Because The United Kingdom?

[BansheeOne]

Poppygate!

 

 

 

 

 

[BillB]

 

 

I have seen the Brit term "quango" before, but just now have run into use of the word "quangocrat". In a column by Delingpole, if you must know.

 

What a wonderful word! I would guess that folks like the US's National Labor Relations Board would fit that moniker.

Yeah, Quango has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer.

It's been around since the 70's and originated in the US.

 

Nothing about any US examples on Wiki tho, just that the term was coined there in 1967 in an essay by a guy at the the Carnegie Foundation. Only examples given are UK & Eire.

 

BillB

[BillB]

 

 

 

I have seen the Brit term "quango" before, but just now have run into use of the word "quangocrat". In a column by Delingpole, if you must know.

 

What a wonderful word! I would guess that folks like the US's National Labor Relations Board would fit that moniker.

Yeah, Quango has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer.

It's been around since the 70's and originated in the US.

 

 

That would be about right. Its usually about 20 years after America has an idea that we adopt it. Unless its bad weather, and we get it about 2 weeks later.

 

My friend, living in the soft underbelly of the south-west you have no idea what bad weather is...

 

BillB

[Panzermann]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have seen the Brit term "quango" before, but just now have run into use of the word "quangocrat". In a column by Delingpole, if you must know.

 

What a wonderful word! I would guess that folks like the US's National Labor Relations Board would fit that moniker.

Yeah, Quango has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer.

It's been around since the 70's and originated in the US.

Nothing about any US examples on Wiki tho, just that the term was coined there in 1967 in an essay by a guy at the the Carnegie Foundation. Only examples given are UK & Eire.

 

BillB

Maybe the new word/akronym got traction in english parlance, but was forgotten in its country of origin.

 

 

Quango. rhymes with fango. Well both is muddy.

[toysoldier]

I was under the maybe wrong impression that the foulest weather in the world is to be found, er suffered, in Wales...

[DB]

The weather isn't really bad, just wet.

 

I mean, how bad can it be? It would normally take a couple of days exposure to the elements to kill you, by which time you could easily have walked to some place where you could be offered a cup of tea, whether you wanted it or not.

[BillB]

 

I was under the maybe wrong impression that the foulest weather in the world is to be found, er suffered, in Wales...

 

Im just the other side of the River Severn/Bristol Channel from Wales, but yes, the weather can be broadly similar. It comes roaring off from off the Irish sea and being on the top of the Cotswolds facing in that direction we tend to be among the first to get what's coming. 100 mph + winds and 2 foot snow are not common, but ive known them a few times.

 

 

By contrast at the other end of the Cotswolds, the next high point heading east is reputed to be the Urals. I wouldn't compare it to the peak district, but from time to time its not an inaccurate comparison, not least because the local authority thinks its being clever not not buy enough salt to put on the roads.

 

 

 

 

 

I have seen the Brit term "quango" before, but just now have run into use of the word "quangocrat". In a column by Delingpole, if you must know.

 

What a wonderful word! I would guess that folks like the US's National Labor Relations Board would fit that moniker.

Yeah, Quango has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer.

It's been around since the 70's and originated in the US.

 

 

That would be about right. Its usually about 20 years after America has an idea that we adopt it. Unless its bad weather, and we get it about 2 weeks later.

 

My friend, living in the soft underbelly of the south-west you have no idea what bad weather is...

 

BillB

 

Thats right, I feel completely blessed to not be living in the land of Sturgeon

 

Typical soft Southerner, something happens once in a blue moon and you never cease dripping about it. Anyway, it was God punishing you for Fred & Rosemary West.

 

BillB

[sunday]

Well, actually there were floods when I was staying in Paisley, about 20 years ago.

 

Disturbing snippet about tea. I shudder thinking about the subtext of making oneself a cup of cha...

 

BTW, did you know I got sunburnt is Southern England?

Edited November 4, 2015 by sunday

[Ivanhoe]

I think the operative word here is, usually. I dont tend to buy global warming, but when they talk of climate instability, they do have a point imho. We are increasingly having very wet summers and dry winters.

 

Of course the British climate has always had an unpredictable element. It just seems even more so these days. When you can have snow flurries as late as April its pretty evident something has changed.

You're falling into the trap of looking at systems that have times scales of eons from your own time scale of years. And adding on your own confirmation bias. If you're expecting climate changes, every weather event will be perceived as a climate event.

 

Example; when I lived in Virginia, folks who grew up there talked about the "monsoon season." But I could not find any seemingly authoritative definition of when. So I got 10 years or so of rainfall data from the National Weather Service for the local NWS station, and crunched the numbers by month. Average rainfall was about 3 inches per month for all 12 months, less than a half-inch of variance. Any given year might have a wet winter, or wet summer, but folks were convinced after a really wet winter that "that never happened before." Actually it did happen before, many times, but memory fades.

