UKMT Spring 2022 - Beer for Keir, Beef for Keith

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Spring 2022 - Beer for Keir, Beef for Keith

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

It was a way for the Tories and their mates to make a few quid quickly. That's really it, everything that follows is just happenstance and keeping up appearances of doing something.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 04:53

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 06:50

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Fucks me off the "Oh just buy reduced stuff silly!" thing.

Like, are the 15m or so people in the UK in poverty all supposed to do that? Are they supposed to not buy non-reduced stuff, waiting until food almost goes bad so that they can have it for cheap? Will this not have wider economic effects? If the food can be sold to people at that price, why do they have to wait til it has a short date to have it?

Also doing that sort of things is loving exhausting. I'm not even that hard up, but I'm not working at the moment and trying to keep an eye on our food spending (food is more expensive in Canada) and even then only buying certain things when they're on offer actually takes up a lot of mental space. Just keeping track of the prices of things and trying to work out what the most efficient way to buy stuff because of complicated deals and obfuscating pricing etc. is exhausting, and I'm not even in any danger of going hungry.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 20:13

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

LMFAO I just got an Apple News notification on my phone from the Telegraph:

"Tube Chaos: How 'Putin Apologists' brought London to a standstill"

Just looked it up on the website and it has the subheading:

quote:

We ask: Just how close is the RMT union to Putin's Russia

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 20:44

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Guavanaut posted:

So if everyone bought yellow sticker food, like certain brainlords think, all the shops would fail, putting it up there with that lib dem peer who suggested everyone forage for berries.

Yeah this is what I was getting at. It's literally impossible for all of the people living in poverty in the UK to do it without all of the supermarkets (and many food producers presumably) going bust.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 21:03

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

WhatEvil posted:

LMFAO I just got an Apple News notification on my phone from the Telegraph:

"Tube Chaos: How 'Putin Apologists' brought London to a standstill"

Just looked it up on the website and it has the subheading:

I've gotta be honest I thought there would be some discussion about this.

quote:

Workers trudging miles through the rain because of Tuesday's Tube strike in London would have felt that their troubles were as nothing compared with the horrors unfolding in Ukraine.

Nor would they have been searching for any connection between the industrial action called by the RMT union and Vladimir Putin�s blood-soaked invasion of a sovereign country.

Yet the RMT, and particularly its assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey, have long-standing sympathies for the pro-Putin separatists who have been fighting government forces in the east of the country for almost a decade.

Dempsey is one of the most high-profile signatories to a Stop the War Coalition statement last week that criticised Nato for showing �disdain for Russian concerns� in Ukraine. It caused a huge row within the Labour Party because 11 of its MPs had originally signed the statement, all of whom withdrew their support for it on the orders of Sir Keir Starmer.

A Labour frontbencher described the Stop the War Coalition as �fifth columnists� and �Putin apologists�, and there were suggestions that the signatory MPs � who included Diane Abbott and John McDonnell � would lose the party whip if they did not withdraw.

The letter refuted the definition of Nato as �a defensive alliance� and condemned Britain�s �aggressive posturing�. Dempsey remains a signatory, as does the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now sits as an independent MP.

It should not have come as a surprise. Dempsey visited the Donbas region of Ukraine in 2015, where he posed for a picture with Aleksey Mozgovoy, leader of the pro-Russian �Ghost Brigade� of rebels in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People�s Republic.

When Mozgovoy was killed two weeks later, Dempsey wrote a glowing obituary of the �charismatic� insurgent, which was originally published in the Morning Star.

Mozgovoy, who was born in eastern Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, was determined that the pro-Russian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas region should become independent of Ukraine in order that they could eventually be re-absorbed by Moscow. After his death, his Ghost Brigade merged with the other Russian separatist forces in Donbas which are designated as terrorist groups by the Kyiv government.

Mozgovoy believed in �people�s courts�, and on one occasion presided over a session that passed a death sentence based on a show of hands from the public gallery.

