Steve Richards : "Voters Aren't As Clever As Me"
Apparently if only voters were as clever as the Indy's Steve Richards they would vote as he tells them. If they don't vote for Ken they will have failed Steve's test. They will have failed themselves. They will be punishing themselves. There are windbags, there are really pompous windbags and then there is Steve Richards.
UPDATE : Da Fink is more polite, Shane Greer less so.
UPDATE : Da Fink is more polite, Shane Greer less so.
67 comments:
Actually he is a really nice chap bit short of the old grey matter but hey! he does work for the Indy.
Labour don't want clever.They want pliant and pander to the purported envy of the poor to attack 'Tories'.The 'respect' agenda was laughable as they show none to perhaps 40% of the people of this country.If they tried to win by argument alone to a populace properly educated in economics they'd lose.Of course people don't miss the incremental wealth increases a right wing government would bring but it means our children and grand children will be much poorer than needed to be the case.
Apparently if you don't vote as Steve suggests it's because you have led a 'sheltered, disconnected, atomised life.'
Hmmm. Or as my daughter used to say, 'Chin rub, chin rub.'
Are they able to make their way through the one-sided accounts delivered by some newspapers...
Nothing one-sided in 'The Independent' is there?
Typical.
Steve's right, 'we are not worthy.'
it is a case of 'The blind leading the supposed blind'
Former New Statesman left whinger, i.e.exactly the criteria that Melanie Phillips wrote about recently where "if you don't do exactly what I tell you to do then you're a fascist".
Good grief! Labour has been reliant on the 50% of the population with below average intelligence since it was first conceived. Still, perhaps Richard's believes that by poking on this particular sore point with Labour's disillusioned voters he can prompt them once more into doing something stupid. After all, the real test of stupidity is one's willingness to make a bad mistake more than once...
He seems to confuse educted with clever. I've worked with people who have qualifications coming out of their ears but are stupid, and I've also worked with people with not a scrap of paper, who are razor sharp.
The second group are better company and get things done. The first group become writers for the Indymoney
You have to be pretty stupid to read the Indy in the first place. Lunatics House Mag and all that.
I can see another relaunch being planned for the ship of state!
Is this Steve bloke the same one who fronts the politics programme on ITV at 6:30 on sunday mornings?
You homophobic fuckers should do as I tell you or I'll set my wig on you
The Standard doesn't think much of the success of the congestion charge. I wonder why the article appeared just when it did:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5j4vg5
Quote -- "If Ken had asked people to throw 20p into a bucket every time they drove in central London, he would have made more money - and that includes the cost of collecting the buckets."
In fairness to the Independent, there is an article below that one on the page by Adrian Hamilton attacking Ken Livingstone, headed "We don't have to live with a mendacious mayor".
If I was old I'd vote Lib Dem, if I was minted I'd vote Tory, if I was a muppet I'd vote BNP, if I was an objectionable brain dead Juan Quer I'd vote Labour. Simple really. Voted on me way into work to give Mugabe's boys a chance to doctor it before lunchtime.
"Those who do not see this fail to meet the test, so sheltered in their disconnected, atomised lives that they assume things happen around them without reason, no buses one year, lots the next, cheaper houses one year and none the next."
Sounds like London-based journalists, and their Labour luvvie metropolitan lifestyle, to me!
I like The Indy. Simon Carr is a cruel genius. But Steve Richards has his tongue so far up Brown's rear that he could be classified as a new form of parasite.
What an idiot. Anyone claiming that intelligent people should vote for Ken deserves a good kicking.
Well I just voted for Boris so presumably that makes me a moron.
And themn of course there is Guido, who is utterly unparallelled in his cleverness.
I've just been on "Toilets" Maguire's blog and his anti-Boris diatribe seems to be going down badly even with Mirror readers. One reader calls Kev a "sad little man".
O/T Guido I know, but I thought this exposee from a heavy-weight Economics site (The Adam Smith Institute)of Alistair Darling's retrospective Car Tax Hike might be of interest to you and your readers.
