For a different view of the race,

The Bikeradar Lantern Rouge thread.

Saw this today,

Andrew Castle banging on about Keir Starmer again.
Last night Nick Abbot made a great point.He said that pilots who are able to fly bits of metal around the sky safely at 500 miles an hour. are usually quite
boring.They don't do standup,but they are reliable safe people.

— Erdmute Wendlinger D (@ErdmuteD) June 26, 2022

Right now we have Col Bud Holland in charge. Not boring, but lethal.

What happens when a charismatic individual is allowed to break the rules.

The planned route is withon 500mtr of my flat, in 15 mims.
Will keep an eye out.

Well?

Boris Johnson has said a “psychological transformation” in his character is “not going to happen” after by-election defeats led to calls for change.

Does this put to bed once and for all the myth that he will grow into the role and achieve greatness? Some of us have always known that a “psychological transformation” in his character was never “going to happen”, in fact see the OP in this thread.

Exocet Falklands by Ewan Southby-Tailyour is a great read on an often forget aspect of the conflict with troops being landed on a one way mission to Tierra del Fuego. It somewhat tarnishes the SAS’ image.

A free, but meticulously researched, very well written, book detailing a low level bombing raid on the port of Rotterdam by a force of Bristol Blenheims in the summer of 1941.

Mast High over Rotterdam – Section One
Mast High over Rotterdam – Section Two
Mast High over Rotterdam – Section Three

My next door neighbour when I was growing up managed to avoid being put on a charge to take part in the raid, and indeed was the only pilot to put his bombs on the ship which was the main target of the attack.

That’s not an Onza Porcupine…

I remember the days when not only could I recognise the tyres, I would have known who’d been out riding that day.

Does this mean that some of the more highbrow content that used to be on BBC2 might come back to replace endless garden and cookery shows? Or just disappear completely.

I’ve noticed local red wall Toraidh MPs with paid for ads on face book ostensibly gathering opinions on immigration or levelling up but which seem to be data gathering exercises. I think an election may be coming sooner rather than later.
I’m tempted up set up some ghost profiles to see what sort of stuff gets sent out.

One option is to buy a lock from Halfords and get them to email the receipt

This was genius, make sure you read the whole thing.

pic.twitter.com/N2uyiUwEmH

— Ken Neale (@KenNeale4) May 19, 2022

Starmer missed a golden opportunity to point out that Tory MPs knowledge of women only seems to extend as far as abusing, assaulting and raping them.

No, they abuse, assault and rape men as well. They’re all about the equality.

A new series of For All Mankind on the way as well.

We had years of governments of all flavours talking about increasing efficiency in the NHS, which sounded great. Then a pandemic hit and we realised that increasing efficiency is just another phrase for removing spare capacity, which is actually quite useful in a health service.

All flavours from Tory to Conservative. There was a step change in the direction health policy took after 2010, prior to that increasing efficiency largely involved increasing capability.

Although it’s an opinion piece in a traditionally anti Tory paper, will Hutton has hit the nail on the head here. The govt are fundamentally incompetent in a way that is deeply damaging to the country and it’s people.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/08/the-economy-is-collapsing-yet-i-cant-recall-a-government-so-devoid-of-a-plan?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I’d love to see more comparisons with similar European countries to what is going on in the U.K. from the press and broadcasters.

Since when is a police investigation bound by purdah?

Since we had people in No10 who are the subject of an active police investigation. I’m guessing it never occurred that this might be an issue pre Alexander Boris dePfeffel Johnson.

I imagine if they were still in power, rather than sending immigrants to Rwanda, we’d be sending confused pensioners off to re-education camps in North Korea for wrongthink or muddling up their pronouns.

I know, you can’t say anything these days, except you can, and if it offends someone they can say so, but that isn’t the same as what you have made up.

The Tories are trying to bring in a requirement for photo ID to vote to prevent voting fraud (which are very rarely) the only difference is that they aren’t providing any, you need to get your own as this means the young and the poor will be disproportionately disenfranchised which bolsters their vote.

FWIW I was against the Labour plan but there is no sort of equivalence with what we have now. I also voted when Corbyn was leader, not because I was a fan of his (I’m not) but because I was confident that the establishment would tend to moderate his more extreme plans, whereas the trouble with the Conservatives is that they are so deeply intertwined with the establishment that they can play it to deliver what they want, namely state funds to themselves and their mates.

False equivalency work for the Tories I will always argue it, they are definitely not the same.

I think the Airfix Lancaster Bomber and the Sandwich crisps could be good sellers for them.

I’ve found myself looking at more and April fools gags and thinking “they should really do that!”.

We have news. Something BIG is coming…

Introducing the 1:24 Avro Lancaster B.III to the 2022 range as a special late announcement!

Ready for a challenge? With a wingspan of over 1.2m and a length of over 800mm, this kit would make a show-piece addition to your collection. pic.twitter.com/jeKjxPLG7V

— Airfix (@Airfix) April 1, 2022

I’m waiting for this response to a group ride.

Skill pic.twitter.com/prfW6KapnT

— Marie-Ann Detests Tories ?? ?? ?? (@MarieAnnUK) March 12, 2022

Boogie Nights by the (mostly) US funk group Heatwave was written by Rod Temperton from Cleethorpes, who played keyboard in the band. I saw this fact on a TOTP2 programme.