In 2014, he said he had ordered his patrols to arrest any woman sitting in a pub or cafe, because �a woman must be the guardian of the hearth, a mother. But what kind of mothers are they after going to pubs? If you want to remain an honest person and devoted to your husband, stay at home and do embroidery. All the pubs are full of the female population. Are they all prostitutes, or what?�

In 2020, a court found that Mozgovoy had planned and ordered the ambush and murder of a family in return for cash.

For Dempsey, Mozgovoy was a �charismatic, anti-fascist militia leader�, the description he used in his obituary of him. Dempsey met him when he visited eastern Ukraine as part of what he described as an international humanitarian aid convoy. He described the Ghost Brigade as �volunteers who have been resisting the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation of the US/EU-backed Kiev junta�, and said Mozgovoy�s comrades would �continue their late commander�s struggle� toward the �precious goal� of �peace and justice for the working people of the Donbas�.

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and member of Parliament�s foreign affairs committee, last night called on Dempsey to apologise for his support for Mozgovoy.

He said: �Sometimes people who no doubt think they have the best intentions and the warmest hearts can be the most dangerous people in the room. Naivety is one thing, but reckless naivety is another.

�The writing has been on the wall in relation to Putin and his territorial ambitions for more than a decade now, and anybody who has not been able to see that should step aside from the political arena. He should apologise � and be ashamed of himself.�

Nor was Dempsey an outlier in the RMT when he wrote the glowing tribute. In September 2015, Mick Cash, the then general secretary of the RMT, wrote to all branch secretaries urging them to affiliate with the Solidarity with the Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine campaign (SARU), which opposed the UK�s backing for the elected government in Kyiv.

The RMT, which was affiliated with SARU at a national level, noted that SARU was �against the UK and Western governments� backing for the far-Right regime in Kiev� and opposed Nato exercises in the country.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, which was founded in 1990 through a merger of railwaymen�s and seamen�s unions, has long had ambitions of turning Britain into a socialist state.

After being expelled from Tony Blair�s Labour Party in 2004, it switched its allegiance to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, a far-Left political party co-founded by Bob Crow, the RMT�s former general secretary. It did, however, switch back to supporting Labour for the duration of Jeremy Corbyn�s leadership.

Bob Seely, the Conservative MP and former Army captain who lived and worked in Kyiv in the early 1990s as a reporter, said figures on the hard Left have had a long �flirtation� with Putin, because �they think my enemy�s enemy is my friend�.

He said: �Because Putin opposes the UK and the US, they think he is on their side somehow, and because some have a legacy romantic attachment to the Soviet Union, they see Putin as someone who shares their anti-capitalist urge. They may also see in Putin, in some weird and pathetic way, a successor to the Soviet Union.�

All of which seems to have little to do with Tube workers� pensions, which is what the current strikes are about.

Estimates of how much a one-day Tube strike costs the capital�s economy vary between �10m and �50m

The RMT called its members out on strike because Transport for London, which pays �360 million into its pension fund every year, has commissioned an independent review of its pension scheme, which the Government believes is financially unsustainable. London Underground staff numbers will also be cut by 600 through natural wastage.

While it may have failed to turn Britain into a socialist utopia, the RMT has had remarkable success in inflating the salaries of its members, who include the majority of London Underground staff.

The base salary for Tube drivers is now more than �55,000, though the majority earn �70,000-�80,000, when overtime and benefits are added on.

The salaries of the RMT�s leaders are even more impressive. Mick Lynch, the general secretary, is paid �109,542, plus �38,370 in pension contributions and �14,125 in employers� NI contributions, while Demsey is paid �85,282, plus �22,175 in pension contributions and �10,993 in NI contributions.

The RMT, then, knows that Tube strikes work. Estimates of how much a one-day Tube strike costs the capital�s economy vary between �10m and �50m, partly through cancelled restaurant and theatre bookings, aborted day trips and loss of revenue in pubs and cafes.

