I've seen him walking down the street on two separate occasions. Once on the south coast of Spain, once in Stockport. Not that it's of any consequence. I'm sure other celebrities walk down the street. But Blair's the only one I've seen do so twice.
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
'Look, Blair, when I said I wanted you to find twelve coming men for this production...'
The most highly skilled of all players was Lionel Blair. But tears of frustration welled in his eyes when, during the team's Italian tour, he was not allowed the use of his mouth to finish off Two Gentlemen Of Verona.
In case any Tories on here wonder, how could a Tory government ever appear so chaotic and ridiculous, I give you the answer: Boris Johnson. I hate to say I told you so, but.... I told you so.
Agree that BJ is a back-of-the-envelope kind of PM, and I think the quality of running the place suffered when the Remainer generation defenestrated themselves.
I guess that politically the question is how good are the current generation. And the need to build a rather more resolute secretariat. The outcome of the French fishing argument might tell us whether they ultimately suffer from LMF or not.
Remainers were sacked (by Boris or the electorate) rather than defenestrating themselves.
The current “generation” are very bad, there is enough evidence already for that. In part, this is because they’ve had to sign up to a dishonest project to win power. It’s a government of dissemblance.
Ridiulous. Edwards was right, we should not erase our history even if some aspects of it make us uncomfortable
Quite right. That's why I've stored every post you've ever submitted....
Do they sell hard drives that big?
There's a bloke in the news today who had 14 million pornographic images on local storage of one kind and another in a modest sized house
If it’s the chap I’m thinking of, probably one of the two or three most depraved people I’ve ever heard of.
It does not lessen the depravity, but the law counts each frame of a video as one image. So at 25 per second, they add up… Of course it does not serve the police to let this be known when they give the headline figure — a bit like the “street value” of drugs.
In case any Tories on here wonder, how could a Tory government ever appear so chaotic and ridiculous, I give you the answer: Boris Johnson. I hate to say I told you so, but.... I told you so.
Yet if the Tories had not been led by Boris Johnson to a landslide election victory in 2019, then we may still have a hung parliament, Corbyn would still be Labour leader and we may still not have seen Brexit delivered.
I am beginning to think that if Boris Johnson's first act after winning your much loved landslide had been slaughter of the first born, replacing the Union Flag with a fecking great swastika, and had his own fat ugly mug printed on our bank notes, you would still say "Oooh, but he led us to a landslide so that's ok then!"
We do not have a parallel universe to know what might have happened under an alternative Tory leader, but there is evidence to suggest that it was very much an anti-Corbyn vote, so who knows, we might have had a Tory victory, "got Brexit done (FFS - has that been so great??!)" AND had a government that is not led by a global laughing stock; a man who couldn't plan the proverbial drinks party in a beer making establishment!!!!!!!!
Had Hunt been Tory leader not Boris we know Farage would have stood Brexit party candidates in Tory seats, so more Tory seats would have gone LD. Neither Hunt nor Gove, Boris' main rivals in 2019, would have had the same appeal to Labour Leave voters in the Redwall Boris had either.
So most likely absent Boris as leader we would still be in the same hung parliament limbo we had with May in 2017 and Corbyn would still be Labour leader.
Boris has not been a complete disaster as PM either, see his success with the vaccines and furlough, the security deal with the US and Australia, COP26 etc and of course he did get Brexit done with a trade deal with the EU against the odds
Keep deluding yourself. You are not daft though, and actually I think you are decent chap, so deep down you know he is not up to the job. He will do much more long lasting damage to the Tory Party than a minority Corbyn government would have done, even if that had come to pass, which I think is very unlikely.
Never mind the Tory party, a Corbyn government of any kind would have destroyed the country, thank goodness we avoided that.
The Tories may well have quickly built up a big poll lead in opposition had Corbyn won enough seats to become PM but the damage done to the country would have taken far longer to repair
And there’s no damage being to the country now? As I posted earlier I’ve been around a long time, and the current state of the country is worse than after Suez or the Winter of Discontent.
The Bank of England predicts absolutely anaemic growth through 2023 and falling real wages.