 

We now have accurate and extremely detailed weather data. A real risk is comparing it to crude and sparse historical data, and seeing changes that aren't supported by the mathematics.

[Panzermann]

There are palm trees growing on the south western coast of england . Must then be tropical there.

 

Explains the sunburn.

[DB]

Well, Brighton isn't in Cornwall the last time I looked, nor was it on the GWR.

 

http://www.chrisvanstone.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/royal.jpg

 

Sunday got sunburn in Bournemouth, I believe. Bournemouth and its immediate surroundings have a microclimate that results in lowered rainfall compared to other areas on the south coast. Atlantic rainfall tends to be caught by West Dorset, rain from the north falls on the ridgeline that runs roughly in line with the A303 (through Larkhill, in fact) and to the East by a row of hills on which Winchester is perched.

 

Given that England is 50 degrees north at its southernmost point, I think we can count ourselves lucky that we get any kind of summer at all.

 

(Lizard Point is the only part of mainland Britain that is south of 50N.)

[Panzermann]

Given that England is 50 degrees north at its southernmost point, I think we can count ourselves

lucky that we get any kind of summer at all.

 

western-central Europe as a whole is heated by the gulf stream and the oceans mediate extreme temperatures. Else we would have more of a canadian climate I think.

[DB]

I wasn't claiming that it was part of the "English Riviera", merely pointing out that it had palm trees.

 

Strictly speaking, the "Gulf Stream" has become the "North Atlantic Drift" by the time it gets this far. And the climate in the UK is significantly milder than that experienced by equivalent latitudes in say, Central Belgium.

 

The main issue with 2013--14 was the displacement of the jetstream, not the gulf stream.

[bd1]

 

Given that England is 50 degrees north at its southernmost point, I think we can count ourselves

lucky that we get any kind of summer at all.

 

western-central Europe as a whole is heated by the gulf stream and the oceans mediate extreme temperatures. Else we would have more of a canadian climate I think.

 

 

actually just read how the prevailing winds have changed summers in estonia since late-80´s - because before that storms centered usually between iceland and greenland, but now between Nordcap and Barents sea and they stay therefor a lot longer. we used to get warmer and more moist air, but now it comes from Lapland area and is drier and colder. also the storms last longer.

another possible problem is that Baltic Sea , almost closed as it is, used to get saltier and more oxygen-rich water from atlantic , usually that happened about three times a year, but in the last 25 years that has happened only 3 times

[swerve]

 

I think the operative word here is, usually. I dont tend to buy global warming, but when they talk of climate instability, they do have a point imho. We are increasingly having very wet summers and dry winters.

 

Of course the British climate has always had an unpredictable element. It just seems even more so these days. When you can have snow flurries as late as April its pretty evident something has changed.

You're falling into the trap of looking at systems that have times scales of eons from your own time scale of years. And adding on your own confirmation bias. If you're expecting climate changes, every weather event will be perceived as a climate event.

 

Example; when I lived in Virginia, folks who grew up there talked about the "monsoon season." But I could not find any seemingly authoritative definition of when. So I got 10 years or so of rainfall data from the National Weather Service for the local NWS station, and crunched the numbers by month. Average rainfall was about 3 inches per month for all 12 months, less than a half-inch of variance. Any given year might have a wet winter, or wet summer, but folks were convinced after a really wet winter that "that never happened before." Actually it did happen before, many times, but memory fades.

I can't even begin to try to estimate how many people have told me that the weather is hotter/colder/drier/wetter/windier than within living memory, when I clearly remember (& every time, the stats back my memories) hotter/colder/drier/wetter/windier weather in their adult lives. "Unprecedented snow & cold" in 2008-9, for instance - yeah, it was the first significant snow here this millennium, & the heaviest since the early 1990s at least, but in the 15 years before that there'd been plenty of heavy snowfalls, & among the people who apparently didn't know that were many who'd experienced it.

 

I still get surprised by how short memories are.

 

Stuart,

 

we had snow here in Berkshire in April 1997 or '98 (I'd have to look it up to be sure), & a lot more than flurries. Pretty heavy, albeit wet & slushy, & all melted by midday. Mucky stuff to walk through on my way from the station to my office, though. I remember seeing snow on the Chiltern Hills in early June 1974. The cold woke me up, & I shut my bedroom window - then woke up again later wondering if it was a dream, because it was all gone. Luckily, the radio news reassured me, & there were others at school (mostly from the villages that way) who'd seen it. There was widespread snow in the Home Counties in October 2008. I was stuck in a traffic jam because people skidding in it had caused a stretch of the M40 to be shut, so the road I was on was crammed with 'em. They'd all forgotten how to drive in light snow in the previous ten years or so.

