I suppose the thing that should be noted that the Torygraph is going after the PM's wife. It was suggested that a couple of days ago the Telegraph was running interference by highlighting it was lots of civil servants parties when Boris wasn't there, but this is hyping up a nothing burger in the way the Mirror does when it doesn't have much.
I presume Boris and Princess Nut Nut are going to be very angry about their supposed supportive paper going for them.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Yes, the story looks to have passed its critical phase. If Boris can hang on until PMQs is over then he should be safe.
Bloody hell. When I said Putin was thinking of himself as a new Peter the Great, I didn't think that might involve war with Sweden. That would be being rather too literal.
Russians have a bit of a thing about Sweden. We annoy them.
Anyone annoy the English?
Some try...
I’m very trying.
One of the great successes behind the British Empire may well have been that the English are quite hard to annoy. You'll get to disapproval at the drop of a hat, but annoy - rare. And of course we have our brothers in the Empire - the Scots - to thank for that!
I'd also enjoy the confused look on @StuartDickson as the Black Watch fought, under the butcher's apron, to defend his lake house from the Russians.
Much as I value the martial heritage of Scots, I fear for the chances of the several hundred strong battalion of the Black Watch against the 1st Guards Tank Army.
The Black Watch are a loyalist regiment. Raised to protect Hanoverian interests.
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
Your encyclopaedic knowledge of England is not up to all that. The Sutton Hoo ship was used to bury a king not invade England. Or anywhere, except the afterlife.
Huh? A non-English ship and a non-English “king”, but buried in England. Fascinating. They must have applied for naturalisation upon landing.
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
Your encyclopaedic knowledge of England is not up to all that. The Sutton Hoo ship was used to bury a king not invade England. Or anywhere, except the afterlife.
Huh? A non-English ship and a non-English “king”, but buried in England. Fascinating. They must have applied for naturalisation upon landing.
There are 15 British sailors buried on Hano Island. That makes them Swedish?
Amazing. The Colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards has reverted to the Queen from Prince Andrew. She first held this appointment 80 years ago (Feb 24th).
Filing in on a temporary basis? And can anyone apply? Think I've got a Guards tie in my closet!
It's ludicrous that Andrew should have held all these roles in the first place. It's ludicrous mainly that there should be all those roles to fill. Even HMQ should give up those roles.
Now we have projected Lib Dem seats following the Cretaceous chalk formations of the Chilterns, North and South Downs, and the Jurassic escarpment. I reckon if you included second placed constituencies the correlation would get stronger.
More hospitality anecdata, following on from this arvo
Parkway in Camden is absolutely buzzing (and it is a cold if clear night - 4C)
All the restaurants that were desolate last Saturday are bustling tonight, some of the pubs are spilling onto the pavements. A transformation.
Great to see, but a little peculiar. I know business always picks up from the famously dead first two weeks of Jan (even without plague) but this is a quintupling of customers.
The rules have not changed one iota, so this is a mood change. People think it's all over, they don't care any more, everyone who wants a jab has been jabbed. Enough. The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend
Deep irony that Boris blows it: just as Britain gets in a Borisovian mood of boosterism and bonhomie
Godalming anecdata - 100% masks in Sainsbury. Ate out with a friend in a pub - half full, staff not masked, some customers masked when they came in, took them off once they sat down. General impression here is that people are relaxing for social life but keeping up masks where it doesn't inconvenience them.
Either that or they're tolerating the rules but will burn their masks the nanosecond that the rules get junked.
In Seattle people are wearing masks mostly because they want to protect themselves from Omicron, in particular you see lots of youngish folks wearing high-caliber masks not just in indoor public spaces (where legally required but with zero legal enforcement) but also outdoors.
In other words, we (us "youngish" types) would be wearing them quite a lot even if not a regulation.
Anyway, there were several odd things happened during the Napoleonic wars, not least Gothenburgers becoming stinking rich by smuggling Chinese tea into Scotland.
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
Your encyclopaedic knowledge of England is not up to all that. The Sutton Hoo ship was used to bury a king not invade England. Or anywhere, except the afterlife.
Huh? A non-English ship and a non-English “king”, but buried in England. Fascinating. They must have applied for naturalisation upon landing.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Could just be the Telegraph putting the boot into Carrie. But yes- The Mirror have gone with Andrew, but there are a few more papers to come. Maybe this is as bad as it gets.