Of course they do. That's the only way they can end up with a forecast of inflation rapidly falling back below 2%.
If they're wrong, and we have stronger growth and rising real wages, then likely we will have persistently high inflation (and Sunak will be raking it in by freezing the tax thresholds).
Now, it would be very inconvenient for Sunak's attempts to use inflation to raise tax receipts in advance of a pre-election tax cut for the Bank of England to successfully control inflation too soon. So it's lucky for Sunak that the Bank of England have decided that they don't need to act. Let's hope Sunak's luck holds and this doesn't all go terribly wrong.
Considering I'm now healthy (at least one run every day this year; 317 runs and 2,344 miles in total), I don't think so.
I'd also like to think I've got a better personality - although that might not always show up on here ...
Since when was running 2,344 miles “healthy”?
I bet if you check, a lot of it was on a bus route.
That Greek guy who did the first long distance run dropped dead at the end of it, as I recall (from history, obvs). There’s the clue, right there.
You may be shocked to hear that I have no intention of dying.
I'm trying to run every path and road (bar motorways) in an area between Royston, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Sandy. This is my second year at it, and the GPS logs have produced what my wife calls my 'Map of Crazy'. I'll hopefully be done early next year; Cambridge is sucking up the miles, and I'm only doing the stuff west of the guided busway/River Cam.
And most of it is not on bus routes. But since every run has been circular (or at least ending at the point it started), no public transport was required. Unless I get lost ...
Just think about how far away from home you’d be by now, if you hadn’t bothered doubling back?
My hiking intention is to walk the equivalent of the circumference of the world. I'm currently at 18571.7 miles, so have ~6,500 miles to go. I haven't done any walks for a couple of years though, due to Covid. I'll probably get there running first ...
If you know the story of the first person to walk around the world, Dave Kunst, it's probably best to remain in your own country and do it.
I guess you could do it round and round your own living room, if you were determined enough. But it would somewhat be lacking in adventure.
One of the reasons I'm doing the Map of Crazy is that I get bored running/walking the same routes too often. I've done every road and path in my village several times, and I love getting out and exploring.
I'm getting to know every nook ad cranny of my home area. It's been wonderful.
Doing this, I've found village ovenhouses, several village lockups, secret airfields (and their secret museums), sandy pits, wide-gauge railway tracks (*), stellar views, great sunrises, beautiful secluded spots, and one GOML.
(*) Extra points for anyone who can guess where the tracks were ...
The Oxford or KImmeridge Clay brickpits??
Edit: suddenly wondering if it is Cardington.
Good guesses, but nope. It's a bit more out-of-this world. About a mile-long track, though it's been unused for a few years. To make it ?easier?, they're at about 20 foot gauge, on a proper railway trackbed. Nearby, there are a shorter set of 44' 6.5" gauge (*).
No, Brunel didn't get more ambitious ...
Talking of which, I'm off to bed.
(*) Yep, I did need to look that up. Not even I'm sad enough to know that off by heart...
Give Us A Clue was made all the better by its resident expert Lionel Blair, who was particularly good at the films of Richard Gere. Who can forget the gleam of satisfaction in his eye when he was given Yanks by Michael Aspel for two minutes .
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
Considering I'm now healthy (at least one run every day this year; 317 runs and 2,344 miles in total), I don't think so.
I'd also like to think I've got a better personality - although that might not always show up on here ...
Since when was running 2,344 miles “healthy”?
I bet if you check, a lot of it was on a bus route.
That Greek guy who did the first long distance run dropped dead at the end of it, as I recall (from history, obvs). There’s the clue, right there.
You may be shocked to hear that I have no intention of dying.
I'm trying to run every path and road (bar motorways) in an area between Royston, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Sandy. This is my second year at it, and the GPS logs have produced what my wife calls my 'Map of Crazy'. I'll hopefully be done early next year; Cambridge is sucking up the miles, and I'm only doing the stuff west of the guided busway/River Cam.
And most of it is not on bus routes. But since every run has been circular (or at least ending at the point it started), no public transport was required. Unless I get lost ...
Just think about how far away from home you’d be by now, if you hadn’t bothered doubling back?
