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The Queen was right to give Tony Blair a knighthood – politicalbetting.com

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  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,540
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:


    Anyway, TB yes of course he should have (had ages ago) a knighthood and probably more than that.

    i don't think there is anything "more" than Order of the Garter. It's in HMQ's personal gift.
    Well no but could have been made a peer.
    Reportedly offered and declined. All that tedious "disclosure of financial interests" and so on.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    edited January 2022
    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    Most disastrous meal I have ever heard of was a mate of mine, in the Far East

    He had a frankly brilliant job, as a producer for Al Jazeera Asia, based in Kuala Lumpur. They were paying crazy money, tax was minimal, he got sent around Asia to do stories (all on exes with 5 star hotels), and the stories were really interesting: Papua New Guinea one day, Japan the next

    A superb job and if he'd stayed in it a decade he would have been set for life

    Then he went to Hong Kong for a story, had another luxe dinner on the company, forgot company policy, and mistakenly claimed for one beer. ONE

    Al Jazeera does not like paying for alcohol. He got sacked immediately, no appeals allowed. His career crumpled and he has never recovered. He now scrabbles around for badly paid freelance radio gigs

    Quite an expensive beer. Actual cost maybe £4
    In 1996 I was in Hong Kong. When I ordered a Stinger at the bar, the bartender asked if I wanted to the bar bill put on the room as "Dry cleaning", "Food" or something that I could suggest.

    Sadly, I was there on my own tab.....
    Chinnery or Captain's Bar?
    I can't actually remember - sorry. It was on the edge of Wan Chai, IIRC.
    How ghastly.
    It was actually rather good.
    I have no doubt. 1996 Wanchai wasn't the first destination for Stingers, or hotels, though. Although I see "on my own tab" which explains it.
    It was recommended to me by someone who spent quite a bit of time in HK - one of those hidden gems. The bar tender was real expert, the place was small, but very modern and ran like a Swiss watch.
    Sounds like a place in North London that I have heard about.
    No, none of the SeanTs would have liked it - no... er.... professionals in the place.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I apologize for turning pb.com into the fancy restaurant review session. My bad.

    Too late now. You've opened the floodgates and there will duly be a flood.
    It makes a nice change from the fucking plague, or indeed politics - which is really quite boring at the moment. Stasis
    Yes, but I can't contribute because I hardly ever go to restaurants. Feel excluded. Let's get back to perceptive & densely argued scenarios for the next general election complete with estimated probabilities and steers to standout bets.
    Okay I hear your cry of pain.

    Back to proper news agenda now. 24hrs news full of NHS falling into crisis. Last couple of weeks of Boris now before he is vonked! Bye bye Boris. 😘
  • MaxPB said:

    Bloody hell Cineworld are thieves, my dad wants to see Spider-Man so asked me to book tickets for his local cinema to go tomorrow, £20 for 2D IMAX, what a rip off. We're going to the Vue in Finchley near me, £5.99 each for the giant Vue 4k digital projection (around the same size as 2D IMAX). No wonder Cineworld are going out of business.

    Don't buy a bag of sweets or a drink or they will rob you again!
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I apologize for turning pb.com into the fancy restaurant review session. My bad.

    Too late now. You've opened the floodgates and there will duly be a flood.
    It makes a nice change from the fucking plague, or indeed politics - which is really quite boring at the moment. Stasis
    Yes, but I can't contribute because I hardly ever go to restaurants. Feel excluded. Let's get back to perceptive & densely argued scenarios for the next general election complete with estimated probabilities and steers to standout bets.
    Okay I hear your cry of pain.

    Back to proper news agenda now. 24hrs news full of NHS falling into crisis. Last couple of weeks of Boris now before he is vonked! Bye bye Boris. 😘
    It's going to be a month of COVID stuff dominating the news, at least.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591
    TimT said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
    JCVI have stuffed up with boosters and child vaccination once, already. I know the dog returns to his vomit, but really....
  • GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,838
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.

    That's another covid myth apparently: Myth #1,765 in a regular series...

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois

    We should share Covid vaccines with the world, because it is the right thing to do, but not because it will limit of emergence of 'variants' - vaccines don't generate variants but they don't preclude their emergence either - it's all a bit unclear and complicated.
    Not just people either, Covid is a general mammalian phenomenon
    Nevertheless a world with Covid raging is more likely to throw up things which come and fuck us up than a world with Covid under control. And the quicker we vaccinate the world the quicker we get from that first situation to the second. It's as much a practical imperative as a moral one.
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 3,911
    MattW said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Don't discuss vegetarianism during your meal.
    How do you know when someone is a vegan? They tell you.

    But it has buggered up my plans somewhat as I was thinking about booking hawksmoor, until I learned of my friend's dietary requirements. Now I'm not sure what to pick - I don't know Manchester very well.
    Perhaps a vegetarian Indian or Asian place?

    In London my goto used to be Rasa on Charlotte Street in that line, but that was some years ago.
    I should probably ask him where he wants to go, yes. I think letting him choose his go-to restaurant is better than me making a suggestion.

    But the other recommendation about the Ivy is also an option, I probably enjoy them for the same reason I enjoy the Premier Inn hub chain. Consistent and reliable, if nothing fancy.

    Look at me, not being a snob ;)
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    eek said:

    It's the staff absences which are going to kill the NHS this time around

    https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1478379407882559493

    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NEW:
    @UHP_NHS
    has today declared a critical incident. Message to staff warns of 15 ambulances waiting and no space in A&E and 475 Covid staff absences. Full details:

    I keep saying it – the seven-day isolation rules are now a far greater threat than the virus itself. They need looking at, sharpish.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    Sandpit said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
    Ditto. I quite like Premier Inns (tho I wish they weren't so reliably ugly on the outside). I find their sameness quite soothing. Good showers, too
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.

    That's another covid myth apparently: Myth #1,765 in a regular series...

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois

    We should share Covid vaccines with the world, because it is the right thing to do, but not because it will limit of emergence of 'variants' - vaccines don't generate variants but they don't preclude their emergence either - it's all a bit unclear and complicated.
    Not just people either, Covid is a general mammalian phenomenon
    Yes, there's a huge misunderstanding about how variants occur and evolutionary pathways. The science is really complicated but people just want to boil it down to "give vaccines away" or somehow blame the west, Boris, Trump, the EU or whatever their pet hate is.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,839
    Good news for England, Sydney looks absolubtely sodden according to windy.com for the next five days.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    Overall, I'd probably agree. But there are gems here. And at none of the restaurants I've mentioned are the serving sizes obscene. Contra is 6- or 7-course, but more in a tapas style of many small, incredibly flavourful plates. Volt could leave you hungry, even after 5 courses.
  • TazTaz Posts: 10,699
    UK gas price up over a third today. Wow. It had been in decline. Someone is making a hell of a lot of money out of this.
  • eek said:

    It's the staff absences which are going to kill the NHS this time around

    https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1478379407882559493

    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NEW:
    @UHP_NHS
    has today declared a critical incident. Message to staff warns of 15 ambulances waiting and no space in A&E and 475 Covid staff absences. Full details:

    PB Virologists advise ill staff that they should come into the hospital and if they pass Covid to patients all the better.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,952

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    Florida is the place to go!
    I went to Florida in February 1993. The idea was to go birdwatching, but the places listed in my field guide looked like they had been hit by a nuclear strike. It was 6 months after Hurricane Andrew and the place was crushed.

    Did though find a place that did a key lime milkshake, that was one of the most sublime things I have ever had in my mouth....

    (I also got advised by the local feds not to go birdwatching on some of the Lower Keys on the way to Key West - the local drug dealers don't take kindly to surveillance....)
  • kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.

    That's another covid myth apparently: Myth #1,765 in a regular series...

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois

    We should share Covid vaccines with the world, because it is the right thing to do, but not because it will limit of emergence of 'variants' - vaccines don't generate variants but they don't preclude their emergence either - it's all a bit unclear and complicated.
    Not just people either, Covid is a general mammalian phenomenon
    Nevertheless a world with Covid raging is more likely to throw up things which come and fuck us up than a world with Covid under control. And the quicker we vaccinate the world the quicker we get from that first situation to the second. It's as much a practical imperative as a moral one.
    No it isn't necessarily a practical or moral one and probably not a scientific one either. All governments have their first responsibility to their own population. IMHO, the first priority of Western governments is to figure out how to defeat or contain the virus. The strategies that they use will then inform them how they support other governments to do the same.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    Overall, I'd probably agree. But there are gems here. And at none of the restaurants I've mentioned are the serving sizes obscene. Contra is 6- or 7-course, but more in a tapas style of many small, incredibly flavourful plates. Volt could leave you hungry, even after 5 courses.
    COVID PERMITTING.. I am doing a road trip around the Deep South in the spring. With a visit, afterwards, to a mate in New Mexico. I will hope for better luck with my tucker, and I will be visiting NOLA so I am guaranteed oysters in the French Quarter. Yay

    I do love road trips around the USA. One of the great joys of global travel
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    It really is a problem in the States.

    When touring and absolutely having to eat in a regular kind of place, I became used to ordering only an 'appetiser' – to the absolute bafflement of the waitresses, who tried to insist I order a full meal, then take the several metric tonnes of waste with me, cold, in a bag. I declined.

    I learned to avoid roadside places. Go slightly hungry all day, then park up in a 'heritage' town centre hotel somewhere and find a proper restaurant, where I had the opportunity to pay three times as much for a third of the volume.
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489

    MaxPB said:

    Bloody hell Cineworld are thieves, my dad wants to see Spider-Man so asked me to book tickets for his local cinema to go tomorrow, £20 for 2D IMAX, what a rip off. We're going to the Vue in Finchley near me, £5.99 each for the giant Vue 4k digital projection (around the same size as 2D IMAX). No wonder Cineworld are going out of business.