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/transport/deceitful-darling-200805011313/
What a patronising little cunt.
It is precisely this sort of contemptuous dismissal of those who dare to point out the emperor's lack of clothing that will doom the statist lefties and the next GE.
Ed Balls's 'So What' comment is a perfect example.
"The people have forfeited the confidence of the government, we should take the easy option and dissolve the people and elect another." : Standard 'socialist thinker' (I know socialist-thinker is an oxymoron).
Following on from my point on tuesday (that the second choice run-off vote is a shambles and wide open to corruption). I went early this morning to do my democratic duty (vote not shit) and asked whether it was possible to vote for the same candidate in the second choice column. Living in east-london I'm well accustomed to trogladyte morons being deeply engrained in every aspect of life and so was not suprised by the response I received. The conversation went a little like this:
Me: 'Is it possible to vote for the same candidate again for the run-off vote?'
Drone: 'No'
Me: 'Because the paper would be spoilt?'
Drone: 'No'
Me: 'I'm sorry?'
Drone: 'It wont count.'
Me: 'Do you mean neither votes will count because the paper will be spoilt?'
Drone: 'No'
Me: 'I don't follow'
Drone: 'It won't count because the votes will cancel each other out'
At which point I had to explain the system to mong and then explain why it was absurd not to be allowed to vote for the same candidate in the run-off. Her response was to call over mong-drone mark 2 to explain the suplementary vote system, which I am perfectly aware of, again. However eventually I managed to get the thich cunts to see my point which in essence is this:
The system operates in a manner whereby if neither candidate receives 50% of the vote the run-off votes are counted. After which if no single candidate receives 50% the top two are put forward to the second round and the remaining papers are counted for 2nd choice and the winner of that round is elected mayor. So, in real terms; no election with more than two candidates is realistically going to secure more than 50% of the vote, it just doesn't happen at which point the primary opinion of the majority of voters is disregarded and the mayor is elected on the whimsy of the second choice vote. It's a case of you're fucked if you do and you're fucked if you don't. Putting your first choice as your primary vote is effectively a wasted vote for the above reasons (no candidate is ever going to be likely to secure 50% + of the vote due to simple economics) and voting for your first choice in the run-off 2nd selection column where it will actually count risks your man not receiving enough support to see him through to the run-off. The system assumes that voters will undecided, unconvinced or generally apathetic, the option to vote in the run-off for the same candidate should be open so that those who truly have an opinion on how London should not be fucked into a smoking hole in the ground by some bleating, power-lusting cockney can have their voice heard rather than fettered by a burecratic system. That way the floaters, undecideds and meat heads can cross wildly in anyone of the boxes in any of the columns and allow those of us with an opinion our say.
p.s. Just to be clear: FUCK YOU KEN, please fuck off and take your corrupt cornies with you.
Local government is so tightly constrained by central government targets, financial controls and regulation that they have very limited room to meet the needs and interests of their local electorate. Local election have become a surrogate for national elections because only a change in Westminster and Brussels can deliver what people want. Under ZanuLab the a vice like grip has been put on local councils. The only hope for solutions to local problems is to kick the control freaks out.
I am upset. A lot of rude people don't seem to agree with me.
CommentsFirst | Previous 1 2 Next | Last 15 Comments
"Would it not be a triumph for democracy if the voters of London showed that they are bright enough not to be brainwashed by an unelected newspaper?"
Quite.
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Posted by Steve | 01.05.08, 10:19 GMT
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Oh what tosh. The entire anti-Boris campaign is based on class warfare and a tired collection of mangled snippets from his admittedly colourful - but none the worse for that - career. The rest is pure guesswork. It needs no guesswork to see what that little toad Livingstone has been up to all these years.
Boris too inexperienced? Pray tell me what qualifies Jacqui Smith, a former schoolteacher and "deputy minister for women and equality" for the high office of Home Secretary? Or Caroline Flint, a former equal opportunities officer for Lambeth council, as Housing and Planning minister? Or...
