I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Pensioners could still have to sell their homes to pay for social care
The government cannot rule out some people having to sell their homes to pay for care under cost-saving reforms that will hit poorer pensioners, a minister has suggested.
Paul Scully, a business minister, promised only that there would be “fewer people selling their houses”. It will add to unease over a damaging Tory rebellion against changes that were slipped out last week.
Yet most of them will not lose most of the value of their estate if they do, which is not the case now if they have to sell their home to pay for residential care
Remember how politically tone deaf you were on the Owen Paterson scandal (the government has a majority so that makes it ok)? This is that on speed.
Nope, the new reforms mean those with dementia or their children do not have to sell their homes and lose most of their homes value in care costs if they need residential care.
Now if they need residential care those with dementia or their children have to sell their homes to pay the care costs for it and lose almost all of that homes value.
The reforms also cap the amount to be paid for at home care too
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
There was a specific moment in 2007 when the media decided Gordon Brown was a chancer and probably a loser (when he went to Iraq), and from then on it was open season. Feels today like we've reached this point with Boris http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7023735.stm
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Assuming they don't go under.
Owned by the French state, if the French state goes mammary glands up then I will be utterly devastated, UTTERLY DEVASTATED.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Without a parallel universe you have no way of knowing. Hunt is a highly able man. You have no idea what sort of campaign he would have led. The outcome would no doubt have been different in detail, but the country was already terrified of Mr. Thicky and Hunt would have beaten him almost certainly. It was not a pro-Bozo election, more an anti-Corbyn one.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
Yes, there's a lot of companies out there that really sell nothing and make nothing. I come across loads of them in emerging tech. So many are simply call centres or resellers of rebranded AWS products. There's one German startup based in Berlin that is the latter with the aggressive sales tactics that come with the former, it's a business based on literally nothing, yet here they were pitching to investors in London for funding. The CTO didn't enjoy my questions about what of their services they actually owned vs what they leased from AWS and how much of their codebase is simply hooking into AWS services vs executing their own code within an AWS environment. Still, I heard they got a Series A cobbled together a few months ago.
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
The costs of bulb’s failure will be added to the bills of everyone, from April.
Price hikes, across the board, are gonna be eyewatering.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Assuming they don't go under.
Owned by the French state, if the French state goes mammary glands up then I will be utterly devastated, UTTERLY DEVASTATED.
I hate to break it to you, but being owned by a state doesn't mean a company won't fold...
Boris's gift is that he can, metaphorically, get away with murder, because he's a bit of a lad and 'one of us'.
He waffles on about Peppa Pig, makes strange noises, rambles and loses his place - but he's great. Ed Miliband eats a bacon sandwich, rather clumsily - he's finished. Kinnock slips on the beach and tries to gee up an audience in Sheffield rather strangely - he's finished.
But I think the Boris act is beginning to wear thin with all but his most devout admirers.
I've just caught up with the Peppa Pig vid. I wasn't as offended as I thought I would be.
On the other hand I would be as outraged as BJO if Starmer appeared as inept.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Assuming they don't go under.
Owned by the French state, if the French state goes mammary glands up then I will be utterly devastated, UTTERLY DEVASTATED.
I hate to break it to you, but being owned by a state doesn't mean a company won't fold...
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
To a point, I imagine even Carrie would still like a nanny to help.
They can also I expect still send him to boarding school at 7 especially if Boris does do 5-10 years as PM and then also has the large lecture fees coming in.
Though you are right on Victorian and Edwardian times, then it was commonplace for the rich to largely farm childcare to nanny, seeing their children only at mealtimes and tea and for church on Sunday. The Nanny would also be expected to bathe them and put the children to bed and get them up in the morning and entertain them and take them to the park and there might be a cook for meals too (think Mary Poppins).
Then the children would be packed off to boarding school at 7 and from then until 18 only come back the odd weekend or holidays. Then they would head off to university or the city or the army and that was that
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
They will be far too busy fulminating about the reported words of the Benenden headmistress.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Assuming they don't go under.