    Don't buy a bag of sweets or a drink or they will rob you again!
    Last time I went to the cinema, (to watch West Side story - very good by the way) we bought a bag of jelly baby's with us. then had a thought as we consumed them, is that against company policy?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,839

    eek said:

    It's the staff absences which are going to kill the NHS this time around

    https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1478379407882559493

    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NEW:
    @UHP_NHS
    has today declared a critical incident. Message to staff warns of 15 ambulances waiting and no space in A&E and 475 Covid staff absences. Full details:

    I keep saying it – the seven-day isolation rules are now a far greater threat than the virus itself. They need looking at, sharpish.
    Time for some reverse isolation, medical staff with Covid should probably be on the front lines treating Covid patients.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    In light of today's thread on restaurants


    Laura Lexx
    @lauralexx
    “Well your honour, I asked him what we should have for dinner and he started listing all the possibilities instead of choosing and I…”

    “NOT GUILTY!”
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    kyf_100 said:

    MattW said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Don't discuss vegetarianism during your meal.
    How do you know when someone is a vegan? They tell you.

    But it has buggered up my plans somewhat as I was thinking about booking hawksmoor, until I learned of my friend's dietary requirements. Now I'm not sure what to pick - I don't know Manchester very well.
    Perhaps a vegetarian Indian or Asian place?

    In London my goto used to be Rasa on Charlotte Street in that line, but that was some years ago.
    I should probably ask him where he wants to go, yes. I think letting him choose his go-to restaurant is better than me making a suggestion.

    But the other recommendation about the Ivy is also an option, I probably enjoy them for the same reason I enjoy the Premier Inn hub chain. Consistent and reliable, if nothing fancy.

    Look at me, not being a snob ;)

    I've not tried The Ivy Manchester, but all the London branches I have been to have been good – and good fun.
  • AlistairMAlistairM Posts: 2,004
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
    Ditto. I quite like Premier Inns (tho I wish they weren't so reliably ugly on the outside). I find their sameness quite soothing. Good showers, too
    Summer 2020 when we had completely failed to be able to go on a proper holiday due to Covid my wife was insistent that we do "something". We ended up going on a road trip around the North of England along with the 3 kids. Up through the Midlands to Yorkshire then Northumberland, Hadrian's Wall down through the Lake District to Merseyside. We stayed every night in a different Premier Inn. The quality of the accommodation varied immensely. Carlisle was awful whereas Heswall was very good. Although we saw some lovely parts of the country along the way it is not a holiday I would care to repeat again!
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    edited January 2022
    BigRich said:

    MaxPB said:

    Bloody hell Cineworld are thieves, my dad wants to see Spider-Man so asked me to book tickets for his local cinema to go tomorrow, £20 for 2D IMAX, what a rip off. We're going to the Vue in Finchley near me, £5.99 each for the giant Vue 4k digital projection (around the same size as 2D IMAX). No wonder Cineworld are going out of business.

    Don't buy a bag of sweets or a drink or they will rob you again!
    Last time I went to the cinema, (to watch West Side story - very good by the way) we bought a bag of jelly baby's with us. then had a thought as we consumed them, is that against company policy?
    It will be, but we just take drinks and sweets in.

    Eek twin A always has a bag with her solely for that purpose - it's the quid pro quo - I buy the cinema tickets she sneaks the drinks in - in a post covid world being male and carrying a briefcase doesn't work when it's work from home.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
  • david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,401

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I suppose you know what the nature of the "honest day's work" was that the Iraqi security forces being bombed was?

    And "millions"? Really?

    Was there a need for the war? No, not really. Saddam was being kept where he needed to be - but only by the sanctions that many of those opposed to the war also wanted lifting.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,112
    edited January 2022
    felix said:

    TOPPING said:

    felix said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    With unlimited mobile data [ we've had that for several years in my obscure part of Spain at €30 a month] why on earth does anyone bother with free wifi anymore?
    There is a question or was as to whether roaming will continue post-Brexit, wasn't there?
    There was and I think it's ended to the UK but open to us here in Spain andfor the rest of Europe so personally it doesn't affect me. My only irritant is telephone calls to my one UK bank and public offices in the UK like Pensions, etc. None of these are internet based - ridiculous in the modern age - and are the only calls now that cost me money when occasionally they have to be made. Does anyone know why the UK Pension Agency has virtually no online service worthy of the name - while all the private ones do? Even the TPA has an excellent web-site but not the actual OAP one. A total puzzle.
    UKPA is shitty right down to the paper and font they use - like DHSS documents from the late 1970s - and their refusal to provide proper annual income and tax statements for you to use for HMRC rather than telling you to work it out from some insane weekly rate (and what about leap years?). I'm not an OAP but had to do my late dad's tax. Not to mention dealing with the organization when someone dies - they reclaim every penny if the deceased has the temerity to die before the last payment is fully consumed, but just you try working out what that is.
  • GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
    Amusing post, but if you are genuinely suggesting Blair is the equivalent of Saddam that is ludicrous. I was never a fan of Blair, and never voted for him, but the reality people have to get their heads around is that leaders have to make decisions on things that the rest of us would find unpalatable. Those that claim Blair is a war criminal are just fucking pathetic and they demean the victims of war crimes. Blair made significant mistakes, but a war criminal he is not. He is worthy of the knighthood for all the reasons Mike gave in the header.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,540
    Do Britons approve of Tony Blair being given a knighthood?

    All Britons
    Approve 14% / Disapprove 63%

    Lab voters
    Approve 21% / Disapprove 56%

    Con voters
    Approve 10% / Disapprove 79%


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478382951851249677?s=20

    Funnily enough the government will probably get it in the neck for this, even though it's nothing to do with them.....
  • david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,401

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    It would be interesting to know the rationale for the cut-off being exactly 6 minutes (rather than, say, ten), and what research had to be done to arrive at that figure.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
    Ditto. I quite like Premier Inns (tho I wish they weren't so reliably ugly on the outside). I find their sameness quite soothing. Good showers, too
    Showers - when the shower head is too low to stand under - grr! I'm 6'1", not a giant; is it too much to ask that they fit the rail as high as possible so that the nozzle can be moved further up?

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591

    eek said:

    It's the staff absences which are going to kill the NHS this time around

    https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1478379407882559493

    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NEW:
    @UHP_NHS
    has today declared a critical incident. Message to staff warns of 15 ambulances waiting and no space in A&E and 475 Covid staff absences. Full details:

    PB Virologists advise ill staff that they should come into the hospital and if they pass Covid to patients all the better.
    The US CDC has shortened isolation to 5 days.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3161
  • kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Plenty, if you're central Manchester.

    The Ivy

    Full menu here

    https://theivymanchester.com/the-ivy-brasserie/menus/

    vegetarian here

    https://d2kv5npyn5oapy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2021/11/VEGAN_NORMAL_WINTER_2021.pdf

    If that doesn't tickle your fancy, I can provide more.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Before the pandemic, even in Stoke I went into a greasy spoon and they had a proper espresso machine.....now I got served my double espresso in a Sports Direct giant mug, but its progress.
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489

    eek said:

    It's the staff absences which are going to kill the NHS this time around

    https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1478379407882559493

    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NEW:
    @UHP_NHS
    has today declared a critical incident. Message to staff warns of 15 ambulances waiting and no space in A&E and 475 Covid staff absences. Full details:

    I keep saying it – the seven-day isolation rules are now a far greater threat than the virus itself. They need looking at, sharpish.
    Having a minimum time in isolation is really a hangover form the early days of the pandemic, when there was barley enough testing capacity to test people who might have it.

    The sensible policy is to end isolation and return to work when you have recovered form COVID, and tested negative, not at some predetermined date, 14 days, 10 days, 7 days or whatever.

    We should all just test as soon as the symptoms go, and if its negative then return to work. probably with a 'if you still don't have symptoms after 3 days do a test then.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772
    Sandpit said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
    Premier Inn are quite a bit better than that.

    I travelled to a particular part of London almost every week for work pre-pandemic and I tried every hotel in the area (and one a bus ride away), many airbnbs and most of the restaurants.

    The standard of mattresses was generally appalling. There was one place I stayed at that did genuinely good breakfasts, but they had the second worst mattresses. Premier Inn has its defects, but the one time I had a bad mattress there they were able to move me to a different room.

    Conversely, on the food front, I only tried one place out of at least a couple of dozen that wasn't as good as McDonald's. The standard in normal hotels, etc, is really very poor. So much easier to find decent food.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
    JCVI have stuffed up with boosters and child vaccination once, already. I know the dog returns to his vomit, but really....
    Not saying they are right, just that such considerations are and should be in their remit in providing advice. And I absolutely believe HMG should have overridden their advice sooner.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
    Amusing post, but if you are genuinely suggesting Blair is the equivalent of Saddam that is ludicrous. I was never a fan of Blair, and never voted for him, but the reality people have to get their heads around is that leaders have to make decisions on things that the rest of us would find unpalatable. Those that claim Blair is a war criminal are just fucking pathetic and they demean the victims of war crimes. Blair made significant mistakes, but a war criminal he is not. He is worthy of the knighthood for all the reasons Mike gave in the header.
    No. But claiming that people shouldn't be upset about Iraq is bollocks as well.

    Blair built the case for war on lies. The question is whether he knew about the lies or just didn't look too closely.

    Either way he fucked up big time. Bigger than Eden, I think.

    Strangely, no-one asked what these weapons were that could be deployed in 45 minutes were. What page in Janes were they on etc?
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    edited January 2022
    How a headline or even a short paragraph can completely hide / change a story

    image

  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072

    dixiedean said:

    Presser at 5. PM, Whitty and Vallence. The A team as it were.

