Best Of

It may be that the rank incompetence and dishonesty shown by Starmer and Reeves in both the run up to and the budget itself will prove fatal. It certainly hasn't done the UK economy any good whatsoever: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/22/uk-economy-entering-2026-amid-sharp-private-sector-downturn-says-cbi

We certainly cannot afford much more of that nonsense. And it obviously suits some to claim this poor economic performance is caused by Brexit as opposed to that ineptitude. But I think we could do without Reform getting the inevitable boost that they would get from such distractions.

It's bizarre that they talked the economy down for the first six months or so of their government and didn't learn the lesson before proceeding to fly every kite in the world before the Budget and then being surprised it had a negative effect. As if people don't make plans and take actions if they think their financial situation could change.

Male lead (well, after Christ) gets £14,000 more than the female lead – sounds about right.

Perhaps the great problem that Christianity has is that Christ is always played by a plastic doll.

A remarkably tasteless nativity scene came up on my Facebook page, depicting Baby Hitler, in place of Baby Jesus. The wise men and shepherds had swastika armbands, and there was a Nazi flag on the stable wall.

You need to stop following the Republican Party on Facebook.

Honestly, I’m getting bombarded with Holocaust denial, Russian trolls, rants by Lozza Fox, and Rupert Lowe, and assorted idiocies, despite blocking these sites.

I stopped actively using Facebook years ago and never embraced Twitter. Facebook pissed me off when it went to overwhelmingly showing people/groups I never followed rather than my 'Friends'. Defeated the entire point of it as far as I was concerned.

Only thing I still use it for is Messenger with my friends and family.

Like most changes from big tech companies thesedays they seem designed for the company's benefit, not the customer.

Which is a shame, as so many things are much more convenient now thanks to companies, but the attitude seems to have shifted.

As someone who worked in the industry rather more recently than Roger -

The scene you're looking for is the scene in Breaking Bad where Jesse goes to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting just to sell them drugs. Then gets angry. "Don't you understand? I'm just here to sell you more meth."

That is social media in a nutshell.

It's a dopamine hit designed to keep you scrolling for just long enough that the algo can a) learn a bit more about what pushes your buttons and b) can serve you an ad it thinks you will click. And it doesn't care if it pushes the worst shit imaginable on you, all it wants is to keep you scrolling for long enough to sell you that click

I have not used social media in five years and I used to sell it for a living. Take that for what you will.

It's a pretty awful set of services across the industry - and you can understand (for instance) the EU's attempts to regulate/fine or the Aussie teen ban, even if you disagree with the policy detail.

I still haven't found a better news feed than X, but it's a constant struggle to keep it bearable.

The only other thing I use is WhatsApp, which is OK (but crippled) if you turn off notifications completely. Otherwise it's just irritating.

My go-to 'news feed' is PB. Here I am, not long woken up, idly looking to see if anything important has happened. It hasn't, so off back to bed for an hour.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Just about to head off to the supermarket.

Then it’s over. The Xmas shopping.

Are we seriously back talking about what “A” customs union, rather than “THE” customs union, looks like in practice?

Ask the Turks what “A” CU looks like, it’s terribly one-sided.

Vox populi, vox dei.

We hold all the cards, it'll be the easiest deal in history, plus German car manufacturers as the EU needs us more than we need them.

That's easy for you to say in foresight.

German car manufacturers are currently dooming themselves by blocking tariffs on Chinese vehicles due to their 15% or so share of the Chinese market.

The 3rd generaation EVs from Mercedes and BMW look pretty good value and have decent performance.

In any case surely according to PB Free Traders competition spurs progress and is an advantage to customers.

There is also these innovations from BYD:

https://insideevs.com/features/782245/byd-breathrough-2026-megawatt-charging/

https://carnewschina.com/2025/12/21/byd-launched-home-charging-station-sharing-service-among-vehicle-owners-on-its-app/

The problem is that the BYD is half the price of the Mercedes or BMW, and not a lot different in performance or specification.

The battery side, range and charge time, is actually going to be better on the Chinese than the German vehicles.

The are nowhere near the half the price. I recently rented a BYD Sealion and Audi Q4 e-tron in quick succession so I looked up the UK prices. I could probably get the BYD for about 45 grand and the Audi for about 47 with some Dura negotiating techniques. The BYD's rear suspension was shit garbage and looked suspiciously like a CTRL-C/CTRL-V of a Qashqai (the AWD one, not the cheapo torsion bar 2WD) but the interior fit and finish was better than the Audi. I'd have the Audi out of the two mainly because it'll have better residuals.

In other BEV news, Mrs DA's new lease i5 M60 arrived at sparrowfart on Friday. I got it mainly because that c--t Harry Metcalfe didn't like it. It definitely has some BMW M DNA in it and is pretty fast (0-125mph in 13.0s on the Dragy) but not proper fast (Tributo when it works: 7.7s!) There is no credible Chinese competition yet for a product like that.