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20 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

As to our current plight, Boris was always seen as a rather feckless dilettante as Mayor of London and, of course was an absolutely dire Foreign Secretary.  He might believe that he's having some profound Churchill moment in this crisis; I still think he's a berk. As London Mayor, he seems to have had competent people to do all the difficult stuff for him. 

 

 

I would suggest that Boris is no different from any other successful public figure in this respect. The success is in getting the right people around you.

 

A great deal was achieved during his time as Mayor of London. Let's award him an OBE (which as any naval person knows stands for Other B*****s' Effort).

 

Although not a Conservative myself, I do have a lot of respect for some very capable Tory MPs who have been left out of this Government.

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40 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

As London Mayor, he seems to have had competent people to do all the difficult stuff for him.


There was a period at the very start of his mayoralty when he made some very bizarre appointments into strange ‘czar/advisor’ roles that had no executive authority, so were ‘pure meddlers’, some of indiscernible competence. He had to change that model pretty swiftly, because it was in danger of making his administration functionally incompetent. Presumably there was somebody authoritative enough to have a fireside chat with him about it at that stage.

 

BTW, we are now number three in the global league of Covid deaths per capita.

 

Oddly enough, much as I find Cummings loathsome I can empathise with the ‘how do you care for young children if both parents get the dreaded?’ problem. It worried me a few weeks ago and still nags at my mind occasionally. If that genuinely was the be all and end all of his flight to the north, I can at least half understand it (but, I suspect that it wasn’t as simple as that).

 

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23 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

can empathise with the ‘how do you care for young children if both parents get the dreaded?’ problem

Plenty of other people in the country just followed the rules. If he stayed in London his brother and sister in law live there too should help be required, or any number of colleagues and friends tripping over themselves to destroy any credibility they mightve had in his defence- surely they might have dropped off a bag of shopping.

Convenient that he could be at his mothers birthday though...

 

It's difficult though - his position is completely untenable, but if he resigns, boris will be in charge of the country, and that's quite scary.

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9 hours ago, brack said:

Indeed, I feel somewhat snubbed that my own residence is apparently one of the few addresses in Durham that the notorious, infectious hypocrite has not visited in recent weeks.

 

Well, he didn't come to my address either, and although a discussion with this man might be interesting, it would have merely distracted from railway construction. It is important at this time that we concentrate on essentials.

 

I have just discovered that two years ago I omitted a power feed to the bottom-level locomotive storage. 

 

Bother and double bother.

 

Will now have to spend part of this afternoon upside down under the north end of the railway. Just goes to show how important it is to plan ahead. Fortunately I think I can avoid having to solder 'upside down'. 

 

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I still recall vividly the wonder of living in London in the first years of our working married life, living in cheap flats in Highgate and Primrose Hill and enjoying that old world famous London Skyline (we could actually see St Pauls from our bath in Hampstead Lane, Highgate).

London's  Planners successfully defended it with their much copied 'Protected Views' High Rise policy until Boris destroyed it utterly in the City encouraging grotesque 'pomo' high rise - even that simplistic giant mobile phone!

Paris notably stuck to High Rise at La Defense, we could have done likewise with Heseltine's Docklands.

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8 hours ago, runs as required said:

Moreover we are assured that luckily he and family have strong bladders so they did not need to stop to spread the virus at any Motorway services during the 4 hour  drive.

What a Relief !

 

 

Four hours! Are lockdown roads empty of all traffic? 

Don't know which part of London he would have come from, but assuming a distance of 270 miles that's an average speed of 67 mph. I have known the A1 for many, many years from the times when roundabouts were being installed to when they were being removed. I am pleased if I can maintain an average of 60. 

 

Ah - but of course is not Mr Cummings the originator of 'car-crash politics', where he would force all other vehicles to give way?

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Some people clearly see themselves apart. There are sensible reasons for many of the reported high profile breaches.  While the rest of us have just done as we were asked/told, and endured the difficulty and inconvenience, the Great and the Good seem to think that their superior understanding allows them to identify exceptions that allow them to do what they want.  They must comply.  Further, as leaders - whether as elected politicos, scientists advising HMG, top civil servants or the PM's personal Spawn of Satan - they must also be seen to comply. It's called leadership.  Leadership requires sacrifice. 

