chrisp65

Hottest I've ever been in was 42 degrees c. That was hot enough to cause my contact lenses to distort on my eyeballs which was, unpleasant. So 60 with snow underfoot must have been quite some event. I was in Bristol yesterday. Less than an inch of snow but everything covered for a couple of hours, very pretty.

Being a kid in the 70's was great where I lived. A deserted funfair, derelict dockland and the UK's largest graveyard of steam locomotives. A typical weekend might involve stripping timber from the funfair and building giant bonfires on the beach, with aerosol cans added for a sense of jeopardy. Or sometimes we'd get hold of a row boat and row down the tunnels created by tethering scrapped BP oil tanker ships together in the docks. But longer term planning, we would scoop all the asbestos out of the boiler linings of the steam trains and mould it into bike ramps. After a couple of days it would have dried out enough to form this week's bike race track. For more instant gratification, we'd simply run along the roofs of the trains lobbing stones at each other, cowboy stylee. It was swallows and amazons meets scooby doo meets 28 days later.

Yes it's been done previously, we all agreed (some of us grudgingly) that she had her writers and aids brief all the press that was what the speech meant and during the speech made a special effort to name and thank the very advisers that were briefing the press on what was meant. When it turned to shit within 5 minutes, the line was then 'ah well she never actually said that'. We could re prove disgraced Liam Fox is still disgraced next if you like?

Let, let me, let me. let me just say, let me just, let me just, let, let, let me just say.... Yeah, nobody else is actually interrupting you mate, just add some new words.

Rudd's threat to name and shame companies employing foreigners is right up there with all the others. the nasty party

Larry Steinbachek, keyboards, Bronski Beat 56 years old. Not many tunes bigger than this one for me. (Bronski, Steinbachek, Sommerville)

The NHS is free to all at the point of use, having been funded by each according to their ability to pay. Its services are allocated on the principle of ‘to each, according to need’. It’s beautiful. It’s Marxist.

I understand the opinion. But I don't agree. It needs something massive to stir 'the people' in to action but it can be done. Perhaps you mustn't use the 's' word. Perhaps rather than announcing you will be attending an international conference of socialists you should be announcing that higher tax on multi million pound houses will be spent to staff hospitals and create bed space. But some people are more interested in the meeting, than the purpose of the meeting. He's giving me the impression, he likes the talking, but isn't overly bothered about getting the power to do a bit of walking. The 1945 Labour Government: The NHS was formed when we were tired and broke and the BMA were against it. At the same time, we were building vast swathes of social housing. We got working class kids educated beyond the age of 14, nationalised the railways and made working conditions safer for millions. Socialism 'for' the people.

Yes, it's a perfectly legitimate conversation. It's an extension of May's empty waffle about just about managing and previous tory waffle about hard working families and all being in it together. No complaint with the subject matter. Just disappointment (on my part) about the timing. Plus that once he was in the moment, he went for such a knee jerk solution that fails even the slightest scrutiny. It suggests he has ideas and ideals which he can't project in to real world scenarios until it's too late. Personally, this week, I might have gone for something on public transport or social care budgets or the number of available hospital beds. Next time Philip Green is a current topic, go with taxing the super rich a tiny bit more. I am judging him by a different standard to that by which I judge a tory. I will happily listen to a scorpion promise, but still expect to get stung. I always hope for more from the good guys.

Nothing would surprise me, but I am waiting for reliable news sources to run with it. I do know for a fact he's had a shit in a lift.

I guess there's a slightly larger than core team involved in this and they haven't all had exactly the same view on the subject. They've compromised on an approach and a wording that suited everyone but it only survived as long as the first tricky question. Pure speculation on my part. But Baroness Chakrabati was on Newsnight and gave a fairly decent account of herself and how the day went. She was selling the idea that his lack of a slick delivery is about to be marketed as part of his charm. Trump without the pussy grabbing spastic impressions. Newsnight tried to side swipe her with a new graphic that showed the pay differential has actually come down to a point lower than under Bliar. Thinking on her feet, she looked at it and pointed out that coming down from 34 times salary, through 33 times salary to 31 times salary didn't make much difference if the guy at the base of the chart can't afford somewhere to live. It's a shit graphic. It should count all the way down to 1, to truly illustrate the pay difference. if you're going to be a graphic, show the issue. She rumbled it in seconds. She did quite well. They'll have to double down on discrediting her.