There is also a direct hit to TfL, which stands to lose �20m in fares income through the current series of strikes at a time when Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has had to make �400m in savings as a condition of the multi-billion pound bailouts TfL has received from the taxpayer.

Dempsey did not express regret for his association with Mozgovoy when the Telegraph contacted the RMT yesterday.

The Telegraph asked the RMT whether Dempsey regretted meeting Mozgovoy and writing the favourable obituary; whether any other RMT employees had visited separatists in Ukraine; whether the RMT was still affiliated with SARU; whether the RMT has ever sent funds to Ukrainian separatists or helped them in any other way, and whether the RMT unconditionally supports the current Ukrainian government and its president Volodymyr Zelensky.

An RMT spokesman replied: �The union does not support either Vladamir Putin or his actions in Ukraine, and we are backing global union pressure for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.�

Dempsey�s only comment was: �I fully agree with the union�s position.�

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 00:20

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

keep punching joe posted:

Pretty sure Brookside ended with a siege of armed robbers holed up in the close climaxing in a helicopter crash.

Nah I thought I remembered something different and I just looked it up, I was right.

I never actually watched *any* of Brookside at all. Like not a single episode, but I did watch the final episode just because it was repeated late at night and I thought it sounded interesting to watch the final ep of a long-running soap.

I didn't have any idea who anybody was but it was actually quite good!

The residents ganged up to murder a drug dealer who'd moved into the area(!):

quote:

On the advice of Barry Grant, a gangster from the glory days, the remaining residents formed a cooperative to murder a drug dealer, who had moved into the close. This would spread the blame, confuse the issue and strike a blow, well several actually, for solidarity. Barry himself sent his apologies, having a prior commitment to kill the men who killed his brother 15 years ago. The drug dealer was duly hanged from his bedroom window, which gave the milkman a nasty turn, and the murderers went on their way rejoicing - or at least, for Brookside, in a mood of quite unaccustomed cheeriness. They showed no guilt, the police showed no interest and the press never showed at all.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2022 23:55

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

https://twitter.com/SPOMorain/status/1499547314561683462?s=20&t=kbe3taL-_3HqClep4vtmVw

Not that surprising for a by-election though is it?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 02:04

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

TACD posted:

UK baseline weather then

For real. I didn't appreciate just how grey and miserable the UK really is in the winter before moving to Canada. It's colder here and we get snow but we also get a lot of clear, bright (but cold) days in the winter here, and the summers are proper hot, sunny summers.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 02:51

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Coohoolin's alright. I don't agree with him on everything but that doesn't mean I dislike him. It's a bit weird that the thread is bitching about him IMO.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 18:55

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Re: Accents, I grew up in Bucks. I used to sometimes get called called posh at school (in the same town I grew up) but then my wife says I sound common, and she doesn't sound posh to me, so [extremely centrist voice] I must be doing something right[/extremely centrist voice].

I dunno. I don't think I have a particularly strong accent one way or another. People can't generally tell where I'm from, anyway.

I do probably sound somewhat like this guy: https://www.dialectsarchive.com/england-95

That's a pretty cool site btw, it has sample recordings of people from all over England: https://www.dialectsarchive.com/england and also tons of other countries.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2022 06:28

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

feedmegin posted:

I mean to add to what Twisto said - we have this thing called the National Grid, you know. You might have heard of it. We don't all need our own personal power generation apparatus, we have big wires for that

Eh I mean 5+% of power generated is lost to transmission over the grid. That's 3m peoples' power consumption. Local generation helps to lower that, I believe.

Tsietisin posted:

Orzo is a crime.

Orzo is great, you just need to use it in the right dish.

I can't find the one I make online (I think it was from a magazine) but it's basically this:

https://www.food.com/recipe/orzo-with-blue-cheese-and-walnuts-473318

Except you cook the orzo in 1L of veg stock, drain it off, then add in ~100g of watercress or spinach as well as the blue cheese and walnuts.