Owned by the French state, if the French state goes mammary glands up then I will be utterly devastated, UTTERLY DEVASTATED.
I hate to break it to you, but being owned by a state doesn't mean a company won't fold...
I don't know the industry that well, but I thought I read that the Big 6 were getting nervous about having to take on even more customers from these chancers?
Just imagine how angry you'll be if the you get shafted by the French.
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
I'm with Bulb, and I thought they ran a decent operation from a customer's point of view. Their online operation was quite slick. I wonder if they will be seen as 'too big to fail' and moved on wholesale rather than chopped up?
It is similar to banking, I suppose. You can knock up a website and fire up a bunch of AWS servers for peanuts these days and without the legacy of running on mainframes it often works better than the established players.
Unfortunately, when SHTF, there isn't the financial resource to back it up.
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Given the alternative were a bunch of communist ratfuckers who wank over pictures of Stalin there wasn't much choice in 2019 either.
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
I mean we all have brain farts, and those giving speeches I give the occasional pass, I remember when Dave became a West Ham during one speech, his brain had a fart because he had the West Indies on the brain, and his brain went from claret and blue = West Ham.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Without a parallel universe you have no way of knowing. Hunt is a highly able man. You have no idea what sort of campaign he would have led. The outcome would no doubt have been different in detail, but the country was already terrified of Mr. Thicky and Hunt would have beaten him almost certainly. It was not a pro-Bozo election, more an anti-Corbyn one.
Exactly, Both Corbyn and Johnson, were/are a disaster for the U.K., surely time for this Clown to depart the stage
I used to work next to Bulb in a very fashionable co-working space.
Could never figure out why they used it to host their entire call centre operations, employing expensive, London-based call operators.
They pitched themselves as an "energy startup" but really it was just a call centre, some branding and unsustainable prices to get customers via comparison sites.
The whole sector just seems to be built on sand, I'm not surprised they're all going bankrupt.
What terrifies me, in my advancing years, is just how many businesses are smoke and mirrors.
I’m not saying Bulb was a scam, just that the “market” was clearly incentivising simple marketing over innovation or productivity.
It's just like the credit crunch, people assumed the rates/prices would always be this cheap.
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Assuming they don't go under.
Owned by the French state, if the French state goes mammary glands up then I will be utterly devastated, UTTERLY DEVASTATED.
I hate to break it to you, but being owned by a state doesn't mean a company won't fold...
I don't know the industry that well, but I thought I read that the Big 6 were getting nervous about having to take on even more customers from these chancers?
Just imagine how angry you'll be if the you get shafted by the French.
I'll be outside Parliament protesting about the failure to declare war on France.
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Given the alternative were a bunch of communist ratfuckers who wank over pictures of Stalin there wasn't much choice in 2019 either.
That is absolutely true. Corbyn sits at the heart of a lot that is rotten today. I mean I voted for Boris. All this is on me. But I simply couldn't have voted for Corbyn or risked the LDs and Corbyn got in somehow.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Given the alternative were a bunch of communist ratfuckers who wank over pictures of Stalin there wasn't much choice in 2019 either.
I put the blame as much on them as I do the Tory MPs who backed Boris Johnson in 2019.
His screws ups and laziness were well known beforehand but they still gave him their votes.
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice-Davies applies, from an answer she gave in court during the Profumo Affair – he would say that, wouldn't he.
Fair enough - that's a pretty obscure ref if you ask me.
The point you're making is of course correct.
MRDA is often used on pb, like QTWAIN, AICMFP and, well, pb.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
The other day I pointed out Sir Keir waffling, panicking and getting mixed up, saying he was leader in 2018 etc when questioned by the bbc about his second job - I was castigated for being obsessed. Boris does likewise and it’s the thread header!
I am in my 50s and have been interested in politics all my life. I have never ever seen a professional politician make such a presentational howler. If you think this is similar to Starmer saying the wrong year you have no political judgment. Starmer's was slightly embarrassing for him. This is just on a completely different scale!