I will fail to meet your test by voting Boris.
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Posted by PaulD | 01.05.08, 10:18 GMT
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What utter utter nonsense. The most arrogant drivel I've ever read.
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Posted by James | 01.05.08, 10:18 GMT
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Independent ? independent of balance thats for sure.
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Posted by Denis B | 01.05.08, 10:16 GMT
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Steve
That is about an arrogant an article as one might expect from any of the unhappy and increasingly desperate band of apologists for Labour and its policies. How about a bit of substance in your arguments, rather than merely criticising people who don't share your prejudice, and who may just have a better grip of reality than you?
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Posted by Nick | 01.05.08, 10:12 GMT
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Hear hear Steve.
And if the voters keep failing their leader, what a pity Ken won't be able to dissolve the electorate and replace it with another. Or just 'manage' democracy so the people appear to give the correct answers, like his pal Chavez.
Supporting dictators and neo-communists like Chavez in the 3rd world is so disgusting that it is as absolute a disqualification for public office as belonging to the BNP.
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Posted by Llew | 01.05.08, 09:56 GMT
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I've passed - I'm ignoring your arrogant, bigoted and one-sided guff.
I'm valuing diversity, so I'm voting Boris - also because he isn't Ken, the arch-cronieist, tax-waster and general PC git.
Cheers
Stephen
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Posted by Stephen | 01.05.08, 09:51 GMT
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It seems that various members of our new ruling class and its hangers-on, apologists and propagandists are getting increasingly desperate at the thought that voters may not have realised that it is the god-given right of New Labour to remain in power forever. This article shows how big the disconnect is between these people and we mere ordinary people, and makes a nice tie-in with the Guardian's hysterically over-the-top support for Livingstone, which has descended into abuse of Johnson today. Your contempt for voters echoes New Labour's belief that we 'haven't got the message'. Well, we have, and this rotten authoritarian government is on its way out. It will mean a Conservative government, so we will just have to deal with them when the time comes. In the meantime, democracy and common decency are not served by this kind of article. Independent? I don't think so.
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Posted by kirsanov | 01.05.08, 09:50 GMT
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I take my hat off to you. That you can hold down a job as a journalist when you produce this sort of patronising claptrap must say a lot for your ability to flannel your employers.
If the Independent's management had any spine or grip, you would have long since been looking at your P45.
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Posted by John Coles | 01.05.08, 09:49 GMT
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First time I've read your column. Have you tried writing comedies as you seem to be very good at it?
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Posted by David | 01.05.08, 09:37 GMT
There's another fatuous article in the Guardian this morning suggesting Londoners who fail to re-elect Ken are ideologically blinkered at best, stupid at worst:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/01/boris.livingstone
To hammer the point home, two dozen or so prominent London liberals are asked whether they fear the election of Johnson, including a handful of writers and actors, a comedian, and a race and welfare officer.
So, a typical cross section then.
God forbid the average London voter should have a vision for London that differs in any substantial way to the view from Farringdon Road.
What is it with the Guardian and the Indy? Why must they shoot themselves in the foot this way? Why is anyone who doesn't toe the progressive line stupid? Are they suffering from false consciousness?
The poster aboe is spot-on: Simon Carr is ace (as are Lawson, Hensher, and Jacobson), but Richards is an obese, bulgy-eyed nitwit who would qualify as the UK's biggest prick if it wasn't for that work-experience juvenile who writes on the same page.
Steve's argument is the retort of the left whenever they lose. We are all suffering from false consciousness. We don't know what's good for us. We are all out of step except little Johny.
And whence does this bug-eyed fucker's wisdom and experience derive? Why, before he was a commentator, he was a..., er, ...journalist.
