Best Of

I have returned from Austria. To my newly painted living room. For the first time

And I can report…

IT IS AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING TRIUMPH!!

Jeez I was nervous. Took a big risk. Went bold and dark. It is SUMPTUOUS

The room feels about 8% smaller and about 800% more glamorous

*dances in Hicks Blue*

Lulu Lytle nails it again!

This is possibly even better than the bedroom. It’s like the dark masculine handsome partner of the decadently feminine opium den bordello of a bedroom. This is the ego calling to my anima, down the hallway of memories

Gone is the last of the IKEA. Gone is the dreary greige and the listless cream

SWOONS

I'm genuinely delighted for you.

This could be Starmer's salvation.

Free blue paint on the NHS, and the mood of the country transformed...

Is it Conservative blue or Reform blue?

Point of order, and it’s an important one for the next electoral cycle.

Is Reform’s colour blue? It’s more of a turquoise isn’t it? I would say that’s more a blueish green than a greenish blue.

I wouldn't argue with that, my perception of colour is not very acute. But I agree it is important for elections.

I get even angry about it. Do the LibDems want to be yellow or orange? Pick one, Sir Ed!!!!

"Starmer pushes digital ID cards for all after Macron demands action to tackle scourge of illegal working in Britain"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15058275/Starmer-pushes-digital-ID-cards-Macron-demands-action-tackle-scourge-illegal-working-Britain.html

So now he overturns our liberties after receiving orders from the president of France

Every day he manages to make me hate him just that little bit more

In a remarkable experiment that shows it's not just dogs, an intelligent and highly travelled Camden man turns into a slobbering dog at the sight of a Daily Mail headline. More on page six.

It's not the Daily Mail, it's Starmer

I freely confess I am somewhat unhinged about him. As you were about Boris

I thought my loathing of Gareth Southgate was impressive but my utter abhorrence for Starmer is in a different league. Every thing he does, says, thinks, IS, makes me want to REDACTED, and the intensity of this only intensifies

I said before: it gives me an insight into how some people felt about Thatcher, I could never get my head around those wild emotions she evoked. Now I totally understand

And that's exactly why I feel for you. I hated (yes, the right word) Boris Johnson being PM and I can still recall the misery of it, how long those 3 years seemed. But on a brighter note I also recall the ecstasy of his demise. You possibly have that to look forward to in 2029 when you're 67.

A melancholy thought. Thank God I have my handsome blue room to console me

On a slightly brighter note, Starmer is so clearly shit at this job - and never going to get better - I am pretty certain he will quit before 2029. He will sack Reeves, it won't work, then the spotlight will be on him, and I reckon he'll bail

Certainly possible. More than possible - I rate it above 50% somebody else leads Labour into the next election. But don't ask me who. Has to be a woman, won't be Ange. A conundrum.

Why not Rayner? She's got a bit of oomph, and charisma. She's certainly not to my taste (tho not as bad as the Toolmakersson) - but is she disliked in the party?

‘I’ve applied for more than 5,000 jobs – it’s brutal out there’

When lay-offs hit my role as a senior copywriter at Virgin Media O2 in August 2023, I knew the job hunt wouldn’t be easy. But two years, a drained bank account and a psychiatric unit later, I never imagined it would be this brutal.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/career-advice/applied-over-5000-jobs-brutal-market/

Not to go all Leon, but AI....

5000 jobs in two years is seven a day.
He really needs to think about tailoring his applications.

I often think this when I see stories like this. I’ve been lucky - I’m in a job I love and have been able to progress here too. But I think I’ve genuinely only applied for about 10 jobs in my life, plus about six letters asking about post doc positions. And each application was crafted to match the job specs, and all the rest.
Those who are applying for 5000 jobs are not really applying for 5000 jobs. A better focus would help.

Nothing is going to help. These stories will proliferate, wildly, in the coming months and years

The anxiety has already reached my older daughter and her friends - starting Year 2 at uni next week. "What are we all going to do??"

I try to reassure her, or at least console her. "Just enjoy your uni life. Enjoy your new friends and have a ball. No one knows where we will be in three years...."

She is mildly consoled, but not entirely

I am starting to see this in grads and students when we take placements. I remember graduating in 2005 and having a choice of graduate scheme offers and, pre-financial crisis, a sense of an ever expanding economy.

That world has gone and I get that this changes everything if you’re 20. For fifteen years I have assumed it would magically reassert itself, and it just hasn’t.

"Starmer pushes digital ID cards for all after Macron demands action to tackle scourge of illegal working in Britain"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15058275/Starmer-pushes-digital-ID-cards-Macron-demands-action-tackle-scourge-illegal-working-Britain.html

So now he overturns our liberties after receiving orders from the president of France

Every day he manages to make me hate him just that little bit more

Dystopian Britain. The government tracks your every move.