My hiking intention is to walk the equivalent of the circumference of the world. I'm currently at 18571.7 miles, so have ~6,500 miles to go. I haven't done any walks for a couple of years though, due to Covid. I'll probably get there running first ...
If you know the story of the first person to walk around the world, Dave Kunst, it's probably best to remain in your own country and do it.
I guess you could do it round and round your own living room, if you were determined enough. But it would somewhat be lacking in adventure.
One of the reasons I'm doing the Map of Crazy is that I get bored running/walking the same routes too often. I've done every road and path in my village several times, and I love getting out and exploring.
I'm getting to know every nook ad cranny of my home area. It's been wonderful.
Doing this, I've found village ovenhouses, several village lockups, secret airfields (and their secret museums), sandy pits, wide-gauge railway tracks (*), stellar views, great sunrises, beautiful secluded spots, and one GOML.
(*) Extra points for anyone who can guess where the tracks were ...
The Oxford or KImmeridge Clay brickpits??
Edit: suddenly wondering if it is Cardington.
Good guesses, but nope. It's a bit more out-of-this world. About a mile-long track, though it's been unused for a few years. To make it ?easier?, they're at about 20 foot gauge, on a proper railway trackbed. Nearby, there are a shorter set of 44' 6.5" gauge (*).
No, Brunel didn't get more ambitious ...
Talking of which, I'm off to bed.
(*) Yep, I did need to look that up. Not even I'm sad enough to know that off by heart...
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
I very much hope that's not true. I've grown fonder and fonder of HMQ as time's gone on, from not feeling too strongly one way or the other a few years back.
Who will ever forget the show's, now famous, commonwealth tour, when Lionel Blair jumped up and displayed his Passage To India for the full two minutes?
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
Considering I'm now healthy (at least one run every day this year; 317 runs and 2,344 miles in total), I don't think so.
I'd also like to think I've got a better personality - although that might not always show up on here ...
Since when was running 2,344 miles “healthy”?
I bet if you check, a lot of it was on a bus route.
That Greek guy who did the first long distance run dropped dead at the end of it, as I recall (from history, obvs). There’s the clue, right there.
You may be shocked to hear that I have no intention of dying.
I'm trying to run every path and road (bar motorways) in an area between Royston, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Sandy. This is my second year at it, and the GPS logs have produced what my wife calls my 'Map of Crazy'. I'll hopefully be done early next year; Cambridge is sucking up the miles, and I'm only doing the stuff west of the guided busway/River Cam.
And most of it is not on bus routes. But since every run has been circular (or at least ending at the point it started), no public transport was required. Unless I get lost ...
Just think about how far away from home you’d be by now, if you hadn’t bothered doubling back?
My hiking intention is to walk the equivalent of the circumference of the world. I'm currently at 18571.7 miles, so have ~6,500 miles to go. I haven't done any walks for a couple of years though, due to Covid. I'll probably get there running first ...
If you know the story of the first person to walk around the world, Dave Kunst, it's probably best to remain in your own country and do it.
I guess you could do it round and round your own living room, if you were determined enough. But it would somewhat be lacking in adventure.
One of the reasons I'm doing the Map of Crazy is that I get bored running/walking the same routes too often. I've done every road and path in my village several times, and I love getting out and exploring.
I'm getting to know every nook ad cranny of my home area. It's been wonderful.
Doing this, I've found village ovenhouses, several village lockups, secret airfields (and their secret museums), sandy pits, wide-gauge railway tracks (*), stellar views, great sunrises, beautiful secluded spots, and one GOML.
(*) Extra points for anyone who can guess where the tracks were ...
The Oxford or KImmeridge Clay brickpits??
Edit: suddenly wondering if it is Cardington.
Good guesses, but nope. It's a bit more out-of-this world. About a mile-long track, though it's been unused for a few years. To make it ?easier?, they're at about 20 foot gauge, on a proper railway trackbed. Nearby, there are a shorter set of 44' 6.5" gauge (*).
No, Brunel didn't get more ambitious ...
Talking of which, I'm off to bed.