[Ssnake]

What is this?

I came here for bizarre British sex scandals. Dead ministers wrapped in silver duct tape found naked in horse stables, stuff of the legends.

 

Instead all I get is crappy weather.

[Ssnake]

...but what about those ministers dying of self-asphyxiation?

 

I don't care about lost empires. I'm interested in pompous upperclass twits found dead under bizarre circumstances. The UK seems to have a serious shortage of them, lately. Surely they can't have removed themselves completely from the population, yet?

[sunday]

Well, Brighton isn't in Cornwall the last time I looked, nor was it on the GWR.

 

http://www.chrisvanstone.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/royal.jpg

 

Sunday got sunburn in Bournemouth, I believe. Bournemouth and its immediate surroundings have a microclimate that results in lowered rainfall compared to other areas on the south coast. Atlantic rainfall tends to be caught by West Dorset, rain from the north falls on the ridgeline that runs roughly in line with the A303 (through Larkhill, in fact) and to the East by a row of hills on which Winchester is perched.

 

Given that England is 50 degrees north at its southernmost point, I think we can count ourselves lucky that we get any kind of summer at all.

 

(Lizard Point is the only part of mainland Britain that is south of 50N.)

 

It was in Bovington, actually, but close enough.

 

What is this?

I came here for bizarre British sex scandals. Dead ministers wrapped in silver duct tape found naked in horse stables, stuff of the legends.

 

Instead all I get is crappy weather.

 

Hey, you did get a valid data point about a Spaniard going ruddy because of sunny English weather! If that is not a legend...

 

(well, I got sunburnt around Berlin, also, but...)

[Panzermann]

Clouds do not protect from UV radiation. Hence the sunburn inspite of a grey sky. But most people equate only open sky and the sun shining with the necessity to smear themselves with sunscreen.

 

Lobsters are beautiful, too!

[sunday]

Was sunny, really! Grey skies only burn tourists around here.

Edited November 5, 2015 by sunday

[DB]

The visitors for the I&I may also testify that not all the food is rubbish, as well.

 

Regarding the weather - the UK has weather, not climate. You can get every season in a day. That is why it's a core part of any casual conversation here.

[sunday]

The visitors for the I&I may also testify that not all the food is rubbish, as well.

 

Regarding the weather - the UK has weather, not climate. You can get every season in a day. That is why it's a core part of any casual conversation here.

 

And the NAAFI at Dover Castle serves a most excellent lunch, even.

[swerve]

Yes, lack of skill set in driving in snow is one of our problems. When we have it, it can be bad. But its not nearly often enough to keep the skill set up to date. I'm presently watching a Discovery channel programme about recovery drivers in Norway, and one has to look at this skill set on driving on ice and snow with something approaching awe.

 

The other problem is the local authorities seemingly being incapable of providing adequate stocks of grit to put on the roads. Those that do have their supplies used to prop up the other authorities that proved misguided enough not to provide stocks. That whenever there is a snow flurry they seem often incapable of providing coverage of the roads as a form of pre-emption quickly enough is just another example of their lack of preparedness.

They're handicapped by the bloody stupid central government rules which say that if they don't use money they lose it, & they're penalised for excessive stockpiles. They were therefore forced by government rules (& Labour & Tories are equally guilty) not to keep building up stocks, so they had to stop buying grit. The money then had to be reallocated or lost.

 

 

[PS} Edited for typo which changed meaning, though Stuart seems to have got it anyway.

Edited November 5, 2015 by swerve

[Ivanhoe]

 

What is this?

I came here for bizarre British sex scandals. Dead ministers wrapped in silver duct tape found naked in horse stables, stuff of the legends.

 

Instead all I get is crappy weather.

 

 

Yeah, this is what it means to be British. Promised an Empire, Global domination, and all we get is shitty weather. I feel your pain.

 

 

Be honest; the 3 things that doomed the Empire are those which made life in the Isles vaguely tolerable: Indian cuisine, indoor plumbing, and the Macintosh. What made the Empire work was the urge for healthy young men to get the Bleep Out Of Blighty, in order to eat something with flavor, to dry off, and to take a dump without having to suit up first.

[BillB]

The visitors for the I&I may also testify that not all the food is rubbish, as well.

 

Regarding the weather - the UK has weather, not climate. You can get every season in a day. That is why it's a core part of any casual conversation here.

Mebbe. I didn't run across the four seasons in a day business until I came up here to Oatmeal Ethnic Land. Despite all the moaning I never noticed it in the East Midlands, and it's not really that applicable up here most of the time either. Ref the earlier stuff about snow, I've seen it snow at Easter plenty of times; one Easter at Morcambe we had a full on blizzard and the following year at the same time it was sunbathing weather.

 

BillB