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October’s polling sees very little change in the big picture – politicalbetting.com

Some of these polls could see Johnson having to leave Number 10.
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Honest.
Whether Starmer can achieve the latter and get enough seats to become PM with SNP and LD support could depend on whether he can squeeze the Green vote back or not
Interestingly, those countries where food and home cookery is prized and children are taught from an early age to eat proper food – namely France and Italy – have among the lowest rates of obesity in the G20. Coincidence? I think not.
We're heading for a reduced Con majority (but a Con majority none the less)
1992 and 2005 all over again.
Start by cheating. I did. Buy sauce in jars, use cans. Some cooking is better than none. Progress where you can and where you have time.
One thing that is completely left out of the cooking books seems to be cooking in bulk, home freezing etc. The myth that every meal has to be 100% hand made and eaten just after cooking......
You can claim for 260 days if you have worked and contributed for the previous 12 months, for 400 days after 18 months.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/without-work_who-can-collect-swiss-unemployment-benefits-/45548988#:~:text=How much will I get?&text=The unemployment benefits usually amount,monthly wages is CHF12,350.
Even if you are still not in work after that you can still claim emergency assistance and welfare.
Those in receipt of social assistance also get their housing costs covered
I have older male relatives who are completely helpless in the kitchen. I don't get it. Cooking is healthy, soothing AND pleasurable. You can whip up delicious meals in 30 minutes, Jamie Oliver does not always lie
Perplexing
If you want to live off benefits for say 9 months you have to work the mandatory period before you get the benefits and then likely realise working is good, wages are better than benefits and you see that if you progress then you get even more wages as well as the social benefit of being around other working people all week rather than watching Netflix on your own at home all day!!
Otherwise you can only apply for Universal Credit.
Though of course the rise of WFH means half of workers, certainly in offices are not around other people every day in person now anyway
Anuk Arudpragasam/A Passage North - The book follows Krishan's journey as he travels across Sri Lanka to attend a family funeral and was been described by Jenny Bhatt on NPR as a "tender elegy" to those caught up in the country's civil war where an estimated 100,000 people were killed and 20,000 people remain missing.
Damon Galgut/The Promise - The Promise, explores recent South African history through the wish of a white woman to leave a house to her black woman who had worked for her. Rebecca Jones from BBC News described it as "beautifully written with characters you come to care deeply about".
Patricia Lockwood/No-one Is Talking About This - The stylistically experimental book explores human experiences on social media. Writing in The New York Times, Merve Emre praised the book for transforming "all that is ugly and cheap about online culture into an experience of sublimity".
Nadifa Mohamed/The Fortune Men - While The Fortune Men is a novel, it is based on the true story of the wrongful murder conviction of Mahmood Mattan, the last man to be hanged in Wales in 1952
Richard Powers/Bewilderment - In Bewilderment, Powers tells the story of astrobiologist Theo Byrne who is struggling to raise his son Robin after the death of his wife.
Magge Shipstead/Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead's novel Great Circle weaves together the story of a trailblazing female aviator who disappeared in 1950 with that of a contemporary Hollywood star trying to make a film about her.
The Americans, distinctly unimpressed at the failure of the British officers, were forced to help Iraqi forces retake the city in 2008’s Charge of the Knights operation, a humiliation for Britain. “This damaged the reputation of British forces with the US and the Iraqis and inflicted major dents in British military self-confidence,” Barry notes. Akam is less stoic, describing it as ”an acute and lasting humiliation to the British Army”, which “will linger and follow the troops halfway around the world to Afghanistan”.
Barry observes: “The US government’s decision to invade Iraq must stand as the worst military decision of the 21st century. It was a military strategic folly on a level equal to that of Napoleon’s 1812 attack on Russia and Hitler’s 1941 attack on the Soviet Union.” The failure, then, was ultimately a political one, of British politicians blindly following their American patrons into unwinnable wars.
Perhaps the Army’s capacity to win the next war, like the British state’s to weather the next crisis, would be better served by generals finding the courage, when necessary, to tell politicians that some things simply can’t, or shouldn’t be done.
https://unherd.com/2021/11/the-humiliation-of-the-british-army/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=327828405e&mc_eid=836634e34b
On the flip side there's so many great home chefs on YouTube these days. One of my major reasons for learning Italian is so that I can fully appreciate Italian food and learn to cook like Italians do in Italy.
Swiss government spends $3,100/person vs. $3,400/person in UK.
But then Swiss individuals pay $6,800/person on top of that privately vs. $900/person in the UK.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?end=2018&locations=CH-GB&start=2018&view=bar
Otherwise we have UC which is similar to Swiss social assistance if you have few savings.
The only countries which have only non contributory unemployment benefits now are Australia, New Zealand and Ireland
Mostly though they need to understand how to make simple, healthy, delicious food.
For example, salmon, baked with butter or olive oil and salt in tin foil - maybe with some cooked broccoli - is as simple as it gets.
Start there.
See him someone who is a lot keener on things in principle than on things in practice, and he becomes much easier to understand.
However I disagree with the conclusion, Iraq is now free of Saddam and Iraqis elect their own government
Polluted the body politic and opened the floodgates to mass distrust in government and from there to QAnon etc.
Just the other day I was reading some crypto “guru” explain that one could not trust fiat currency because it was “brought to you by the same people who said there were WMDs in Iraq”.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-leaflet/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-how-to-keep-your-benefit-payment
The sofa-sitting, Netflix-watching idler is beloved of the tabloid press, but I think PB should be better than that.
