Fullerene

TBH I don't know. I had to pay my hotel bill, car hire and everything in cash and it would have been a problem if they did not accept them. Possibly the Bank of St Helena would but would charge a commission to change them into St Helena notes. They have their own notes and coins. The coins look identical to ours but the notes do not. The bank charges commission to convert their own notes into Bank of England notes even though they are worth the same amount. It is a challenge to offload their notes before you leave the island. Unless you are going up to Ascension Island which uses the same notes but I guess you probably already knew that!

Better than anywhere else within a thousand miles obviously! There were three or four pubs in Jamestown and the nightclub Donnie's is where everyone goes on Friday and Saturday night. You can certainly hear it. Did not spot any bookies but I could be wrong. There are no ATM machines and almost everywhere is cash. Some places accept credit cards but add a 5% surcharge.

Just got back from St Helena. I went on the inaugural flight from Cape Town. Unlike the Boeing 737-max that is shown in this video it was an Embraer 190 and the landing was perfectly fine. I have posted more in the Travel forum.

I am just back from a wonderful trip to St Helena. I have known about the place for decades but never imagined I would ever go there. Until recently this would have involved a five day boat journey from Cape Town but now it has an airport. The airport was slow to get started. The first flight in was with the Boeing 737 Max plane that has now been grounded. The flight was a scary experience but basically they were using the wrong plane. I flew in on an Embraer 190, which is a smaller plane with about 60 passengers. It was the inaugural flight from Cape Town. There have now been hundreds of flights from Johannesburg. The flight was with FlyAirLink which is a subsidiary of South African Airways and I was able to buy a ticket on-line for about £600. I needed to prove I had travel insurance that include medical evacuation if necessary – fairly common requirement for many African countries. The flight out started with a two hour flight to Walvis Bay in Namibia where the plane was refuelled followed by a three hour flight to St Helena. I was a little nervous about the landing but actually it was straightforward and not unpleasant at all. I stayed in the capital Jamestown which is located in a valley at sea level and is generally 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the island. The first day involved climbing Jacob’s Ladder, which is the tallest single staircase in the world with 699 steps. The fastest climb up and back down was by a Scotsman who took 5 minutes and 16.78 seconds. I took longer. I went to Plantation House where the island governor lives. They had a portrait of Prince Andrew and were debating whether to take it down. Outside in the garden I saw the tortoises including Jonathan who at the age of 187 years is the oldest land creature in the world. He still has eyes for Emma but she is only 50. Like everywhere on the island the view is of the ocean, where the rest of the world is a long way away. I also went to Briars Pavilion and Longwood House where Napoleon lived in exile. Along with Napoleon’s Tomb (where Napoleon no longer is) these properties are owned by the French Government who pay the people who work there. Across the road from Longwood house is a children’s play park, a supermarket and a petrol station. I doubt any of these were around when Napoleon was living there. I drove to Sandy Bay on the far side of the island. If you want to get away from everyone then this is the place to go. Antarctica would be another place but Sandy Bay is much warmer. The cactus plants make that obvious. I climbed to the top Diane’s Peak which is the highest point on the island. It was fairly easy to do and about an hour each way. For anyone who gets homesick, it is possible to visit Scotland although it is actually a small place that has a roundabout with a tree in the middle. I also went to Blue Hill in the south west which was very scenic. The whole island is beautiful. Every picture is a postcard. The natives are friendly and everybody wants to talk to you. It was a truly memorable holiday.

If Scotland was independent but Shetland wanted to be independent - would that be demoracy? If Shetland was independent but then Mid Yell wanted to be independent of Shetland. What then? I am talking as someone who has been to Mid Yell.

Yes. It is utterly bizarre. England naturally splits into Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex (or something like that) but refuses to do so. Then the North and the Midlands decide that they have had enough of the South bossing them about and the only solution is to leave the EU. Go figure.

