UK Politics - You can't correct a mistake, if you don't admit it was a mistake

[Maltaran]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

The article says that the practice had ended at least from the 90s

It also says they’re still exempt from discrimination laws, so nothing to stop them from bringing it back.

[Heartofice]

32 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

It also says they’re still exempt from discrimination laws, so nothing to stop them from bringing it back.

Why would they?! Maybe they are all just lizard people as well.

[Spockydog]

Unless you've got your head stuck up your arse, it is reasonable to assume that the reason the Royal Family sought exemption from discrimination laws is so they could carry on discriminating. 

 

[A wilding]

Well if I was going to put up a defence for them, I might say that they could have legitimate concerns about the "must be C of E" thing. But you are probably right.

[Lady_Qohor]

53 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Well if I was going to put up a defence for them, I might say that they could have legitimate concerns about the "must be C of E" thing. But you are probably right.

This is almost certainly a daft thought but I wonder if it's also due to the whole 'first born/hereditary monarchy' thing. 

For instance, would Princess Anne or some clever competent courtier be able to claim that they are being discriminated against by not being allowed to apply for the role of Prince of Wales or even monarch. 

I mean how likely is it that any member of the Royal Family would get through a fair and open interview/recruitment process? 

[john]

That would be pretty cool if you had to interview for the position of heir to the throne, open to all applicants but have the meeting on a polo pitch/pheasant shoot to root out the time wasters.

[Derfel Cadarn]

... and Britain’s new tanks are shit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57348573

[lacuna]

No black servants in case of mixed race royal babies. Dead giveaway.

 

What? We were all thinking it.

[maarsen]

4 hours ago, john said:

That would be pretty cool if you had to interview for the position of heir to the throne, open to all applicants but have the meeting on a polo pitch/pheasant shoot to root out the time wasters.

Let me guess. Those that show up to the polo pitch/pheasant shoot are automatically disqualified? This could only improve the quality of candidates.

[Derfel Cadarn]

The Tory scum aren’t even bothering to hide the corruption.

Johnson overrules the Lords appointment watchdog to make a man a Peer - who then gives the Tory party £500k a few days later.

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/national/19348147.tory-donor-gives-500-000-party-days-pm-controversially-made-peer/

[A Horse Named Stranger]

6 minutes ago, Leap said:

Are tanks even that useful on the modern battlefield?

It's been years since I last played SW:TOR, but a good tank was very useful. You could somewhat compromise on DDs, but healers and tanks were quite important.

[Heartofice]

5 minutes ago, Leap said:

Are tanks even that useful on the modern battlefield?

Yeah that would have been my question. Have tanks been useful since the 90s? I was under the impression that warfare has moved on. If so why invest in tanks at all. Also, given the nature of the broths armed forces wouldn’t it make sense to concentrate resources elsewhere?

[Derfel Cadarn]

4 minutes ago, Leap said:

Are tanks even that useful on the modern battlefield?

With the shit bunch in charge, we should probably just be thankful they aren’t paying Dido Harding a few billion to supply what’s left of the infantry Napoleonic era redcoats.

[mormont]

17 minutes ago, Leap said:

Are tanks even that useful on the modern battlefield?

I'm not an expert but I believe this was the very question that prompted the Ajax programme: they're not tanks as such, but a 'family' of various armoured vehicles with different purposes (reconnaisance, troop carriers, strike vehicles and engineering).

They're still a bit rubbish though. But that's OK because defence contractors never have to say 'sorry'.

[Hereward]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

I'm not an expert but I believe this was the very question that prompted the Ajax programme: they're not tanks as such, but a 'family' of various armoured vehicles with different purposes (reconnaisance, troop carriers, strike vehicles and engineering).

They're still a bit rubbish though. But that's OK because defence contractors never have to say 'sorry'.

Agreed on the first para. On the second, that’s because in most cases, it’s not the contractors’ fault. In this case, they are shit because, having been designed and built to the MoD specifications, there was a post last minute additional requirement to triple the armour, which makes them too heavy, and too noisy, to use safely. 
 

It’s like the notorious contractor failures of the SA80 rifle and the Type 45 engines, both of which were produced to the stated requirement that they were for use in the European theatre, and then didn’t work in deserts and tropical waters, respectively. 

 

2 hours ago, Leap said:

Are tanks even that useful on the modern battlefield?

Depends who you’re fighting. Against the Russians or Chinese, no, not much. Against a technologically less advanced country, such as, for example, Wales, they’d be perfect.

[Derfel Cadarn]

13 minutes ago, Hereward said:

Agreed on the first para. On the second, that’s because in most cases, it’s not the contractors’ fault. In this case, they are shit because, having been designed and built to the MoD specifications, there was a post last minute additional requirement to triple the armour, which makes them too heavy, and too noisy, to use safely. 
 

It’s like the notorious contractor failures of the SA80 rifle and the Type 45 engines, both of which were produced to the stated requirement that they were for use in the European theatre, and then didn’t work in deserts and tropical waters, respectively. 

 

Depends who you’re fighting. Against the Russians or Chinese, no, not much. Against a technologically less advanced country, such as, for example, Wales, they’d be perfect.

The thicker armour will help against the legendary Welsh longbow, but won’t the vehicles struggle going up the hills and mountains?

[Hereward]

4 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

The thicker armour will help against the legendary Welsh longbow, but won’t the vehicles struggle going up the hills and mountains?

I thoughtlessly omitted to specify “tanks that aren’t shit” in discussing their potential usefulness. The vast vertical land area of Wales would indeed be a major drawback in this particular case.

[ljkeane]

6,238 covid cases today. The worst day since March. It was all going so well. Could we have not at least got through to June 21st before Boris and company fucked things up again?

[Heartofice]

8 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

6,238 covid cases today. The worst day since March. It was all going so well. Could we have not at least got through to June 21st before Boris and company fucked things up again?

It’s worth noting that those cases are localised and mostly amongst younger unvaccinated people and don’t appear to be translating into hospitalisations and definitely not deaths 

[ljkeane]

2 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

It’s worth noting that those cases are localised and mostly amongst younger unvaccinated people and don’t appear to be translating into hospitalisations and definitely not deaths 

Local containment of the outbreaks has clearly failed at this point though. It's not like the variants of concern cases we've had were surge testing managed to keep a lid on it. It's largely localised now but there's no particular reason to think it's going to stay that way.

It kind of is translating to hospitalisations, the most recent PHE date apparently suggests the Delta/B.617.2 variant is about 2.5 times more likely to result in hospitalisations than the B.1.17 variant. Deaths generally are delayed so the number of deaths we're having at the moment are a reflection of how things were about a month ago.

The only real hope now is that vaccinations are sufficient to keep a lid on things but there are several pretty concerning signs.