Today's labour market is quite different, characterised by a shortage of workers. There is no reason for people to be long term unemployed, the system should be more generous but time limited. There are communities (eg the Welsh valleys) still blighted by long term ill health as a legacy of heavy industry and mass unemployment, perhaps what they need are properly funded localised programmes addressing those issues rather than just the drip feed of inadequate amounts of money via the welfare system. I don't want to come over all Norman Tebbit either, but perhaps if people can move to SE England from Poland for a job then they can move from Merthyr or Blackburn too. You don't have a right to a job on your doorstep.
In 15 minutes though you can:
Grill lamb
Bake fish
Fry beefsteak
And prep two vegetable accompaniments.
You can make an omelette in 10 minutes.
Of course you are not going to win Masterchef, but you’ll be a lot healthier.
My top tips would be a) slow cooker so you can eat as soon as you get home
b) getting good at chopping things quickly (saves lots of time)
Check the short list for the T S Eliot poetry prize
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/14/ts-eliot-prize-unveils-voices-of-the-moment-in-2021-shortlist
Those who are genuinely looking hard for work and are reliable are unlikely to be sanctioned. Those who are not remotely looking for work but know how to play the system are unlikely to be sanctioned too.
The issue with sanctions is as many things in life they catch people struggling in the middle. People who are struggling, aren't au fait with the sanctions regime and are looking for work but possibly not as hard as they should are the ones most likely to be snagged rather than those genuinely out to live on JSA.
It is absolutely the case and there have been several books on the subject already - Losing Small Wars/Ledwidge, Punching Below our Weight/Ledwidge, The Good War/Fairweather, A War of Choice/Fairweather, High Command/Christopher Elliott, A Million Bullets/Fergusson.
The interesting timing is apropos the discussion of the NHS whereby the gross failings of the institution shouldn't be mixed up with the dedication and performance of the individuals.
I’m obsessed with the idea that every vegetable has one or two “best ways” to prepare.
People fear vegetables because usually - unless they are seasoned and/or cooked properly, which is NOT how we remember them from school canteens and plastic-covered salads - they are depressing.
I agree on the points about the damage of army cuts and lack of support from government and better leadership needed from the top brass.
I disagree Iraq was a defeat, it is now free of Saddam with an elected government
Are there any statistics on ready meal consumption by nation? I wonder what they are like in Sweden, with its large number of single households.
They are also used a lot for elderly people would probably have got meals on wheels in the past (there's no such thing now in most places). The carer comes in and sticks the ready meal in the microwave.
My point was more that he is right in his conceits: you can whip up good food quickly and easily. 30 minutes. 15 minutes, even
UC is only replacing income based JSA it is NOT replacing contributions based JSA which will stay based on NI contributions
Modern pentathlon votes to ditch horse riding after Tokyo Olympic turmoil
Riding set to be replaced by cycling to preserve Olympic status
I think cycling is a little on the boring side. Maybe wall climbing would have been a fun alternative.
@SkyNews
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42m
Shares in Flutter Entertainment take a beating after it reveals that punters got the better of it during October, forcing the firm to downgrade profit expectations for the year
https://news.sky.com/story/paddy-power-owner-reveals-16360m-hit-from-run-of-customer-friendly-sports-betting-results-12457658?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
Many of his supporters linked with ISIS and formed an Iraqi branch when ISIS emerged in the Syrian civil war against Assad.
The present Iraqi government is far better than Saddam's
Just because the swingaway hasn't been enough to put Labour into the lead doesn't mean there won't be any swingback. There has been some swing to Labour as your dad notes in the OP, so no reason that can't be comed with swingback is there?
The figures I have are 11.9% of GDP vs 10.0% for UK.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?locations=CH-GB-DE-FR
However are they going to cope? Should we put out a collection tray for them?
This Off Topic crap is quite annoying. May I humble suggest the moderators ban, for life, anyone that does it
The U.K. is quite weird in that very poor, deprived areas, exist cheek by jowl with richer ones - and never the twain shall meet.
During lockdown I watched a series of talks and discussions by military men hosted by the National Army Museum. One of these was between General Sir Michael Rose (Command, 22 SAS) and Major General Julian Thompson (Command, as a Brigadier, 3 Commando Brigade) on the Falklands land campaign and what went wrong. It is really scary understanding how many complete clusters there were during that campaign far beyond those that cost lives. Of course the old adage of no plan surviving first contact with the enemy has to be borne in mind but they were pretty scathing about some of the decisions being made at Northwood 8,000 miles away.
And thus we had Basra and the self-licking lollipops of Afghan.
The cheat is that the salmon comes from the frozen section at Aldi.
Or get them to put it in an oven bag with some garlic butter at the fresh counter.....
Yes, wild Alaskan salmon that I have personally taken from the paws of a grizzly bear I arm-wrestled for it, and then killed and dressed (the salmon, that is) myself *may* be better.....
If you want carbs, add toast to keep it really, really simple.
If you really can’t cut broccoli (and can’t even find the time to buy it) then there is probably no saving you.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/02/revealed-air-miles-ursula-used-private-jet-travel-just-31-miles/
*innocent face*
Although the British forces were compulsive thieves we were less rapey than the Americans and Australians so take pride in that.