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
They will be far too busy fulminating about the reported words of the Benenden headmistress.
Kent Online has much of her speech and very sensible it is too.
The other day I pointed out Sir Keir waffling, panicking and getting mixed up, saying he was leader in 2018 etc when questioned by the bbc about his second job - I was castigated for being obsessed. Boris does likewise and it’s the thread header!
I am in my 50s and have been interested in politics all my life. I have never ever seen a professional politician make such a presentational howler. If you think this is similar to Starmer saying the wrong year you have no political judgment. Starmer's was slightly embarrassing for him. This is just on a completely different scale!
What about May’s coughing fit and the collapsing scenery?
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Given the alternative were a bunch of communist ratfuckers who wank over pictures of Stalin there wasn't much choice in 2019 either.
I put the blame as much on them as I do the Tory MPs who backed Boris Johnson in 2019.
His screws ups and laziness were well known beforehand but they still gave him their votes.
Nah, the issue was with Hunt, who I voted for, in not setting out that his number one aim would be to get the UK out of the EU and have people believe he would do it rather than get in number 10 and then tell everyone it was too difficult so we're not going to bother with it now. Brexit needed a conclusion of any kind and Hunt had absolutely no plan to bring that about.
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice Davies (applies).
She famously said "Well he would, wouldn't he?"
Isn't the irony of that deservedly famous quotation that the guy she was talking about was actually probably telling the truth, at least on that occasion? Or have I misremembered it?
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
The Ashmoleon and Pitt Rivers museums are excellent, there are also some good coffee houses near All Souls.
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice-Davies applies, from an answer she gave in court during the Profumo Affair – he would say that, wouldn't he.
Fair enough - that's a pretty obscure ref if you ask me.
The point you're making is of course correct.
MRDA is often used on pb, like QTWAIN, AICMFP and, well, pb.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
The Profumo Affair does sound interesteing.
I'd also like to know more about the lavender list if that's not the same thing.
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice-Davies applies, from an answer she gave in court during the Profumo Affair – he would say that, wouldn't he.
Fair enough - that's a pretty obscure ref if you ask me.
The point you're making is of course correct.
MRDA is often used on pb, like QTWAIN, AICMFP and, well, pb.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
POBWAS is an adaptation of an acronym used on this site when Gordon used to embarrass himself on a regular basis
One day the Conservative and Unionist Party will have a Thatcherite leader who vows to undo the damage of Brexit.
And I can vote for them again...
The chances of the Tories electing a Thatcherite leader who wants to rejoin the EU and then also manages to win a majority at a general election are so near zero as to be almost negative.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
The Ashmoleon and Pitt Rivers museums are excellent, there are also some good coffee houses near All Souls.
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
The Pitt Rivers museum is fantastic and often overlooked. Good shout.
The one thing I guess that might do for Boris, I suppose, is that a sense of overwhelming contempt for him may develop in the public mind.
Boris Johnson delivers a rambling speech in which he compared himself to Moses in relation to the government’s environment policy https://trib.al/3xYVrZ4
One day the Conservative and Unionist Party will have a Thatcherite leader who vows to undo the damage of Brexit.
And I can vote for them again...
The chances of the Tories electing a Thatcherite leader who wants to rejoin the EU and then also manages to win a majority at a general election are so near zero as to be almost negative.
Undoing the damage of Brexit does not necessarily need to include rejoining. I would just like the Tories to elect someone who has some credibility and competence. that would be a good start
This is not news. We have been saying this since Day One.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Given the alternative were a bunch of communist ratfuckers who wank over pictures of Stalin there wasn't much choice in 2019 either.
That is absolutely true. Corbyn sits at the heart of a lot that is rotten today. I mean I voted for Boris. All this is on me. But I simply couldn't have voted for Corbyn or risked the LDs and Corbyn got in somehow.