Bloody hell. When I said Putin was thinking of himself as a new Peter the Great, I didn't think that might involve war with Sweden. That would be being rather too literal.
Russians have a bit of a thing about Sweden. We annoy them.
Anyone annoy the English?
Some try...
I’m very trying.
One of the great successes behind the British Empire may well have been that the English are quite hard to annoy. You'll get to disapproval at the drop of a hat, but annoy - rare. And of course we have our brothers in the Empire - the Scots - to thank for that!
Yes, conquering a third of the world, forging history’s greatest ever empire (and surely the biggest there will ever be) and obliging the planet to speak your language has its psychological advantages. The English don’t really have inferiority complexes. We sometimes feel diffident towards French culture, but we also sneer at them for unmanliness. We genuflect at American power, but they are still an ex colony, speaking a mutant form of our language
This trait in the English is what annoys so many other nations, of course. They perceive it as arrogance when it is more just lazy complacency, and sometimes the inability to see how others feel
Bloody hell, Boris Johnson offered Dom Cummings a peerage.
Perhaps the most critical moment came in November 2020 when Dominic Cummings, his erstwhile senior aide, and Lee Cain, then director of communications, left No 10 — losers in a power battle with Carrie Johnson.
Allies of the two Vote Leave veterans say they parted with the prime minister on reasonable terms, with Johnson offering Cummings a peerage (duly declined) and a continuing role in the Cabinet Office. In this account, Johnson’s remaining allies in No 10 briefed against the departing pair, igniting a war of words that has never abated. Cummings has never denied leaking details of Johnson’s unorthodox efforts to enlist Tory donors to cover the costs of renovations to the Downing Street flat.
Johnson’s mistake, however, was to phone newspaper editors to explicitly accuse Cummings of breaking the law. When Cummings read these reports, he went ballistic. A friend said: “He said: ‘I’m not having him accusing me of something that’s libellous and illegal.’ That was Boris’s big mistake. Dom won’t let go until he’s gone.”
When one journalist contacted Cummings last week, he replied that he was too busy “trying to decommission a shopping trolley”, the veering vehicle with which he regularly compares Johnson.
Bloody hell. When I said Putin was thinking of himself as a new Peter the Great, I didn't think that might involve war with Sweden. That would be being rather too literal.
Russians have a bit of a thing about Sweden. We annoy them.
Anyone annoy the English?
Some try...
I’m very trying.
One of the great successes behind the British Empire may well have been that the English are quite hard to annoy. You'll get to disapproval at the drop of a hat, but annoy - rare. And of course we have our brothers in the Empire - the Scots - to thank for that!
Yes, conquering a third of the world, forging history’s greatest ever empire (and surely the biggest there will ever be)
Lt. George: The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building!
Blackadder: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Could just be the Telegraph putting the boot into Carrie. But yes- The Mirror have gone with Andrew, but there are a few more papers to come. Maybe this is as bad as it gets.
There is nothing in tomorrow's papers so far and Carrie is a non story to be honest, otherwise millions who have done something similar would be in trouble
Its the new chant of the culture warriors. The green agenda is now seen as a wedge between two view points. The 'don't care got mine' (the old) and the 'what happened to my future' (the young).
IMO the general idea is to import whatever has fucked up America and try it here.
Now we have projected Lib Dem seats following the Cretaceous chalk formations of the Chilterns, North and South Downs, and the Jurassic escarpment. I reckon if you included second placed constituencies the correlation would get stronger.
I think it's the correlation between chalk and teaching and being a libdem?
Yeah right. All hinges on what dodge means. I think we'll instead learn what Tory MP equivocating looks like.
Looks as if all Boris has to do now is give an abject apology to the 1922 Committee stressing how sorry he is for embarrassing them all, lessons will be learnt and he won't allow anything like that to happen again. That should be enough.
Bloody hell, Boris Johnson offered Dom Cummings a peerage.
Perhaps the most critical moment came in November 2020 when Dominic Cummings, his erstwhile senior aide, and Lee Cain, then director of communications, left No 10 — losers in a power battle with Carrie Johnson.
Allies of the two Vote Leave veterans say they parted with the prime minister on reasonable terms, with Johnson offering Cummings a peerage (duly declined) and a continuing role in the Cabinet Office. In this account, Johnson’s remaining allies in No 10 briefed against the departing pair, igniting a war of words that has never abated. Cummings has never denied leaking details of Johnson’s unorthodox efforts to enlist Tory donors to cover the costs of renovations to the Downing Street flat.