It's good, comes out a lot like a risotto.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2022 18:57

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Canadians are losing their minds because petrol prices have gone up... it's now at the equivalent of ~�1.03 per litre.

Like, it is a real crisis for a lot of people here so I don't want to minimise it but it's also wild that they don't realise they've had really cheap prices relative to average earnings, compared to much of the world, for a really long time.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2022 16:01

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

He's being radicalised by the fact that the shitpost left are the only ones not to just constantly bring up foxes - he's already been on Sinan Kose's stream and IIRC has talked about a couple of other lefty podcasts. Give him a couple of months and he'll be doing Phoenix Wright Twitch streams in his wig and gown and tweeting Rare Brendans.

He was on Sinan Kose's twitch stream but came across as just another liberal wetwipe, frankly.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2022 22:29

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

So take the next step to join all of the people who've been arguing with you about this and realise that it's *money* that's the problem, not the fact that that money happened to cross a magic line on the way - and that the people pushing the story that it's the fact that it's foreign money that's the problem are the ones who most want you not to realise this.

Yeah there's a bunch of massively corrupt shits in government and they take money from any oval office who's offering it. It does so happen that Russia created loads of massively corrupt and massively rich shits of their own in the 90s during Russian privatisation, and so lots of dodgy money flows our way from Russia... but it's far from the only place dodgy money comes from and you can't point to everything wrong in Britain and every malign influence and scream "RUSSIA DID THIS!". Yes Russian oligarchs are bad and they do wield a lot of influence in the UK and they do buy off British politicians... but it's not like the corrupt British politicians actually give a poo poo where specifically the money comes from.

To think of it another way, if you "solve" the "Russia problem", somebody else would step in to fill the gap and be handing bungs to British politicians to do awful things (and indeed, people from other places also do that already), and you solve basically nothing. If you solve the "money can influence politics against the best interests of the people" problem, then you solve most of the problems. Russian oligarchs wouldn't be able to do poo poo to our democracy if our democracy weren't stuffed to the brim with self-serving pieces of utter poo poo.

It's a systemic issue and if anybody thinks the problem is solved with "well we need to replace Putin with somebody different!" or whatever then they have brain worms. Cadwalladr's a joke and won't learn anything, ever.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2022 06:16

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

I think stuff gets read in this thread a lot for being something it's not.

I wasn't saying "don't investigate malign influences of Russian money" I'm saying "Do that, but also if we're acknowledging that Russian money is a problem now, we should also be acknowledging that ALL big money is a problem and working to curb those influences". Like if Russia detached from the earth and flew off into space with all the Russian oligarchs, the British establishment would immediately be cosying up to, I don't know, Chinese billionaires? The Saudis even more? American evangelical interests? Who knows. The point is that removing Russian influence while not dealing with anything else ultimately solves nothing.

That's not saying "We should not be dealing with undue political influence from Russians". I don't think anyone is saying that? It's just that to do so only tackles part of the problem.

It's similar to everybody making out like Trump was this huge problem and once he was out of office things would be much better for the American people. Like, yes, get the guy out of office, but he's only there in the first place because things are severely hosed and if you don't tackle the conditions that got him there then you aren't fixing anything.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2022 15:54

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

To be fair what I've seen from Cadwalladr does indicate to me that she's completely blind to the larger systemic issues.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2022 16:14

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

I was wrong to say Monbiot was "a good lad" or anything of the sort. I apologise to the thread. He's a stupid propagandist oval office.

https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1503758826461409287?s=20&t=nevz0b8kOlN2VaDfqWo59w

Anybody writing "There's a war going on, here's why that makes the Left bad and wrong" is a straight up propagandist or worm-brained idiot. No exceptions.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2022 23:31

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Pablo Bluth posted:

The left who blame the war on nothing more than NATO expansion are propogandists or worm-brained idiots and should be criticised.

Do you think there are many actual leftists who do that?