Had Burnham beaten Corbyn for the Labour leadership he may well have not only denied May a majority in 2017 or whenever she called the election but won most seats.
Brexit would then never have been delivered and Burnham would now be PM not Boris.
There is a strong argument to say Labour electing Corbyn in 2015 ensured Brexit was delivered and led to Boris becoming PM now
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice-Davies applies, from an answer she gave in court during the Profumo Affair – he would say that, wouldn't he.
Fair enough - that's a pretty obscure ref if you ask me.
The point you're making is of course correct.
MRDA is often used on pb, like QTWAIN, AICMFP and, well, pb.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
POBWAS is an adaptation of an acronym used on this site when Gordon used to embarrass himself on a regular basis
I'm not sure that's correct although I know PODWAS did evolve to certain circumstances.
The one thing I guess that might do for Boris, I suppose, is that a sense of overwhelming contempt for him may develop in the public mind.
Boris Johnson delivers a rambling speech in which he compared himself to Moses in relation to the government’s environment policy https://trib.al/3xYVrZ4
Weird to see that on Bloomberg which usually just sticks to the facts, ma’am.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
Both of which Boris achieved
Beating Corbyn was a lucky escape from massive public spending, rising taxes, and a state interfering in every aspect of our lives, for sure.
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Without a parallel universe you have no way of knowing. Hunt is a highly able man. You have no idea what sort of campaign he would have led. The outcome would no doubt have been different in detail, but the country was already terrified of Mr. Thicky and Hunt would have beaten him almost certainly. It was not a pro-Bozo election, more an anti-Corbyn one.
Hunt would likely would done little better against Corbyn than May did in 2017, again probably Tories most seats but no Tory majority
One day the Conservative and Unionist Party will have a Thatcherite leader who vows to undo the damage of Brexit.
And I can vote for them again...
The chances of the Tories electing a Thatcherite leader who wants to rejoin the EU and then also manages to win a majority at a general election are so near zero as to be almost negative.
Undoing the damage of Brexit does not necessarily need to include rejoining. I would just like the Tories to elect someone who has some credibility and competence. that would be a good start
The Tories won’t discover credibility and competence until they slay the foundational Brexit mythology, so you will be waiting a long while.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Without a parallel universe you have no way of knowing. Hunt is a highly able man. You have no idea what sort of campaign he would have led. The outcome would no doubt have been different in detail, but the country was already terrified of Mr. Thicky and Hunt would have beaten him almost certainly. It was not a pro-Bozo election, more an anti-Corbyn one.
Hunt would likely would done little better against Corbyn than May did in 2017, again probably Tories most seats but no Tory majority
Why? If people like Big_G who had spent an entire year telling us how dreadful Boris would be, eventually voted for him to avoid Corbyn, then they’d have voted for Hunt for the same reason.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
Both of which Boris achieved
Beating Corbyn was a lucky escape from massive public spending, rising taxes, and a state interfering in every aspect of our lives, for sure.
Would have been worse under Corbyn plus more nationalisations, anti Semitism, no AusUKUS deal etc and probably no delivery of Brexit either
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
Have any of them nevertheless sent their kids to boarding school? My dad absolutely loathed being boarded to Edinburgh Academy while his parents lived the colonial life yet wanted to send my brother and me to Gordonstoun, thankfully my mother prevailed. People are strange, part 79.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
The Ashmoleon and Pitt Rivers museums are excellent, there are also some good coffee houses near All Souls.
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
Afternoon tea on the rooftop terrace of the Ashmolean (a kind of miniature British Museum) is worth paying their slightly inflated prices.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
Both of which Boris achieved
Super! He can leave now and be applauded as the stunning success he is, or something. I was only answering the question as posed though, and correctly. Still, if you're having second thoughts having backed him in the leadership election, that's good news for all of us I guess.
I voted for Boris in 2019 to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit, not because I expected him to be a great administrator as PM.
Boris did what I voted for.