Johnson’s mistake, however, was to phone newspaper editors to explicitly accuse Cummings of breaking the law. When Cummings read these reports, he went ballistic. A friend said: “He said: ‘I’m not having him accusing me of something that’s libellous and illegal.’ That was Boris’s big mistake. Dom won’t let go until he’s gone.”
When one journalist contacted Cummings last week, he replied that he was too busy “trying to decommission a shopping trolley”, the veering vehicle with which he regularly compares Johnson.
I said war. You have linked to the Scandinavian equivalent of a clan skirmish.
Besides, “Sweden” didn’t even exist then.
Blood was spilled, and no doubt the slain & slayers THOUGHT they were waging war. Cause they were.
Am now citing my (dare I say it) trump card - Anglo-Swedish War of 1810-12 (when we took up the slack!) already referenced by Sunil.
A blood-less war as far as the English were concerned, though Sweden did kill over three dozen . . . wait for it . . . Swedish farmers who objected to being conscripted.
Bloody hell. When I said Putin was thinking of himself as a new Peter the Great, I didn't think that might involve war with Sweden. That would be being rather too literal.
Russians have a bit of a thing about Sweden. We annoy them.
Anyone annoy the English?
Some try...
I’m very trying.
One of the great successes behind the British Empire may well have been that the English are quite hard to annoy. You'll get to disapproval at the drop of a hat, but annoy - rare. And of course we have our brothers in the Empire - the Scots - to thank for that!
Yes, conquering a third of the world, forging history’s greatest ever empire (and surely the biggest there will ever be) and obliging the planet to speak your language has its psychological advantages. The English don’t really have inferiority complexes. We sometimes feel diffident towards French culture, but we also sneer at them for unmanliness. We genuflect at American power, but they are still an ex colony, speaking a mutant form of our language
This trait in the English is what annoys so many other nations, of course. They perceive it as arrogance when it is more just lazy complacency, and sometimes the inability to see how others feel
Not sure I see it that way. The accidents of history have made me what I am. I don't worry, but if I worried then it'd be that my lazy and comfortable benignness was a dangerous illusion. I'd feel much more comfortable if more of the world frowned less.
Edit: PS I amended the post from 'smiled more' to 'frowned less' before posting, but I think maybe I should have gone further and gone with 'cried less'.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Could just be the Telegraph putting the boot into Carrie. But yes- The Mirror have gone with Andrew, but there are a few more papers to come. Maybe this is as bad as it gets.
There is nothing in tomorrow's papers so far and Carrie is a non story to be honest, otherwise millions who have done something similar would be in trouble
Not disagreeing (though it's another smallish example of having fun when lots of people were being a lot more scrupulous).
But the main thing is that Boris is torn between Telegraph Toryism and Carrie's Conservatism. This looks like an opportunistic attempt to drag Boris in one direction.
I said war. You have linked to the Scandinavian equivalent of a clan skirmish.
Besides, “Sweden” didn’t even exist then.
Blood was spilled, and no doubt the slain & slayers THOUGHT they were waging war. Cause they were.
Am now citing my (dare I say it) trump card - Anglo-Swedish War of 1810-12 (when we took up the slack!) already referenced by Sunil.
A blood-less war as far as the English were concerned, though Sweden did kill over three dozen . . . wait for it . . . Swedish farmers who objected to being conscripted.
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
Your encyclopaedic knowledge of England is not up to all that. The Sutton Hoo ship was used to bury a king not invade England. Or anywhere, except the afterlife.
Huh? A non-English ship and a non-English “king”, but buried in England. Fascinating. They must have applied for naturalisation upon landing.
Raedwald (if it was he) was an English king. His kin had come here from Sweden a hundred or so years earlier along with the ancestors of other English kings, from lower Saxony, Angeln and Jutland but with the odd Frank, Norwegian etc thrown in and of course some descent from the native British. The "Anglo-Saxon" settlement was a little more diverse than the main three nations mentioned by Bede. So Raedwald's ancestors were not a Swedish invasion (indeed you pointed out that several hundred years later in Cnut the Great's time, Sweden didn't yet really exist). It's just that there was a Swedish element to the Germanic settlement of East Anglia.