    Will Boris hold the line.....
    YAWN

    Does anyone even bother watching these things any more?
    I catch the lowlights on PB
  • UnpopularUnpopular Posts: 775

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    If I'm reading MoonRabbit's post correctly then we are of a similar age, and they probably wouldn't have been capable of slamming the bedroom door in the late 80s and perhaps may not even have had a bedroom door to slam.

    At the time I remember feeling very similarly to MoonRabbit also, and vowed to myself that I would never vote Labour for this evil they had committed. My views have changed somewhat, and I have since voted for Labour. I still think the Iraq war was a terrible mistake, badly managed and entered into mendaciously. On the other hand, Iraq has something approaching a democracy and at the time of writing looks more stable than the arena of it's cousin-in-war, Afghanistan. My feelings on the issue today are uneasily mixed. As for Blair's gong, he probably deserves by having occupied the office of PM.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022

    Do Britons approve of Tony Blair being given a knighthood?

    All Britons
    Approve 14% / Disapprove 63%

    Lab voters
    Approve 21% / Disapprove 56%


    Con voters
    Approve 10% / Disapprove 79%


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478382951851249677?s=20

    Funnily enough the government will probably get it in the neck for this, even though it's nothing to do with them.....

    Ungrateful bastards.

    You are right about the last point, I have seen it loads on social media, few seem to realise this one is a Brenda decision. Instead all sorts of nonsense about "Tory" Tony and his mates in government giving him a gong.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591
    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
    JCVI have stuffed up with boosters and child vaccination once, already. I know the dog returns to his vomit, but really....
    Not saying they are right, just that such considerations are and should be in their remit in providing advice. And I absolutely believe HMG should have overridden their advice sooner.
    ... and that risks the "politicians over-riding the experts on public health" headlines.

    JCVI have a remit. They have already fucked up by going outside it.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,122
    Carnyx said:

    felix said:

    TOPPING said:

    felix said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    With unlimited mobile data [ we've had that for several years in my obscure part of Spain at €30 a month] why on earth does anyone bother with free wifi anymore?
    There is a question or was as to whether roaming will continue post-Brexit, wasn't there?
    There was and I think it's ended to the UK but open to us here in Spain andfor the rest of Europe so personally it doesn't affect me. My only irritant is telephone calls to my one UK bank and public offices in the UK like Pensions, etc. None of these are internet based - ridiculous in the modern age - and are the only calls now that cost me money when occasionally they have to be made. Does anyone know why the UK Pension Agency has virtually no online service worthy of the name - while all the private ones do? Even the TPA has an excellent web-site but not the actual OAP one. A total puzzle.
    UKPA is shitty right down to the paper and font they use - like DHSS documents from the late 1970s - and their refusal to provide proper annual income and tax statements for you to use for HMRC rather than telling you to work it out from some insane weekly rate (and what about leap years?). I'm not an OAP but had to do my late dad's tax. Not to mention dealing with the organization when someone dies - they reclaim every penny if the deceased has the temerity to die before the last payment is fully consumed, but just you try working out what that is.
    We have to rely on the one annual uprate letter they send and pass this on to the Spanish tax people. And no you cannot go online to download - it comes by the post which is not always that reliable here!
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
    WE DEMAND JUBILEE PANCAKES.

    (Which used to be 99p)
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    kyf_100 said:

    MattW said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Don't discuss vegetarianism during your meal.
    How do you know when someone is a vegan? They tell you.

    But it has buggered up my plans somewhat as I was thinking about booking hawksmoor, until I learned of my friend's dietary requirements. Now I'm not sure what to pick - I don't know Manchester very well.
    Perhaps a vegetarian Indian or Asian place?

    In London my goto used to be Rasa on Charlotte Street in that line, but that was some years ago.
    I should probably ask him where he wants to go, yes. I think letting him choose his go-to restaurant is better than me making a suggestion.

    But the other recommendation about the Ivy is also an option, I probably enjoy them for the same reason I enjoy the Premier Inn hub chain. Consistent and reliable, if nothing fancy.

    Look at me, not being a snob ;)
    Are you happy to go outside the City Centre? If so, Greens in West Didsbury is excellent. Also, if he is up for a glass of wine, there are some very good win bars on Burton Road (plus coffee shops etc). Metropolitan pub is also decent.
  • AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    kyf_100 said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    Travelodge only gives a few minutes of free wifi. However, that is plenty of time to open the last 500 PB comments to read at your leisure, every story on the BBC and Sky News websites you want to read and update your email inbox.

    Too many of my work trips have involved stays in a Travelodge.
    I honestly quite like the premier inn hubs, for an overnight stay. They're a bit cramped for a longer stay. But still, free wifi, free coffee, very friendly and polite staff. And most importantly the mattresses are good.

    I can't begin to tell you how many hotels I've stayed in at between two and four times the cost of a lowly premier inn hub, where the mattress is basically some spring loaded thing that has been shagged out by every call girl and prozzer in the hotel for two decades, and now you get to sleep on it.
    Premier Inn is the hotel version of McDonalds. It’s not the best hotel in the world - but if you find yourself in a strange town and need somewhere you know is going to be clean and comfortable…
    Ditto. I quite like Premier Inns (tho I wish they weren't so reliably ugly on the outside). I find their sameness quite soothing. Good showers, too
    Summer 2020 when we had completely failed to be able to go on a proper holiday due to Covid my wife was insistent that we do "something". We ended up going on a road trip around the North of England along with the 3 kids. Up through the Midlands to Yorkshire then Northumberland, Hadrian's Wall down through the Lake District to Merseyside. We stayed every night in a different Premier Inn. The quality of the accommodation varied immensely. Carlisle was awful whereas Heswall was very good. Although we saw some lovely parts of the country along the way it is not a holiday I would care to repeat again!
    I used to like Premier Inn, and it was my default go to value hotel. But the quality variance is there and in some properties its stark. A pity - some of them are really good.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
    WE DEMAND JUBILEE PANCAKES.

    (Which used to be 99p)
    Used to be the one of the highlight of my family holidays to Cornwall as a kid....stopping off at a Little Chef for jubilee pancakes.

    Now I imagine the kids of today in Cornwall are having organic fresh hand crafted crepes with matcha ice cream...
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    It would be interesting to know the rationale for the cut-off being exactly 6 minutes (rather than, say, ten), and what research had to be done to arrive at that figure.
    My first visit to Geneva had a similar thing. I think it is a very early example of the 'freemium' approach to marketing so loved by tech companies - get the person using the product for free, and then charge them either to continue to do so, or to get the functionality that truly makes it worthwhile.

    I'd assume the reasoning is that if you charged DM20 or CF20 up front, few would bother. But offering a sample free, some will get hooked (or, like you, forget to turn it off). Six minutes is probably about how long it takes for people's attention to stray so that they forget to turn it off.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,112

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
    Amusing post, but if you are genuinely suggesting Blair is the equivalent of Saddam that is ludicrous. I was never a fan of Blair, and never voted for him, but the reality people have to get their heads around is that leaders have to make decisions on things that the rest of us would find unpalatable. Those that claim Blair is a war criminal are just fucking pathetic and they demean the victims of war crimes. Blair made significant mistakes, but a war criminal he is not. He is worthy of the knighthood for all the reasons Mike gave in the header.
    No. But claiming that people shouldn't be upset about Iraq is bollocks as well.

    Blair built the case for war on lies. The question is whether he knew about the lies or just didn't look too closely.

    Either way he fucked up big time. Bigger than Eden, I think.

    Strangely, no-one asked what these weapons were that could be deployed in 45 minutes were. What page in Janes were they on etc?
    The MAZ TELs with assorted rockets that the regime used to show off at parades and trade fairs, or is my memory wrong?

    Of course, I wonder how many of those were dummy (I mean the ones on show, not the decoys). It's such an obvious issue.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,838
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    Florida is the place to go!
    I have considered Florida, but the weather is pleasant rather than great in January

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/4164143

    And also I don't find Florida that interesting. Tho I do like the bit around Sanibel island

    I keep looking at Sri Lanka, that IS tempting, but will it explode with Omicron?
    Madeira? Reliably warm plus a reassuring 'red telephone box' vibe that might appeal?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080

    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
    WE DEMAND JUBILEE PANCAKES.

    (Which used to be 99p)
    Used to be the one of the highlight of my family holidays to Cornwall as a kid....stopping off at a Little Chef for jubilee pancakes.
    I used to take someone on a trip once a year to different cities, and it was part of the ritual.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,112
    edited January 2022
    felix said:

    Carnyx said:

    felix said:

    TOPPING said:

    felix said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    At the more modest (read pathetic) end of the scale, in my very first job as an IT manager I was sent to a meeting in Germany. After we'd finished, I went to my room with The Times. The hotel had the usual channels plus some adult channels, with a notice saying that you could watch for 6 minutes and would then be charged 20 marks (as the currency then was).

    A bit curious, I turned it on, Emmanuelle somewhere or other. She lounged around toplessly for several minutes, without anything else much happening. Bored, I returned to The Times to read about the (much more interesting) balance of payments crisis, and forgot the 6-minute rule.

    Next morning "Miscellaneous, DM 20" was on the bill. So, a dilemma. Do I claim it on expenses, cheating my multi-billion employer of a trivial DM 20, or do I tell my supervisor (a notably austere but absent-minded manager who never checked claims) why I'm not claiming that item?

    I compromised. I left it in the claim, but didn't claim for the DM 25 taxi ride to the airport, so Ciba-Geigy was DM 5 better off.