Perhaps one of the best 'demonstrations' of the contempt that NuLab have for those they would have vote for them came from this document:
http://www.gavinwhenman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/Beating%20the%20Liberals_Lessons%20from%20Lambeth.pdf
Written back in the glory days of NuLab in 1998, by, I'm reliably informed one David (Newton) Salisbury-Jones, then NuLab councillor clone on Lambeth Council. Caused quite a ruckus on the Beeb, for example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/174929.stm
'Unfortunately electors are smart enough ...' and, 'The electorate can be primed ...' give you the drift.
Funnily enough, Salisbury-Jones is married to another NuLab MP clone, Natascha 'Three Houses' Engel (with a nod in the direction of 'Two Jags' Prescott):
S43 2PG (2006 Barrow Hill)
SW16 2RB(2007 Streatham)
SW2 1AW (before 2000? Lambeth)
According to her website:
http://www.nataschaengelmp.org.uk/ 'Natascha and her family live in Barrow Hill' and her wiki entry has her 'moving':
'...to Dronfield, into Barrow Hill' after the 2005 election. That must be a 'fun' for her husband since he has a vets practice in Streatham Vale:
http://www.valevets.com
So, Natascha ... where's all that ACA being aimed at ?
Enjoy watching NuLab get slaughtered today :-)
Unfortunately, brain dead and insufferably arrogant is a fairly common journalistic combination. Watch the BBC sometime.
...and there are piss artist bloggers - But they all brighten up the place!
Phoenix Park said...
"I went early this morning to do my democratic duty (vote not shit) and asked whether it was possible to vote for the same candidate in the second choice column."
You don't say who you asked. They were probably the cleaners.
Not a secret ballot.
Your voter number is being writen on a form alongside the reference number for each voting form.
"There are windbags, there are really pompous windbags and ..."
There are total c*nts...
Poor old Ken, he didn't really want any elections. After-all, he knows what he's doing, so why bother the people, who have no idea and grasp of the concepts that are available to him.
That's the problem with elections, the voters just don't know what they're doing, not having the mental grasp of dialectics, agit-prop, policy and direction that comes naturally to those committed leaders of the left, who naturally need total and unfettered power/control to achieve the proper ends and make the workers lives a total nirvana with the creation of the Socialist Democratic Workers State. Naturally it will have to be one party, as you cannot have contradictions, and cannot allow contrarian discussion to sway policy and waste time in idle discussion.
Steve Richards is of course following the time honoured path of ensuring that those leaders with vision are pandered and the proles properly instructed and advised prior to ceding their rights to the great leaders.
Hi,
I'm Steve Richards.....
Phoenix.
In this election, it's down to Ken and Boris.
So pick who you prefer.
For your first choice, look at the whole list to see if anyone else matches your beliefs. Vote for them first, then vote Ken or Boris in the second box for when your candidate is eliminated. Which they will be. At which point your Ken or Boris vote will kick in, but at least your first vote will have been registered in the grand scheme of things.
Alternative Vote is a great way of maintaining a voter/representative link, which reflecting a plurality of opinion. The first and second choice of 60% of the electorate rather than the first choice of 30%.
If your second vote is the same as your first vote, your second vote will not be counted. Your first vote will be.
In the second round the first votes and second votes for the two main candidates are counted together. Not just the second votes. There's no need to make your second vote your real vote for a later round.
This is the day the Snot-Eater will get a kicking. Fangtastic! Chris
Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh.......I see, now, whereas before, I was a purblind classical liberal...!
If the "people" fail to vote correctly, then they, as voters, ought to be dissolved, and another votariat elected...!!! I get it now. Sorry.
I moved my family out of London in 2001. When I last went back with our elder boy, in 2006, we found it a strange and frightening place. After three days, no sight was at last dearer to our eyes than the one at the beginning of the M1, that says "The North".