# ¿ Mar 17, 2022 00:15

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Maybe I shouldn't bring her up again but Cadwalladr's posting some amazing analysis again today:

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1504806574484824101?s=20&t=5kbo-RKu9a-taAeivA6ldA

"Russia Today made Farage who he is today".

Wild that he's made the most Question Time appearances out of any guest this century.

She does mention the BBC but apparently that's a "whole other thread":

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1504815896417771522?s=20&t=5kbo-RKu9a-taAeivA6ldA

# ¿ Mar 18, 2022 17:09

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

jiggerypokery posted:

Really, really good article.

RT have supported him again and again financially, directly through appearances or clipping him for social media or indirectly. It's hyperbole but it isn't incorrect

Sure but it's that same poo poo again isn't it. Russian money is involved, for sure, but it wouldn't matter if there weren't also people in the British establishment who are happy to also receive Russian money and push those same goals.

Like, are you trying to tell me that if Nigel Farage had been on Russia Today as many times as he had and not on Question Time, and HIGNFY, and Loose Women (admittedly that's on ITV - also wtf) that he would have cut through like he did?

WhatEvil fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Mar 18, 2022

# ¿ Mar 18, 2022 17:37

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

jiggerypokery posted:

The thing is that most people just care about the wrong things. It doesn't matter how cruel, corrupt, dishonest, incompetent these people are. The only thing that ever hurts people in public life is hypocrisy.

If partygate was finally the thing that ended Boris career, it wouldn't have been some great moral victory. If anything it would have been sort of depressing. But nothing else he did was ever going to end it. Just hypocrisy.

Same thing with this Russia brexit poo poo. We all know its not the point that really matters, but it might be the point that actually hurts them.

Maybe, but, would it matter? Would it make any meaningful difference to anything if Boris was booted out? If Nigel Farage is exposed as a Russian stooge?

No. The damage is done. Some other murderous Tory would go into no. 10 and Farage is largely irrelevant now anyway.

That's why people criticise this "Russia Brain" stuff. Yeah, they might achieve something*, but what you'll achieve will be completely meaningless without fixing the root causes that our democracy is completely hosed and stuffed to the gills with people who are kleptocratic or just straight up loving evil, or both.

It's a structural issue *with what's going on in the UK and the West in general* and the best we seem to get is people pointing at individuals and saying "MAN BAD! RUSSIA!!!!".

*And has any of this achieved anything tangible at all anyway?

# ¿ Mar 18, 2022 18:09

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

lmao

https://twitter.com/HackedOffHugh/status/1504946989783711744?s=20&t=jx4MysNlPm_7Y7ZjcU41rw

# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 02:28

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Cimber posted:

What the hell is wrong with your PM

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/19/pms-comparison-of-ukraine-resistance-to-uk-brexit-vote-criticised-as-crass

He's a oval office.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 22:44

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

I'm old enough to remember mortgage interest rates of 15%+ (1990 - again, under a tory government).

When I went abroad in 2007, interest rates on a normal, everyday savings account were 5.5-6% and interest contributed a not insignificant chunk of monthly income. Now, I laugh haha at the paltry 0.01% or whatever it is.

If you have any savings you can tie up for a year or more, check out sharia savings accounts which are somewhat better than non-sharia savings (but only fixing for a year because of the way interest rates are going) both in terms of 'return' (they use a profit return rather than interest) but also tend to be more socio/eco-friendly minded. Eg Gatehouse Bank if you have �1k. (the easy access accounts are currently 'under review' so not available just now.)

Yeah I have a few �k in my NEST pension and they give you a report every year on how the various accounts you can put your money into are performing. I noticed that the Sharia ones have been getting much better returns than all the others so shifted my money into that. Hope it does well because it's my only pension savings currently \o/.

E: 57 varieties of beans fired up your backside.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2022 17:36

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Figure this might be a good place to ask.

My wife might be getting a new job soon where she has to manage a small team of ~5 people. Anybody know of any books or resources on how to be a good manager, as a leftist? Like, I know she's working within a power-structure which is inherently capitalist which is unavoidable, but basically we think it might be a good idea for her to read something on "how to be a manager" but want to avoid any right-wing bullshit.