(*) Yep, I did need to look that up. Not even I'm sad enough to know that off by heart...
Ah. The Mullard Radio Observatory.
Yep, the Ryle telescope. They could move several of them along a three-quarter of a mile track, as part of a longer line of telescopes. A concessionary footpath runs alongside it for quite a distance. Sadly, those particular tracks are no longer used - although a shorter and wider stretch are used on the One-Mile telescope.
It seems to me that there is potentially a great deal of damage and potentially scaremongering being caused by the failure of the Government to update the way that they report Covid deaths to determine the extent to which that Covid is actually any more than an incidental occurrence for those being recorded as being hospitalised or dying. Whilst the figure in the above report is obviously a "consequence" of relatively high levels of Covid spread (to the extent that you can't be recorded as a "28 day Covid death" unless you actually catch it), it says absolutely nothing in itself about the effectiveness of the vaccine in combatting serious illness or preventing death.
These 2,000 could all have died of Covid. Or none could have died of Covid. Or somewhere in between. But it is crucial to both confidence in the vaccines, and indeed Government policy to the extent that they treat (current) Covid infection as a serious contributor to NHS pressures that they actually know which is which.
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
It should be noted on one point at least Rafiq's claims are incorrect. Rafiq claims Williamson was 'only ever a batsman.' For some years in his earlier career Williamson was a very successful off spin bowler particularly in white ball cricket. He had to give it up when his action was judged illegal. So it was perfectly understandable that Vaughan would say of Williamson 'he also bowls off spin.'
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
No, the orcs of Isengard were the Uruk-hai, the Olog-hai were a new breed of trolls Sauron created for the war of the ring.
They weren't named as such in the main text, only mentioned briefly in The Shadow of the Past: 'no longer slow and stupid, but cunning ans armed with dreadful weapons.'
I'd better step down now.
Too many analogies for Ugluk and Grishnakh around today.
We understand the Prime Minister was deeply unimpressed with Owen Paterson's interview on Sky News on Tuesday evening where OP insisted he "wouldn't hesitate" to act in the same way "tomorrow", two sources have told Sky News.
If that was the case, clearly Boris didn't watch it until well after it was first shown.
It's almost like the first time he saw the interview was at 8:59 this morning just before the u-turn kicked off.
If Paterson was wholly innocent, as he claimed, then why shouldn't he act the same way again? So Boris must be presuming his guilt. But if Paterson is slam-dunk guilty then what was the whole 'right of appeal' thing about?
Boris is - rather sickeningly - trying to pin the whole debacle on a now-defenestrated Owen Paterson.
Whilst you are rather sickeningly trying to pin it on him...it works both ways.. use your other eye.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
'Look, Blair, when I said I wanted you to find twelve coming men for this production...'
The most highly skilled of all players was Lionel Blair. But tears of frustration welled in his eyes when, during the team's Italian tour, he was not allowed the use of his mouth to finish off Two Gentlemen Of Verona.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
We understand the Prime Minister was deeply unimpressed with Owen Paterson's interview on Sky News on Tuesday evening where OP insisted he "wouldn't hesitate" to act in the same way "tomorrow", two sources have told Sky News.
If that was the case, clearly Boris didn't watch it until well after it was first shown.
It's almost like the first time he saw the interview was at 8:59 this morning just before the u-turn kicked off.
If Paterson was wholly innocent, as he claimed, then why shouldn't he act the same way again? So Boris must be presuming his guilt. But if Paterson is slam-dunk guilty then what was the whole 'right of appeal' thing about?
Boris is - rather sickeningly - trying to pin the whole debacle on a now-defenestrated Owen Paterson.
Whilst you are rather sickeningly trying to pin it on him...it works both ways.. use your other eye.
I am cynical about it all using both eyes.
I don't think anyone pays much attention to your "I don't want to have Boris's babies, honest" disclaimers. How the fuck is this not pinnable on the Prime Minister and head of the conservative party?
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
JFK.
Whose initials are now associated with a very rude sex act.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
I very much hope that's not true. I've grown fonder and fonder of HMQ as time's gone on, from not feeling too strongly one way or the other a few years back.
"Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night."
Hmmm. Last weekend she was photographed driving a car at Windsor.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
So I did. I bloody love CS Lewis too, I have probably reread the Narnia books and the three adult sci fi novels more often than anything else.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
JFK.
Whose initials are now associated with a very rude sex act.
When it comes to sex acts, there is one President who will have it for his epitaph.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
So I did. I bloody love CS Lewis too, I have probably reread the Narnia books and the three adult sci fi novels more often than anything else.
Did you ever pay homage at the Fowl and Foetus? As my more scientifically literate Oxford friends called it. The classicists called it the Bird and Baby. Had a few pints there when visiting ...
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night.
We might well have several years of these sorts of rumours.
If she is seriously ill, that implies a very rapid deterioration in her condition given she was well enough to drive four days ago. Surprisingly so, I would have said. But there, it depends on what is wrong. If it is a heart complaint...
Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night.
Where did you hear this?
Former admin manager of the royal protection service - and a rather serious person
I certainly hope that isn't true. There is something very odd going on though - HMQ being told to rest up by her doctors. Then they release a photo of her driving supposedly on Monday. In her Jaguar X-type. Which they sold in 2016.
That oddity has already been queried on other forums...
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
I very much hope that's not true. I've grown fonder and fonder of HMQ as time's gone on, from not feeling too strongly one way or the other a few years back.
"Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night."
Hmmm. Last weekend she was photographed driving a car at Windsor.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
I very much hope that's not true. I've grown fonder and fonder of HMQ as time's gone on, from not feeling too strongly one way or the other a few years back.
"Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night."
Hmmm. Last weekend she was photographed driving a car at Windsor.
Lol, it would be hilarious if this by-election highlights the inability of the opposition parties to work together.
I'm not quite sure what point you're making here.
Owen Paterson got 62% of the vote last time - that's a huge majority, far more on the scale of Old Bexley & Sidcup than Chesham & Amersham. Labour wouldn't quite win the seat with a 20% swing so consolidating all the opposition vote only gets you to 38%.
That means to win you either need mass abstentions among the 35,444 who voted Conservative in December 2019 or a candidate with the possibility of reaching deep into that core Conservative vote squeezing it down to say 15,000 - 20,000.
That almost certainly excludes someone with an obvious "party" political label. A Martin Bell-type candidate would be ideal standing as an Independent - who or where is that person, would they be willing to give up their "normal life" to become an MP with all that entails? The ambition is the easy bit.
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
As with Aldous Huxley we'll all remember what we were doing the night Lionel Blair died.
You forgot CS Lewis.
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
So I did. I bloody love CS Lewis too, I have probably reread the Narnia books and the three adult sci fi novels more often than anything else.
Did you ever pay homage at the Fowl and Foetus? As my more scientifically literate Oxford friends called it. The classicists called it the Bird and Baby. Had a few pints there when visiting ...
I used to drink there a fair bit, but not in a homage sort of spirit. There is too much history in Oxford - the Eagle and Child would have been a ringside location for the burning of Latimer and Ridley frinstance.
Looking at PB/Twitter all day and night and it’s easy to think everyone is tuned into the latest politics. I normally am, but today I spent all day at the in laws, looking after the kids, and only when I got in did I look at my emails and see one from the Telegraph saying Paterson had resigned. And I only knew it was any kind of furore because I post on here. So to the millions of people whose social media is Facebook & Instagram, and who don’t really watch the news, it’s quite easy to be completely ignorant of parliamentary goings on
That said, you’d think a focus group would be a bit more up to speed
Far bigger names in English cricket than Gary Ballance are likely to be outed once the Azeem Rafiq affair has its day in parliament later this month.
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Rana said he supports Rafiq “fully” and claimed that he faced racism from supporters and discriminatory practices from the club itself.
“I fully support what Azeem said and this has been the case with me as well,” Rana said. “I never spoke about it because, as foreigners, we were temporary and somehow I managed to accept the way it is. So I just focussed on playing cricket. I never wanted to jeopardise my contracts.
