| Forum Thread | Karen Bradley. An new low? at 15:31 7 Sep 2018
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland actually said in an interview: "When I started this job ... I didn't understand things like when elections are fought, for example, in Northern Ireland - people who are nationalists don't vote for unionist parties and vice versa". We have some dim bulbs in the house of commons - but surely this is a level of ignorance previously unknown in modern british politics. |
| Forum Thread | ITFC new manager blackball thread at 15:57 29 Mar 2018
As is traditional under the sad circumstances of the club having to look for a new manager I hereby formally open the TWTD blackball thread. Rules: You get one blackball who you can use to veto any potential managerial candidate. Only one blackball is required. If someone earlier has vetoed the same candidate as you your veto has no effect You can veto on any grounds with no justification needed. You think Pep Guardiola is a wrong 'un? Veto away. Alternatively you may wish to consider using it for managers who you think are unlikely to be successful. Your call. Now. For some weird reason Marcus Evans appears not to follow the rules despite them being clear and obviously beneficial to the ITFC community. Six years ago I opened the thread and used my blackball on a certain "Mick McCarthy". I'm sure with the lesson learned this thread will be taken with the solemnity it deserves by ITFC towers. So. I cast my blackball for: Tim Sherwood. Your go. |
| Forum Thread | Comedy = Tragedy + Time at 08:56 20 Feb 2018
I have to say the Radio Suffolk commentary of the Nodge goal that they replayed on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast was hilarious and a classic of the genre. |
| Forum Thread | Theresa May is no good part 184 at 09:51 11 Oct 2017
How has she managed to make how she would vote in another Brexit referendum a story? Two cabinet ministers have given perfectly fair answers, which I paraphrase below. Jeremy Hunt (a remainer): I've changed my mind. The forecasts of the treasury about the costs of leaving haven't come true, and I'm not happy with the EU's intransigence so I'm now a leaver. Damian Green (also a remainer): I haven't changed my mind. I think we would be better off in the EU, but we had a referendum and the people took a different view and that's that. How is our Prime Minister so utterly incapable of answering a perfectly straight and fair question? |
| Forum Thread | Why does the Prime Minister lie to the people of this country? at 15:48 30 Aug 2017
She [May] told Sky News: “You can’t be a member of the single market unless you’re a member of the European Union. The British people voted to leave the European Union and we will be leaving.” http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/william-hague-worse-brexit-may-snap-electi Assuming the quote above is accurate (and I have no reason to disbelieve it) it is an outright lie. It isn't true. It is a fib. And it isn't difficult to disprove. The governments own pre-referendum materials stated this was the case. Google says this is the case. Reputable news organisations say this is the case. Proper countries are full members of the single market but not the EU. Norway for example, and they seem to do OK. Now ... she could argue we'd be making a mistake not to leave the single market as well as the EU. Or she should argue that the referendum was a de facto plebiscite on membership of the single market. But she hasn't. She's chosen to lie to us and to treat us as fools. History is judging her harshly at the moment for her seeming to be completely unsuited for the job she has and I have no sympathy at all. [Post edited 30 Aug 2017 15:48]
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| Forum Thread | Fantastic! Immigration finally coming under control at 11:22 12 Jun 2017
The number of EU nurses applying to work in the UK is down 96%! From 1,303 coming here in July last year to a mere 46 this April. Finally the government's bold refusal to guarantee the residency rights of EU nationals in the UK is having the desired effect. These are the kind of wastrels and scroungers we can do without. |
| Forum Thread | Theresa May - this is getting ridiculous at 13:20 1 Jun 2017
Was it the case that "Brexit mean Brexit" rather than being a holding tactic, and a subtle was of forcing us into accepting leaving the single market, was merely a verbal crutch used to disguise her inability to have a sensible converstion? [Post edited 1 Jun 2017 13:22]
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| Forum Thread | Some thoughts on this ransomware stuff at 13:29 15 May 2017
I know there was another thread on this, but here are my collected thoughts. Firstly, some background on what happened. 1) The National Security Agency (NSA ) in the States are apparently in the habit of targetting windows systems to see if they can exploit security holes in them. Once they have identified them they sit on the weaknesses, not telling anyone and write tools that allow them to access computers of suspects should they happen to use an old Operating System. Terrorism you see. 2) The NSA were hacked and their tools stolen. 3) The hack and the theft became public. 4) Microsoft (to their credit) patched the problems, on both their newest OSs, and on a number of unsupported legacy OSs (most prominently XP) 5) BadPeople used the information leaked to write ransomware which ended up on a random series of computers - many in the NHS. They didn't target the NHS in particular. It just ended up there. And at Nissan. And at many other places. Multiple points are worth raising from this. Firstly the behaviour of the NSA seems as dangerous to me as that of the terrorists here. To know of weaknesses in OSs but not to make the vendors aware endangers us all. Secondly this amply demonstrates why many of us have been vehemently opposed to the building in of back-doors into phones/computers/encryption algorithms to allow the security services access. Once they exist, they will leak and the BadPeople will use them. This could be ransomware. It could be phishing. It could be just making your computer run slowly (for the lolz). Whatever it will be, it won't be fun. The point sometimes raised - "why are these systems using out-dated versions of Windows?" - can often be simply answered. Amongst my table of fellow nerds over lunch more than one kept a PC running XP so they could run the software used to control some piece of kit they had. Scanners, EEProm programmers. I dare the NHS has hundreds of these things. Legacy pieces of kit to measure some body function, which they haven't replaced, and which the manufacturer has long since stopped supporting. To use these pieces of kit, you need a computer running XP. You replace the computer, you replace the kit, and money is a bit tight at the moment. Linux wouldn't help here, as it a) much harder for untrained staff to install, maintain and use and b) entirely unsupported from a hardware point of view. We need a serious (inter-)national dialogue about the way forward, and about what got us into this mess. Can't we stop the NSA doing this? Can we get Microsoft to continue to update XP? How do we educate non-technical people about software updates? Sadly the media, politicians and media seem unable to grasp the scale of the problem and the real issues behind them. Instead it is easier to describe this as hacking (it wasn't), argue about NHS budgets and put someone outside a hospital in Lincolnshire to talk about how many operations have been cancelled that day. Some links: https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2017/05/wanna-decryptor-kill-sw https://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2017/05/wanna-decryptor-microsoft-government- https://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2017/05/what-is-wanna-decryptor-wcry-ransomwa [Post edited 15 May 2017 13:32]
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| Forum Thread | Physics "Quiz" Question at 11:25 5 Apr 2017
You are in a small rowboat in a large swimming pool (don't ask). In the boat is a large rock. You throw the rock overboard and it sinks to the bottom of the pool. What happens to the level of the water at the side of the swimming pool? |
| Forum Thread | Inflation up to 2.3% at 09:51 21 Mar 2017
How are the Brexiteers going to spin this as good news? |
| Forum Thread | The crisis in social care seems to be solved at 13:16 8 Feb 2017
All you need is 1) A conservative run council and 2) To get them to threaten a referendum on increasing council tax to pay for social care costs and hey presto! You are quids in. |
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