One from the North:

'Insensitive' Conservative dinner at coal museum

Conservatives in one part of West Yorkshire say they won't cancel a party they've booked at the National Coal Mining museum at Wakefield, despite strong opposition.

The Dewsbury County Conservative Association will hold its annual dinner at the former Caphouse Colliery, now the National Coal Mining Museum.

It would be two days after the anniversary of the return to work at the end of the Miners’ Strike in 1985 which critics have labelled as politically insensitive.

Chris Kitchen from the National Union of Mineworkers says it shows very poor taste:

Maybe we could hand them each a pick and a candle and just leave them to tunnel their way out...

*tilt head -

into coffee*

We all know where this "OMG - insulting whole countries" comes from,

A good idea repertoire...?

*acid blink*

Because it really is. We should be doing more of that on international science boards we really really should because all-in-all... you couldn't get more of a win-win situation could you?


It's perfect for being completely wrong... almost all of the time... and the laziest way of doing it too.

Even better than that, it's a wonderful icebreaker. In no time at all everybody's slapping each with bigger and wetter sponges, and just like Mark was saying...



It does have a horrible way of completely undermining the validity of any point being made alongside it though, but let's not get too bogged down on that.

Let's just rush on and agree with me instead :)

:)

Hmmmmmmmmm - I'm supposed to be previewing this now. I'm not. I'm proof-reading :/

I have established two things - that I've not finished my post is the first - and that I should not be reading about it. No.

I'll come back later and try again.

later: not yet though

Sorry Annie, It would not be right if I didn't post these to get a fair cross section of the situation.

I don't know why you're apologising. When we brand an entire country we deride the hard work of those citizens striving to change things for the better - in far more dangerous circumstances within their countries, than the retribution sabotaging a fox hunt might get you in the UK, or risking arrest with the colour of my skin, for protesting against apartheid.

No. The kind where your "crime" does not prescribe. The problem is the point trying to be made, can become too easy to dismiss as under-informed. That was my point, I thought. Highlighting specifics is good! I didn't intend for anyone to think I thought otherwise

Perhaps my lack of sleep interfered with getting that across.

As I said before - I'll try again later.

Today of all days, December 7th, at work I got a stark reminder of why warmongers make me cringe. I find myself typing "National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, 2177 Puowaina Dr, Honolulu, HI 96813" Rest in Peace.

perhaps we shouldn't be having a politics thread at all on an international science board, anyone thought of that?

If we don't have a specific thread for it, politics will be posted about in any other thread available, because people do need to post about it. So then better have a thread for it.

And no, I don't believe anyone here saying they can do without this thread, because inevitably someone will post something that is better off in a clarified minefield thread such as this one.

Tory dinner at National Mining Museum cancelled

I don't know what the dining facilities at the museum are, but I have visited it and taken the underground tour (and I have a genuine miner's safety lamp, purchased in the souvenir shop, hanging my living room).

Note that the cancellation report says that former production miners who lost their jobs still work at the pit - they serve as underground guides, and their experience of working around mining machinery is crucial for the safety of visitors. I don't know whether the dinner would have included an underground tour - it seems likely that it would have - but that would have been the particularly insulting part, not the surface politics.

Tory dinner at National Mining Museum cancelled

I'm so glad. I meant to come back and pour my scorn all over the idea when you first posted about it - but I forgot.

I might even have referred to "Ding dong the witch is gone" returning to the charts - just as a reminder - but I don't have to now ;) Which is why *avoid all eyes* I didn't...

@Jord:

inevitably someone will post something that is better off in a clarified minefield thread

Yes. Like I just did ... didn't.

The problem with popping in with a pearl of political wisdom for everyone (although I'm not saying what I put up there is one) in a non-designated thread for them, is that they're often seen as droppings aren't they..? Which straitjackets the right of others to urinate all over them, or add their own droppings... as nature intended us to, so I know I'd cause a lot of wheelbarrow work behind the scenes for moderators if there wasn't one. Yes.

So thank you for accommodating me. It is greatly appreciated :)

edited: there was a missing there up there which I've put in now so there isn't. There have also been 2 other edits since - miner minor changes - but you can ignore them *SIGH* and another one - do you know what I think? I think I need to go find my life...

;)

All you self-declared Brits: congratulations! Brexit: 'Breakthrough' deal paves way for future trade talks (watch out, auto-playing video there, even for us non-Brits)

The UK's estimated divorce bill will be between £35bn and £39bn
Ouch. Richard, don't give it all away to the Americans! :)

edit: Nigel F. having his say about it. But who's he to complain? He instigated Brexit and then turned and ran.

edited: there was a missing there up there which I've put in now so there isn't. There have also been 2 other edits since - miner minor changes - but you can ignore them *SIGH* and another one - do you know what I think? I think I need to go find my life...

;)

Or your reading glasses?

Ouch. Richard, don't give it all away to the Americans! :)

Well, at least the fact that they've reached a deal - or the announcement, which may or may not be the same thing - means the exchange rate has tipped in my favour overnight. If only I could coax a bank account number out of Eric - I don't want to hand it over to Visa International in handling fees and exchange rate rip-offs.

Buy a Bitcoin and send that over the mail? :)

(I mean, for the uninitiated, you can print out a Bitcoin and send that piece of paper over to yourself or someone else, whose only job thereafter is to painstakingly input that whole string of numbers and letters again to make it back as a digital coin, if you didn't print it as a QR code.)

perhaps we shouldn't be having a politics thread at all on an international science board, anyone thought of that?

If we don't have a specific thread for it, politics will be posted about in any other thread available, because people do need to post about it. So then better have a thread for it.

Agree

And no, I don't believe anyone here saying they can do without this thread, because inevitably someone will post something that is better off in a clarified minefield thread such as this one.

?? That doesn't quite sound right, but I think I understand what you were trying to say. Perhaps the only people who could do without it can also do without all the threads and the boards. Perhaps they should.

What I meant was that when you enter the Seti is down thread, the least you expect to find there is a whole discussion with table throwing over whose president is better, while you would expect to find that in the politics thread. So just the label is enough to tell you you'll be stepping into a potential minefield by entering that thread, whereas the Seti is down thread contains puppies, guppies and kittens.

It was billed as a referendum on the tRumper. Now that he lost, what is the tweet storm going to be like? What happens to tax gifts to the 0.01%? Is DACA going to be the law? Is the ACA going to stay?

Will our homeless veterans sleeping rough on the streets get monogrammed sleeping bags do you think? With a V?

(I forgot to post using the reply option - so if anyone is wondering - I'm rattling on in response to the post that was posted before I posted this - sometimes called, less specifically, the previous post)

FCC Votes To Repeal Net Neutrality, Throwing The Internet's Future Into Question. Your US ISP will now determine if you're allowed to run BOINC projects on your normal internet account, or if you need a special - more expensive - one. ;-)

the man, who suffered cuts and bruises, was arrested after a "short pursuit"

No one we know I trust?

After driving through a hail of bullets I'd need detaining under the mental health act too, I expect. Anyway that's what whoever they are, are busy with now.