    Innocent days! Nowadays I'd just not claim and explain without the slightest embarrassment. But in my first job in the 70s...
    The advent of internet porn was a real downer for hotel owners. They used to make squillions charging customers for naughty movies, now they don't. This is one reason they charge for wifi use, so they can at least get q few quid out of your wanking

    interesting gossip: it is - or was - a well known oddity that solo female guests watch just as much porn as solo men, perhaps more
    If the hotel doesn't have free wifi I am going somewhere else. Premier Inn does free wifi. Everywhere does free wifi, and if they don't... well, haven't they heard of tethering?

    Speaking of fine dining, I met up with an ex of mine a few weeks ago, and I asked her what she was doing with her life, career wise, these days.

    She said to me "Kyf, I feed and cook meals for the homeless, unemployed and alcoholics, the people on the very bottom rung of society, the people who can't help themselves."

    I said "Oh, so you work in the charity sector then?"

    She replied "No, I'm a chef at Wetherspoons."
    With unlimited mobile data [ we've had that for several years in my obscure part of Spain at €30 a month] why on earth does anyone bother with free wifi anymore?
    There is a question or was as to whether roaming will continue post-Brexit, wasn't there?
    There was and I think it's ended to the UK but open to us here in Spain andfor the rest of Europe so personally it doesn't affect me. My only irritant is telephone calls to my one UK bank and public offices in the UK like Pensions, etc. None of these are internet based - ridiculous in the modern age - and are the only calls now that cost me money when occasionally they have to be made. Does anyone know why the UK Pension Agency has virtually no online service worthy of the name - while all the private ones do? Even the TPA has an excellent web-site but not the actual OAP one. A total puzzle.
    UKPA is shitty right down to the paper and font they use - like DHSS documents from the late 1970s - and their refusal to provide proper annual income and tax statements for you to use for HMRC rather than telling you to work it out from some insane weekly rate (and what about leap years?). I'm not an OAP but had to do my late dad's tax. Not to mention dealing with the organization when someone dies - they reclaim every penny if the deceased has the temerity to die before the last payment is fully consumed, but just you try working out what that is.
    We have to rely on the one annual uprate letter they send and pass this on to the Spanish tax people. And no you cannot go online to download - it comes by the post which is not always that reliable here!
    I know only too well what you mean. "This is what we will pay you and you can ****ing well work it out for yourself". Must be about the only organization exempt from doing P60s. They're supposed to notify HMRC themselves but how can you be sure it is right?

    Edit: and no consolation either if it's not HMRC that taxes you.

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    MattW said:

    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
    WE DEMAND JUBILEE PANCAKES.

    (Which used to be 99p)
    Used to be the one of the highlight of my family holidays to Cornwall as a kid....stopping off at a Little Chef for jubilee pancakes.
    I used to take someone on a trip once a year to different cities, and it was part of the ritual.
    Obviously fish and chips, but also knickerbocker glory was the other culinary highlight of Cornwall trips. Now the likes of Padstow are Rick Stein food emporium, where even takeaway fish and chips are £15.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591
    Carnyx said:

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
    Amusing post, but if you are genuinely suggesting Blair is the equivalent of Saddam that is ludicrous. I was never a fan of Blair, and never voted for him, but the reality people have to get their heads around is that leaders have to make decisions on things that the rest of us would find unpalatable. Those that claim Blair is a war criminal are just fucking pathetic and they demean the victims of war crimes. Blair made significant mistakes, but a war criminal he is not. He is worthy of the knighthood for all the reasons Mike gave in the header.
    No. But claiming that people shouldn't be upset about Iraq is bollocks as well.

    Blair built the case for war on lies. The question is whether he knew about the lies or just didn't look too closely.

    Either way he fucked up big time. Bigger than Eden, I think.

    Strangely, no-one asked what these weapons were that could be deployed in 45 minutes were. What page in Janes were they on etc?
    The MAZ TELs with assorted rockets that the regime used to show off at parades and trade fairs, or is my memory wrong?

    Of course, I wonder how many of those were dummy (I mean the ones on show, not the decoys). It's such an obvious issue.
    IIRC the 45 minute claim didn't ever actually connect with actual claims of actual weapons. The 45 minute thing was based on shadowy claims* of new capabilities. Not the odds and ends of chemical weapons that were still in Iraq after the inspectors had been through.

    *Bullshit claims
  • CookieCookie Posts: 11,182

    kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Plenty, if you're central Manchester.

    The Ivy

    Full menu here

    https://theivymanchester.com/the-ivy-brasserie/menus/

    vegetarian here

    https://d2kv5npyn5oapy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2021/11/VEGAN_NORMAL_WINTER_2021.pdf

    If that doesn't tickle your fancy, I can provide more.
    Not sure how far out of the centre you might want to go, but by repute Green's in Didsbury is the best vegetarian restaurant in Manchester:
    http://www.greensdidsbury.co.uk/
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,839
    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
    JCVI have stuffed up with boosters and child vaccination once, already. I know the dog returns to his vomit, but really....
    Not saying they are right, just that such considerations are and should be in their remit in providing advice. And I absolutely believe HMG should have overridden their advice sooner.
    The global covid situation is, I think a bit like checking general sea conditions if you're on a boat. It's important, but it's an environmental factor in any sort of analysis. The JCVI hints at "The planet" being treated as if it's their organisation. It is most definitely not.
  • A year on from the transition period ending, Britons continue to think that Brexit is going badly

    Going well: 15% (-3)
    Going badly: 52% (n/c)
    Neither: 23% (+3)

    Changes from 26th Nov


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478387855462383617
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    A year on from the transition period ending, Britons continue to think that Brexit is going badly

    Going well: 15% (-3)
    Going badly: 52% (n/c)
    Neither: 23% (+3)

    Changes from 26th Nov


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478387855462383617

    Wouldn't "Going fantastically" be categorised under "Neither"? ;)
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,670
    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    HYUFD said:

    JohnO said:

    JohnO said:

    I believe Keir Starmer. If the Tories are not able to form a Government (ie they have fewer than, say, 305-10 seats), then Starmer will become PM. He needs no deals with the SNP in particular (he might certainly reach some sort of accommodation with the LibDems).

    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in , you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you th
    Are the Nats really going to vote with the opposition Tories to bring down his new administration and risk a second immediate election (the FTPA will have been repealed by then) at which they will be pilloried? I don't think so.

    The nearest equivalent is February 1974, when it was the Conservatives, terrified of another election, who abstained and let Harold Wilson form a minority administration.

    I imagine that is what will happen again. So Starmer governs for several months - no deals with anyone - and goes to the country a few months later to secure a majority. Which he will likely obtain.

    Which sort of Lab policies do you think the SNP might oppose? Lovely, progressive cuddly owls for everyone, or gulags for scroungers and red, white & blue flag waving to show Johnny EU that SKS is as tough as BJ.
    Dunno. You're a Nat - you tell us. All I'm saying is that Starmer will not need to do any deals with the SNP (contrary to the view by several here that he will be compelled to reach an accommodation which might include a second independence referendum).
    If we end up with a hung parliament but with Tories having most seats but not enough for a majority even with the DUP, then Starmer would likely end up PM.

    However he would find it near impossible to get any legislation on English domestic legislation through as there may still be a majority of Tory MPs in England and the SNP would abstain if Starmer did not give them indyref2 + devomax.
    Hardly

    Labour loses an English Domestic legislation vote - new election with Labour now having a message to convince SNP voters to vote Labour....
    Why SNP voters? They wouldn't dream of interfering in English domestic legislation. No skin off their nose.
    This election was created by the SNP not supporting something - vote Labour or look forward to continual elections.

    The entire point of the October 74 election was to get a Labour Majority. This would be an almost identical election.
    more bollox
    And your reasons for calling it bollox? Oh you don't have any because you've pickled your brain.

    Well smartarse , yet another clown who likes to insult through their ignorance. I have forgotten more than your tiny brain will ever know for sure. Since you wrote the bollox and have no clue , I can presume you have little brain to pickle, and prefer just to write bollox.
    The SNP voted against as Labour had ratted on their promise of a referendum and the SNP had said they would not have that and so gave Labour their just desserts.
    I happened to know that but any less than intelligent person could have easily checked the facts before they ignorantly posted rubbish and then had the temerity to question someone who knew the answer.
    You are far from as smart as you think you are sunshine and your use of old Scottish tropes says plenty about you, inferiority complex.
    Sorry but what was you actual point within the diatribe of insults that merely emphasis how bad you are at creating an argument.

    Where does your idea of a referendum appear from - the entire point in all posts so far is that 1 wasn't offered - as Labour once they have x amounts of seats can rule without explicit SNP support because the SNP can hardly vote with the Tories can they?

    + there is zero chance of a Scottish referendum being included within a Labour Manifesto so I can't see where your "promise" is coming from in the first place.

    As I said diatribe full of insults containing an ill informed thought that has no basis within the thesis being discussed
    Says the clown who accuses me of being a drunkard. They had promised they would hold a referendum and then stated categorically that they would not, is that not clear enough for you. Slightly better than your " they voted against something or other" pish. Jog on now and give me peace , and make it a very long one.
    When did they promise a referendum and under what leader?

    When SKS offers you one then you have a valid argument until then it's another of your pipe dreams.

    As for calling you a drunkard, when else do people resort to insults before 10pm at night on a web forum...

    The only person who does it on this site is you and being frank you exhibit a lot of habits of a drunk...
    Jog on loser
    So you've not been offered anything by SKS - thought as much.

