Miguel Sanchez Posted May 19, 2019 Share Posted May 19, 2019 If there's one thing you can rely on academics for it's making criticism - genuine, negative criticism that is - sound good, so it may interest you to know that Jacob Rees-Mogg has written a book about Victorians: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/19/jacob-rees-mogg-book-the-victorians-12-titans-who-forged-britain Quote But its early readers have not been persuaded that the project was time well spent. The historian AN Wilson, whose book The Victorians was published in 2002, wrote in the Times that Rees-Mogg’s effort was “anathema to anyone with an ounce of historical, or simply common, sense”. Describing the work as “a dozen clumsily written pompous schoolboy compositions”, he said it claimed to be a work of history, but was in fact “yet another bit of self-promotion by a highly motivated modern politician”. On the chapter about Gen Charles Napier’s conquest of Sindh, Wilson wrote: “At this point in the book you start to think that the author is worse than a twit. By all means let us celebrate what was great about the Victorians, but there is something morally repellent about a book that can gloss over massacres and pillage on the scale perpetrated by Napier.” Writing in the Guardian, Kathryn Hughes described the book as “an origin myth for Rees-Mogg’s particular rightwing vision of Britain”. “In parliament, Rees-Mogg is often referred to as ‘the honourable member for the 18th century’, a nod to those funny clothes he wears, along with pretending not to know the name of any modern pop songs,” she wrote. “What a shame, then, that he has not absorbed any of the intellectual and creative elegance that flourished during that period.” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieThomas Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strichener Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 4 hours ago, JamieThomas said: Perhaps they should have been less selective with the contents of the report. Quote Respondents were self-selecting: This survey did not seek views on the WPL from a representative sample of the Scottish population, as happens in public opinion polling. This means that the results reported in this analysis are unlikely to reflect the true distribution of opinions on the WPL held by individuals and organisations across Scotland and should not be read as such. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieThomas Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 I think the point is that presenting a small number of responses from motivated individuals and interest groups as if it were a proper poll is deliberately misleading. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 That ‘survey’ might be the most meaningless bit of work I’ve ever seen in my life. You’d be as well using a poll from here, and I don’t mean that flippantly at all. I’ve worked at a few Edinburgh City Centre locations which have underground car parks and plenty employees drive in, despite being no more than a two minute walk from Waverley or Haymarket. I think a charge might make some sense in that regard, but outside of the city centre bubble it’s just another tax, really, and the current Council Leader has already committed to making it a city-wide initiative, from the poorly served industrial estates at Newbridge to Newhaven harbour. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Oh, look! Ideologically-driven austerity has been a social catastrophe. Who could have predicted that? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 49 minutes ago, yoda said: Oh, look! Ideologically-driven austerity has been a social catastrophe. Who could have predicted that? Indeed. On one side of the coin we have the serial fraudsters (entrepreneurs) with their super yachts and property empires and on the other hand we have the above. The sad thing is that nobody seems to care or even think that the two may be related. As the man says, we're heading for trouble............ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 I was wondering what Craig Whyte was up to these days. Comet; electrical retailer, acquired 2011; insolvent 2014 Rileys; sports bars; acquired 2012; insolvent 2014 Monarch; airline, acquired 2014; administration 2017 M Local; convenience stores, acquired from Morrisons 2015; insolvent 2016 British Steel 2016; was Tata Steel Europe, bought from Tata and renamed; insolvent 2019 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blootoon87 Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Seems to be a lot of speculation that May will be gone tonight. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Seems to be about as regular as Mundell threatening to resign. I'll believe it when I see it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny Danger Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 7 hours ago, yoda said: Oh, look! Ideologically-driven austerity has been a social catastrophe. Who could have predicted that? What really saddens me is that austerity didn’t need to happen. It wasn’t an economic/financial necessity; it was purely ideological. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottiBiabi Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Seems to be a lot of speculation that May will be gone tonight. Got to give it to her, she’s played a blinder here. Told the ministers who requested to see her to f**k off basically; as it’s Election Day tomorrow the media can’t report politics scuppering any sort of momentum the ‘coup’ had, and then there’s a recess until June 4th. Her days are numbered, but she’s going nowhere tonight unfortunately. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lambies Doos Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Sky News reporting that senior cabinet ministers are trying to meet May now to tell her the time is up. Apparently she has locked the door and is refusing to meet them [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 41 minutes ago, Granny Danger said: What really saddens me is that austerity didn’t need to happen. It wasn’t an economic/financial necessity; it was purely ideological. An interesting read (John Cassidy is a very good economics commentator; compare and contrast him to someone like Paul Mason) here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-reinhart-and-rogoff-controversy-a-summing-up If we take Osbourne at face-value and assess austerity against the main objective of reducing the debt then it failed miserably. If we take it (as we should) as an ideological attack on the welfare state, and a rolling back of "big government", then it has been a roaring success for them. The current spending levels are, to borrow a phrase, the "new normal" - this is the base level of services from here on. The amount of spending increases that would be required to elevate us to pre-2010 levels is enormous, and unfortunately, I don't think it would be palatable to a lot of voters*. *the "I want more spending but I also think he should run the government like a household" types we regularly hear from. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 4 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said: Sky News reporting that senior cabinet ministers are trying to meet May now to tell her the time is up. Apparently she has locked the door and is refusing to meet them https://twitter.com/tomcopley/status/1131245748580999170 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 The undead Theresa May survives another day. Another meeting with 1922 committee boss on Friday. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doulikefish Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Andrea Leadsom has resigned 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Kelly Isley III Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Andrea Leadsom has resigned ....herself to being ugly ?Are we playing HIGNFY ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Almost every Tory on Newsnight (catch up) is saying Loathsome for Party Leader. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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