It doesn't, though, does it. Turn your phone off, nobody knows where you are.

I wouldn’t be so sure. Go for a drive and there are number plate cameras everywhere. Use your credit or debit card and you are logged. It’s harder than you might imagine to completely disappear. How many ring doorbells do you pass? CCTV installations?

Now 99.99% of the time no one is following you. But if little kinabalu should become a suspect in a crime, well there would be the ability to track you.

People suggesting that the UK has a freedom of speech issue have a point. Grabbing someone at the airport with 5 armed officers for mean tweets is literally ridiculous. That this was even entertained as a plan is ridiculous. The next government needs to repeal all of the idiotic legislation around restricting speech.

The Tories are a joke to have let things get so bad, Labour will make things worse. It's time for a first amendment law that overrides all others, we need this now more than ever.

This country is becoming a laughing stock over this and the completely ridiculous illegal immigration issue and the government placing the rights of illegals over the rights of citizens.

It's nonsense to arrest for such a thing.

Linehan has transitioned from Father Dougal to Father Jack over the decades. When did he last write something funny?

Not much time to do so when you have monomania.

I have returned from Austria. To my newly painted living room. For the first time

And I can report…

IT IS AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING TRIUMPH!!

Jeez I was nervous. Took a big risk. Went bold and dark. It is SUMPTUOUS

The room feels about 8% smaller and about 800% more glamorous

*dances in Hicks Blue*

Lulu Lytle nails it again!

This is possibly even better than the bedroom. It’s like the dark masculine handsome partner of the decadently feminine opium den bordello of a bedroom. This is the ego calling to my anima, down the hallway of memories

Gone is the last of the IKEA. Gone is the dreary greige and the listless cream

SWOONS

I'm genuinely delighted for you.

This could be Starmer's salvation.

Free blue paint on the NHS, and the mood of the country transformed...

Is it Conservative blue or Reform blue?

Point of order, and it’s an important one for the next electoral cycle.

Is Reform’s colour blue? It’s more of a turquoise isn’t it? I would say that’s more a blueish green than a greenish blue.

I wouldn't argue with that, my perception of colour is not very acute. But I agree it is important for elections.

‘I’ve applied for more than 5,000 jobs – it’s brutal out there’

When lay-offs hit my role as a senior copywriter at Virgin Media O2 in August 2023, I knew the job hunt wouldn’t be easy. But two years, a drained bank account and a psychiatric unit later, I never imagined it would be this brutal.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/career-advice/applied-over-5000-jobs-brutal-market/

Not to go all Leon, but AI....

5000 jobs in two years is seven a day.
He really needs to think about tailoring his applications.

I often think this when I see stories like this. I’ve been lucky - I’m in a job I love and have been able to progress here too. But I think I’ve genuinely only applied for about 10 jobs in my life, plus about six letters asking about post doc positions. And each application was crafted to match the job specs, and all the rest.
Those who are applying for 5000 jobs are not really applying for 5000 jobs. A better focus would help.

Nothing is going to help. These stories will proliferate, wildly, in the coming months and years

The anxiety has already reached my older daughter and her friends - starting Year 2 at uni next week. "What are we all going to do??"

I try to reassure her, or at least console her. "Just enjoy your uni life. Enjoy your new friends and have a ball. No one knows where we will be in three years...."

She is mildly consoled, but not entirely

I am starting to see this in grads and students when we take placements. I remember graduating in 2005 and having a choice of graduate scheme offers and, pre-financial crisis, a sense of an ever expanding economy.

That world has gone and I get that this changes everything if you’re 20. For fifteen years I have assumed it would magically reassert itself, and it just hasn’t.

A brutal, turbulent decade - 2025-35 - has just begun

He went back on his the pledges in the leadership election, renamed them ‘missions’ for the GE so as to make easier to row back on them, then…


Sir Keir Starmer has streamlined his priorities for government by scrapping a unit that was intended to oversee his flagship missions as part of his latest reset

The five missions were central to the prime minister’s vision for government when he was in opposition and included kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower and building an NHS fit for the future…

…It means that Starmer has now announced more than 30 different priorities since entering office, including an array of “foundations”, “missions”, “first steps”, “milestones” and “economic growth pillars”.



https://www.thetimes.com/article/7ee9d7e8-8fa2-4b6d-8cfa-dce1fdcd376d?shareToken=824acb7830c000f6daf54653a28a4608

It just isn’t clear leadership. You’ve got to stick to something consistent to tell people who you are. There does need to be a message. It’s all entirely nebulous with Starmer.

Not true. Starmer made it very clear, over the trans judgement, that he believes the moral and ethical answer is whatever the Supreme Court says.