“There was systematic taunting and it’s tough to do much about it. To us as overseas players from Asia, when you are not able to perform, the home crowd which should be supporting us, instead they started hooting and would taunt us with racist slurs like ‘P***’.
“If you are performing then you get all the space but, in case I am not taking wickets, the attitude suddenly started to change. They started to give us a tough time, giving me a smaller hotel room and there used to be a clear case of discrimination. They would do some strange things to annoy us and make you feel lesser. It wasn’t abusive but their attitude wasn’t friendly towards Asians.
“At time I used to feel bad, but I decided to ignore it because I knew I was not going to live there permanently. But I know what Azeem went through. He did share his frustration in my playing days. The way he was released by the club wasn’t ideal and says a lot about them, but I had been advising him to stay strong and take it as a challenge.”
Rana played for Sussex before and after his stint with Yorkshire, and has also spent time at Derbyshire, and said his experience at Yorkshire was different to elsewhere.
“This only happens in Yorkshire,” he said. “I played several years for Sussex and they were tremendous; they treated me like their own family. Those two years were absolutely great. Even my first year in Yorkshire was okay but the trouble started in the second year.”
Scientists on the Zoe Covid study believe UK cases of coronavirus may have peaked for the year, a suggestion that prompted some experts to warn that it was too soon to know how the epidemic would play out in the weeks ahead.
The study, which estimates the number of Covid cases in the community from the information that users log on an app, found a clear decline in cases in under-18s since mid-October, with infection rates levelling off in most other age groups though still climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
Lol, it would be hilarious if this by-election highlights the inability of the opposition parties to work together.
I'm not quite sure what point you're making here.
Owen Paterson got 62% of the vote last time - that's a huge majority, far more on the scale of Old Bexley & Sidcup than Chesham & Amersham. Labour wouldn't quite win the seat with a 20% swing so consolidating all the opposition vote only gets you to 38%.
That means to win you either need mass abstentions among the 35,444 who voted Conservative in December 2019 or a candidate with the possibility of reaching deep into that core Conservative vote squeezing it down to say 15,000 - 20,000.
That almost certainly excludes someone with an obvious "party" political label. A Martin Bell-type candidate would be ideal standing as an Independent - who or where is that person, would they be willing to give up their "normal life" to become an MP with all that entails? The ambition is the easy bit.
And there can't be that many people who really want to put themselves forward as the "anti-sleaze/corruption" candidate. You've really got to be pretty confident that you really are squeaky clean given the scrutiny you'll be under. And ultimately (as i mentioned earlier) it won't actually be as easy as you might think to make the election all about sleaze, when the opponent is not Paterson (cf Hamilton) but could well be an extremely popular local councillor or something.
Scientists on the Zoe Covid study believe UK cases of coronavirus may have peaked for the year, a suggestion that prompted some experts to warn that it was too soon to know how the epidemic would play out in the weeks ahead.
The study, which estimates the number of Covid cases in the community from the information that users log on an app, found a clear decline in cases in under-18s since mid-October, with infection rates levelling off in most other age groups though still climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
Which of course - since they attribute the rises in adults to the spread in kids - just means there's a lag effect and the adults figures will rapidly follow the kids downwards. Even more so with boosters in place.
In the NZ TV ratings war of the early to mid 90s, the upstart commercial broadcaster TV3 went head to head with the public broadcast channels One and TV2.
The absolute prime spot was 7pm, when One had a kind of light political spot (think a folksy “Marr”) and TV2 had successful soap Shortland Street.
TV3 threw everything at it. It tried its own political spot, then its own soap, everything.
Eventually it conceded defeat and began running RERUNS of 80s “Give Us A Clue”.
Imagine the surprise when it became a hit and performed better than anything else they’d done.
For some years Michael, Lionel and Una (plus randoms like Chris Biggins, Su Pollard etc) were total icons…
There was a story around the time the Queen Mother died which said HM The Queen would prefer to die at Sandringham because that's where her father died.
I very much hope that's not true. I've grown fonder and fonder of HMQ as time's gone on, from not feeling too strongly one way or the other a few years back.
"Just heard a rumour - The Queen is not expected to make it through the night."