E: Oh btw it's a union workplace AFAICT. Public Service Alliance of Canada - the union for government workers in Canada. They seem good at first glance, they are at least explicitly anti-privatisation.

WhatEvil fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 20, 2022

# ¿ Mar 20, 2022 21:33

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

My bill had a leaflet saying that the rebate would be sent to the account I have my direct debit set up with. Literally a cash payment for every property you own, the Tory-est possible stimulus package.

Pretty sure you only pay council tax on your primary residence.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2022 19:20

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

jiggerypokery posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPmkILhKXi4

I really want to like Jam and Blue Jam but mostly what I see is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0Ocau-CUg

# ¿ Mar 23, 2022 20:29

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Reminder to order free LFTs while you can:

https://twitter.com/LFT_alert/status/1508519552895827983?s=20&t=kKvhYqLOl0uTUzwVynGdng

(assuming they're still in stock at time of message)

# ¿ Mar 28, 2022 20:51

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

I think it's also interesting to consider that had it been The Rock instead of Chris Rock, Smith probably wouldn't have slapped him, IMO.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 00:27

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

The real answer is that they both acted in a lovely way.

I don't know why people have such a problem conceiving that this could be true. It's the same poo poo as we've seen with Putin Vs. Ukraine/The West.

"But who's right!?!" Nobody. Everybody involved is poo poo.

What I'm saying is, Will Smith is literally Vladimir Putin.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 00:37

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

CW: Transphobia

Angepain posted:

ok look let's all stop distracting ourselves with these rich people hitting each other and get back to the important issues. let's take a look at our bold and sophisticated news media and see what hard hitting important questions are being posed to our politicians

https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1508728282396692483
https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1508729013732265990
https://twitter.com/KayBurley/status/1508714461653307407

ok never mind

Just a reminder that some trans people ITT have asked that people don't just quote transphobia into the thread. Spoilers/CW tags probably a good idea.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 17:40

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Security means national security, so increased police and military spending. Prosperity means that everything the government does must be in service to The Supreme Number (FTSE 100 Index), and Respect means "Respect your betters, you loving plebs, you'll get what we give you and like it. We're in charge now.".

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 19:39

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

I need to change the handles on my windows first though to low-profile so I'm intimidated by that - what if I take the old ones off and can't fit new ones and can't close my windows! What do I even order!

It's really simple. Your window probably has a "Euro" style lock. All you typically need to know for the handles is the "centres", that is the distance from centre of fixing hole to centre of fixing hole.

Feel free to send me a photo of your window/handles and I'll help you figure out what you need, if you like.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2022 00:33

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

domhal posted:

I would bet that Labour strategy is to mimic "Trump bad" without caring that media criticism of Boris is mild compared to that of Trump in the US, that Biden barely won, and that Biden actually had some good policies in his campaign.

And the Dems are literally the only other choice in the US.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2022 16:45

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

TACD posted:

Well yea but you�re probably also buying booze and kitchen roll and petrol and whatever as well. I agree the value proposition is less attractive if you�re only buying toilet roll lol

I've always thought of CostCo as being like "bargain" stores. I went to a "Dollarama" here in Canada yesterday for the first time in a while. They sell stuff cheap (not for a dollar, amusingly - everything is $1.25 - equivalent to about 71p). You can make genuinely quite good savings on some stuff. I normally shop at Food Basics which is the cheapest supermarket in my area by quite a bit, and even then you can save on stuff. They have a limited food selection but you can get canned beans and other stuff that are like, good, healthy staples cheaper than you'd be able to at the supermarket, BUT other stuff is like, hilariously expensive.

