Chaos in the UK

[TheGreenGoblin]

Rumours that Scummings had BoJo's brain in the box, but I reckon the box was too big - more likely BoJo's ego.

It’s Gwyneth Paltrow's head in the box

Who and why her?

Who? A good actress but a total (albeit wealthy) kook...

https://www.koimoi.com/hollywood-2/gwyn ... ng-candle/

[Woody]

The John Lewis advert is a bit bleak this year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54938050

[TheGreenGoblin]

The John Lewis advert is a bit bleak this year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54938050

[TheGreenGoblin]

As an antidote to misery I present the genuine Aldi Christmas advert...



Kevin the carrot clearly needs air force survival skills...

[ian16th]

Ian, our backup disc packs were like the one he was holding only a little larger. Each disc pack was sealed. I can't remember the fine detail even though I would do a daily backup. I remember opening the drive lid, offering up the disc pack, removing the plastic cover, shutting the drive lid and then doing its stuff. Top and bottom platters were sacrificial and held no data.

The next step was the IBM 2314.
The disk pack was the same diameter with twice as many platers.

2314.jpg (23.75 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

Up to 9 drives in the system, with 8 online at a time.

All of the 1311, 2311 and 2314 had a similar hydraulic actuated track accessing system.

The 2311 disk on the IBM 1130 and IBM 1800 was a voice coil actuated disk drive that used a cartridge packaged single platter of the same size.

IBM_2315_disk_cartridge.agr.jpg (21.63 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

That used the same 'flying head' system.

Searching for pictures I found a Wiki page with a pretty comprehensive description of IBM disk drives.
IBM Disk Drives

[Pontius Navigator]

Ian, that's the size. I seem to remember we inserted the entire cassette into the reader, removed the plastic top, closed the lid. We had a sticky mat inside and outside the door.

My predecessor had not realised you needed to remove the top sticky sheet regularly or indeed even get replacements

[barkingmad]

The following drifts across the screen in the desperate search for evidence of fact, logic & reasoning midst the madness;

One example of an exasperated mail-out from a favourite local pub, The Boat at Erbistock, situated just 50 yards from the border with England. Here is an excerpt:

“We’re sorry to say that The Boat will be temporarily closing until further notice.

As a result of the frankly unfathomable, illogical latest set of rules laid down by a naïve, allegedly teetotal, Cardiff-centric, ex-social studies teacher – breathe and try not to use expletives! – staying open just isn’t financially viable. We had hoped to try and bridge the gap to Christmas as a quasi-riverside-café, open for food and soft drinks until 6pm, but by now making it legal for our Welsh customers to be able to visit pubs and restaurants in Cheshire and Shropshire for food and whatever they wish to drink until 10pm, understandably the vast majority of our regulars have, somewhat apologetically, told us that this is what they will be doing.

To be clear, we don’t think that open borders between the home nations is a problem – quite the reverse. That’s how it should be. The issue is the strategy of targeting hospitality as a whole when we have put so much time, money and emphasis on social distancing, sanitisation and supervision. The statistics and data quoted regarding transmission rates by sector vary hugely and are blatantly twisted depending on which body is trying to justify what point. But within our sector, which has proper Track and Trace, it is generally accepted they are significantly below most others sectors, like retail, offices, institutions and higher educational establishments.
The Welsh Government brought in restrictions last week which required pubs to close at 6pm and not serve any alcohol”.

Stop Press: Just a month after the ‘fire-break’ lockdown in Wales, the Guardian reports that, extraordinarily, the Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething is considering yet another lockdown.

These dictators seem to have forgotten there will be elections coming down the road soon (unless the Politburo decide they must be cancelled ‘due to Covid-1984’) so great will be the peasants’ revenge?

[FD2]

This is an 'opinion' piece and could be treated with some suspicion but there seems to be a ring of truth about it! That said I think there is a sub-standard bunch of MPs on both sides of the Chamber. It sounds like he's a man who is 'frit' having realised he's been promoted above his competency level.


Comment
The biggest mystery in politics: why is Gavin Williamson still in a job?