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3 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Some people clearly see themselves apart. There are sensible reasons for many of the reported high profile breaches.  While the rest of us have just done as we were asked/told, and endured the difficulty and inconvenience, the Great and the Good seem to think that their superior understanding allows them to identify exceptions that allow them to do what they want.  They must comply.  Further, as leaders - whether as elected politicos, scientists advising HMG, top civil servants or the PM's personal Spawn of Satan - they must also be seen to comply. It's called leadership.  Leadership requires sacrifice. 

 

We've had a couple of our various state parliament ministers caught out travelling when not supposed to. They've done the decent thing and resigned, but I suspect that they'll be back in government after a stint in the sin bin. The death toll in the UK is devastating and I can understand the sense of worry if not justifiable fear that invokes.

 

In Australia our overall toll per capita has been very low, miraculously so in fact, but we did embrace social distancing and forced closures etc. quite early and with very little reluctance - except for the ubiquitous fights in supermarket aisles over toilet paper. Our state government has said it will lift some restrictions at the beginning of June, however I must admit that I will be quite chary of embracing them. Especially as I'm well into the 70s age group. But we still await the chance of a second spike and that could change things in an instant. 

 

I think the reality is that until someone comes up with a vaccine for this thing then we have no choice but to take all the precautions we are able to. However for many who are losing jobs, have mortgages to meet, families to feed etc. those precautions are sometimes out of the question, and understanding that is also necessary. As strong as the western economies are no government can afford to maintain the levels of subsidies and cash incentives for very long. And yet we see the active flouting by leaders like in the US and Brazil of any restraint despite their rising casualties. That sort of leadership leaves me horrified and thankful our own showed the sense they did.

 

Difficult times indeed. But on a lighter note you should be glad you took up model railways - just think of the engineering difficulties of that lifting panel if you'd taken up model canals. :)        

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Right-ho, I have finished de-cluttering the office, moving furniture and re-distributing stuff.  Things still need sorting out, but I'm pretty much at the point at which I could start construction of the boards to complete the circuit, as and when I choose to. 

 

IMG_9409.JPG.eeebd64c35baf732f5b2d4502cdea1a8.JPG

 

IMG_9408.JPG.25b68de4b278eb929d2adcb8f8f58b13.JPG

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Right-ho, I have finished de-cluttering the office, moving furniture and re-distributing stuff.  Things still need sorting out, but I'm pretty much at the point at which I could start construction of the boards to complete the circuit, as and when I choose to. 

 

 

no time like the present :D

 

Nick B

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10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:


Brilliant!

 

I had him down as Evil Uncle Abanazar from Aladdin, a power behind the throne and true pantomime villain.

 

Yes, the Byzantine version would be the court eunuch behind the boy emperor, which would have at least avoided the child care issues.

 

Funny how we are back to the mediaeval  idea of "evil counsellors".  

 

9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:


So which one is the “after” photo?

 

;-)

 

"de-clutter" here is, perhaps, a relative term and in this context does not invoke Marie Kondo*, but refers to the removal of non-railway crap (tautological?) and replacing it with more railway stuff!

 

*To be invoked only as an insult, or upon painfully stubbing one's toe.

 

 

6 minutes ago, nick_bastable said:

no time like the present :D

 

Nick B

 

Indeed!

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One topic I see has arisen which is a process called "de-cluttering" - how can that be a solution when we are surrounded by things that are merely at rest until we find another place to leave them? Everything in our existence is always in a state of flux - why should inanimate objects be exempt. :nono:

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2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Yes, the Byzantine version would be the court eunuch behind the boy emperor, which would have at least avoided the child care issues.

 

Funny how we are back to the mediaeval  idea of "evil counsellors".  

 

 

 

The US hierarchy can hardly be seen as moved on from the system in favour back in those times.  Voting for a King, every four years, rather than taking the sword to him, as and when, may just be seen as an improving step forward...                        although??         :butcher:

 

Julian

 

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One of Tom Paine’s arguments against an hereditary monarchy was that such a system was guaranteed to put an idiot on the throne every now and then. He assumed that democracy would be proof against that, or at worst that the opportunity to remove the idiot would arise periodically.

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58 minutes ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

One topic I see has arisen which is a process called "de-cluttering" - how can that be a solution when we are surrounded by things that are merely at rest until we find another place to leave them? Everything in our existence is always in a state of flux - why should inanimate objects be exempt. :nono:

This morning just sitting down to open my laptop, I looked around at my study (photo well analysed by all in earlier posts ) and realised that the deeper down I was getting in de-cluttering, the more superficially untidy the place was getting.