It can say whatever else it pleases after that, such as "Next, Ken plans to put RFID chips in your head...working together." The point is to (as the late great Kenny Everett put it once) "be elsewhere!"
annoymous @ 11.04 I asked the Presiding officer although I'm sure her strengths probably lie with cleaning rather than anything involving anything other than basic motor-skills.
annonymous @ 11.36 Thanks for the advice. Probably the best approach. I did consider that option however I baulk at deliberately wasting a vote for the sake of bureacratic corruption and so just played it straight.
I still maintain that the system is designed to accomodate the radically undecided rather than those with formed and informed opinion.
Steve said..."Now travellers whiz through the ticket machines with their oyster cards, the rate of increase in cars entering the city has stalled and buses run around the clock"
But Steve.. your fawning is not sincere enough. Have you come to praise Caesar or to bury him?
Truly Livingstone is a Caesar..
Steve.. The pitiful title Mayor! So small for someone so great.
Magnus Livingstone .. no wait.. Emporer Livingstone.
And let the grateful merchants of The City mint coinage in his image, in gratitude for his stewardship.
Come Steve Richards, jest not at the misguided Equestrian classes, but let us go forth and raise a subscription for the building of an enormous Triumphal Arch to honor The Great Livingstone.
A giant Pyramid of stone at Canary Wharf for his eventually but hopefully far off demise.
A Bronze Colossus straddling the Thames at Blackfriars, with the boldest of inscriptions ..........
"Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Boris is 2nd best campaign -
Remember to let Boris know he's 2nd best by marking him as your 2nd place candidate! That'll show those nasty tories.......
Robert Mugabe has offered to send the UK election monitors to make sure the elections today are "free and fair", what with widespread postal voting fraud and all that. Maybe Gordon Brown and Red Ken should talk up such an offer?! Oh wait, New Labour are the benefits of postal voting fraud, better keep out any monitoring of votes.
Phoenix,. this might help demonstrate how the alternative vote makes for a more representative result
Three candidates. Alice has 30% support, Brendan has 38%, Colin has 32% support. In a first past the post election, Brendan wins.
The thing is 60% of people hate Brendan. Vehemently. And wouldn't mind Alice or Colin against Brendan.
Alternative vote stops people having to vote tactically. Alice's voters can give their second vote to Colin and vice versa.
When it comes to the vote, Alice is eliminated and 95% of her second vote goes to Colin.
In the second round, Brendan has an extra 2% of the whole vote thanks to Alice. But Colin has a whopping extra 28%. Brendan has a total of 40%, Colin has 60%.
This result is much more reflective of the opinions and views of the whole constituency than before.
What is it with you and the Independent, Guido?
Has Brown issued the crewe and Nantwich by-election writ to shore up his short term position after heavy local election loses?
It maybe the only way he can quell a leadership battle by silencing the PLP into loyality whilst the by-election takes place. If he loses he will be out anyway but if he wins it would be a gamble worth taking.
I think he will lose and Brown's short term political gain will be eclipsed by long term political pain for him!
Please leave Steve Richards alone. The poor love is having a lot of personal problems at the moment and is undergoing what can only be described as mental, emotional, and, financial torment along with some very worrying sexual confusion.
He's driving us all mad here at the Indy but we're managing to tolerate him, just! Hopefully he'll be on his way soon.
Thanks for listening.
annonymous @ 12.29 I get the principle yes, it's quite straight forward but if the other candidates are unappealing nay abhorrent to Brendans supporters why should they be precluded from reinforcing their support for him in the run-off count? Why should they be forced to either waste a vote or vote tactically? The tactical voting element is not erradicated.
Whether the x in the second column is counted again or not I would rather excercise my right and excercise it honestly, without the risk of spoiling my paper and without being disenfranchised of my true and (albeit unwritten) constitutional chartered right as a citizen.
There is far more to elections than basic economics, some people are more concerned with jurisprudential liberties concerning their votes.
annonymous @ 12.29 I get the principle yes, it's quite straight forward but if the other candidates are unappealing nay abhorrent to Brendans supporters why should they be precluded from reinforcing their support for him in the run-off count? Why should they be forced to either waste a vote or vote tactically? The tactical voting element is not erradicated.