Hmmm. Last weekend she was photographed driving a car at Windsor.
So it’s a different car? And wasn’t she on a video conference to COP?
Its possible. There was a lot of coverage of her X-Type and more when they sold it. The one she's now driving is literally a clone of the one that was publicly sold - same model, colour, interior, wheels...
Again, I hope very much that she is in good health.
More than 100 Tory MPs failed to vote with the prime minister, even though — according to one backbencher — some were told “they would lose funding for their constituency” if they failed to toe the line.
All these little pots of money, the "levelling up" funds and what have you, are just mechanisms for extending No 10's powers of patronage. Do what Johnson says, or your constituents pay the consequences. It's a classic mafioso mindset. The man really is a nasty thug.
An oft forgotten factoid about the clown is that he once arranged to have a journalist who criticised him beaten up.
Comments
Like @IshmaelZ apparently...
The statement on Wednesday evening from Ballance admitting he had racially abused Rafiq during their time at Yorkshire came after his identity had already been published by one newspaper.
In truth, Ballance’s involvement in this sorry episode that has damaged the reputation of English cricket was an open secret to many in the game.
Other names are common knowledge on the circuit too. For example, the former senior Yorkshire player who told Rafiq and three Asian team-mates that included current England spinner Adil Rashid: “There’s too many of you lot, it’s something we need to have a word about.” The man who is believed to have said those words is far more of a household name than Ballance.
https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/azeem-rafiq-gary-ballance-yorkshire-racism-report-ecb-test-cricket-1285279
If they're wrong, and we have stronger growth and rising real wages, then likely we will have persistently high inflation (and Sunak will be raking it in by freezing the tax thresholds).
Now, it would be very inconvenient for Sunak's attempts to use inflation to raise tax receipts in advance of a pre-election tax cut for the Bank of England to successfully control inflation too soon. So it's lucky for Sunak that the Bank of England have decided that they don't need to act. Let's hope Sunak's luck holds and this doesn't all go terribly wrong.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/11/04/doctors-give-queen-go-ahead-fly-sandringham/
No, Brunel didn't get more ambitious ...
Talking of which, I'm off to bed.
(*) Yep, I did need to look that up. Not even I'm sad enough to know that off by heart...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rhys-Davies#Political_views
It's got a whiff of Hirohito about it.......
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/11/04/michael-vaughan-named-azeem-rafiq-report-totally-deny-accusation/
Hope that's all correct ...
"He is no better; he is much the same."
— Alfred Austin On the Illness of the Prince of Wales (1910)
We don't have poets laureate like that these days.
It seems to me that there is potentially a great deal of damage and potentially scaremongering being caused by the failure of the Government to update the way that they report Covid deaths to determine the extent to which that Covid is actually any more than an incidental occurrence for those being recorded as being hospitalised or dying. Whilst the figure in the above report is obviously a "consequence" of relatively high levels of Covid spread (to the extent that you can't be recorded as a "28 day Covid death" unless you actually catch it), it says absolutely nothing in itself about the effectiveness of the vaccine in combatting serious illness or preventing death.
These 2,000 could all have died of Covid. Or none could have died of Covid. Or somewhere in between. But it is crucial to both confidence in the vaccines, and indeed Government policy to the extent that they treat (current) Covid infection as a serious contributor to NHS pressures that they actually know which is which.
Also, remember his comments about Ollie Robinson.
Too many analogies for Ugluk and Grishnakh around today.
I am cynical about it all using both eyes.
https://www.ft.com/content/51c93ba3-4a59-4e88-92ed-3e152a896493 https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1456367242451591174/photo/1
Labour, Lib Dems & Greens have discussed idea of anti-sleaze candidate in North Shropshire by-election after resignation of Owen Paterson
Would mean standards issue continues to be discussed
But no candidate and not signed off by parties.
https://twitter.com/nickeardleybbc/status/1456366753475350535
And he lives on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wTR03jlQ8M&feature=youtu.be
Poor old Lewis, overshadowed by Huxley.
Oh, and some politician or other as well I believe.
Whose initials are now associated with a very rude sex act.
Hmmm. Last weekend she was photographed driving a car at Windsor.
