Posts by Rich 11 4586 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jul 2009
is bigged up a real English term?
It most certainly is. It can be traced back to the 13th century, when boar-shafting parties were all the rage.
"...on that nighte we didst lws the Beaste unto its mark, & Sir Guillaume didst take it with grate joyeux, & was truly bigged up."
-- Roger de Montmorency, Keeper of the King's Ringcushion
I once worked with a bloke from Northern Ireland who told a story about when he'd worked on an Army base as a consultant for their ICL systems. They had a couple of minicomputers in a secure server room in the centre of the building, visible from the adjacent workrooms through narrow wired-glass windows. It was kept locked tight when no-one was meant to be in the room, with only the duty officer having the keys. One night he got a call to say water could be seen pouring in from the AC gear on the roof and the DO couldn't be found, so he rushed over there to find two squaddies had ameliorated the issue in a non-technical but very pragmatic fashion: smash down the security door using a metal filing cabinet as a battering ram, then haul aside the kit they could move and put tarps and buckets over the top of the rest. After my mate had powered everything down and the late-to-the-scene DO had finished having a heart attack, everyone calmed down a bit and the squaddies started arguing about whether if they'd had their sidearms they could have shot the lock off instead. It's probably just as well they didn't get the chance to try that.
Everyone wants to kick the winner while forgetting that he won
He won the presidency but he didn't win more votes. He won the opportunity to put a handful of signature policies into practice, with little success so far. No wall. No better healthcare. No repair of infrastructure. The only thing he's managed to do is enact a temporary tax cut for the middle class and a permanent one for the wealthy and for corporations, while at the time promising his tax cuts wouldn't benefit him personally (hint: they did). And the promises he's made since being elected haven't been impressive: remember 'trade wars are quick and easy to win'? China disagrees.
All in all, he's well worth kicking. He's not going to go down in history for the reasons he'd like.
The mandate is judged on what voters were told in the referendum process. It was clear what leaving meant.
Daniel Hannan said it wouldn't mean leaving the single market.
Michael Gove said it would mean leaving the single market, but he still wanted access to it. He also claimed that every country in Europe except for Belarus was part of a free trade zone, and claimed that leaving the UK wouldn't mean we left this zone. He eventually accepted that the zone he had described didn't exist and he was confusing access to the single market with the customs union, including the partial customs union agreed with Turkey.
Arron Banks favoured the Norway option, which meant staying in the customs union.
Nigel Farage said it would mean leaving both the single market and the customs union.
Unfortunately I've forgotten exactly what Boris Johnson and David Davies said. My brain had given up by then.
Please note that only one of the above is achievable under a No Deal Brexit, and clearly not all of the high-profile campaigners were in favour of it in the run-up to the referendum. Some still aren't.
this stuff is easy to test
Glad I could help you test it.
"Get out of the European Union, I don't care how" or "Get out of the European Union, I do care how and this is the agreement I'd like to see"? It does matter, you know. Like I said, you've got exactly what you voted for. Or perhaps you'd like to let us know your preference?
the fact that these did not exist should prove to even the most thick-headed Remainer that the EU never had any intention of ever allowing anyone to leave.
The fact that the Prime Minister could write a letter right now setting tomorrow as the date for the UK leaving the UK without any withdrawal agreement, but is only stopped from doing so by a law passed by the UK Parliament, should tell even the most thick-headed Brexiter that the EU doesn't have all the power the lying Brexiters claim it has.
Yeah, we saw that years ago with UK education - of course, us "uneducated" oinks could not possible see a ruse, the academic high and mighty knew that it was Gates' generosity that drove him
Decisions like that were nothing to do with education level or high and mighty academics, as someone with an IQ which qualifies for Mensa membership should realise (at least assuming your intelligence is applicable to the real world rather than to little else but IQ tests).
For one, academics themselves rarely get a say in the detail of what an IT department chooses to implement across the institution, at least when it comes to general services. For another, HE is always short of money and when IT budgets are slashed a department will often end up going with the cheapest replacement option which doesn't carry a greater risk than the system currently needing replacement. Add to that the beancounters' preference for projects which have a regular annual cost rather than a big up-front capital outlay, and everyone ends up just trying to make the best of a bad situation, knowing full well that it could have been worse than it actually is.
I'll never understand why the BBC spends so much on things that aren't news, tv or radio while cutting funding to those things.
I imagine somebody once said back in 1936 that the BBC should stick to radio, and they couldn't understand why any money would be spent on television broadcasting instead.
I would be shocked if there weren’t many more.
The US spied on Security Council delegates and on their discussions with other countries' delegates in the run-up to the Iraq War, in violation of the strict no-spy rule in the UN. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the major countries weren't also doing the same when it suited them, but the US has home-turf advantage there.
Surely all that hot air will accelerate the heat death?
Arguably any activity would accelerate heat death, but in this case I think we have to allow for interdimensional transfer of energy to members of Parliament from the Eighth Circle of Hell.
(Of course I should have added a reference to the incomparable theme music. Saturday mornings have been empty since.)
I'm looking forward to when my grandchildren ask me; where were you when Brits voted themselves into oppression and slavery?
"Driving the tumbril, which is why you're now free to ask that question without being summarily sent to the Yaxley-Lennon Memorial Re-Education Academy'n'Grill for five years of marching and saluting."
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