Whether the ship was made in Sweden, I don't know. But there was such a thing as trade. Or maybe it was old when buroed, and came over with the original settlers.
But in any case, to use the burial at Sutton Hoo to postulate a Swedish invasion of England in the 7th Century is ludicrous.
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
I don't think the the Sutton Hoo find was an invasion ship. It was a ship burial.
Hmmm… so a ship manufactured in Mälardalen was buried in Suffolk? It’s a tricky one. Sean’s aliens must have transported it there. There is no other reasonable explanation.
I am not sure we know the ship was manufactured in Sweden. But you can get a ship from Sweden to East Anglia by, er, sailing it. It doesn't have to be an invasion, and by the time Raedwald or whoever was buried you were a couple of generations along from the original settlers. So it would have been a consensual visit. Or a purchase.
Tell that to the Swedish history and archaeology professors. It is accepted wisdom in Sweden that the Sutton Hoo ship and its contents and crew were entirely Swedish (or rather, from Svealand, as Sweden is a later invention).
More hospitality anecdata, following on from this arvo
Parkway in Camden is absolutely buzzing (and it is a cold if clear night - 4C)
All the restaurants that were desolate last Saturday are bustling tonight, some of the pubs are spilling onto the pavements. A transformation.
Great to see, but a little peculiar. I know business always picks up from the famously dead first two weeks of Jan (even without plague) but this is a quintupling of customers.
The rules have not changed one iota, so this is a mood change. People think it's all over, they don't care any more, everyone who wants a jab has been jabbed. Enough. The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend
Deep irony that Boris blows it: just as Britain gets in a Borisovian mood of boosterism and bonhomie
Godalming anecdata - 100% masks in Sainsbury. Ate out with a friend in a pub - half full, staff not masked, some customers masked when they came in, took them off once they sat down. General impression here is that people are relaxing for social life but keeping up masks where it doesn't inconvenience them.
"The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend"
Point of order. Sunak will not be PM next weekend unless the Cabinet only put his name to the Queen when Johnson resigns on Monday. Otherwise we are looking at Raab or, imho more likely Hague as interim PM, whilst there is a leadership election.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Could just be the Telegraph putting the boot into Carrie. But yes- The Mirror have gone with Andrew, but there are a few more papers to come. Maybe this is as bad as it gets.
There is nothing in tomorrow's papers so far and Carrie is a non story to be honest, otherwise millions who have done something similar would be in trouble
Not disagreeing (though it's another smallish example of having fun when lots of people were being a lot more scrupulous).
But the main thing is that Boris is torn between Telegraph Toryism and Carrie's Conservatism. This looks like an opportunistic attempt to drag Boris in one direction.
Not sure the first part you state is true. By September 2020, half the country were still nursing terrible sunburn and hang overs from over doing the holidaying and socialising.
Its the new chant of the culture warriors. The green agenda is now seen as a wedge between two view points. The 'don't care got mine' (the old) and the 'what happened to my future' (the young).
IMO the general idea is to import whatever has fucked up America and try it here.
They’re on to a loser with being anti-green. It’s a topic that trends inexorably, unstoppably in one direction. Even in the US we see this. Unlike say anti-lockdown sentiment which can be wrong at times, and right at others, a Cnut-like rejection of the inevitable on climate is doomed. As the Australians are slowly but surely discovering as their coal mines, one by one, lose sources of international finance.
Not least because the decisions are all made internationally. We are all heading to net zero come what may, and any economy clinging on to old technology is going to be left behind.
Plus it’s just not a salient culture war cleavage like it is in the US. The UK’s elderly Tory voting masses are by abc large quite fond of their green spaces and clean watercourses
Putin invading Sweden would be a genius move by the year 2022. How could it possibly outdo 2021 for drama?
Aha!
I like the Swedes but unfortunately for them Sweden is not in NATO.
So if Putin invaded Sweden we would have no obligation to defend them.
Perhaps Stuart Dickson can mobilise a quick militia or else take a crash course in Russian!
Being occupied by a big, ugly, ignorant neighbour isn’t so bad. Lots of wee nations put up with it. For a while.
300 years and counting. And when offered a chance to democratically overthrow your big, ugly, ignorant rulers - uniquely amongst the nations you said Er no thanks, we like them ruling over us
Actually, an invasion of "France" is not impossible at all. In fact, quite plausible
But it would not be metropolitan France, that is highly unlikely, it would be French territories overseas, particularly Polynesia
China has just built the world's biggest navy, and is still building. At some point it is going to use it, aggressively, otherwise why make it? Yes, Taiwan, but why not elsewhere?
