Best Of

Lawyer serves up ‘council estate dinner’ of chicken dippers and Sunny D

A solicitor has been criticised for throwing what she described as a ‘council estate dinner’ which featured Fray Bentos pies and spam fritters.

Sophie Murgatroyd posted on LinkedIn, ‘I love cooking for my friends... the theme of tonight's meal was "council estate dinner”’.

The lawyer said she cooked the main course and that it consisted of crispy pancakes, chicken dippers, turkey dinosaurs, potato waffles, smiley faces, oven chips, beans, Frey Bentos Pies and spam fritters.

Her two guests took care of pudding (Vienetta, spotted dick and custard, and ginger cake) and drinks (Sunny Delight and Buck’s Fizz).

https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/exclusive-lawyer-serves-council-estate-dinner-chicken-dippers-and-sunny-d

Some of those, I quite like.

Some privileged people can be remarkably tin-eared.

I cannot stand people who engage in snobbery and elitism.

It's only good fortune that places Sophie Murgatroyd where she is, and a council estate dweller where they are.

Indeed, I often think to myself but for the grace of Allah God I might have ended up in a different life.

Anyone who enjoys decent health, and who avoids personal tragedy, in a rich world democracy, has drawn first prize in the lottery of life. That was driven home to me by reading Bret Devereux's series, Life, Death, and the Peasant, detailing how the vast majority of people have lived, in the vast majority of times and places (and still live, in parts of the world).

Dictatorship, you say, Victor ?

Today, the Brusselians are crossing the Rubicon. At noon, a written vote will take place that will cause irreparable damage to the Union.

The subject of the vote is the frozen Russian assets, on which the EU member states have so far voted every 6 months and adopted a unanimous decision. With today’s procedure, the Brusselians are abolishing the requirement of unanimity with a single stroke of the pen, which is clearly unlawful.

With today’s decision, the rule of law in the European Union comes to an end, and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules. Instead of safeguarding compliance with the EU treaties, the European Commission is systematically raping European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that clearly isn't winnable. All this is happening in broad daylight, less than a week before the meeting of the European Council, the Union’s most important decision-making body, bringing together heads of state and government. With this, the rule of law in the European Union is being replaced by the rule of bureaucrats. In other words, a Brusselian dictatorship has taken hold.

Hungary protests this decision and will do everything in its power to restore a lawful order.
https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1999358779763183953

If you're not too addicted to EU funding, there's a simple solution on offer.

Dear Mr Orban,

If you don't like it, you can always leave.

Sincerely yours,

rcs1000

Dictatorship, you say, Victor ?

Today, the Brusselians are crossing the Rubicon. At noon, a written vote will take place that will cause irreparable damage to the Union.

The subject of the vote is the frozen Russian assets, on which the EU member states have so far voted every 6 months and adopted a unanimous decision. With today’s procedure, the Brusselians are abolishing the requirement of unanimity with a single stroke of the pen, which is clearly unlawful.

With today’s decision, the rule of law in the European Union comes to an end, and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules. Instead of safeguarding compliance with the EU treaties, the European Commission is systematically raping European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that clearly isn't winnable. All this is happening in broad daylight, less than a week before the meeting of the European Council, the Union’s most important decision-making body, bringing together heads of state and government. With this, the rule of law in the European Union is being replaced by the rule of bureaucrats. In other words, a Brusselian dictatorship has taken hold.

Hungary protests this decision and will do everything in its power to restore a lawful order.
https://x.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1999358779763183953

If you're not too addicted to EU funding, there's a simple solution on offer.

Weirdly, Mr Orban has never had any problems with putting himself above laws. Or indeed, his mates Mr Putin and Mr Trump putting themselves above laws.

Of course Muslims can assimilate, and do.
This site wouldn’t run without an assimilated Muslim!
(That sounds vaguely offensive, apologies if so).

However, the larger the overall “Muslim” population, the slower that assimilation is going to take.

Thats why I generally favor a near-halt on migration from largely Muslim countries (Pakistan, Nigeria etc), save for the truly highly-skilled.

Careful they'll be calling you "islamophobic" next for this outbreak of sensible policy.

In my time on PB, I’ve been called an immigrant-hugging loon, a Britain-basher, a China-lover, an anti-Semite, and who knows, Islamophobic.

I am large, I contain multitudes!

I’ve been called far-right and a leftie by some of the more dim posters.

Somebody once complained to OGH about me being an Islamophobe because I once posted I didn’t want to live next door to a family of Muslims.

It was for their benefit, I didn’t want them feeling bad when they realise I am such a pious/devout Muslim and they couldn’t match my devotion.

@Foxy , @MattW , @rcs1000 etc - just caught up on your comments from last night: fair enough, I hold my hand up: the figure I had for 1995 was clearly erroneous. On which basis I am wrong.

Thank-you for that. Looking at the estimates no one seems particularly clear before 2001, when a question came into the census. For 1990 Google AI seems to give a range of 500k to 1000k, which is a huge error margin. Plus of course there has always been a significant group of people not here legally.

Just as background context from earlier - I was in Bradford 1985-1988 and at that time I think between 1/3 and 1/4 of the city was the population fraction described as Muslim. This was pre-Satanic Verses of course. There were harder line organisations being developed in places like Dewsbury some with explicit Middle Eastern links or funding, but also more ideologically open versions of Islam such as Ahmadiyya with open centres to visit in BD7 near the University.

The main numerical work I am familiar with from that sort of period was being done by the likes of Peter Brierley, then of Marc Europe (which was spun out of the BIble Society) and later of Christian Research. Their main activity was publication of a thing called the UK Christian Handbook, which was an enormous directory and reference volume from an Evangelical base, but covering the whole UK Christian sector. They were basically a resource and research organisation for churches and mission, from an evangelical focus but working across the piece.

They did a pioneering survey of Mosques and Mosque attendance in the second half of the 1980s, where one interesting number was Mosque attendance in the UK was around half of the adherent community - an interesting early number pointing at "drift". This is one reason I have always thought that the Muslim-background community is far broader than is readily admitted, whilst being less diffuse than the Christian-background community.

The mantle of Peter Brierley, who is still going as a consultant after starting in this arena in the mid-1970s, has been picked up by groups such as the Religion in Numbers project at Lancaster University, and Prof Linda Woodhead.

Half of Muslims never going to Mosque does fit with this survey:

https://pollingreport.uk/articles/nop-poll-of-british-muslims

I have some very pious Muslim friends, and others that never go at all, being "culturally Muslim" in the same way many "Christian" Brits are.

I watch Carols at Kings every Christmas and retain from childhood an emotional connection to the Nativity story. Also like poking around churches and graveyards. So I wouldn't reject a label of 'cultural Christian'.

I played a Wise Man at a school nativity play in 1982 when I was seven. The one who carried myrrh. My only acting credit to date!

I was cast as the inn-keeper. My sole contribution was to utter the word 'No'. I kept forgetting to do this and was replaced. The humiliation is still keenly-felt after 70 years. Bah humbug.