As for the next general election I have an open mind, if Labour starts to get a big poll lead and polls show Sunak beating Starmer then I would switch to Sunak no problem. For now I will give Boris the benefit of the doubt with polls about level
It flashed up on CNN that Biden has apparently told allies that he is intending to run in 2024
MRDA surely? Otherwise he'd become a lame duck overnight.
Google is no help in me trying to solve your acronym.
Mandy Rice-Davies applies, from an answer she gave in court during the Profumo Affair – he would say that, wouldn't he.
Fair enough - that's a pretty obscure ref if you ask me.
The point you're making is of course correct.
MRDA is often used on pb, like QTWAIN, AICMFP and, well, pb.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
The Profumo Affair does sound interesteing.
I'd also like to know more about the lavender list if that's not the same thing.
The lavender list was Harold Wilson's resignation honours list, said to have been compiled by his very powerful secretary, Marcia Williams, on lavender-coloured notepaper.
Forgot to mention that the Profumo Affair also featured a stately home, nudity, a Cabinet Minister with a huge Johnson (pun intended) and the Royal Family lurking in the background.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
The Ashmoleon and Pitt Rivers museums are excellent, there are also some good coffee houses near All Souls.
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
Afternoon tea on the rooftop terrace of the Ashmolean (a kind of miniature British Museum) is worth paying their slightly inflated prices.
Ashmolean cafe definitely good for the views. Chiang Mai Kitchen still very good and Edamame if you don’t mind the odd opening hours and sharing tables.
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
Have any of them nevertheless sent their kids to boarding school? My dad absolutely loathed being boarded to Edinburgh Academy while his parents lived the colonial life yet wanted to send my brother and me to Gordonstoun, thankfully my mother prevailed. People are strange, part 79.
If you'd gone you might have grown up to be Prince Charles.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Without a parallel universe you have no way of knowing. Hunt is a highly able man. You have no idea what sort of campaign he would have led. The outcome would no doubt have been different in detail, but the country was already terrified of Mr. Thicky and Hunt would have beaten him almost certainly. It was not a pro-Bozo election, more an anti-Corbyn one.
Hunt would likely would done little better against Corbyn than May did in 2017, again probably Tories most seats but no Tory majority
Why? If people like Big_G who had spent an entire year telling us how dreadful Boris would be, eventually voted for him to avoid Corbyn, then they’d have voted for Hunt for the same reason.
BigG also voted for May in 2017, it was voters in the RedWall who would still mainly have voted Labour in 2019, they voted for Boris as he was a Leaver they knew would deliver Brexit unlike Hunt. Otherwise some of them would have gone Brexit Party instead of Conservative if Hunt was Tory leader
I’m sure there is an entertaining alter-history of Britain’s post-war history which takes in the “Headless Man”, Eden’s drug addiction, the Profumo Affair, the Lavender List, and the Thorpe scandal.
Macmillan reading Trollope throughout while his wife was making the beast with two backs with a Kray associate.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
Both of which Boris achieved
Super! He can leave now and be applauded as the stunning success he is, or something. I was only answering the question as posed though, and correctly. Still, if you're having second thoughts having backed him in the leadership election, that's good news for all of us I guess.
I voted for Boris in 2019 to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit, not because I expected him to be a great administrator as PM.
Boris did what I voted for.
As for the next general election I have an open mind, if Labour starts to get a big poll lead and polls show Sunak beating Starmer then I would switch to Sunak no problem. For now I will give Boris the benefit of the doubt with polls about level
That is fair enough apart from the to deliver Brexit thing. Why did you want a politician to deliver a policy which you disagree with.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
The Ashmoleon and Pitt Rivers museums are excellent, there are also some good coffee houses near All Souls.
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
For museums, yes, Pitt Rivers and Science Museum are great. Walk around the Uni Parks.
Can't speak for the pubs right now - last time I went for any length of time, I went to what used to be my old workplace, the biker pub, but its frustratingly cleaner nowadays.