How about New Caledonia? Mineral rich, with oceanic resources, and with a restive population that almost wants independence, a temporary Chinese occupation could be scripted as a "liberation" from the dying French Empire. China then signs an exclusive trade Treaty with New New Caledonia, job done
What could France do? Attack China with nukes from Savoy? It has a handful of ships in the Pacific and a few thousand troops. America would not help, nor the Aussies. China could do it in a weekend, as the Americans did to Grenada
This, supposedly, is one reason Paris was SO aggrieved by the AUKUS deal. They wanted the Aussies as allies in the region to defend the French Pacific. They know it is endangered
More hospitality anecdata, following on from this arvo
Parkway in Camden is absolutely buzzing (and it is a cold if clear night - 4C)
All the restaurants that were desolate last Saturday are bustling tonight, some of the pubs are spilling onto the pavements. A transformation.
Great to see, but a little peculiar. I know business always picks up from the famously dead first two weeks of Jan (even without plague) but this is a quintupling of customers.
The rules have not changed one iota, so this is a mood change. People think it's all over, they don't care any more, everyone who wants a jab has been jabbed. Enough. The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend
Deep irony that Boris blows it: just as Britain gets in a Borisovian mood of boosterism and bonhomie
Godalming anecdata - 100% masks in Sainsbury. Ate out with a friend in a pub - half full, staff not masked, some customers masked when they came in, took them off once they sat down. General impression here is that people are relaxing for social life but keeping up masks where it doesn't inconvenience them.
"The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend"
Point of order. Sunak will not be PM next weekend unless the Cabinet only put his name to the Queen when Johnson resigns on Monday. Otherwise we are looking at Raab or, imho more likely Hague as interim PM, whilst there is a leadership election.
I suppose the thing that should be noted that the Torygraph is going after the PM's wife. It was suggested that a couple of days ago the Telegraph was running interference by highlighting it was lots of civil servants parties when Boris wasn't there, but this is hyping up a nothing burger in the way the Mirror does when it doesn't have much.
I presume Boris and Princess Nut Nut are going to be very angry about their supposed supportive paper going for them.
Perfectly logical for the Telegraph to want to get rid of Carrie. She’s not a “Real” Tory (copyright: the tank commander).
I'd also enjoy the confused look on @StuartDickson as the Black Watch fought, under the butcher's apron, to defend his lake house from the Russians.
Much as I value the martial heritage of Scots, I fear for the chances of the several hundred strong battalion of the Black Watch against the 1st Guards Tank Army.
The Black Watch are a loyalist regiment. Raised to protect Hanoverian interests.
Though perhaps ironically, the play Black Watch has proved to be a great cultural unifier for Scots and the Scots diaspora. One of my best pals who lives in Manhattan has seen it 3 times in the states.
Bloody hell, Boris Johnson offered Dom Cummings a peerage.
Perhaps the most critical moment came in November 2020 when Dominic Cummings, his erstwhile senior aide, and Lee Cain, then director of communications, left No 10 — losers in a power battle with Carrie Johnson.
Allies of the two Vote Leave veterans say they parted with the prime minister on reasonable terms, with Johnson offering Cummings a peerage (duly declined) and a continuing role in the Cabinet Office. In this account, Johnson’s remaining allies in No 10 briefed against the departing pair, igniting a war of words that has never abated. Cummings has never denied leaking details of Johnson’s unorthodox efforts to enlist Tory donors to cover the costs of renovations to the Downing Street flat.
Johnson’s mistake, however, was to phone newspaper editors to explicitly accuse Cummings of breaking the law. When Cummings read these reports, he went ballistic. A friend said: “He said: ‘I’m not having him accusing me of something that’s libellous and illegal.’ That was Boris’s big mistake. Dom won’t let go until he’s gone.”
When one journalist contacted Cummings last week, he replied that he was too busy “trying to decommission a shopping trolley”, the veering vehicle with which he regularly compares Johnson.
Did Big Dom write that article himself, as it reads like it.
