In the news

I assume he watched the film thinking it was a true story.

He died in 1988. Would you like to know more?

Most HNW insurance policies (Chubb, Hiscox, Plum etc) are warranty and condition precedent free, so if the household did have insurance then the policy would probably pay out.

Didn't know that the book and film were different.

The wild cat is dead? How is he posting?

Public schools have spent a couple of decades upping their game to appeal to the rich. There's been an arms race to get the best sports facilities, theatres etc. Some have borrowed heavily. There's now a tranche of 'all Steinway' schools. (Every piano is a Steinway.) Fees have gone up from 15.k to 60k in 20 yrs. And that's before the VAT thing. Maybe we'll see some schools in trouble? Presumably no more Russian pupils. Maybe no Chinese either? I assume Xi Ping has clamped down on such disloyalty? https://www.ft.com/content/852bf8c5-302b-44ba-a022-79b8ac4fcb42

Wealthy schools can do a backdated VAT claim, so they'll effectively get a cash injection if they've invested heavily in building work over the last few years. I read that this might be as far back as 10 years?

I imagine most won't be in trouble at all.

BA have been getting worse for years

Bet they've got nothing on Qantas. Suffice to say, AVOID. Been cruising on the fumes of their pre-neoliberalism reputation for more than a decade.

if he were still around he'd be a MAGA hat

Hm, it's been like thirty-five years, but I wouldn't have guessed that from Stranger in a Strange Land

At what point is a reaction to bait post allowed, I'm wondering about about how many times should someone be baited till they react. Cos should the baiter be banned from when they start, or how many post to get a reaction is allowed till some one reacts? Can we decided on the allowed abuse posts compared to post count?
Also if there are alias accounts, requests to delete means that all the alias accounts they created are nuked too.

Try "Farnham's Freehold", where he decided to cover racism by exploring how badly whites might be treated in a post-apocalyptic future (it's shit for lots of other reasons but that's the big one), if you have a very strong stomach. Or Friday, which should make you throw up no matter how cast iron it is ("rape is fine if your rapist is manly enough and marries you later"). In his early days he wrote some interesting stuff like "By his bootstraps", but as he got older it was either self-worshipping, self-indulgent wank ( e.g. "Time enough for Love", or "I shall fear no evil") or rancid, toxic, hard-libertarian fantasies (most of what's been mentioned so far and more besides).

He once had to be restrained from getting into a fight with Arthur C. Clarke because Clarke took the piss out of Reagan's Star Wars project.

Hold on there cowboy, taking the piss out of Arthur is acceptable about his writing on the Bermuda triangle being fiction over fact.
But the star wars and dementia Regan really is fair game so someone is a fascist with a joy of Hugo boss uniforms and springtime for Hitler...great tune.
I believe that every anti maxi/fashist march should begin with the beautiful song of springtime for Hitler. With all the dance moves.

Bet they've got nothing on Qantas. Suffice to say, AVOID

I did the Perth direct flights and some internal on Qantas and they were absolutely fine, really good service. The 737's were a bit tired though, but I think they're replacing them.

I did read they're focussing a lot on their new FIFO umbrella business though.

FIFO umbrella business

Didn’t think the Delta Fly In Fuck Off model would catch on.

Is there a non-paywalled version of that ft article.

https://archive.ph/IOSCl

It sounds like those "Steinway schools" are only a small number of schools. I think most of the day schools are keenly aware of how their fees compare to other local schools since they're drawing on a limited pool of nearby families.

Not sure where you got the £15k to £60k inflation either, the relevant quite seems to be this one "independent school fees have risen by 55 per cent on average over a 20-year period since 2003 to about £15,200 per year. In some of the larger schools, such as Eton and Winchester, parents now pay more than £60,000." Very few schools charge £60k/year and those will all be boarding schools.

Further to the above, The Telegraph are smashing out relatable stories

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Such a classy and tasteful piece of jewellery - surprised to see it in the list of stolen items from such an ostentatious property…

The years have been unkind to Dov.

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Suspected people smugglers will face travel bans, social media blackouts and phone restrictions under new laws, the government has announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1mr177ze45o

Penalties without a conviction?

Not uncommon for people to sit in jail while awaiting trial. Probably analogous?

🤣🤣🤣

They get to at least make an application for bail. Do the suspected people in this case get representation in court before the order is made?

Your distant cousin from Ghana sent you a few texts before he joined an ill advised migrant route and got stopped in Calais. Your phone is now bricked for the next 6 months, you can't travel to your mate's wedding in Milan.