So, erm, source???
'Here lies Bill Clinton.
He could have been a great President.
But Monica blew it.'
Would mean standards issue continues to be discussed
But no candidate and not signed off by parties
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59167967
That oddity has already been queried on other forums...
Looks to have potential as infrastructure that could be built / funded by third parties.
One for Aukus and the Quad?
Rafiq is pursuing an ongoing live compensation claim against Yorkshire.
Here is the same car which was sold in 2016 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3455991/ONE-careful-owner-Queen-sells-seven-year-old-Jaguar-X-type-complete-heated-seats-parking-sensors-just-7-600-miles-clock-15-000.html
https://twitter.com/GrantTucker/status/1456371714603036674/photo/1
Owen Paterson got 62% of the vote last time - that's a huge majority, far more on the scale of Old Bexley & Sidcup than Chesham & Amersham. Labour wouldn't quite win the seat with a 20% swing so consolidating all the opposition vote only gets you to 38%.
That means to win you either need mass abstentions among the 35,444 who voted Conservative in December 2019 or a candidate with the possibility of reaching deep into that core Conservative vote squeezing it down to say 15,000 - 20,000.
That almost certainly excludes someone with an obvious "party" political label. A Martin Bell-type candidate would be ideal standing as an Independent - who or where is that person, would they be willing to give up their "normal life" to become an MP with all that entails? The ambition is the easy bit.
That said, you’d think a focus group would be a bit more up to speed
Rana Naveed has been public about his experience of racism at Yorkshire:
https://wisden.com/stories/county-cricket/rana-naved-ul-hasan-alleges-racist-comments-discriminatory-practices-at-yorkshire
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Rana said he supports Rafiq “fully” and claimed that he faced racism from supporters and discriminatory practices from the club itself.
“I fully support what Azeem said and this has been the case with me as well,” Rana said. “I never spoke about it because, as foreigners, we were temporary and somehow I managed to accept the way it is. So I just focussed on playing cricket. I never wanted to jeopardise my contracts.
“There was systematic taunting and it’s tough to do much about it. To us as overseas players from Asia, when you are not able to perform, the home crowd which should be supporting us, instead they started hooting and would taunt us with racist slurs like ‘P***’.
“If you are performing then you get all the space but, in case I am not taking wickets, the attitude suddenly started to change. They started to give us a tough time, giving me a smaller hotel room and there used to be a clear case of discrimination. They would do some strange things to annoy us and make you feel lesser. It wasn’t abusive but their attitude wasn’t friendly towards Asians.
“At time I used to feel bad, but I decided to ignore it because I knew I was not going to live there permanently. But I know what Azeem went through. He did share his frustration in my playing days. The way he was released by the club wasn’t ideal and says a lot about them, but I had been advising him to stay strong and take it as a challenge.”
Rana played for Sussex before and after his stint with Yorkshire, and has also spent time at Derbyshire, and said his experience at Yorkshire was different to elsewhere.
“This only happens in Yorkshire,” he said. “I played several years for Sussex and they were tremendous; they treated me like their own family. Those two years were absolutely great. Even my first year in Yorkshire was okay but the trouble started in the second year.”
The study, which estimates the number of Covid cases in the community from the information that users log on an app, found a clear decline in cases in under-18s since mid-October, with infection rates levelling off in most other age groups though still climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/covid-study-points-to-uk-infection-peak-attained-but-rising-cases-for-older-adults
In the NZ TV ratings war of the early to mid 90s, the upstart commercial broadcaster TV3 went head to head with the public broadcast channels One and TV2.
The absolute prime spot was 7pm, when One had a kind of light political spot (think a folksy “Marr”) and TV2 had successful soap Shortland Street.
TV3 threw everything at it. It tried its own political spot, then its own soap, everything.
Eventually it conceded defeat and began running RERUNS of 80s “Give Us A Clue”.
Imagine the surprise when it became a hit and performed better than anything else they’d done.
For some years Michael, Lionel and Una (plus randoms like Chris Biggins, Su Pollard etc) were total icons…
Again, I hope very much that she is in good health.