They sell instant noodles there, also for $1.25, when I know for a fact that identical noodles available in the Food Basics supermarket, literally next door, for 59 cents. The psychology (and the marketing) around such places, as well as CostCo, is that it's "special" and "you save money there" so people go there with that in their heads. "All the things here are bargains" where in reality there's actually a fairly small subset of things which are. Much of the rest of the stuff in the store is either roughly at parity with a regular supermarket, or actually works out as more expensive. I'm not saying you can't save money by shopping there, but you have to have your wits about you.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2022 16:24

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Further to this
My handles seem to be bog standard espag and are exactly these measurements:

I'm wanting to replace these handles with ones with a much lower profile - I've seen some where what is 42mm on here is 28mm on them which are probably suitable if only I knew how to figure out spindle length! Without removing the existing handles, not sure how to figure out spindle length.

(Handness doesn't matter because I have two windows, one opens one way and one the other so I'll be getting one of each.)

Ed: I guess I could also buy a couple of the cheapies off Amazon that have multiple spindles - an extra �15-�20 to cover two handles - but seems a bit of a waste. I don't see any possibility to just buy spindle packs separately anywhere.

You can work it out. If you open up your window and look at the edge of the sash (the opening part), near the handle, you'll likely see a locking strip made of silver or gold-ish metal which has got some bolts/rollers on which are the parts that engage into keeps on the window frame and actually lock the window. Measure from the face of the window the handle sits on, to the far side of the lock strip, and that'll be roughly the spindle length you want. You can also just order the longest one and cut it down to a suitable length with a hacksaw, if you're able. You can't buy the spindle separately because they're permanently fixed into the handle rather than being loose like how they usually are on door handles.

See image for how to measure. If it doesn't make sense still let me know.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2022 00:30

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Lady Demelza posted:

Hey sorry to interrupt the bickering, but new lodger is expecting to pay half of bills like water and Internet, which aren't metered and would be the same whether they were here or not, and also half the council tax instead of just the 25% single person discount I lose.

I'm confused. They're confused. What is normal?

It depends IMO. If you're effectively equal partners in renting a house, and you each get the exact same rights/access etc. to stuff then they should probably pay half of everything. If it's like, a house/flat you own and you're renting out a room to a lodger at a market rate, then it's up to you to set the bills, e.g. if you set an "all-in" room rate which includes the bills. I mean, they will be using the water, internet etc. so I think it's reasonable to expect them to pay half towards them, but yeah this situation is a bit trickier, potentially.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2022 00:38

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

She was also a Tory. Make of that what you will.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2022 17:29

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Window handle chat:

Just had a convo with one of the sellers of window handles - it occurred to me that I could simply swap out the spindles from the existing handles and put them in the new handles as there's nothing actually wrong with the old ones they just stick out too far, and she has just confirmed it. So I'll get the ones with the longest spindles (subject to depth of my window).

In my experience the spindles of window handles (unlike door handles) tend to be permanently attached to the handle (glued/brazed/welded - not sure). But yeah in any case you can definitely get the longest and cut down if needed.

Also in my experience, the people you get hold of on the phone selling window stuff often haven't really got a clue what they're talking about.

You could call my old trade supplier, Quest Hardware. They're very good and if you call them up you'll almost certainly get somebody who knows their stuff. They're mainly a trade supplier but they'll sell to anyone: https://www.questhardware.co.uk/doo...cranked-locking

Also I'm sure they'd be happy to answer any questions even if you don't end up buying from them. They're mostly Plymouth Brethren which is a bit of a weird/insular religious group I've talked about before - but they are quite friendly and helpful.

WhatEvil fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Apr 6, 2022

# ¿ Apr 6, 2022 15:42

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 06:50

WhatEvil: Jun 6, 2004; Can't get no luck.

I just can't pay too much attention to politics right now, it's too depressing. I'm still reading some stuff but trying not to get too absorbed. I'm mostly ignoring war coverage which I feel bad about but... what can I do? I'm also actually experiencing improvements in my anxiety and I'm not sure if that's because I've started ignoring stuff more or if it's just a coincidence but I don't want to make myself spiral if I don't have to.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2022 18:24

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