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
What is the point of having kids and packing them off to boarding school? If you want to have a relaxing time then don't have kids. You are right about the 6-10 age range. My eldest is coming up for 13 and the experience with her is totally different now!
My wife went to several boarding schools primarily because her father was often working in different jobs in Europe and it provided her some stability. There are some circumstances like that where they fulfil a need. In most cases though I feel it is for parents with lots of money so they can carry on living a life as if they didn't have kids for 2/3rds of the year.
I can understand how Boris is knackered. My kids are 12, 8 and 4 and I regularly get woken at 4.30am in the morning by the youngest, work during the day and at the end of the day act as a taxi service for kids activities. Often I don't get in from them until 9pm. I'm often in bed before the oldest one. At least I don't have to worry about being Prime Minister too!
The other day I pointed out Sir Keir waffling, panicking and getting mixed up, saying he was leader in 2018 etc when questioned by the bbc about his second job - I was castigated for being obsessed. Boris does likewise and it’s the thread header!
I am in my 50s and have been interested in politics all my life. I have never ever seen a professional politician make such a presentational howler. If you think this is similar to Starmer saying the wrong year you have no political judgment. Starmer's was slightly embarrassing for him. This is just on a completely different scale!
What about May’s coughing fit and the collapsing scenery?
What about it? People can get coughing fits - I thought she handled it well with the proffered cough sweet complete with gags about the chancellor charging her later.
Despite the P45 prank. And almost choking several times. And having to make jokes about said P45 and the cough and the sweet, she didn't lose her place.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
Indeed.
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
Two One Five, and Pompette, both in Summertown, have good word of mouth. But I haven't been to Oxford in a while so I can't vouch personally. If you could go to both and report back
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
Have any of them nevertheless sent their kids to boarding school? My dad absolutely loathed being boarded to Edinburgh Academy while his parents lived the colonial life yet wanted to send my brother and me to Gordonstoun, thankfully my mother prevailed. People are strange, part 79.
If you'd gone you might have grown up to be Prince Charles.
How on earth, have we ended up with this fool as P.M
Ask yourself who the alternative was and who bears responsibility for that?
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative members. Next.
The alternative was Corbyn who Hunt, unlike Boris, would probably have not won a majority against as he would have had less appeal in the RedWall and the Brexit Party would have stood candidates in Tory held seats as they did not do with Boris, hence the Tories would have lost more seats to the LDs too
Corbyn wasn't on the ticket for the Conservative leadership. Boris became PM as a result of the leadership election.
The aim of which was to pick a leader to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit.
Both of which Boris achieved
Super! He can leave now and be applauded as the stunning success he is, or something. I was only answering the question as posed though, and correctly. Still, if you're having second thoughts having backed him in the leadership election, that's good news for all of us I guess.
I voted for Boris in 2019 to beat Corbyn and deliver Brexit, not because I expected him to be a great administrator as PM.
Boris did what I voted for.
As for the next general election I have an open mind, if Labour starts to get a big poll lead and polls show Sunak beating Starmer then I would switch to Sunak no problem. For now I will give Boris the benefit of the doubt with polls about level
Surely you voted for Boris because as the only gay Tory in the village you would loyally vote for whomever or whatever happened to be the Tory leader because they were the Tory leader.
Don't come on here trying to give reason for your vote when you deny that reason to others. You are a sycophantic lackey.
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
Have any of them nevertheless sent their kids to boarding school? My dad absolutely loathed being boarded to Edinburgh Academy while his parents lived the colonial life yet wanted to send my brother and me to Gordonstoun, thankfully my mother prevailed. People are strange, part 79.
No, they haven't.
Indeed, even those of my friends who claim they liked or enjoyed boarding school: have not sent their kids to boarding school - certainly not at age 7
Its the kids. Boris strikes me as the kind of selfish but charismatic chancer who has always managed to dodge most paternal duties - I don’t mean simply ignoring bastard offspring but always having something more important to do just as the wife needs help with nappies
But this time he can’t dodge. Carrie looks pretty assertive. He’s in the public spotlight. He’s stuck at Number 10. All = a lack of sleep which is ageing him by a decade in a year
I think that's right. Having kids in your 50s isn't that smart because they so disrupt your life.