Careful!! Don't give him ideas. Heathrow airport to be named Johnson Airport. Manchester to be renamed Johnsonville. Friday to be renamed Johnson Day. Christmas to be ... I do I have to go on?

There is a lot to be said about said for papers somewhere else on the planet who have no preset opinion on the UK. I have been in places such as Japan, Singapore and Dubai and read articles that would never appear in any UK newspaper and I mean any.

I get the impression from where you live that the attitude is that Corbyn is okay about everything else but Johnny Foreigner needs to f*** off. Is that about it?

Yeah great idea but how much to get someone to live in North Dakota?

In the USA, California has nearly 40 million people while Wyoming has less than 600,000 and yet they both send two senators to Washington. Maybe not relevant to this thread but any opinions welcome.

Yes Brexit did it for him. If only he had figured that out 3 years ago and been full on Remain he might have convinced enough Labour voters to have swayed that result. Instead he was in two minds about it - and thus so were Labour voters. By the time he decided he would support Remain it was too late. A lot of people who are entirely Leave still think the result should be honoured. If only.

The difference between Blair isn't just about policies. It is about being someone who looks the part, can argue his point convincingly, presents policies that seemed to be properly thought out and you can actually imagine in the role of prime minister. It was the constant amateurism of Corbyn that was utterly frustrating.

Are you suggesting Boris Johnson might be telling a fib?

Corbyn's manifesto could have been written 40 years ago apart from the free broadband offer - hence the reason it was there. Brexit is a red herring. An absolutely massive red herring.

Racist might be a bit much. These are people who think the whole character of place will change if they have too many incomers from other places and by too many I mean one. I met somebody from the North of England who really resented the idea the people in Britain like a good curry. By comparison everybody in Scotland talks about how hot they like it.

Not so sure. These voters are unhappy with their lot and the Tories have convinced them that the EU is to blame and leaving the EU will fix everything. When leaving the EU doesn't fix anything then maybe things will change. How can you be accused of not listening when people complain about the NHS and you say "okay let's talk about the NHS" and when they complain about housing and you say "okay let's talk about housing" and so on and so on.

A large number of people think getting Brexit done is more important than anything. "We voted for it so we will look a bit silly if we don't go through with it". So come February it will all be over and life will get back to normal - except that it won't and they will suddenly wonder why they voted for a Tory that they would never have considered for any other reason.

Not really. See Trump. Every week a new scandal and yet his voters stay true.

It will all be about treachery, betrayal, factions, schisms, tribes and everything else that suggests a party at war with itself. People's Front of Judea crap. The Tory Party was destroying itself and ready to be put out to pasture. Labour should have walked this election but they lost badly. A Labour Party that is mainly focused on the Labour Party will lose again.

Labour's path back to power is to have a leader who will obviously win the next election. It does not need to be obvious now but certainly in the run up. People vote for a winner. It was easy to imagine Johnson winning the election but never Corbyn. Choosing a leader that non-Labour voters are okay with will be important. That does not mean selling out on principles. It does mean someone with less baggage than Corbyn.

I am not so sure. This election was about Brexit. Why? Because of the EU election in 2016. He now admits that if a second referendum occurred he would vote to Remain. Too little too late. In 2016 he was Captain Dither. Not entirely convinced either way. Offered no direction to Labour voters and not surprisingly they split between leave and remain. Now as a result everybody in England is obsessed with Brexit and all the wonderful things that Corbyn planned to do are not going to happen.

.. and yet there will still be some people saying "I am all of the above but at least we will get Brexit done".

They say it is good for your health to give yourself a scare at least once a day so here goes. When you go into the voting booth put the pencil down (we need to be really careful here) and then close your eyes and pretend you voted for the Tory. Oh dear. How was that? Pretty scary? Fine. Now open your eyes and vote how you normally do.

The whole tone is set by totally unelected newspaper owners who can say whatever they like and then print a retraction on page 32. The sooner their power base is destroyed the sooner politicians and everybody else will be more accountable. Can't see it happening anytime soon.