Rod Temperton wrote several of the songs on Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller, including both title tracks. He probably had a comfortable retirement.

A couple of long missions from Akrotiri tonight on Flightradar24

Friday and its 1950 hrs and look where the RAF Typhoon FGR 4 is pottering about!!!! (the aircraft marked in Red on the map) pic.twitter.com/hibU5a5U71

— @Exasperated(FORMER!!)Tory!!??????????? (@ExasperatedTory) March 11, 2022

Direct action happening in Dublin, as a truck full of communion supplies breached the gate of the Russian embassy.

One man has been arrested after a communion supply lorry knocked through the gates at the Russian Embassy in Dublin.@VirginMediaNews pic.twitter.com/WDkyxw4AJ7

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) March 7, 2022

Is it just me that looks at that video of the artillery destruction and thinks that is really good agricultural soil and some poor bugger will struggle to plough that ground for years to come. One thing is for sure, they won’t be planting it this season!

And therein is another huge issue, the wheat harvest won’t be planted this year and that will have a huge impact with Ukraine out of the picture.

I keep being reminded of a SF novel I read years ago called The Moon Goddess and the Son by Donald Kingsbury, which looked into the Russian psyche and how to change the mindset of their leaders. It also included a Muslim MIT grad who designed UAVs which smashed Russian forces – Selçuk Bayraktar.

50

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60640460

Fifty Ukrainians have been granted visas under a scheme for refugees with family links to the UK, the Home Office has announced.
It is about 1% of the 5,535 people who have applied since the programme launched 48 hours earlier.

I’ll bet if you add in family members more conservative donors have left the country than that.

£50 this month, have they altered the odds with the interest rate rise?

It does feel like the Russian foreign made ministry have chosen UKG/Liz Truss a the weak link in the western/global alliance(I can’t think why!) so hopefully she or they don’t do anything daft and our allies just keep up their current resolve.

One of the main Russian news presenters, currently fronting Russian news shows pushing Putin’s like to the populace is a British passport holder and purchased an expensive London house in 2016🤔

Here's state TV presenter Sergei Brilyov lauding Russia's "special military operation" on tonight's news

He holds a British passport and owns an apartment in West London pic.twitter.com/NzXk9pl5z3

— Francis Scarr (@francska1) February 26, 2022

The BBC are reporting that captured Russian soldiers are saying they’ve no idea what they’re actually doing there. There is no strategy and no clearly stated aims. No end game. They’re making it up as they go along.

Sounds like Iraq. That went well

It is much worse than that. The initial Iraqi invasion was relatively smooth (it was a major military action so was a massive mess), with clear, well briefed tactical objectives. The strategic arena is where it all fell apart. By the reports coming out of Ukraine it is a tactical and logistical and financial mess for the Russians, as well as having severe and unforeseeable strategic outcomes.

The fact that people in Russia are on stop the war protests is amazing and humbling.

This.

It’s hard to fathom how this happened, the driver must have been in a trance during this theft,

The driver was probably in his cab keeping safe. Even ringing the police these days there’s very little chance of a rapid response and with a gang there’s nothing the driver can do to stop it. See an account of a robbery mentioned in this article on a truckers day.

Just realised that they’ve sent me Race Face Next R handlebars rather than the Sixc described on the website. To be honest the ones they sent are a better colour match with my bike so I’ll live with the £5 difference at full price and 5g extra weight.

She’s expecting to fly a top secret plane home.

With a thought controlled weapons system? I see a flaw I in that plan!

It’s a cosplay cabinet.

I’ve described it before as a Karaoke government

I have just watched this and realised that Britain now has a karaoke government. They like government, they want to copy their heroes, they think they know the words, their mates are telling them they sound brilliant, but to any one not in the drunken party this is the result. https://t.co/FioftJD6NC

— riksbar (@riksbar1) October 7, 2020

10,001 posts and @Jekyll is still spot on with the OP

aggghh how can this **** moron become the UK prime minister?
Appealing to the right wing gammons with all his previous work..as these are the people all riled who’ll bother to get out and vote.
He lies, he’s lied all the time, he has no integrity and must be held accountable for all his previous statements.

Image and explanation on the NASA blog here

hey report Boris Johnson has been “exploring opportunities” in US where he could make $250k per speech after leaving office.

On one hand, I’d like to see his passport confiscated as a potential flight risk pending a proper investigation into the last 10 years. On the other I suspect his making up a speech off the cuff spiel he’s got away with for years over here will fall flat on its face in the US where he will be seen as unprofessional and disrespectful to the organisers and he’ll see bookings evaporate pretty quickly.

Seem familiar?

Corporal calamity

Major Disaster and General Incompetence would both fit.

Chapeau to Paul👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

R4 news said 1100. To put it another way, ballot papers with cock and balls drawn on them (I like to think) came second 🙂

They actually got more than any three right wing party candidates combined😁

Turnout in Southend was 24%, as has been said there was no candidates from a mainstream party opposing out of respect for Sir David Amess, although a number of fringe parties put up candidates. Interestingly there were over 1000 spoiled ballots, more than any other two candidates put together.