BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[briantrumpet]

Useful context for the Ceuta incident.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/02/ceuta-border-crossing-spain-morocco

 

[C R]

I guess that Ceuta is to Spain what Gibraltar is to the UK, but at least in the case of the latter they seem to have come to a sensible compromise. Both are anachronisms in 2026.

I think there's a couple of differences between Ceuta and Melilla and Gibraltar. Ceuta and Melilla have the same status any other Spanish province wrt parliamentary representation, I don't think there are MPs for Gibraltar. Citizens of Ceuta and Melilla are full Spanish citizens, Are Gibraltareans full British citizens?

 

[C R]

Awkwardly I imagine. Was Ceuta ever part of Morocco? Yes, or at least to the people who lived in the region. Was Gibraltar ever part of Spain? Yes, or at least Spanish territories. The Falklands have never been part of Argentina.

No, Ceuta was never part of Morocco.

 

[Ian H]

Sums me up too.

The metaphorical you?

 

[Pblakeney]

No, Ceuta was never part of Morocco.

I answered that myself. Borders are fluid over history. The people who ruled in that area back in the day were not Spanish if you go back far enough. The context was in regard to the Falklands which were uninhabited and not Argentinian at any point.

 

[briantrumpet]

I seem to remember being told that we didn't need to worry about growing crops in the UK as the market would provide.

 

[Pblakeney]

I seem to remember being told that we didn't need to worry about growing crops in the UK as the market would provide.

View attachment 16578

It is happening worldwide and if you add on fertiliser shortage/cost the future is no longer orange.
Did I just find a silver lining? 😉

 

[First Aspect]

No, Ceuta was never part of Morocco.

Google tells me it depends. A large part of modern Morocco was unified in the late 8th century. The Portuguese conquered it in the early 14th, and the Spanish took it from them. Morocco in its current form was only a country in the mid 20th.

Similarly Gibraltar was taken in 1704, but modern Spain dates from 1804.

So, either you could say Ceuta was never Moroccan, and Gibraltar was never Spanish. Or you can argue that the Portuguese took Ceuta from Morocco and the British took Gibraltar from Spain.

Given that these places were conquered forcibly from the neighboring territory that now forms part of Spain and Morocco, there seems more of an argument for the latter, I would say.

All this does show the folly of going back as far as you want to decide what you "should" have as a country. As Putin has shown .you can generally find some part of history that gives the answer you want.

 

[First Aspect]

Sums me up too.

 

[briantrumpet]

Obviously all London's income tax should be spent on London.

As long as its residents never travel elsewhere.

 

[briantrumpet]

I do remember an eye-popping statistic that Merton's school-age population (in its ~14 square miles) is about the same as Devon's (2590 square miles).

 

[icowden]

Obviously all London's income tax should be spent on London.

Shock news here is that the most expensive places in the country that attract the wealthiest people in the country generate more income tax than the areas of the country that don't.

Who'da thunk?

 

[briantrumpet]

Shock news here is that the most expensive places in the country that attract the wealthiest people in the country generate more income tax than the areas of the country that don't.

Who'da thunk?

It's going to be a hot potato when Burnham puts flesh on the proposal to let mayors keep a proportion of income tax.

 

[Pblakeney]

Obviously all London's income tax should be spent on London.

As long as its residents never travel elsewhere.

View attachment 16584

Why won't anyone think of the second homes?

 

[briantrumpet]

There's an interesting thing happening in academia to a superstar Professor at Cambridge, Jason Arday, the first black person to hold a professorship there.

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...s-surrounding-cambridge-professor-jason-arday

https://rorywaterman.substack.com/p/notes-on-a-cambridge-debacle

It seems that even if the furore has been enthusiastically amplified by those with an axe to grind, he might not be everything he claims to be, both academically, and in his other achievements. Unfortunately, if he if guilty of elaboration/plagiarism, GB News is going to be delighted to be able to criticise affirmative action.

One thing that does stand out is that for his PhD he had just *one* supervision from Liverpool John Moores university in the course of his entire PhD. Doesn't seem terribly rigorous, to say the least, and maybe why alleged plagiarism wasn't questioned at the right time.