I am sure they can afford nannies.
One of my late grandfathers had a child in his 50s with a younger wife but again they could afford a nanny at that time. For most people though yes without major child support it can be a burden and even with a nanny you still have to support them through school and maybe university
It’s not the financial issues - tho they are a factor - it’s the physical and emotional demands of parenting. And these are now much greater on fathers than they were.
In Victorian times a rich father could get away with seeing the bairns for 10 minutes a day and maybe an hour at the weekend. Then you packed them off to boarding school at 7. Incredible, really. And cruel
Carrie won’t stand for that. She’s a modern mum. She will expect Boris to pitch in, or else. And it is showing.
Two of our last three Prime Ministers were packed off to boarding school at seven or eight, and probably nearly all the rest before Wilson. Pitt the Younger was home-schooled iirc from the ITV series.
I don't understand parents, esp a mother, who will happily post their children to faraway places when the kids are about 7. And not see them for months, or years
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
What is the point of having kids and packing them off to boarding school? If you want to have a relaxing time then don't have kids. You are right about the 6-10 age range. My eldest is coming up for 13 and the experience with her is totally different now!
My wife went to several boarding schools primarily because her father was often working in different jobs in Europe and it provided her some stability. There are some circumstances like that where they fulfil a need. In most cases though I feel it is for parents with lots of money so they can carry on living a life as if they didn't have kids for 2/3rds of the year.
I can understand how Boris is knackered. My kids are 12, 8 and 4 and I regularly get woken at 4.30am in the morning by the youngest, work during the day and at the end of the day act as a taxi service for kids activities. Often I don't get in from them until 9pm. I'm often in bed before the oldest one. At least I don't have to worry about being Prime Minister too!
Would feel its very much an outdated hang-over from Empire as a boarding school. A lot of private schools are just 'day' schools these days.
Comments
When it ends, it goes horribly bad.
I'm glad I'm with EDF, price locked until May 2023.
Health minister tells Germans they will either have 'been vaccinated, recovered or died' from Covid by end of winter
I think an Oxford comma would have been useful in that headline.
She famously said "Well he would, wouldn't he?"
Now if they need residential care those with dementia or their children have to sell their homes to pay the care costs for it and lose almost all of that homes value.
The reforms also cap the amount to be paid for at home care too
Talking about Oxford, next summer I have to spend 3 nights in that city.
Can PBers recommend any good places and restaurants to visit in the area.
Same for May in 2017.
But both still had a couple of years in ‘em.
The point you're making is of course correct.
But people love him. Loses notes, dangles in mid-air looking like a complete idiot, being a complete idiot - people love him and I am not at all concerned those people will have been watching his speech to the CBI at 10am of a fine autumn morning.
Price hikes, across the board, are gonna be eyewatering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriva_Rail_North#Demise
On the other hand I would be as outraged as BJO if Starmer appeared as inept.
They can also I expect still send him to boarding school at 7 especially if Boris does do 5-10 years as PM and then also has the large lecture fees coming in.
Though you are right on Victorian and Edwardian times, then it was commonplace for the rich to largely farm childcare to nanny, seeing their children only at mealtimes and tea and for church on Sunday. The Nanny would also be expected to bathe them and put the children to bed and get them up in the morning and entertain them and take them to the park and there might be a cook for meals too (think Mary Poppins).
Then the children would be packed off to boarding school at 7 and from then until 18 only come back the odd weekend or holidays. Then they would head off to university or the city or the army and that was that
Just imagine how angry you'll be if the you get shafted by the French.
It is similar to banking, I suppose. You can knock up a website and fire up a bunch of AWS servers for peanuts these days and without the legacy of running on mainframes it often works better than the established players.
