Best Of

So many people are trying to make a living out of producing YouTube videos that you wonder how long it is before there aren't enough viewers to go around. Having said that, there are lots of very interesting channels such as Mentour Pilot (if you're interested in aviation).

Speaking as PB’s leading YouTuber all I can say is that the audience growth continues unabated as we devolve as a species to the point where we need to have a constant feed of shite broadcast into our brains.

In my own case my channel continues to grow, I had my best ever month for revenue in November and I seem to bizarrely keep coming up with new things to talk about.

I’ve invested in the future though. I went 4k pretty much from the start in 2022 and I'm now shooting HDR. The idea is to give my content longevity - a lot of early YouTube content is really poor picture quality. You can get away with poor production quality if it pops off the screen. Into people’s retinas and this into their brains…

I see Labour have equalled Liz Truss's record low:

https://x.com/FindoutnowUK/status/1996572051478282392


Find Out Now
@FindoutnowUK
Find Out Now voting intention:
🟦 Reform UK: 31% (-)
🔵 Conservatives: 20% (+2)
🟢 Greens: 18% (+1)
🔴 Labour: 14% (-1)
🟠 Lib Dems: 11% (-1)

Changes from 26th November
[Find Out Now, 3rd December, N=2,591]

Lettuce see how that pans out.

The lettuce strikes back:

https://x.com/trussliz/status/1996640749304402407

They tried to silence her. They failed.

The Liz Truss Show — December 5th.

It’s time to fight for the West.

Is it just on Twitter? She doesn't mention a channel.

You’re going to watch?!??!!!

As the piniped prophet of the return of Ms Truss, surely you will be gripped by every word?

Sounds like a pretty efficient grift to me.

Why did President Trump pardon someone his own Justice Department indicted five months ago?
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1996421828366266648

(1500 pardons and counting, this term.
Which is already 10x the total of his first term.)

They really need to change the Pardon system. Maybe give a president ten free hits per term so they really have to think about who they give to as they might need some at the end of term.

Alternatively continue the unlimited amount but make them subject to public scrutiny on reasoning and a vote of approval by one or both houses.

Guess Which Presidential Power Trump Likes the Most

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/opinion/trump-pardon-power.html

It would appear that nobody bar himself and his family/cronies plus a smattering of nasty far right ideologues plus a motley collection of sleazeballs prepared to bribe him and/or grovel and debase themselves is benefiting one iota from this Donald Trump presidency.

Trump's mentors, as a young construction tycoon, in New York, were Roy Cohn and John Gotti, and he mixed with capos of the Five Families, who all took their cut of the various construction projects. Essentially, he sees himself as the Boss of a mafia family, and Putin, Kim, Netanyahu, etc. as fellow bosses, rivals, but also people he respects and admires.

I’m not sure why Middlesex are allowed to play as the county doesn’t exist.

Crisis club Middlesex begin plan to move away from Lord’s

Exclusive: County take step towards private ownership amid a Cricket Regulator investigation into their chief executive

Middlesex have taken the first step towards private ownership to fund a new home away from Lord’s.

The crisis-plagued county have told members they are actively exploring demutualisation after being plunged into fresh turmoil amid a Cricket Regulator investigation into their chief executive.

Andrew Cornish was absent from a meeting with members on Tuesday at which the club began a formal consultation over becoming just the fourth first-class county to go private.

Chairman Richard Sykes told Telegraph Sport that Cornish was “on a leave of absence”, adding: “The Cricket Regulator is involved and I can’t say more than that.”

The investigation into Cornish, who has denied any wrongdoing, is unrelated to demutualisation. But the timing could hardly be worse for the 161-year-old club as they look to join Durham, Northamptonshire and Hampshire in becoming privately owned.

As tenants of Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord’s, Middlesex are unique among the 18 counties as they do not own their home ground. This means they are unable to make money through non-cricket activities such as conferencing and events.

They play at a series of outgrounds such as Merchant Taylors’ School, Richmond and Radlett, but have long sought a “home away from home” to provide stability and generate income. Sykes believes the only way to raise the funds for this is via demutualisation.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2025/12/02/middlesex-county-cricket-club-plan-move-away-lords-private/

"Yorkshire" doesn't exist either:

West Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
East Riding

It's a bit of geography. East Anglia doesn't have a council, but it exists.
Yorkshire has never had a county council, but it exists.
Pre-1974, no-one sane claimed that, say, Rochdale wasn't in Lancashire or Nottingham wasn't in Nottinghamshire just because those county councils did not have jurisdiction over those settlements.
There's a lot more attached to a county than simply a council.
And I don't particularly care which bit of geography my council covers or attaches its name to (well I do, but for different reasons). What I want is an immutable set of sub-national units so I can answer to a question like 'where is Barnoldswick?', or be able to ask 'how many towns in Cheshire have had a club in the football league' without havibg to explain what I mean by 'Cheshire' (or, indeed, the football league, though that is a different issue).
I'm not even particularly invested in Cheshire. If we were to declare 2025 to be year 0 and henceforth here is now Lancashire, fine. As long as we don't dick around with it any further. Not for the next thousand years, anyway.

Middlesex is an oddity though in that it was waved away and nobody much missed it.

I was born and brought up in Middlesex until its abrupt abolition when I was 10. Some of us miss it still. But there's always Betjeman, including this moving gem

Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train..............

https://allpoetry.com/Middlesex