Best Of

On cost of living - a couple of weeks ago I treated myself and my girlfriend to a night in a nice hotel - not super-expensive but more per night than I would usually pay. Nice and comfortable, dinner also a bit on the pricey side, the sort of occasional one-off I used to do for wedding anniversaries or milestone birthdays when I was married.

When I used to spend a night like this before, perhaps 10+ years ago, the majority of people staying were the age I am now, 50s. This time, of the people at breakfast, we were clearly the only ones of working age, apart from two of a 3-generation family group who'd been staying for a party the night before. Pensioners have the money now, not working people. O/T that may reflect in some of the answers, e.g. Reform appear to be the travellers - they skew older than average.

We have talked about how pricy hotels are these days particularly in the US. Also I don't think the Las Vegas-isation helps where all of a sudden its extra for parking, for wifi, breakfast is now £25 a head....

WiFi I’d say has trended the other way, in Europe at least. Was once expensive, now usually free.

We stayed in Wales over the weekend, was fun despite the weather. But on the first night I paid for the WiFi so we could stream shows at night and the WiFi connection that I paid £6 for 24 hours access to was worse than I was getting from my mobile, annoyingly. So rest of the stay I just activated my mobile hotspot.

I am wondering how long that WiFi rip off can last. It isn't very expensive to get a mobile plan now with either unlimited or near unlimited data e.g. 25GB a month.

I pay £10 for 10GB a month and similar for my wife's but any data I don't use gets rolled into a family pot, which since I'm normally using WiFi at most places anyway that's enough.

This weekend I took a chunk out of the pot but still have about 460GB left in it.

Paid for the WiFi originally as I thought where we were was so remote the mobile signal wouldn't be good, but it turned out to be Ok.

With all data you might just be able to stream a Bollywood movie from start to finish....

It’s so brilliantly mad and fitting that Labour people are “looking forward to Pride marches” more than anything else, this summer

Who thinks like that? Seriously? Anyone?

They have become a weird creepy cult of “progressives” - utterly divorced from the mainstream of the UK

We had an email letting us know that we could order a rainbow pride lanyard for Pride month. That's right, the Uni is paying for us to show how much we support Pride. I saw a chap wearing one this morning. I couldn't give two figs who does what with who (as long as its consenting adults). I don't need to hear about it all the time just as I don't need to hear about heterosexuals all the time either.

Except you do hear about heterosexuals all the time. Most films that have any kind of romantic element, advertising, songs, you name it. I'm gay and I think that Pride gets wildly overblown (particularly by faceless multinationals) but I try not get too grumpy about it. I'm young enough to only have a few memories of overt anti gay prejudice but I know many older gays who have a deep attachment to Pride as it still feels liberating to be out and proud and have the rest of the world celebrate that. It doesn't sound like your Uni is forcing you to participate.

On cost of living - a couple of weeks ago I treated myself and my girlfriend to a night in a nice hotel - not super-expensive but more per night than I would usually pay. Nice and comfortable, dinner also a bit on the pricey side, the sort of occasional one-off I used to do for wedding anniversaries or milestone birthdays when I was married.

When I used to spend a night like this before, perhaps 10+ years ago, the majority of people staying were the age I am now, 50s. This time, of the people at breakfast, we were clearly the only ones of working age, apart from two of a 3-generation family group who'd been staying for a party the night before. Pensioners have the money now, not working people. O/T that may reflect in some of the answers, e.g. Reform appear to be the travellers - they skew older than average.

If you are a retired couple with two private pensions, two state pensions, paid off mortgage, no children to look after and possibly beneficiaries of a previous inheritance from your parents, you will have a lot of disposable income.

I see Farage says the Barnett formula should be scrapped, with Scotland getting the same per capita as England but be allowed to tax people more

He really isn’t that bright at times

I don't think Farage is interested in Scotland. He doesn't appear to like the place much. Which is fair enough as an English nationalist fishing in other waters.

What baffles me is the 18% of people in Scotland, some of whom must identify as Scots, who say they will vote for him. Who are these people? I don't know any - and I know plenty of people who will vote for all the other parties.

There is nought as a strange as folk. I always point to the not insignificant percentage of Brexit supporters who were also staunchly Lib Dem throughout.

On cost of living - a couple of weeks ago I treated myself and my girlfriend to a night in a nice hotel - not super-expensive but more per night than I would usually pay. Nice and comfortable, dinner also a bit on the pricey side, the sort of occasional one-off I used to do for wedding anniversaries or milestone birthdays when I was married.

When I used to spend a night like this before, perhaps 10+ years ago, the majority of people staying were the age I am now, 50s. This time, of the people at breakfast, we were clearly the only ones of working age, apart from two of a 3-generation family group who'd been staying for a party the night before. Pensioners have the money now, not working people. O/T that may reflect in some of the answers, e.g. Reform appear to be the travellers - they skew older than average.

I see Farage says the Barnett formula should be scrapped, with Scotland getting the same per capita as England but be allowed to tax people more

He really isn’t that bright at times

I don't think Farage is interested in Scotland. He doesn't appear to like the place much. Which is fair enough as an English nationalist fishing in other waters.

What baffles me is the 18% of people in Scotland, some of whom must identify as Scots, who say they will vote for him. Who are these people? I don't know any - and I know plenty of people who will vote for all the other parties.

There is nought as a strange as folk. I always point to the not insignificant percentage of Brexit supporters who were also staunchly Lib Dem throughout.

When the real EEC referendum was held...... the one which gave the right result ...... some of our traditional Nonconformist supporters were put off by the fact that the relevant document was the Treaty of Rome.