Unfortunately, when SHTF, there isn't the financial resource to back it up.
Truss is no better.
Rishi is the Barrington Declaration with a good social media game.
Patel is thick and malign.
Javid is a non-entity.
Both of which Boris achieved
His screws ups and laziness were well known beforehand but they still gave him their votes.
The Profumo Affair should be part of British folklore. A spy scandal with comic elements. A vengeful Establishment driving Ward to suicide. Walk-on parts for a slum landlord later to be notorious in his own right. The Home Secretary acting ultra vires. Two iconic moments: *that* photograph of Christine Keeler, and MRDA, which is where we came in, answering what may have been the most ill-considered question ever put in cross-examination. And the whole thing ruthlessly weaponised by Labour to end 13 years of Tory hegemony.
He's a professional clown.
That he has propelled himself to the top of our politics is an indictment of our politics.
And I can vote for them again...
The Eagle and Child pub where CS Lewis and Tolkien went was good but sadly has closed down for now, the Morse pub the Trout Inn just outside the city has great views of the river but better for drinking than eating
I'd also like to know more about the lavender list if that's not the same thing.
May and Brown were both thought pitiable, pathetic and useless - but not, I think, contemptible.
Brexit would then never have been delivered and Burnham would now be PM not Boris.
There is a strong argument to say Labour electing Corbyn in 2015 ensured Brexit was delivered and led to Boris becoming PM now
I don't what AICMFP is though.
7? It's an adorable age. That's when kids are most fun - from about 6 to 10. Inquiring, amusing, eager, cute, unpredictable, yet still with that precious innocence.
15 or 17 is different, of course.
I am sure plenty of kids benefit from the bracing cruelty of boarding school at age 7. Makes you independent, blah blah
But I have friends who absolutely hated it, and who have blamed and despised their parents ever since
Beloved by the supporters, nothing but good will for them but what ends them is the piss taking by their opponents.
'Ole's at the wheel.'
My dad absolutely loathed being boarded to Edinburgh Academy while his parents lived the colonial life yet wanted to send my brother and me to Gordonstoun, thankfully my mother prevailed.
People are strange, part 79.
Boris did what I voted for.
As for the next general election I have an open mind, if Labour starts to get a big poll lead and polls show Sunak beating Starmer then I would switch to Sunak no problem. For now I will give Boris the benefit of the doubt with polls about level
Forgot to mention that the Profumo Affair also featured a stately home, nudity, a Cabinet Minister with a huge Johnson (pun intended) and the Royal Family lurking in the background.
https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/1293086615758413824
Macmillan reading Trollope throughout while his wife was making the beast with two backs with a Kray associate.
Lol, wrecked
Labour weaponising the PM losing his place in the CBI speech.
https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1462761369447636992
Can't speak for the pubs right now - last time I went for any length of time, I went to what used to be my old workplace, the biker pub, but its frustratingly cleaner nowadays.
My wife went to several boarding schools primarily because her father was often working in different jobs in Europe and it provided her some stability. There are some circumstances like that where they fulfil a need. In most cases though I feel it is for parents with lots of money so they can carry on living a life as if they didn't have kids for 2/3rds of the year.
I can understand how Boris is knackered. My kids are 12, 8 and 4 and I regularly get woken at 4.30am in the morning by the youngest, work during the day and at the end of the day act as a taxi service for kids activities. Often I don't get in from them until 9pm. I'm often in bed before the oldest one. At least I don't have to worry about being Prime Minister too!
Despite the P45 prank. And almost choking several times. And having to make jokes about said P45 and the cough and the sweet, she didn't lose her place.
We're mid-term.
gayTory in the village you would loyally vote for whomever or whatever happened to be the Tory leader because they were the Tory leader.Don't come on here trying to give reason for your vote when you deny that reason to others. You are a sycophantic lackey.
Indeed, even those of my friends who claim they liked or enjoyed boarding school: have not sent their kids to boarding school - certainly not at age 7