    Yep the drink has pickled your brain - allowing very brief moments of clarity within a sea of pointless insults.
    Just for you arsehole

    Scotland Act 1978
    The government returned to the issue of devolution in November 1977. Separate bills for Scotland and Wales were published and support from the Liberals was obtained. In spite of continued opposition requiring another guillotine motion, the Bills were passed.[1] During the passage of the Scotland Act 1978 through Parliament, an amendment introduced by Labour MP George Cunningham added a requirement that the bill had to be approved by 40% of the total registered electorate, as well as a simple majority (50% + 1).
    So 1978 -

    Firstly it's ancient history and pre Thatcher.

    Secondly all the oil money has now gone (which is annoying and explains the attacks but the damage cannot be undone).

    Personally I would be very happy for Scotland to inherit what is left of the North Sea Oil Industry (from memory it's mainly decommissioning costs that haven't been saved for and that the Government is going to cut corners to reduce).
    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in to help Tories , I proved that as bollox ,you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you then start wittering about oil.
    Where to next, best to go and practice Scottish insults with your bellend pal foremain. As I said previously Jog on.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    Unpopular said:

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    If I'm reading MoonRabbit's post correctly then we are of a similar age, and they probably wouldn't have been capable of slamming the bedroom door in the late 80s and perhaps may not even have had a bedroom door to slam.

    At the time I remember feeling very similarly to MoonRabbit also, and vowed to myself that I would never vote Labour for this evil they had committed. My views have changed somewhat, and I have since voted for Labour. I still think the Iraq war was a terrible mistake, badly managed and entered into mendaciously. On the other hand, Iraq has something approaching a democracy and at the time of writing looks more stable than the arena of it's cousin-in-war, Afghanistan. My feelings on the issue today are uneasily mixed. As for Blair's gong, he probably deserves by having occupied the office of PM.
    Your good thoughtful answer is popular with me Unpopular. 👍🏻

    Foremain is in a bad bad place with his reply because truth is no one done anything when Madass my mum calks him, gassed the Kurds other than keep selling him weapons!

    Your forgetting Nigel that you are debating with the first Gen Z Prime Minister. I’m only mid twenties but I appreciate already my governments ethical foreign policy will be a challenge to get right.

    But lying about need for a war that kills millions of people is not a ethical policy that deserves to be rewarded.

    The people who drowned in Chanel before Christmas were mostly Kurds. You saying the mess successive British governments have made in the Middle East isn’t partly responsible for them ending up in the Chanel?

    Instead of dropping bombs on far away countries to make them better places we should try jobs and investments.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    It really is a problem in the States.

    When touring and absolutely having to eat in a regular kind of place, I became used to ordering only an 'appetiser' – to the absolute bafflement of the waitresses, who tried to insist I order a full meal, then take the several metric tonnes of waste with me, cold, in a bag. I declined.

    I learned to avoid roadside places. Go slightly hungry all day, then park up in a 'heritage' town centre hotel somewhere and find a proper restaurant, where I had the opportunity to pay three times as much for a third of the volume.
    Yes, it's a major problem away from the big coastal cities. And you can't even go into a supermarket and whip up a picnic because all the cheese and cold meats are horrible or non existent. I still remember, with a shudder, my visit to the enormous WalMart in Natchez Mississippi. They had a far better selection of sub machine guns than blue cheese. In fact they didn't have ANY blue cheese

    We forget how fortunate we are in the UK (in this regard), you can go to a Tesco or M&S in Stornoway or north Norfolk or remote Devon or Anglesey - and it will reliably have a nice selection of salamis, hams, cheeses, breads, wines, smoked fish, from all over Europe/the world - enough for a very nice picnic in your hotel room, if that's what you fancy

    And then there's America's fucking tipping culture!!!

    But I don't want to be down on America. The people are splendidly kind, the beer is now excellent, and the landscapes some of the best on the planet. The National Parks are THE best on the planet
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.
    That's a UN level/type decision. It simply isn't the JCVI's remit.
    Nah! It's in their remit. Arguing that it is not is like arguing that a safety officer at a BSL4 laboratory should not consider contingency plans for an earthquake, as that's something outside of the building/grounds of the lab.
    JCVI have stuffed up with boosters and child vaccination once, already. I know the dog returns to his vomit, but really....
    Not saying they are right, just that such considerations are and should be in their remit in providing advice. And I absolutely believe HMG should have overridden their advice sooner.
    ... and that risks the "politicians over-riding the experts on public health" headlines.

    JCVI have a remit. They have already fucked up by going outside it.
    Yes, it has a remit. Which is broad:

    To advise the Secretary of State on “The provision of vaccination and immunisation services being
    facilities for the prevention of illness.


    and, for the UK health departments:

    To advise UK health departments on immunisations for the prevention of infections and/or disease following due consideration of the evidence on the burden of disease, on vaccine safety and efficacy and on the impact and cost effectiveness of immunisation strategies. To consider and identify factors for the successful and effective implementation of immunisation strategies. To identify important knowledge gaps relating to immunisations or immunisation programmes where further research and/or surveillance should be considered.

    If they think that vaccinations for other parts of the globe impact the potential success and effectiveness of immunization strategies in the UK, then that is clearly within this remit, on a prima facie reading.
  • maaarshmaaarsh Posts: 3,391
    Just spotted the RSA hospital beds occupied figure has really fallen sharply today (down ~400 to 8.86k) after plateuing for a while. Good news.
  • So Brexit going well is as popular as Tony Blair getting a knighthood.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,838
    MaxPB said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    'We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months', says JCVI chief
    Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain's vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

    6 monthly jabs may or may not be the right thing, but his remit is not "THE PLANET". It's the UK. Once again heading outside their remit.

    Unless we vaccinate the planet - collectively - then we aren't immune from the next mutation.

    That's another covid myth apparently: Myth #1,765 in a regular series...

    Prof Francois Balloux
    @BallouxFrancois

    We should share Covid vaccines with the world, because it is the right thing to do, but not because it will limit of emergence of 'variants' - vaccines don't generate variants but they don't preclude their emergence either - it's all a bit unclear and complicated.
    Not just people either, Covid is a general mammalian phenomenon
    Yes, there's a huge misunderstanding about how variants occur and evolutionary pathways. The science is really complicated but people just want to boil it down to "give vaccines away" or somehow blame the west, Boris, Trump, the EU or whatever their pet hate is.
    There's the opposite too. People making out a fast global vaccine rollout *isn't* important, or is 'pie in the sky' idealism, and advancing junk science or politics to support that claim. Don't mean you, btw, but there's plenty of it about.
  • 15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 3,911
    Cookie said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Most stressful meal (to put onto expenses as well) was the time I had to meet up with a client, and the only available slot in his calendar was 8pm onwards, so he said he'd take me to a nice restaurant and we could have a meal on it.

    All the senior bods at work told me, pay for it, pay for it all.

    The restaurant he took me to?

    Stringfellows, who knew the lapdancing club also had a restaurant attached, the meal and drinks were reasonable (£400 all in but most of that was drinks), the thing that terrified me and wasn't sure if I might get sacked.

    The heavenly money you buy at the front door which you give to the ladies for a (private) lap dance, that came to over £2,000.

    Wasn't sure how to put that on expenses.

    I have never been (and hate strip clubs) but I’m reliably informed that the food at Stringfellows is actually very good? Or at least it used to be?
    It was very nice in 2006.
    I'm in manchester for a meeting in a couple of weeks, I've just learned the person I'm meeting is a vegetarian. Any recommendations?
    Plenty, if you're central Manchester.

    The Ivy

    Full menu here

    https://theivymanchester.com/the-ivy-brasserie/menus/

    vegetarian here

    https://d2kv5npyn5oapy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2021/11/VEGAN_NORMAL_WINTER_2021.pdf

    If that doesn't tickle your fancy, I can provide more.
    Not sure how far out of the centre you might want to go, but by repute Green's in Didsbury is the best vegetarian restaurant in Manchester:
    http://www.greensdidsbury.co.uk/
    That is a good suggestion, thank you. I'm staying very centrally but that might make a good lunch spot rather than a dinner spot. Nice one.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,591

    Unpopular said:

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    If I'm reading MoonRabbit's post correctly then we are of a similar age, and they probably wouldn't have been capable of slamming the bedroom door in the late 80s and perhaps may not even have had a bedroom door to slam.

    At the time I remember feeling very similarly to MoonRabbit also, and vowed to myself that I would never vote Labour for this evil they had committed. My views have changed somewhat, and I have since voted for Labour. I still think the Iraq war was a terrible mistake, badly managed and entered into mendaciously. On the other hand, Iraq has something approaching a democracy and at the time of writing looks more stable than the arena of it's cousin-in-war, Afghanistan. My feelings on the issue today are uneasily mixed. As for Blair's gong, he probably deserves by having occupied the office of PM.
    Your good thoughtful answer is popular with me Unpopular. 👍🏻

    Foremain is in a bad bad place with his reply because truth is no one done anything when Madass my mum calks him, gassed the Kurds other than keep selling him weapons!

    Your forgetting Nigel that you are debating with the first Gen Z Prime Minister. I’m only mid twenties but I appreciate already my governments ethical foreign policy will be a challenge to get right.

    But lying about need for a war that kills millions of people is not a ethical policy that deserves to be rewarded.

    The people who drowned in Chanel before Christmas were mostly Kurds. You saying the mess successive British governments have made in the Middle East isn’t partly responsible for them ending up in the Chanel?

    Instead of dropping bombs on far away countries to make them better places we should try jobs and investments.

    That reminds me of PJ O'Rourke's comment when touring China in the early 90s.

    Something like "Everywhere I went, giant billboards carried a familiar visage. Some say he was a military genius. Some say he killed millions. Yes, it was Col. Sanders."
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    Who needs details in this day and age?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    It really is a problem in the States.

    When touring and absolutely having to eat in a regular kind of place, I became used to ordering only an 'appetiser' – to the absolute bafflement of the waitresses, who tried to insist I order a full meal, then take the several metric tonnes of waste with me, cold, in a bag. I declined.