It's a much better story than The Carrie Hug
My God, Boris was so fucking stupid to alienate Cummings. He knows how smart Cummings is, he knows Cummings has a map of the "cemetery", he knows Cummings is an expert at media manipulation . So he and his team decided to menace Dom's liberty
Actually, an invasion of "France" is not impossible at all. In fact, quite plausible
But it would not be metropolitan France, that is highly unlikely, it would be French territories overseas, particularly Polynesia
China has just built the world's biggest navy, and is still building. At some point it is going to use it, aggressively, otherwise why make it? Yes, Taiwan, but why not elsewhere?
How about New Caledonia? Mineral rich, with oceanic resources, and with a restive population that almost wants independence, a temporary Chinese occupation could be scripted as a "liberation" from the dying French Empire. China then signs an exclusive trade Treaty with New New Caledonia, job done
What could France do? Attack China with nukes from Savoy? It has a handful of ships in the Pacific and a few thousand troops. America would not help, nor the Aussies. China could do it in a weekend, as the Americans did to Grenada
This, supposedly, is one reason Paris was SO aggrieved by the AUKUS deal. They wanted the Aussies as allies in the region to defend the French Pacific. They know it is endangered
That’s a different matter though. It’s akin to the Falklands invasion (albeit France outre mer is a bit more integrated that our crown dependencies).
Ms Dorries deciding to hold the licence at £159 for the next two years. Officials calculate that – due to inflation currently running at 5.1 per cent – the Corporation will have to find savings of more than £2 billion over the next six years
Bloody hell, Boris Johnson offered Dom Cummings a peerage.
Perhaps the most critical moment came in November 2020 when Dominic Cummings, his erstwhile senior aide, and Lee Cain, then director of communications, left No 10 — losers in a power battle with Carrie Johnson.
Allies of the two Vote Leave veterans say they parted with the prime minister on reasonable terms, with Johnson offering Cummings a peerage (duly declined) and a continuing role in the Cabinet Office. In this account, Johnson’s remaining allies in No 10 briefed against the departing pair, igniting a war of words that has never abated. Cummings has never denied leaking details of Johnson’s unorthodox efforts to enlist Tory donors to cover the costs of renovations to the Downing Street flat.
Johnson’s mistake, however, was to phone newspaper editors to explicitly accuse Cummings of breaking the law. When Cummings read these reports, he went ballistic. A friend said: “He said: ‘I’m not having him accusing me of something that’s libellous and illegal.’ That was Boris’s big mistake. Dom won’t let go until he’s gone.”
When one journalist contacted Cummings last week, he replied that he was too busy “trying to decommission a shopping trolley”, the veering vehicle with which he regularly compares Johnson.
Did Big Dom write that article himself, as it reads like it.
It's a much better story than The Carrie Hug
My God, Boris was so fucking stupid to alienate Cummings. He knows how smart Cummings is, he knows Cummings has a map of the "cemetery", he knows Cummings is an expert at media manipulation . So he and his team decided to menace Dom's liberty
Genius. Not.
Not to doubt Boris stupidity, but are we sure Big Dom is telling the whole truth about well I was on good terms with everybody? Didn't he start it with leaking some info, which Boris then fired back.
Are we really sure Big Dom wouldn't have just carried on leaking?
My guess is in reality Big Dom said to Boris you better back me otherwise I know all about your piss ups. Boris backed him for a week, then the media got really bad, and threw him overboard and he did that infamous press conference. And I think that was when it was always going to be war.
Conservative politicians should be talking about how they made the right decisions about Omicron and how the economy and society benefitted from it while demanding the removal of all remaining restrictions.
Instead they're having to deal with the consequences of stupidity and immaturity from Downing Street.
Ironic isn't it.
Yet that plank jn Wales called it a ‘dangerous experiment’.
The Welsh and Scottish administrations got it wrong and sacrificed their hospitality industry at the critical time of year for those businesses to own the Tories. They failed. The press needs to hold them to account.
You mean apart from BBC Scotland amplifying the complaints of every hospitality representative and their granny day in and day out, or sending camera crews to follow any partying Jock they could find in Carlisle on 31/12/21?
Am I wrong, or is PB full of people who think that Mr Drakeford and Ms Sturgeon ordered the pub doors to be welded up?
You are not wrong.
Some not-taking-the-SNP-to-account from a surprising source.
Pretty amazing coming from Leask.