The Education Secretary was strangely absent from an urgent Commons Q&A on schools... but MPs didn’t exactly seem to miss him
Michael Deacon
Parliamentary Sketchwriter
26 January 2021 • 6:02pm
Michael Deacon


Prime Ministers move in mysterious ways – not least when appointing their Cabinets. It isn’t just jealous backbenchers who wonder why on earth so-and-so was made Secretary of State, when someone patently better suited was available.

Take the premiership of Theresa May. To those of us watching from the gallery, some of her appointments were difficult to fathom. What had made her decide that the Culture Secretary should be Karen Bradley, rather than, say, Tracey Crouch? What had made her decide that the International Development Secretary should be Priti Patel, rather than, say, Alistair Burt? What had made her decide that the Transport Secretary should be Chris Grayling, rather than, say, a random tourist from the parliamentary gift shop, or a passing pigeon?

As for the current Cabinet, the biggest mystery is Gavin Williamson, who has somehow been Education Secretary for the past 18 months. It was mysterious enough that he got appointed. It’s even more mysterious that he hasn’t been replaced. He survived the fiasco over A-level grading last summer, and the chaos at universities last term. Then in December he threatened legal action to force schools in Covid hotspots to stay open. This looked bad enough at the time. It looked even worse three weeks later, when the Prime Minister ordered them to close.

Despite all this and more, Mr Williamson remains in place. At least, we think he does. Yet when Labour submitted an Urgent Question today (Tuesday) on the Government’s plans for schools, it wasn’t Mr Williamson who was sent to answer it. It was an underling, Nick Gibb.

Not that Opposition MPs were put out. “I’m pleased to see [Mr Gibb] at the despatch box,” said Labour’s Kate Green. “I’ve more hope of receiving answers from him than from the Secretary of State.”

This may be true, but surely she would still rather have been facing Mr Williamson. She can hardly have forgotten his response in the Commons three weeks ago – when she asked him why he was in such a desperate muddle over schools.

“I can absolutely assure the honourable lady,” Mr Williamson had squeaked defiantly. “I will not let schools be open for a moment longer than they need to be!”

There was a brief silence.

“Closed,” squeaked Mr Williamson hastily. “I will not let schools be closed for a moment longer than…”

His stand-in today, Mr Gibb, was wholly unmemorable – and, therefore, a clear upgrade. He didn’t say when schools would fully reopen – but he did tantalisingly indicate that the Government would “be making announcements in the next few days”.

Mr Gibb also said that the Government would give “two weeks’ notice” of any reopening, because “headmasters, teachers, support staff and parents need time to prepare”.

No doubt two weeks’ notice is necessary for the first three groups on that list. On behalf of parents, however, may I say that two seconds would be more than enough.

[llondel]

This is an 'opinion' piece and could be treated with some suspicion but there seems to be a ring of truth about it! That said I think there is a sub-standard bunch of MPs on both sides of the Chamber. It sounds like he's a man who is 'frit' having realised he's been promoted above his competency level.

Sadly, I think there are too many on either side are in that position. Whether you agreed with Maggie or not, she had what it took to achieve something. Harold Wilson might not have seemed much while in power, but the way the Labour party imploded after he quit shows how good a job he'd been doing keeping it together. Since Thatcher there hasn't really been anyone who's lived up to the requirements of the top job. We've had a few competent ministers, but certainly the ones living in Downing Street have been mediocre. Cameron, May and Johnson all had the opportunity to be great and they've all flunked it, and looking around the rest of the bunch, none of them really stand out as clued up and competent and capable of good leadership, so when Boris gets Booted, it'll be more of the same, regardless of whether it's at the next election or knifed by his own party.

[Pontius Navigator]

Trouble is, with long periods where you have one party or the other you don't get to judge the calibre of the opposition. The long period leading to Wilson's first election gave us a set of unknowns. His majority of 4 showed how close things were. That he was able to call a second election soon after when his ministers had shown they had some competency gave him a working majority. The fixed term parliament denies the try before buy option. The US 4 year elections at least have mid terms which can be interesting.
Wilson's next election saw Heath get in. He did so well that Wilson won the next.

[Boac]

PMQs really are a total waste of time for the average person - good for allowing an MP to 'flag up' an issue, but the actual questions are never answered.