    I learned to avoid roadside places. Go slightly hungry all day, then park up in a 'heritage' town centre hotel somewhere and find a proper restaurant, where I had the opportunity to pay three times as much for a third of the volume.
    Yes, it's a major problem away from the big coastal cities. And you can't even go into a supermarket and whip up a picnic because all the cheese and cold meats are horrible or non existent. I still remember, with a shudder, my visit to the enormous WalMart in Natchez Mississippi. They had a far better selection of sub machine guns than blue cheese. In fact they didn't have ANY blue cheese

    We forget how fortunate we are in the UK (in this regard), you can go to a Tesco or M&S in Stornoway or north Norfolk or remote Devon or Anglesey - and it will reliably have a nice selection of salamis, hams, cheeses, breads, wines, smoked fish, from all over Europe/the world - enough for a very nice picnic in your hotel room, if that's what you fancy

    And then there's America's fucking tipping culture!!!

    But I don't want to be down on America. The people are splendidly kind, the beer is now excellent, and the landscapes some of the best on the planet. The National Parks are THE best on the planet
    Bit unfair on US supermarkets, they have got better...obviously not Walmart, but in addition to Whole Foods you also big chains like Publix.
  • 15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    The UK holds all the cards so it'll be easy for Sir Keir.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,670
    Sandpit said:

    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Carnyx said:

    TOPPING said:

    Amateurs.

    At Suntory (sadly no longer with us) on St.James's you could pay £150 for prawn tempura.

    Not that I ever did, mind. I was taken there, though and bonkers isn't the word for the prices and this was a couple of decades ago.

    Anyway, TB yes of course he should have (had ages ago) a knighthood and probably more than that.

    What on earth did they do? Take you down in a Roller to Essex to choose your prawn before it was seined?
    A Russian (v rich, you know the profile type) friend said let's go. To me and a friend. We gulped because it had a reputation for being fiendishly expensive. The menu bore this out. Cheapest set menu which was six pieces of sushi = £87. My friend, thinking oh god, ordered that. I ordered the next one up - some sushi IIRC and some tempura = £147. Expensive but I thought sod it I'll never come here again. No way were these full meals just the very cheapest two things on the menu. My Russian friend ordered food at around £500 and very kindly shared it with us. There was then a tense wait as the bill arrived at which point the Russian friend paused, smiled, and then said - here I'll settle it.
    Mega rich friend of mine took me to Kaspar’s at the Savoy for a Xmas lunch about four/five years ago

    He dropped £1000+. On lunch. For 2

    And the thing is, apart from the oysters and caviar (which are quite hard to get wrong, you just have to serve them) it wasn’t very good. Totally unmemorable

    We then jumped in his chauffeured and armoured Bentley, went to the Ivy, where he dropped another £3k buying everyone champagne and martinis and the like

    Unfortunately (for me) he’s now completely sober

    Were you not embarrassed to let him pay whether rich or not.
    Never be embarrased, to let someone seriously rich buy you lunch. Especially those from cultures where the extravagant display of wealth is part of the personality, and they get off on how much they can drop in a restaurant in a couple of hours.
    Bad bad karma in Scotland if you don't buy your round, you can stoop no lower other than spitting in someone's face.
  • 15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    The UK holds all the cards so it'll be easy for Sir Keir.
    To be honest it is a genuine question and needs asking
  • RobD said:

    A year on from the transition period ending, Britons continue to think that Brexit is going badly

    Going well: 15% (-3)
    Going badly: 52% (n/c)
    Neither: 23% (+3)

    Changes from 26th Nov


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478387855462383617

    Wouldn't "Going fantastically" be categorised under "Neither"? ;)
    Do they include pathologically insane people in such surveys?
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    HYUFD said:

    JohnO said:

    JohnO said:

    I believe Keir Starmer. If the Tories are not able to form a Government (ie they have fewer than, say, 305-10 seats), then Starmer will become PM. He needs no deals with the SNP in particular (he might certainly reach some sort of accommodation with the LibDems).

    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in , you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you th
    Are the Nats really going to vote with the opposition Tories to bring down his new administration and risk a second immediate election (the FTPA will have been repealed by then) at which they will be pilloried? I don't think so.

    The nearest equivalent is February 1974, when it was the Conservatives, terrified of another election, who abstained and let Harold Wilson form a minority administration.

    I imagine that is what will happen again. So Starmer governs for several months - no deals with anyone - and goes to the country a few months later to secure a majority. Which he will likely obtain.

    Which sort of Lab policies do you think the SNP might oppose? Lovely, progressive cuddly owls for everyone, or gulags for scroungers and red, white & blue flag waving to show Johnny EU that SKS is as tough as BJ.
    Dunno. You're a Nat - you tell us. All I'm saying is that Starmer will not need to do any deals with the SNP (contrary to the view by several here that he will be compelled to reach an accommodation which might include a second independence referendum).
    If we end up with a hung parliament but with Tories having most seats but not enough for a majority even with the DUP, then Starmer would likely end up PM.

    However he would find it near impossible to get any legislation on English domestic legislation through as there may still be a majority of Tory MPs in England and the SNP would abstain if Starmer did not give them indyref2 + devomax.
    Hardly

    Labour loses an English Domestic legislation vote - new election with Labour now having a message to convince SNP voters to vote Labour....
    Why SNP voters? They wouldn't dream of interfering in English domestic legislation. No skin off their nose.
    This election was created by the SNP not supporting something - vote Labour or look forward to continual elections.

    The entire point of the October 74 election was to get a Labour Majority. This would be an almost identical election.
    more bollox
    And your reasons for calling it bollox? Oh you don't have any because you've pickled your brain.

    Well smartarse , yet another clown who likes to insult through their ignorance. I have forgotten more than your tiny brain will ever know for sure. Since you wrote the bollox and have no clue , I can presume you have little brain to pickle, and prefer just to write bollox.
    The SNP voted against as Labour had ratted on their promise of a referendum and the SNP had said they would not have that and so gave Labour their just desserts.
    I happened to know that but any less than intelligent person could have easily checked the facts before they ignorantly posted rubbish and then had the temerity to question someone who knew the answer.
    You are far from as smart as you think you are sunshine and your use of old Scottish tropes says plenty about you, inferiority complex.
    Sorry but what was you actual point within the diatribe of insults that merely emphasis how bad you are at creating an argument.

    Where does your idea of a referendum appear from - the entire point in all posts so far is that 1 wasn't offered - as Labour once they have x amounts of seats can rule without explicit SNP support because the SNP can hardly vote with the Tories can they?

    + there is zero chance of a Scottish referendum being included within a Labour Manifesto so I can't see where your "promise" is coming from in the first place.

    As I said diatribe full of insults containing an ill informed thought that has no basis within the thesis being discussed
    Says the clown who accuses me of being a drunkard. They had promised they would hold a referendum and then stated categorically that they would not, is that not clear enough for you. Slightly better than your " they voted against something or other" pish. Jog on now and give me peace , and make it a very long one.
    When did they promise a referendum and under what leader?

    When SKS offers you one then you have a valid argument until then it's another of your pipe dreams.

    As for calling you a drunkard, when else do people resort to insults before 10pm at night on a web forum...

    The only person who does it on this site is you and being frank you exhibit a lot of habits of a drunk...
    Jog on loser
    So you've not been offered anything by SKS - thought as much.

    Yep the drink has pickled your brain - allowing very brief moments of clarity within a sea of pointless insults.
    Just for you arsehole

    Scotland Act 1978
    The government returned to the issue of devolution in November 1977. Separate bills for Scotland and Wales were published and support from the Liberals was obtained. In spite of continued opposition requiring another guillotine motion, the Bills were passed.[1] During the passage of the Scotland Act 1978 through Parliament, an amendment introduced by Labour MP George Cunningham added a requirement that the bill had to be approved by 40% of the total registered electorate, as well as a simple majority (50% + 1).
    So 1978 -

    Firstly it's ancient history and pre Thatcher.

    Secondly all the oil money has now gone (which is annoying and explains the attacks but the damage cannot be undone).

    Personally I would be very happy for Scotland to inherit what is left of the North Sea Oil Industry (from memory it's mainly decommissioning costs that haven't been saved for and that the Government is going to cut corners to reduce).
    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in to help Tories , I proved that as bollox ,you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you then start wittering about oil.
    Where to next, best to go and practice Scottish insults with your bellend pal foremain. As I said previously Jog on.
    Where did I say the SNP put Thatcher in to help the Tories? The comment was simply that 1978 was prior to Thatcher becoming PM. And that was only added to show it's ancient history.

    You are utterly deluded as demonstrated by your continual ability to make 1+1 = 47.

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,112

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    The UK holds all the cards so it'll be easy for Sir Keir.
    To be honest it is a genuine question and needs asking
    If Mr Johnson has had his go, though, it's about time someone else tried a different approach.
  • RobD said:

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    Who needs details in this day and age?
    I do believe an honest debate is needed across the political spectrum and not just dismissed as too hard to answer
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,670
    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    4 C is luxury and too boot as I am still testing positive after 9-10 days, my wife insists all windows are open so I do not infect her. It is like Siberia indoors even with heating turned up.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    Florida is the place to go!
    I have considered Florida, but the weather is pleasant rather than great in January

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/4164143

    And also I don't find Florida that interesting. Tho I do like the bit around Sanibel island

    I keep looking at Sri Lanka, that IS tempting, but will it explode with Omicron?
    Madeira? Reliably warm plus a reassuring 'red telephone box' vibe that might appeal?
    I'm really not the type who needs a "red telephone box vibe". I like the opposite. Radical weirdness. One of my greatest ever trips was to Greenland, for exactly that reason. It is intensely weird, and about as different to the Primrose Hill borders as it is possible to get. Wonderful

    However it's a bit dark and cold right now in Greenland, as it is on the rugged borders of Primrose Hill, and I want real warmth

    Luxor is a possible, but again Covid worries...