Whether the x in the second column is counted again or not I would rather excercise my right and excercise it honestly, without the risk of spoiling my paper and without being disenfranchised of my true and (albeit unwritten) constitutional chartered right as a citizen.
There is far more to elections than basic economics, some people are more concerned with jurisprudential liberties concerning their votes.
Just as well I followed his advice and voted for the newtered one fourteen times. No worries there.
Anonymous said...
"Not a secret ballot.
Your voter number is being writen on a form alongside the reference number for each voting form."
Never has been.
Or at least since the early 70s when I had the honour of fighting through NALGO picket lines to be the Presiding Officer in a European election.
Having just gone to vote, whilst in the booth I switched my form for a copy of Steve's article that I'd smeared with a shit stain cross...
I hope this doesn't mean I've inadvertently voted for Livingslime??
The Independent is the only blog that takes it's self seriously that it puts it's rants on paper.
Saves on bog roll I suppose.
Anonymong @ 12.29, your analysis, while correct, doesn't change the fact that not 62% but 68% of the voters didn't want Colin in the first place. To have a system which means that the least unpopular candidate wins rather than the initally most popular makes a mockery of the entire process.
It was deliberately chosen in an attempt to give NuLiebour an inbuilt advantage as they figured that LimpDumbs would have an inbuilt tendency to prefer Liebour to Tories.
Flip-flop wearing (and minded) LimpDumbs still have to seriously consider how their wasted vote might allow an unwanted NuLiebour incumbent to remain in power. They merely know that their REAL vote is their second and instead of voting tactically initially they do so with their second preference.
transfattyacid said...
Saves on bog roll I suppose.
Indeed. Only they call it Blog Roll over there.
Who is Steve Richards? Honest guv, I never heard of him. Will have to try google if nobody tells me.
I wonder if he has the sense to realise what an arrogant and conceited pillock that article makes him appear.It appears that we mere mortals are not worthy of him.I still buy the Sindy (but only for Alan Watkins).More of this and I will give it up.
BBC London local tv news after 1pm national news today has said that there's already reported "irregularities" (ie. fraud) in the London mayor vote.
As far as so far reported, two polling stations have been reported to be writing voter numbers on the top of the voting forms, thereby invalidating their votes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7377724.stm
Cheap time share bijou property available in Austria - sleeps 4. Could see if the bog eyed knob jockey fancies a stint as an actual gimp.
Today Steve Richards, tomorrow Pandora.
id @ 2.38: THANK YOU! This is the exact quandry I've been struggling with all day! At first I thought I was annoyed that the system was dumbing down to suit those who simply could not make an informed choice, a system defaulting to the uninterested, making assumptions that each voter would care to choose a second preference as if politics were some glorious live enactment of a panini sticker album. But no! The fact that it is the least unpopular candidate who wins rather than the most popular is an utter mockery of the democratic process and it is this that stokes my flames of fury.
The element of tactical voting is if anything increased and not eradicated and the fact remains that the MAJORITY, not a first past the post majority but a true proportionaly represented majority, did not want this candidate in the first place. Sweet irony then that it is exactly under this logic that this second choice candidate is elected. Well done Zanulabour you've managed to tinker with a perfectly good system and once again fuck it to death.
Doesn't this article sound so like Obama's "Pennsylvania voters are too stupid to vote for me because they like guns" rant? Same lefty attitude wherever you are in the world!
"They have fallen for the relentless anti-Livingstone propaganda in the Evening Standard, spiced by the spineless imbeciles at Channel Four who echoed the orthodoxy by making a one-sided anti-Livingstone film."
I presume he means that Dispatches documentary. Wasn't this a film by mostly Left Wing journalists, apparently fed up with the corrupt, deserving attitude that pervades in the Mayor's office? Is this man on the pay-roll or something? Arrogant, conceited, self-righteous......
Steve Richards = pompous arse.
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