Disqus - Latest Comments for carsmilesteve

Re: José Pizarro to open new City restaurant at Broadgate Circle | Latest news | Gastroblog | Hot Dinners

carsmilesteve — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 08:22:09 -0000

"reflecting the Estrella Damm portfolio, offering a list only available to José" as far as i can see there's only the Keler, the Doble Malto and the Bock that aren't generally available in the UK already? 3 slightly stronger but unlikely to be earth-shattering lagers... Would be a lot more interested if Jose was bringing in Beer Cat or Napar or [insert name of any spanish microbrewer here] in decent quantities...

Re: Leading from the front

carsmilesteve — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 18:27:59 -0000

Rubbish. It *is* a disaster and categorically not an opportunity unless you don't believe in public services. This Panglossian mindset is completely incomprehensible unless you want to destroy locally delivered public services.

This isn't about "no cuts" or refusing to set a budget, it's about assuming there will be a Labour government in 90 days time that your cuts won't allow us to benefit from.

Re: Leading from the front

carsmilesteve — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 12:16:37 -0000

What Claire doesn't mention is, unlike pretty much every other Local Authority, Tory or Labour, she is setting a three year budget with the £70m of cuts front-loaded.

I cannot understand for the life of me why this is happening, but I feel the dread hand of the Barnet Butcher, Nick Walkley (our interim CEO, currently on £1000 A DAY). Having seen the carve up in Barnet where NINETY PERCENT of authority jobs have been outsourced, often to large multinationals, leading to cuts in pay and benefits for those who are TUPE'd and lack of local knowledge for services that end up at the end of the phone in the other end of the country, i DO NOT want that to happen to my borough, a Labour borough at that...

Another of our neighbours, Islington, have spent the last five years bringing services back in-house because they realise the value and quality directly employing staff can bring.

Re: Lessons Learnt At Copenhagen Beer Celebration

carsmilesteve — Fri, 30 May 2014 05:52:20 -0000

Glass washers are the single thing that EVERY beer festival should have. They have them at Borefts as well and I now feel very sad when I go to a festival and they don't have them!

Lovely write-up and photos also :)

Re: Glastonbury 2014 & EE launch a new festival charging solution

carsmilesteve — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 08:14:10 -0000

or just get a £10 Nokia burner where the battery will last you all weekend...

it's kind of liberating to go 5 days without internet (you can set twitter up via mobile so you can still annoy all of your friends that aren't there ;))

Re: “Residential training” for disabled people to be extended

carsmilesteve — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 09:39:34 -0000

Hiya. I'm pretty sure you've misread. This is talking about residential colleges that currently exist that are primarily for adults with severe learning difficulties and/or multiple complex needs. When people in that group reach 19 it often their fervent wish to go to one of these residential places and they often don't get the chance.

I'm amazed that this document is talking about extending them as they are hella expensive. The "getting non-disabled people in" but sounds like them grasping at straws in an attempt to justify their *very* high cost base, but it seems massively unfeasible on so many levels (although maybe for eg Care Leavers it wouldn't be the worst option...)

Hope that allays your fears?

Re: Infographic: The 2013 Edinburgh Fringe in numbers - Features - 22 Jul 2013

carsmilesteve — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:39:39 -0000

What has happened to that poor bar graph in the middle??? How on earth is 8 proportional to 2,600+??? Just include the numbers next time rather than make something that is both confusing and wrong...

And what are those 9 human shapes above the number of performers for???

Re: No platform for Billy Bragg

carsmilesteve — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 09:50:05 -0000

I'm sure i've heard one of the Wedgers (Weller i think) say that all the gigs they did in marginals in '87, Labour lost by the same number of people who came to the gig...

Re: State school pupils 'will be restricted to three A-levels under funding change'

carsmilesteve — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:27:33 -0000

yes, 30 years ago! the system is different now. for better or worse (and I'm not getting into that argument here) more people apply to university now so subjects and grades required have become more prescriptive. miss a grade by a little bit back then and you'd still get in, nowadays no chance...

Re: State school pupils 'will be restricted to three A-levels under funding change'

carsmilesteve — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:23:37 -0000

Because if you start with three at 16 and then change what degree you'd like to do, or the university tinkers with its requirements, you're likely to be stuffed. I assume that you knew *exactly* what you wanted to do at 16 and didn't waiver? A fourth A-level gives them flexibility.

Re: State school pupils 'will be restricted to three A-levels under funding change'

carsmilesteve — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:01:30 -0000

you CANNOT have a simple funding formula that is fair, or a fair formula that is simple, you only get to choose one and the current think ing is "simple is best because then we can cut all that beastly bureaucracy" but simple leads to inequalities...

Re: Defending moderate trade unionism

carsmilesteve — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:18:08 -0000

I don't get how your views are the views of the majority? how do you know? Len seemed to get elected legally, didn't he? Maybe he's what the members want...

The party is the unions' mouthpiece in parliament, that is what it was set up for, not for MPs to tell unions what to do, you've got it all arse about face, learn your history!

Re: Mark Steel: I'd like to be taken for lunch by the taxman

carsmilesteve — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:47:31 -0000

agree with the righteous ire but HMRC does not equal DWP...

