Best Of

Anyway, Happy Russia Day to all those that celebrate. Just having a quiet one at home at home this year.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJbHvxDWIc/?hl=en

Cheers!

I had a great time in Russia when I was there for the World Cup and would love to go back to see some more of the sights. Being a Russophile doesn't mean being a Putinophile!

Russia's flaw is to be a country obsessed with the decline of its empire and also with its moment of glory in WW2. Very much a mirror to a certain country on the opposite end of Europe.

My wife and I have the Trans-Siberian Express on our lifetime bucket list. The hope is that Russia becomes a friendly country by the time we retire.

Sadly this looks some way off at the moment.

My wife and I have been to Moscow and Vladivostok - but not the bit between !!!!!!!!!

How did you end up in Vladivostok?

We sailed on Princess cruises from Vancouver to Japan, then to Vladivostok, then South Korea, then ending up Tianjin before flying home from Beijing

Ooh, very good. Can’t be many people who have crossed the date line backwards in a boat?

Anyway, Happy Russia Day to all those that celebrate. Just having a quiet one at home at home this year.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJbHvxDWIc/?hl=en

Cheers!

I had a great time in Russia when I was there for the World Cup and would love to go back to see some more of the sights. Being a Russophile doesn't mean being a Putinophile!

Russia's flaw is to be a country obsessed with the decline of its empire and also with its moment of glory in WW2. Very much a mirror to a certain country on the opposite end of Europe.

My wife and I have the Trans-Siberian Express on our lifetime bucket list. The hope is that Russia becomes a friendly country by the time we retire.

Sadly this looks some way off at the moment.

My wife and I have been to Moscow and Vladivostok - but not the bit between !!!!!!!!!

How did you end up in Vladivostok?

We sailed on Princess cruises from Vancouver to Japan, then to Vladivostok, then South Korea, then ending up Tianjin before flying home from Beijing

Anyway, Happy Russia Day to all those that celebrate. Just having a quiet one at home at home this year.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJbHvxDWIc/?hl=en

Cheers!

I had a great time in Russia when I was there for the World Cup and would love to go back to see some more of the sights. Being a Russophile doesn't mean being a Putinophile!

Russia's flaw is to be a country obsessed with the decline of its empire and also with its moment of glory in WW2. Very much a mirror to a certain country on the opposite end of Europe.

My wife and I have the Trans-Siberian Express on our lifetime bucket list. The hope is that Russia becomes a friendly country by the time we retire.

Sadly this looks some way off at the moment.

My wife and I have been to Moscow and Vladivostok - but not the bit between !!!!!!!!!

How did you end up in Vladivostok?

First. I note that Reform’s odds for Makerfield have come in overnight.

A reaction to the private poll which I am told is a kosher poll.

Showing a Reform win?

No, this poll.

https://www.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2026/06/11/private-polling-klaxon/

That will be the poll that Restore will point to when they get more like 2% rather than the 12% indicated?

I did hear from a very deflated Tory canvasser that they comfortably found more Restore voters than Tory voters.

Their view is the Tories ain't ever winning again until GB News and social media are banned in the UK.

They could of course try the old method of having a reasonable set of plans set within a well presented vision of where we are going and how we are going to get there alongside honestly about money, debt, deficit and tax, the limits of government, the responsibilities of the individual, previous Tory failings, and hard choices. And then spend three years communicating it brilliantly well.

Anyway, Happy Russia Day to all those that celebrate. Just having a quiet one at home at home this year.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJbHvxDWIc/?hl=en

Cheers!

I had a great time in Russia when I was there for the World Cup and would love to go back to see some more of the sights. Being a Russophile doesn't mean being a Putinophile!

Russia's flaw is to be a country obsessed with the decline of its empire and also with its moment of glory in WW2. Very much a mirror to a certain country on the opposite end of Europe.

My wife and I have the Trans-Siberian Express on our lifetime bucket list. The hope is that Russia becomes a friendly country by the time we retire.

Sadly this looks some way off at the moment.

I think it’s fine for Burnham to U-turn before he’s elected.

But if it becomes a pattern he’s going to be right back where Sir Keir is now. My alarm bells are ringing that we’re going to open the cabinet and find it empty once again.

I don’t think he’d have done winter fuel or IHT changes though.

What Burnham's vacuous stupidity yesterday demonstrated is that he prefers to pander to anyone if he thinks it will make him popular and has sod all intention or capability either to do any detailed planning or form a coherent strategy.

Burnham's support for cutting VAT on hospitality to 10% is demolished by Dan Niedle today:

https://www.thetimes.com/money/tax/article/this-tax-cut-would-be-incredibly-stupid-wkbd2b8fp

The largest beneficiary of such a VAT cut would be McDonalds.

To be fair, an awful lot of “McDonald’s” is small businesses franchises.

It’s said that McDonald’s has made more people millionaires than any other company in history.

Leave fast food and/or drive throughs out of it?

Just leave takeaways out of it entirely.

That has a problem that a lot of eg McDonalds etc are also eat-in.

That's back to the Osborne Pasty Tax problem.

Supposedly they manage this in many countries on the contient, how do they manage ?

I'm not sure why Britain should be subsidising hospitality as an industry by cutting VAT anyway. It's a consumption industry and one of Britain's economic problems is not enough production and too much consumption for the income produced.

If there's money for a tax cut then cut taxes for investment into manufacturing, or other industries with export potential.

Easy.

People Who Lunch (mostly because they have time to Lunch, mostly because they don't need to work for a living) want lots of choice and cheap prices.

And they vote in huge numbers.