BBC front page has 'Corbyn: cap maximum earnings' click that for this I've been watching it sporadically through the day. The message from Corbyn and Labour has morphed through the day. From this morning's maximum wage, to versions of sorts of pay ratios and workers remuneration committee. They've had as much time as they wanted to model a speech and a message on any subject they wanted. It ('it' being either the message or his ability to deliver a message) didn't survive beyond 8:00 a.m.

Oh I can see the logic, I can almost see the brain cogs processing the question. The answer was there should be a maximum figure you can earn in the UK. So rather than take £10 million in tax off someone that earned £20 million, he'd rather they moved out of the country and lived elsewhere. I'm not an economist, but i think we're £10 million down on that deal. He's also painted himself in to another corner. If Humphrys had been listening, not just waiting to speak again. The obvious next question was to ask: what will that maximum figure be? JC actually dodged a bullet there, not having to name the maximum figure you'd be legally allowed to earn in a Labour Britain. He can't think on his feet.

@BOF I don't normally respond to stuff that's a bit down for fear of typing the wrong thing or being glib or whatever, but that sucks. Horrible.

I know there's a whole load of psych that comes with this. Anna Soubry MP was on a political talk show (Any Questions) last week along with Alan Johnson MP. She said that in part she was thankful that Johnson hadn't stood and become Labour leader as there was every chance the polls would look very different right now and the challenges to the tories would be much tougher. She said that she felt Labour were actually currently letting everyone down by giving the government a free pass. As I say, this can't be taken wholly at face value. But bloody hell.

your office is currently live on Sky News I can see a guy all in black with a sub machine gun and an ISIS flag going from floor to floor and I can see a guy that looks like Dilbert, sat at a desk with VT open on his computer screen... Which one are you?

INDY So, from Ford CEO Mark Fields, Trump both was and wasn't reason for the change of plan. That's cleared that up.

Interview on Radio 4 this morning between John Humphrys and Jeremy Corbyn. Now, there are the usual problems with any JH interview in that he likes to interrupt the instant any guest begins to speak as it gives the illusion that he has them on the back foot. He also suffers from not quite remembering the exact question he asked and thinking he’s caught people out, when he hasn’t. But that’s a side issue. He was trying to ridicule Corbyn with his usual ‘amazed’ tone at any answer without actually listening to the answer before banging in to the same question again and again. So to an extent he let Corbyn off the hook in that twice (on the subject of immigration and free movement of people) when JC was basically asked ‘what would you do?’ he then talked over and drowned out the answer from JC, that he was going to attend a conference in February of like-minded socialist movements across Europe to express unity and create bonds. Personally, I think that might not blow Theresa May out of the polls. When JC finally managed to give an answer to an actual question, it was a wrong answer. He was asked if there should be an upper limit on pay, or whether there should be more tax on higher earnings. He decided greater taxation on greater earnings wasn’t the answer. He wanted to see a wage cap (he used the word ‘cap’), a legal limit on what you can earn in the UK. Absolute winner of an idea there JC. Let’s not tax chrispy at 60, 70 or 80% if he earns £10 million. Let’s pass a law saying he can’t legally earn £10 million if he wants to live in the UK. If you can be put in a position by the deep intellect of John Humphrys, where in a 5 minute interview you're solution to immigration is to organise an international socialist conference and your solution to pay inequality is to ban high wages, you are not the answer. I don't know who is.

@tonyh29from memory, early 90's under everyone's favourite moderate, John Major --- But that doesn't count under creeping privatisation, or what per cent is now privatised as it's long ago and far enough away to no longer even count in the base figures of what's being privatised. No, it doesn't have to be done by the NHS. It should be done to an acceptable quality for the cheapest possible price. You'll have to take my anecdotal word on this, I've tendered with a white hat on, and with a black hat on. the white hats were always cheaper. So they were privatised out of the way. Strangely, this did not result in the private companies dropping their prices. With two consecutive ministerial jobs that got directly involved in the process, I won't accuse John Redwood on here of what I truly believe, I don't think Limpid would appreciate it. For NHS, you can also say Prison Service, MoD and Police Service and a host of others I'm sure. No need for them to have construction expertise either. Should be easy enough for SecuriCapi4S to get competent security and DBS cleared staff to fix things promptly and properly at a reasonable price. Shirley?

I used to work in part of the NHS that dealt with estates, new and maintained. That entire division from Architects to site clerk of works, civil engineering and heating engineers was privatised off. I'd put that under 'dismember'.

Nye Bevan Give me time and I'll think of another one.

I only caught a snippet of the Streep speech earlier so I'll have a proper listen later. But the bit I heard, she warned that a Trump presidency could / would mean less Hollywood art and more football. There's always a silver lining.