Watching yesterday's childish performance by Bonking Boris was an example, and the Charmer didn't actually grasp the nettle either.

Bojo continually taunted the charmer to say that 'Schools are Safe' in Covid terms. The OBVIOUS response is "If they are 'safe', why are they closed"?, but no, never mentioned. So the futile bat and ball game continued.

...... and the whole damned thing is on 2 BBC channels and Sky!! A waste of broadcast bandwidth when we could be watching Sesame Street.

[llondel]

Trouble is, with long periods where you have one party or the other you don't get to judge the calibre of the opposition. The long period leading to Wilson's first election gave us a set of unknowns. His majority of 4 showed how close things were. That he was able to call a second election soon after when his ministers had shown they had some competency gave him a working majority. The fixed term parliament denies the try before buy option. The US 4 year elections at least have mid terms which can be interesting.
Wilson's next election saw Heath get in. He did so well that Wilson won the next.

Sometimes it's because people have judged the calibre of the opposition that a party gets re-elected. Foot and Kinnock weren't particularly inspiring, then they put John Smith in charge who might have been pretty good. The Tories might have done better if Major hadn't won in 1992, because by 1997 they were toxic and Blair got to win three because they were still trying to come up with a credible leader. Then Brown ended up in charge and I think it was almost a tie between those who thought he was useless and those who considered Cameron the same, but the Lib Dems decided they disliked Cameron less than they disliked Brown. Obviously Miliband was even less credible and a lot of people didn't fancy Corbyn either, although May wasn't particularly impressive on the other side either, given her electoral performance.

[Pontius Navigator]

In other words, the least bad option each time.

[4mastacker]

In other words, the least bad option each time.

That's how I've voted in the last few elections. There have been no "good" candidates in this constituency whilst we've lived here - we've had chisellers, turn-coats and flouncers and I'm rapidly losing confidence in the current trough-feeder MP. Had we people of the stature of Kate Hoey or Frank Field standing as candidates then that's where my vote would have went - but I doubt even they would have stood a chance of winning in this constituency.

[Pontius Navigator]

4ma, at least Gareth talks the talk if nothing else.

His holding reply to me "that's a very good question" never got a final response though I know the SoS Defence for infrastructure covered my question, almost as a footnote, in a parliamentary answer that MOD would provide electric charging points on the estate.

I bet the NHS hasn't thought of that and its parking contractor won't suggest it unless there is a profit in it.

In fact I might just tweak Gareth about that too.

[4mastacker]

4ma, at least Gareth talks the talk if nothing else.

His holding reply to me "that's a very good question" never got a final response though I know the SoS Defence for infrastructure covered my question, almost as a footnote, in a parliamentary answer that MOD would provide electric charging points on the estate.

I bet the NHS hasn't thought of that and its parking contractor won't suggest it unless there is a profit in it.

In fact I might just tweak Gareth about that too.

I'd much prefer if he walked the walk.

You got a holding reply? That's a damn sight more than I've received. I keep getting e-mails from "They work for you" asking if he's replied to a letter I wrote back in November. So far, zilch. According to his web-site, there appears to be a restriction on the range of subjects about which you can write to him - it points constituents in the direction of the County and District Councils and includes the following quote:

"MPs are focused on national policy issues and as such are only responsible for matters concerning our national parliament in Westminster and areas of responsibility of the central government."

I doubt if I'll get a reply to my latest letter - I don't think my suggestion to send the SAS in to sort out Ursula and her cronies will get very far.

[Pontius Navigator]

That, as I am sure you know, it a cop out. I thought they were also to hold our councillors feet to the fire.

[CharlieOneSix]

A really good move by Boris, making Liz Truss Foreign Secretary - I'm sure the Taliban will listen to her.

[Woody]

Liz Truss has never entered the WOE challenge, you can see why

We want to attract the best and the brightest to United Kingdom .

[TheGreenGoblin]

A really good move by Boris, making Liz Truss Foreign Secretary - I'm sure the Taliban will listen to her.

Perhaps she can sell them some cheese! The woman is a blithering idiot!



Have a look at the empty shelves at your local supermarket and think of her gormless gob when you do!