    There should be an app which tells you Where Right Now Is Sunny and Hot? Giving you all the choices

    OK I am now waffling on ineffectively. Time to do some New Year book-keeping. Later, PB.....
  • Carnyx said:

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    The UK holds all the cards so it'll be easy for Sir Keir.
    To be honest it is a genuine question and needs asking
    If Mr Johnson has had his go, though, it's about time someone else tried a different approach.
    I am not opposing that, but I am asking the question which different approach and the pluses and minuses involved
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,138

    Do Britons approve of Tony Blair being given a knighthood?

    All Britons
    Approve 14% / Disapprove 63%

    Lab voters
    Approve 21% / Disapprove 56%


    Con voters
    Approve 10% / Disapprove 79%


    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1478382951851249677?s=20

    Funnily enough the government will probably get it in the neck for this, even though it's nothing to do with them.....

    Ungrateful bastards.

    You are right about the last point, I have seen it loads on social media, few seem to realise this one is a Brenda decision. Instead all sorts of nonsense about "Tory" Tony and his mates in government giving him a gong.
    Not for the first time I find myself utterly out of tune with the majority opinion in this country. I approve of giving him a knighthood. I also think he was a very good PM.

    I vehemently disagreed with going to war with Iraq but it didn't cost him my vote as I was, throughout his term in office (except in 1997), a Lib Dem voter.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    4 C is luxury and too boot as I am still testing positive after 9-10 days, my wife insists all windows are open so I do not infect her. It is like Siberia indoors even with heating turned up.
    I though the infectiousness was early on in the illness inc before symptoms? After 9-10 you won't be infections even though you are testing positive. Can someone clarify?
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    Florida is the place to go!
    I have considered Florida, but the weather is pleasant rather than great in January

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/4164143

    And also I don't find Florida that interesting. Tho I do like the bit around Sanibel island

    I keep looking at Sri Lanka, that IS tempting, but will it explode with Omicron?
    Madeira? Reliably warm plus a reassuring 'red telephone box' vibe that might appeal?
    I'm really not the type who needs a "red telephone box vibe". I like the opposite. Radical weirdness. One of my greatest ever trips was to Greenland, for exactly that reason. It is intensely weird, and about as different to the Primrose Hill borders as it is possible to get. Wonderful

    However it's a bit dark and cold right now in Greenland, as it is on the rugged borders of Primrose Hill, and I want real warmth

    Luxor is a possible, but again Covid worries...

    There should be an app which tells you Where Right Now Is Sunny and Hot? Giving you all the choices

    OK I am now waffling on ineffectively. Time to do some New Year book-keeping. Later, PB.....
    You not another one who has lost trust in the vaccines are you? is your hesitancy because of a fear you may test positive before you return to the UK?
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    malcolmg said:

    Leon said:

    felix said:

    Here in Almeria we live in a small village - under 3k and we have a super restaurant 200 metres from the house and at least a dozen more [ several award winning] within 10 miles where you can eat superbly well for much less than €50 a head including wine. We are near a tourist area but popular with Spanish tourists and even at the height of summer the whole area has probably under 100k of locals and holiday makers. Nearly all of the eating options from tapas to totr offer great quality and value. Apart from the 320 sunny days and fantastic semi-desert terrai it is one of the joys of living here.

    Thanks for that. It is 4C with flakes of snow here in London. And we have 2-3 more months of this

    It is going to be quite wearing. I am desperate to flee, but everywhere interesting, hot and sunny is either shut or too risky or about to explode with Omicron
    4 C is luxury and too boot as I am still testing positive after 9-10 days, my wife insists all windows are open so I do not infect her. It is like Siberia indoors even with heating turned up.
    Must be a parched desert surrounding your house with all the hot air you produce escaping! (Sorry - couldn't resist)

    Hope you get well soon, and that the heating bill isn't too grim.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    I think we forget how much better food in the UK has got. Because not many pubs can survive as shitty boozers and huge competition in the restaurant sector, "bog standard" offers across the board have got a hell of a lot better in the past 20-30 years. Sure we still have cheap and crap, but that £10 for a main range has got infinity better in lots of places, and many more people are willing to pay for really good stuff (I presume tv chefs lot has helped this).

    Its not that long ago that the Olympic Breakfast at a Little Chef was what people did...now they queue for the overpriced but still better offering from the likes of the Breakfast Club.

    The US its seems to be cheap and shit, middle price range, eat your weight in meat...then the small niche high end.
    WE DEMAND JUBILEE PANCAKES.

    (Which used to be 99p)
    Used to be the one of the highlight of my family holidays to Cornwall as a kid....stopping off at a Little Chef for jubilee pancakes.

    Now I imagine the kids of today in Cornwall are having organic fresh hand crafted crepes with matcha ice cream...
    I took my mum out to lunch in Falmouth over Xmas. The town now has a splendid choice of excellent restaurants, from oyster bars to crab shacks to lovely Thai places to agreeable brasseries with glorious views

    Unthinkable 30 years ago. A wonderful revolution

    And now I really must go......
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415
    Carnyx said:

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    The UK holds all the cards so it'll be easy for Sir Keir.
    To be honest it is a genuine question and needs asking
    If Mr Johnson has had his go, though, it's about time someone else tried a different approach.
    Before the electorate vote in Starmer the Conservatives can shoot Labours fox by installing a proper Primeminister and government.

    Am I the only person on PB.com convinced Boris is about to get vonked? Boris can’t go a fortnight without being all over papers with some shameful scandal. It’s what he is, he can’t change. The chances of a Tory poll lead under him now are zilch.

    Anyone think his knew haircut is an improvement? He is beginning to look really ugly old man without trademark hair to hide it.

    Anyway, important Conservative Party news. My Dad reckons the Conservative party members he knows are United the party are about to replace Bozo now because they need to get proper economic policy’s and financial policy for all the economic and financial problems Boris won’t do anything about and doesn’t have a clue about.

    That’s true isn’t it? Under Boris it’s not clear what the Conservative economic and financial policy is despite Boris set piece speeches to spell it out. And that’s the reason he is being got rid of next week.

    *political betting post* I had a £50 bet on Javid because I thought Rishi Sunak had wasted too much money without looking after it properly, but I’m now 99 parcent convinced Sunak is taking over this month. Can I now bet on Sunak as well, bet against my own bet?
  • malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    eek said:

    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    HYUFD said:

    JohnO said:

    JohnO said:

    I believe Keir Starmer. If the Tories are not able to form a Government (ie they have fewer than, say, 305-10 seats), then Starmer will become PM. He needs no deals with the SNP in particular (he might certainly reach some sort of accommodation with the LibDems).

    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in , you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you th
    Are the Nats really going to vote with the opposition Tories to bring down his new administration and risk a second immediate election (the FTPA will have been repealed by then) at which they will be pilloried? I don't think so.

    The nearest equivalent is February 1974, when it was the Conservatives, terrified of another election, who abstained and let Harold Wilson form a minority administration.

    I imagine that is what will happen again. So Starmer governs for several months - no deals with anyone - and goes to the country a few months later to secure a majority. Which he will likely obtain.

    Which sort of Lab policies do you think the SNP might oppose? Lovely, progressive cuddly owls for everyone, or gulags for scroungers and red, white & blue flag waving to show Johnny EU that SKS is as tough as BJ.
    Dunno. You're a Nat - you tell us. All I'm saying is that Starmer will not need to do any deals with the SNP (contrary to the view by several here that he will be compelled to reach an accommodation which might include a second independence referendum).
    If we end up with a hung parliament but with Tories having most seats but not enough for a majority even with the DUP, then Starmer would likely end up PM.

    However he would find it near impossible to get any legislation on English domestic legislation through as there may still be a majority of Tory MPs in England and the SNP would abstain if Starmer did not give them indyref2 + devomax.
    Hardly

    Labour loses an English Domestic legislation vote - new election with Labour now having a message to convince SNP voters to vote Labour....
    Why SNP voters? They wouldn't dream of interfering in English domestic legislation. No skin off their nose.
    This election was created by the SNP not supporting something - vote Labour or look forward to continual elections.

    The entire point of the October 74 election was to get a Labour Majority. This would be an almost identical election.
    more bollox
    And your reasons for calling it bollox? Oh you don't have any because you've pickled your brain.

    Well smartarse , yet another clown who likes to insult through their ignorance. I have forgotten more than your tiny brain will ever know for sure. Since you wrote the bollox and have no clue , I can presume you have little brain to pickle, and prefer just to write bollox.
    The SNP voted against as Labour had ratted on their promise of a referendum and the SNP had said they would not have that and so gave Labour their just desserts.
    I happened to know that but any less than intelligent person could have easily checked the facts before they ignorantly posted rubbish and then had the temerity to question someone who knew the answer.
    You are far from as smart as you think you are sunshine and your use of old Scottish tropes says plenty about you, inferiority complex.
    Sorry but what was you actual point within the diatribe of insults that merely emphasis how bad you are at creating an argument.

    Where does your idea of a referendum appear from - the entire point in all posts so far is that 1 wasn't offered - as Labour once they have x amounts of seats can rule without explicit SNP support because the SNP can hardly vote with the Tories can they?

    + there is zero chance of a Scottish referendum being included within a Labour Manifesto so I can't see where your "promise" is coming from in the first place.

