. Through her father, she is the granddaughter of aviation pioneer and Conservative politician Sir Rolf Dudley-Williams, 1st Baronet. She attended Downe House School, near Newbury in Berkshire, and read English at Christ Church, Oxford.

I can see how you like her, Binners.

But not a member of labour

And? Do you have to be a member of Labour to be a Leftie?

So not voting for them at the moment then

Not until they more closely resemble a party that represents working people, and is committed to helping create a better society. Because currently, they aren’t.

He’s one of the few labour party members on this thread

Yet you could just as easily have mentioned any of the several other party members.

helps his CLP, tries to get labour politicians elected

I’m sure he’s flattered by the crush you clearly have on him, but how do you know I, or any others, haven’t done exactly the same?

Is it a statement, a quote, or just some stream of consciousness thing?

IIRC you aren’t a member

I’m still a Leftie, and a potential Labour voter. And WTF has this to do with Binners? Are you his spokesperson, or just a sycophant?

Starmer clearly doesn’t care about young people though. The way he blatantly ignored that young woman, was disgusting. That video’s gone viral; loads of young people we know are sharing it. That’s another big chunk of voters lost then. Way to go, Kier! It’s almost like he doesn’t want ANYONE voting for Labour…

you mean, to tickle a trope, who was the shadowy figure pulling Corbyn’s strings?

Lol! And still, the idiocy continues!

Well, you tell me. What do YOU think?

evidently it hasn’t

Well, you can lead a horse to water…

Maybe ask Blair how it is done, he did it in 97…

By getting into Bed with a foreign media magnate. The very same media magnate who supported Donald Trump via his Fox News channel. So; someone who helps facilitate far-right wing ideology and power. Do you propose that Starmer does the same?

Laura The Liar’s latest propaganda piece:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58713106

“Many of Sir Keir’s supporters were spotted in the crush of conference jubilant last night – delighted that they had managed to get changes to the rules through, increasing their control of the party.
But Monday’s events show that control is not yet complete. The left won’t go quietly.
The plans the party wants you to see may be hard to hear above the noise.”

The Left is still here, Laira. And we’re not going away. Soz about that.

What happened in 2017 is the post coalition lib vote collapsed, going to Tory (whose vote share went up 6%) as well as to Labour, who were 64 seats short of a majority. This loss is painted as a victory for Corbyn by his supporters. Good fun for them maybe, but not helpful.

Yet had Labour presented as a united force, perhaps enough people may have voted for them, believing them to be united, things may have turned out differently. The undermining by the right of the party was designed purely to work against Corbyn. And who was in charge of the Labour’s Brexit strategy? Oh…

Penny starting to drop now?

It’s a crazy scheme! Maybe just crazy enough to work…*

*Nah.

Why not? Bring a few self-celebritised ‘journalists’ down to size. Feed them the bullshit, but feed your own ‘trusted’ journos the real stuff, then they end up looking stupid when their story is different to everyone else’s. I’d love to see the likes of Keunssberg, Marr etc destroyed. Propagandists for the establishment; they give proper journalism a bad name.

Is that what the voters said and believe or is that what the Corbyn supporters insist?

It’s actually what happened. Plenty of evidence for that, if you care enough to want to learn.

And how do you go about doing that?

You tell me. Seeing as how most of our national media channels are owned and controlled by extremely wealthy establishment figures, it’s a pretty difficult task. The General Public get told how to think, and they mostly slavishly follow their orders. It’s about breaking that cycle of subservience. You have to change the narrative, feed the media some red herrings, lead them down a path where they can expose themselves as partisan, let the public see that, help enable more critical thinking of the media and how information is disseminated, and why. Start getting people to think for themselves. One way is through grassroots campaigning on the ground; get people together to share ideas, free of any media dictation. The 2017 campaign worked well on this score; many younger people used SM channels to communicate and share ideas, rather than relying on the mainstream media to do so. Hence why the tories then went and spent shitloads of public money on disruptive and deceitful SM campaigns. It’s not an easy task, but the narrative must be changed. Time to start breaking the ‘rules’. Starmer, alas, isn’t a rule breaker. The **** can’t even engage with his own party members effectively ffs, so what chance does he have of engaging the wider electorate?

How do you get the message out that £15 an hour is credible without getting slated?

By controlling the media. Or at least having some of it on your side.

My major concern with it is that the electorate will not swallow it as an affordable or possible idea.

What will actually happen, is that those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo will use their considerable power and influence over the media to disseminate all kinds of bullshit about how bad such an idea will be for the nation, whilst throwing in all sorts of red herrings about ‘immigrants’ benefitting more than Hardworking British People™ from it, and lo; the General Public will lap it up and oppose it without realising it’s in most of our best interests. See; Brexit.

There is some evidence that humanities graduates earn less than STEM graduates. The link below gives chemistry median salary 5 years after graduation as £29k. The same for humanities is £22k. The gap is even bigger for 10 years after graduation – £35k vs £23k. Humanities graduates have the lowest median salary out of those presented.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790223/Main_text.pdf#page=26

The problem with using mere statistics, is that it only tells a part of the story. From that graph, we can see that Economics degrees reap the biggest financial rewards. Wonder why that is? Would it be because the banks and financial sector hold far too much power in society, and thus remunerate their own industry far better before they release the scraps for the rest of us? So a Humanities degree is very low down the list; but look at a possible scenario for someone with such a degree: they may well be working in the public sector, such as youth work for example, which is undeniably a valuable job, but is woefully underpaid. And herein lies the root of the problem; certain professions are ‘valued’ above others, in purely monetary terms. This is unfair. This is what we should be addressing as a society.

Except that the same tax increases will apply equally to excess STEM graduates as for excess Arts graduates (excess as in don’t get to work in their chosen field due to a lack of roles / or just not being very good at their subject).

Why are you reducing everything down to monetary value?

And you’re also implying that not doing a degree and undertaking a shorter / cheaper vocational course implies they can’t still think more laterally…..

I’m not. But you’re actually demonstrating the point you misguidedly think I’m making, ironically.