Re: Could FE go mutual?

carsmilesteve — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:06:24 -0000

What I'm almost as interested in is the idea of learners taking a real stake in their colleges/providers, particularly in Adult Ed where there are learners who *want* to come back year after year. As one of the 4,000 owners of Exeter City Football Club, through our Supporters Trust, I wonder if there's a place for a similar model in education, more cooperative than mutual perhaps (sorry not that hot on precise legal differences)?

Fascinated to read the AoC study though...

Re: The birth of Camra: “We knew next to nothing”

carsmilesteve — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:06:12 -0000

by which i mean this is a really good article apart from that bit! interesting to read about the roots of the organisation (although is it urban myth that the four of them were CPGB and that's where they developed their campaigning chops?)

Re: The birth of Camra: “We knew next to nothing”

carsmilesteve — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:31:11 -0000

That's not what the Keg discussion is about, it's not about saying mass produced, chemically enhanced lager is the same as cask conditioned ale, it's about saying beer that is made out of the same things, in the same way as cask can be as good and that dispense is not the definition of what makes beer bad, it's the lack of care and love that goes into the product that makes beer bad.

Re: British beer: a storm in a pint glass

carsmilesteve — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:54:13 -0000

See I think this is quite an important disconnect that older (and/or more active) CAMRA members don't really get. The majority of people join for the discounts, not to CAMPAIGN (see also the national trust, rspb, british legion etcetc), so their views aren't fed through to the organisation's heirarchy.

But because a lot of the people who've been around for 20+ years (regardless of their personal views on this issue) have ALWAYS been active in both CAMRA and other organisations (unions, political parties, trainspotting clubs (sorry ;)), they don't understand that people under 35, with very few exceptions, don't see this as a usual way to spend time.

It's all very well being told to bring it up at the AGM and get it voted on, but there's really big cultural barriers to cross there that younger members just don't have a clue about.

(37, beer geek, non-member, but member of other things where i'm not active either, entirely agnostic on dispense)

Re: Meet the least powerful man in the city, Mayor Thingumabob » The Scoop | Snipe

carsmilesteve — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:11:47 -0000

I wonder what the results are like in cities where mayors *do* have real powers? what percentage of New Yorkers don't recognise their mayor I wonder? My suspicion is it wouldn't be much different, there are a sizeable minority of people who just don't want to know... Now, whilst I agree that localism is important, I don't think it automatically leads to more engagement it's a bit more complicated than that...

Re: Supporters Direct faces funding battle after anti-MK Dons tweets

carsmilesteve — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 07:31:21 -0000

Let's not believe the PL spin on this. Dave Richards, as Lord Treismann pointed out, is an incredibly foul-mouthed individual, but he's never been taken to task. If this was a real story about "respect" why did it take two weeks to come out? Dave Boyle was writing on his own personal account, not an SD one and subsequently apologised for expressing views the vast majority of football fans share (and would have expressed in very similar ways).

This whole thing is a smokescreen for the PL to stop fans from having a real voice in the game. They'd rather fraternise with dictators, arms dealers, human rights abusers and rupert murdoch.

What has Bill Bush ever done for football? Dave Boyle has played an important part in saving a large number of clubs (including my own, Exeter City) whilst the Premier League siphon as much money as they can in to their tiny elite. shame on them.

Re: Special brew: One of Britain's most wanted beers is produced by novices under a London railway arch

carsmilesteve — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:55:10 -0000

Have you had any of Evin's beers? Because they're nothing like most of what you get at an average beer festival (of which I have been to many!). What's not mentioned in the article is they tend to start at 6.5% and move quickly upwards (which is why a lot of them are sold in 330ml bottles I'd guess) and it's an entirely different range of flavours than is possible in 3-5% beer.

The Kernel/Redemption Mild (6.1%)and the Kernel/Darkstar Imperial Marsen (9.1%) are both astonishing drinks.

Re: http://mybandtshirt.tumblr.com/post/4412313766

carsmilesteve — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 05:35:27 -0000

And then there are those of us who bought a poppies shirt (phoenix '93, with glow in the dark bits) and then HAD IT NICKED from their tent at glastonbury in 2000. so gutting...

Re: Top 5 » Ways Generation X fucked over their kids | Snipe

carsmilesteve — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:34:30 -0000

yes, surely this is about babyboomers (say the Gen Xers)

(we have to realise that Gen Xers are now old enough to have kids who have come to the same conclusions about us as we did about the boomers)

Re: Spiky Charts

carsmilesteve — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:50:55 -0000

speaking of all being neurons in the same gigantic BRANE:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/t...

robots to get their own internet...

Re: Burying bad news? The stories you might have missed…

carsmilesteve — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:12:11 -0000

aaaaaaaaaaaaargh, cable's done his own job of covering up:

removal of full fee remission for over 25s wanting to get a FIRST full level 2 (ie 5 GCSEs)
introduction of fee loans on level 3 provision
removal of ESOL funding for undefined "non-settled" communities

to name three policies in the new skills "investment" strategy.

Re: Delhi 2010: Day 2 Finals

carsmilesteve — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:40:45 -0000

just saw the 100 back semis. BLIMEY! and lizzie didn't even seem that annoyed when talking to sharon...