    As I said diatribe full of insults containing an ill informed thought that has no basis within the thesis being discussed
    Says the clown who accuses me of being a drunkard. They had promised they would hold a referendum and then stated categorically that they would not, is that not clear enough for you. Slightly better than your " they voted against something or other" pish. Jog on now and give me peace , and make it a very long one.
    When did they promise a referendum and under what leader?

    When SKS offers you one then you have a valid argument until then it's another of your pipe dreams.

    As for calling you a drunkard, when else do people resort to insults before 10pm at night on a web forum...

    The only person who does it on this site is you and being frank you exhibit a lot of habits of a drunk...
    Jog on loser
    So you've not been offered anything by SKS - thought as much.

    Yep the drink has pickled your brain - allowing very brief moments of clarity within a sea of pointless insults.
    Just for you arsehole

    Scotland Act 1978
    The government returned to the issue of devolution in November 1977. Separate bills for Scotland and Wales were published and support from the Liberals was obtained. In spite of continued opposition requiring another guillotine motion, the Bills were passed.[1] During the passage of the Scotland Act 1978 through Parliament, an amendment introduced by Labour MP George Cunningham added a requirement that the bill had to be approved by 40% of the total registered electorate, as well as a simple majority (50% + 1).
    So 1978 -

    Firstly it's ancient history and pre Thatcher.

    Secondly all the oil money has now gone (which is annoying and explains the attacks but the damage cannot be undone).

    Personally I would be very happy for Scotland to inherit what is left of the North Sea Oil Industry (from memory it's mainly decommissioning costs that haven't been saved for and that the Government is going to cut corners to reduce).
    You seem to be rambling , you mentioned the SNP put thatcher in to help Tories , I proved that as bollox ,you then said I was talking rubbish about Labour promise and when I show you that in writing you then start wittering about oil.
    Where to next, best to go and practice Scottish insults with your bellend pal foremain. As I said previously Jog on.
    Just to clarify for your amoeba sized brain Malcolm , I don't insult people because they are Scottish. I leave that kind of racism to nationalists like yourself. I insult you, not because you are Scottish, or even because you are a nationalist bigot, but because you are an obnoxious cunt.

    Thought I would clear that up for you in language that even you might understand.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    It really is a problem in the States.

    When touring and absolutely having to eat in a regular kind of place, I became used to ordering only an 'appetiser' – to the absolute bafflement of the waitresses, who tried to insist I order a full meal, then take the several metric tonnes of waste with me, cold, in a bag. I declined.

    I learned to avoid roadside places. Go slightly hungry all day, then park up in a 'heritage' town centre hotel somewhere and find a proper restaurant, where I had the opportunity to pay three times as much for a third of the volume.
    Yes, it's a major problem away from the big coastal cities. And you can't even go into a supermarket and whip up a picnic because all the cheese and cold meats are horrible or non existent. I still remember, with a shudder, my visit to the enormous WalMart in Natchez Mississippi. They had a far better selection of sub machine guns than blue cheese. In fact they didn't have ANY blue cheese

    We forget how fortunate we are in the UK (in this regard), you can go to a Tesco or M&S in Stornoway or north Norfolk or remote Devon or Anglesey - and it will reliably have a nice selection of salamis, hams, cheeses, breads, wines, smoked fish, from all over Europe/the world - enough for a very nice picnic in your hotel room, if that's what you fancy

    And then there's America's fucking tipping culture!!!

    But I don't want to be down on America. The people are splendidly kind, the beer is now excellent, and the landscapes some of the best on the planet. The National Parks are THE best on the planet
    Except you have to pay to get into them. Or at least you are supposed to; often it's just an honesty box at the bottom of a trail.

    Until you get to the Rockies and deserts, a lot of the landscapes can be underwhelming, largely, I concluded, because all of the hills and mountains are covered in trees and hence all look the same. And of course there are large areas with next to no landscape at all. The prairies, however, I did quite like.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    For my two pennth, the best meal I have ever had was at a restaurant that doesn't even have a michelin star. It wasn't cheap, but it certainly isn't the most expensive meal I have had.

    Most of my best meals have been at non-Michelin places

    Random top ten (I could choose eighty more)


    Eating at Marco Pierre White's very first place, in south London (forget where) - before he had a star, wow

    A crab and asparagus dish in a restaurant made from a garage outside Chiang Mai, Thailand

    A beef massaman curry on a beach in Ko Tao, also Thailand

    Eating at the first Barrafina off the Strand

    Osyters and foie gras and gingerbread in some brilliant old school brasserie in Nantes, France

    Dinner by Heston (that has a star or two)

    A steak at G W Bush's favourite steak restaurant in Austin Texas

    Another steak at Cabana Las Lilas in Buenos Aires

    Tiny gnocchi in a private restaurant on a private vineyard on the island of Pantelleria, Italy

    Some sardines, recently, in a scruffy cafe above a fish market in Sagres, Portugal



    How much of this is about company, location, mood, weather, post-coital bliss - rather than food? At least half of it





    I am not sure where to even begin with best food, overall.

    For steak, I do. The Tasting Room in Frederick MD does a filet mignon that is the best I have had anywhere, including the best that Buenos Aires or Texas has to offer.

    For Indian food, sorry to say that my best experience has been neither in India nor in the UK, but in downtown Washington DC. Rasika (chef was in London prior to moving to the US). Their palak chaat is the most delicious single Indian dish I have ever eaten. For Northern Indian, Bukhara in New York used to be the place.

    For the most inventive, surprising and incredible meal I've ever eaten, Contra in lower Manhattan wins: https://contra.nyc It has one star.

    For the single ingredient of a dish, Brian Voltaggio at Volt (now sadly gone) outdid everything else I have ever experienced. He does molecular cuisine, which is not my favorite style. But he made 'caviar' out of virgin olive oil. It was the most intensely pleasurable tasting experience of my life to date.

    I realize this is a very US-centric list. I have had many spectacular meals in France, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland. But none of them truly stand out from the rest.
    I must be incredibly unlucky because 98% of my eating experiences in America are mediocre or worse. And I have been there a LOT, and all over, and in all kinds of joints, from top NYC starred places to innovative California pop-ups to famous BBQ shacks in the Deep South

    The one exception is Louisiana especially New Orleans. The food there is consistently great, and they don't do the off-puttingly enormous servings you commonly get in the USA. How can such a rich country still believe "great food = tons of food"?
    It really is a problem in the States.

    When touring and absolutely having to eat in a regular kind of place, I became used to ordering only an 'appetiser' – to the absolute bafflement of the waitresses, who tried to insist I order a full meal, then take the several metric tonnes of waste with me, cold, in a bag. I declined.

    I learned to avoid roadside places. Go slightly hungry all day, then park up in a 'heritage' town centre hotel somewhere and find a proper restaurant, where I had the opportunity to pay three times as much for a third of the volume.
    Yes, it's a major problem away from the big coastal cities. And you can't even go into a supermarket and whip up a picnic because all the cheese and cold meats are horrible or non existent. I still remember, with a shudder, my visit to the enormous WalMart in Natchez Mississippi. They had a far better selection of sub machine guns than blue cheese. In fact they didn't have ANY blue cheese

    We forget how fortunate we are in the UK (in this regard), you can go to a Tesco or M&S in Stornoway or north Norfolk or remote Devon or Anglesey - and it will reliably have a nice selection of salamis, hams, cheeses, breads, wines, smoked fish, from all over Europe/the world - enough for a very nice picnic in your hotel room, if that's what you fancy

    And then there's America's fucking tipping culture!!!

    But I don't want to be down on America. The people are splendidly kind, the beer is now excellent, and the landscapes some of the best on the planet. The National Parks are THE best on the planet
    Interestingly, I find you can eat well in the national park areas – I remember some sumptuous dinners in the Colorado Rockies, and also in the Shenandoah.
  • TazTaz Posts: 10,699

    15% going well lol.

    Keir needs to go with the slogan Make Brexit Work.

    Yes but how
    Exactly. A slogan will be seen through quite quickly.

    Even the slogans the Tories had for the 2019 election had something behind them. May not have been much, but there was something there.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,838

    GIN1138 said:

    There's no doubt Blair was very successful and an election winning machine who destroyed the Tories for a decade.

    If electoral success is the criteria for a Knighthood then by all means give him one but I trust when the time comes OGH will also support a Knighthood for "Sir" Boris Johnson (London Mayor twice, won the the EU referendum for LEAVE and gave the Tories their biggest majority in a general election since 1987) ? ;)

    Yes. On topic. No libdem should support bomber Blair, who lied about need for a war that killed millions of people. It’s as simply put as that.

    I came in from school and watched fireworks called shock and awe, and all I could think was people under that war just wanting to do honest days work, put food on table for their kids, enjoy their lives and their holidays and birthdays. And the Blair government and Americans were so smug about what they were doing I have never felt so angry. I charged upstairs and slammed bedroom door. It’s amazing what you clearly remember.
    I am sure you reacted the same way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
    I'm fairly sure that no LibDem has ever supported giving the late Saddam Hussein the order of the Garter.

    Surely he would have been a Bath(ist), anyway?
    Amusing post, but if you are genuinely suggesting Blair is the equivalent of Saddam that is ludicrous. I was never a fan of Blair, and never voted for him, but the reality people have to get their heads around is that leaders have to make decisions on things that the rest of us would find unpalatable. Those that claim Blair is a war criminal are just fucking pathetic and they demean the victims of war crimes. Blair made significant mistakes, but a war criminal he is not. He is worthy of the knighthood for all the reasons Mike gave in the header.
    I think he is too - but only because I don't think he lied to get the war approved. It was a dreadful decision but for me it makes all the difference that it was hubris that led him there rather than mendacity. If I thought he lied - in which I count knowing material exaggeration - I'd be on the War Criminal side of life and upset to see him knighted.
This discussion has been closed.