 

I keep discovering old computer stuff: the old Locland PC I went all the way to Livingston New Town near Wemyss Bay to get specially tuned up to run Autocad on at home after I retired, a later under-desk big vertical stack job I built built myself after doing a computer course - and whole box fuls of old electric and audio kit not to mention old railway stuff I've unpacked.

How do others deal with such junk ? I take tons of old mags to the Tanfield (to do what with?), but what about old files of personal stuff , lecture notes, old project drawings and files?

 

I watched how York uni dealt with a colleague's room in King's Manor who'd died in harness. Estates simply arrived, removed a leaded light casement window and emptied the entire room, furniture and all into two skips then had the room re-painted and ready for a Visiting Academic to move into the next Monday.

Where I've 'missed the boat' is not to have hoyed the lot once the tip re-opened last week. 

Unlike him, I could still get to write my own epitaph! Such as "Never ever declared a project complete"

 

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13 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

 

The US hierarchy can hardly be seen as moved on from the system in favour back in those times.  Voting for a King, every four years, rather than taking the sword to him, as and when, may just be seen as an improving step forward...                        although??         :butcher:

 

Julian

 

The big step forward, which America took for the wrong reasons, was to limit each president to two terms. Even if the Creeping Orange Blight can swing a second term he can't go on forever.

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3 minutes ago, runs as required said:

I keep discovering old computer stuff: the old Locland PC I went all the way to Livingston New Town near Wemyss Bay to get specially tuned up to run Autocad on at home after I retired, a later under-desk big vertical stack job I built built myself after doing a computer course - and whole box fuls of old electric and audio kit not to mention old railway stuff I've unpacked.

How do others deal with such junk ? I take tons of old mags to the Tanfield (to do what with?), but what about old files of personal stuff , lecture notes, old project drawings and files?

For computer hardware, our non-solution was to stuff it in the loft. When we recently had to clear the loft to insulate it (lots of luverly RHI money!), it finally got dumped. It didn't quite mature enough to interest a computer museum.

 

Re old files, I suggest buying two archive discs and making dual copies of everything. Physically-tiny, shock-proof discs larger than 1TB can be bought for little money now, and can be mail ordered. If you spin up and verify such a device once or twice a year, and otherwise leave it powered down, it can last a very long time; professional archives in astronomy are built on this principle. As soon as the verification reveals errors on one device, replace it and copy from the other. £50 every 10 years or so seems a small price to pay for not having to delete parts of your life.

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10 minutes ago, runs as required said:

How do others deal with such junk ? I


You have to tie a white cloth round your forehead, strip off except for your trousers, tense all your muscles, adopt a madly fixed expression of face, shout Incomprehensible words in an aggressive voice as you struggle with your inner hoarder, and throw the blooming lot away. 
 

afterwards, you will have a tidy study, and deep regrets.

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Domini Cummings and that Scottish Health Minister should both have been put in the stocks to face the public. I never accept the rules are for other people concept which is rife through much of our society. Those who make the rules should be especially expected to adhere to them.

AS an aside it does seem there may be a case for having some means of ensuring a child can be cared for. If so I would suggest that someone should be able to approve something. I am thinking of perhaps a single parent feeling really unwell. Perhaps approval for the children to be taken to a family member could be granted under special conditions and the receiving family would need to be in isolation for the fourteen days. I assume something would have to be done if the single parent was taken to hospital.

I am not at all satisfied that Mr Summings was that ill I suspecct it was his convenience that was uppermost in his mind.

 

uite odd the other day I was ueing to pick up my wife's prescription ahead in the queue a woman was talking with the person ahead of her obviously nknew him well and was getting much closer than 2m probably no more than 1 metre. Yet when it can to her turn she said to the chemist staff I cannot come in can you get xxx for me and then paid for itat the door. It didn't make sense to me I assume she either had or was in contact with someone who had the virus so what the hell was she during getting so close to someone else. Rules for other people again?

 

Don 

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16 minutes ago, Donw said:

AS an aside it does seem there may be a case for having some means of ensuring a child can be cared for. If so I would suggest that someone should be able to approve something


The guidance has always included an exception for this very purpose, without the  need to invoke bureaucracy.

 

The question here must be whether he was using that exception readonably, or taking the p1ss.

 

I think a lot hinges on whether or not there was someone nearer at hand who could reasonably have been expected to help-out.

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