Thread 11 Starmer: Will that Phone Call Be To Harris or to Trump? (the decidedly superior looking cats thread)

[BIossomtoes]

New thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5195566-thread-10-starmer-first-female-chancellor-delivers-the-budget?page=40&reply=139578573

I know. But the original sentence was 1760 yards is 220 yards. I suggested it was a mistake but was told it wasn't. I think I am missing something so I'll just let it drop now. It's irrelevant to the thread really.

Speaking of which - slight digression - enjoyed Taskmaster on Thursday. When the word "furlong" was mentioned, I found myself saying "eighth of a mile" before I realised it. God alone knows how that got lodged into my tiny brain, let alone how it was triggered so immediately.

Of course it then helps to know a mile is 1760 yards which gives you 220 yards.

I took this as:
An eighth of a mile is a furlong.
A mile is 1760 yards
A furlong is 220 yards (1760/8)

Thanks that makes sense.

Imperial measurements - miles, furlongs, chains, yards, feet, pints, hundredweights and all the rest - have become a big topic after this thread. Top politicians have been rushing out comments:

Starmer: “Lord Alli has paid for a new suit for me made of several yards of finest worsted and a new horsehair wig. I’m a big fan of Imperial!”

Reeves: “We are promoting growth by the spending of several million baker’s dozen shillings.”

Rayner: “I will oversee the building of 1.5m new homes covering 97.45m square acres in many areas governed by Lord Lieutenants of the Shire.”

Milliband: “The UK is on target to generate 456bn erg poundels of green energy next week courtesy of Windy Miller.”

Badenoch: “You talking to me? I’ll punch you in the face.”

Gives you, not is.

@Rummly 😅

It's just acres, though. That's already a unit of area so doesn't need to be squared. Ergs are metric (though not SI).

I've been dressmaking on and off for years and some patterns have metric units and some imperial but it's easy enough to convert. I had been leaning towards most of my measuring equipment to be metric, for consistency. Then I started the odd bit of patchwork and quilting, earlier this year. Well most of that is American so I've had to buy lots of new rulers and a new cutting mat with inch markings.

Thank you. I clearly have less grasp of Imperial than I’d thought. Still, as I’m unlikely to spend farthings or crowns, or buy cheese by the Dutch cask I don’t suppose it matters.

And thinking about it, Reeves would really have talked about millions of guineas rather than shillings. Billions even (that’s the new fangled thousand million, not the traditional million million).

Just saw that 35 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down

Fahrenheit bewilders me. My brain has no frame of reference for it so I always have to convert. OTOH I can't visualise my own weight in kg and if I'm browsing Rightmove, I want room dimensions in feet and inches.

At some of my pedigree sheep sales I get paid in guineas.

I’m the other way round on weather temperature. But, oddly, I’m centigrade all the way for anything material - like freezing and boiling. Body weight is lbs; cooking weight is metric. All heights are feet, plus inches for body height. Distances are miles.

For wine it has to be Jeroboams and Nebuchadnezzars.

I'm of an age where I still think in terms of inches, feet, yards, and miles (5280ft to the mile) for measuring length/distance, and stones, pounds, and ounces for weight. (Body weight or cooking ingedients)
I don't expect anyone much younger than me to understand them though.
I was amused only two or three years ago at a show to be told than an item I'd asked the price of was 'ten bob'. I obviously looked old enough to know exactly what he meant (and he was right). 🤣

I find that rather charming. Is it really 105p though, or just another way of saying pounds?

I came across this episode of Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford which I think it very relevant to the political conversations on MN and elsewhere.

Cautionary Conversations – The Conspiracy Theorist Who Changed His Mind | Tim Harford

All about changing people's views, how people change views, what happens when people who have particularly strong views change their mind, the impact of others in a group who share your views if you announce you change your views and the role of deep canvassing in changing views.

Very interesting

Darren Jones did well with all the questions about using Farage as some kind of intermediary with the orange one

He might want to concentrate his efforts on his constituents in Clacton... as opposed to being a transatlantic commentator.

Fair play to Badenoch, she looks very smart and respectful at the Cenotaph this morning.
I can’t see anything about the way Starmer dressed, his depth or duration of bow or anything else to piss off the Mail, but I’m sure I must have missed something.

I was just thinking the same thing.

I remember that day. I was in Egypt working on an archaeological dig and we listened to it on the ancient radio we had in the house we were lodged in. One of our team was German - she was in tears.

We watched the Festival of Remembrance last night and I was struck by how ill Vic Starmer is looking. The last four months seem to have taken their toll on her, I feel very sorry for her.

I thought that too @BIossomtoes . Didn’t recognise her at first.
I came in from playing and singing at a Remembrance Concert and put it on iPlayer. Sucker for military bands. Plus the degree of precision and organisation amazes me, both at the Albert Hall and the Cenotaph (and any other state occasion).

I find it very moving. Military family so I guess I would. The amount of organisation blows my mind and every detail is impeccable.

It’s amazing. Not a military family, but dad was in the RAF all through WW2.
The way they timed everything to the second the morning so that as the royal family hit their marks, saluted and lowered their arms Big Ben chimed the hour. All timed by the conductor getting the music spot on.

As an aside, I worry that with the death of the last whole generation who were involved in conflict, and more so with the deaths of their children in the next few decades, the cultural understanding of Remembrance might fade. I’ve tried to show my daughter, but she’s naturally not so connected. Her children (if any) won’t even remember a WW2 veteran.
I seem to be a bit maudlin this morning. Remembrance gets me like that. Bonus pic of my dad in the war.

I think that because there are still so many veterans from other wars (just watching them all march by on the BBC) that that will keep it going for a good few years yet, @cardibach Hopefully.

I think it’ll keep going. I just think the reduction in the pool of people with some sort of personal connection will reduce once the whole generation world war veteran’s immediate family aren’t around will change it. It’s already changed. So many young people have no understanding really, and would never attend a remembrance event. It’s inevitable I guess.