I think Leask’s been pretty turned off by the riper end of Cyberbritnattery, and he feels validated by the splitting off of Wings from mainstream Indy support. Wouldn’t put him in our camp yet but a rare open mind on the Herald is to be welcomed.
Oh for the days of Bell and McIlvanney.
Indeed, the Herald used to be a great paper. Loved the Diary and Jack McLean.
More hospitality anecdata, following on from this arvo
Parkway in Camden is absolutely buzzing (and it is a cold if clear night - 4C)
All the restaurants that were desolate last Saturday are bustling tonight, some of the pubs are spilling onto the pavements. A transformation.
Great to see, but a little peculiar. I know business always picks up from the famously dead first two weeks of Jan (even without plague) but this is a quintupling of customers.
The rules have not changed one iota, so this is a mood change. People think it's all over, they don't care any more, everyone who wants a jab has been jabbed. Enough. The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend
Deep irony that Boris blows it: just as Britain gets in a Borisovian mood of boosterism and bonhomie
Godalming anecdata - 100% masks in Sainsbury. Ate out with a friend in a pub - half full, staff not masked, some customers masked when they came in, took them off once they sat down. General impression here is that people are relaxing for social life but keeping up masks where it doesn't inconvenience them.
"The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend"
Point of order. Sunak will not be PM next weekend unless the Cabinet only put his name to the Queen when Johnson resigns on Monday. Otherwise we are looking at Raab or, imho more likely Hague as interim PM, whilst there is a leadership election.
Or Theresa
Or his mps unite around a single candidate
The latter is same thing as the Cabinet uniting around one name. They wont do that unless the wider MPs agree.
Ms Dorries deciding to hold the licence at £159 for the next two years. Officials calculate that – due to inflation currently running at 5.1 per cent – the Corporation will have to find savings of more than £2 billion over the next six years
Actually, an invasion of "France" is not impossible at all. In fact, quite plausible
But it would not be metropolitan France, that is highly unlikely, it would be French territories overseas, particularly Polynesia
China has just built the world's biggest navy, and is still building. At some point it is going to use it, aggressively, otherwise why make it? Yes, Taiwan, but why not elsewhere?
How about New Caledonia? Mineral rich, with oceanic resources, and with a restive population that almost wants independence, a temporary Chinese occupation could be scripted as a "liberation" from the dying French Empire. China then signs an exclusive trade Treaty with New New Caledonia, job done
What could France do? Attack China with nukes from Savoy? It has a handful of ships in the Pacific and a few thousand troops. America would not help, nor the Aussies. China could do it in a weekend, as the Americans did to Grenada
This, supposedly, is one reason Paris was SO aggrieved by the AUKUS deal. They wanted the Aussies as allies in the region to defend the French Pacific. They know it is endangered
That’s a different matter though. It’s akin to the Falklands invasion (albeit France outre mer is a bit more integrated that our crown dependencies).
Sure, but it is definitely plausible. Also, if they went for somewhere like New Caledonia (with its attractive resources, which is what China wants) then they have the argument that they are bringing independence. New Caledonia very nearly voted Indy in their second plebiscite. The third and last was boycotted so the issue is live
Is the mighty and expanding Chinese navy, which wants to treat the Pacific as a half-Chinese lake, really content to see an old European power hold sway over a vast chunk of it, while that same power is utterly unable to defend it?
More hospitality anecdata, following on from this arvo
Parkway in Camden is absolutely buzzing (and it is a cold if clear night - 4C)
All the restaurants that were desolate last Saturday are bustling tonight, some of the pubs are spilling onto the pavements. A transformation.
Great to see, but a little peculiar. I know business always picks up from the famously dead first two weeks of Jan (even without plague) but this is a quintupling of customers.
The rules have not changed one iota, so this is a mood change. People think it's all over, they don't care any more, everyone who wants a jab has been jabbed. Enough. The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend
Deep irony that Boris blows it: just as Britain gets in a Borisovian mood of boosterism and bonhomie
Godalming anecdata - 100% masks in Sainsbury. Ate out with a friend in a pub - half full, staff not masked, some customers masked when they came in, took them off once they sat down. General impression here is that people are relaxing for social life but keeping up masks where it doesn't inconvenience them.
"The first thing PM Sunak should do is get rid of the last restrictions. Next weekend"
Point of order. Sunak will not be PM next weekend unless the Cabinet only put his name to the Queen when Johnson resigns on Monday. Otherwise we are looking at Raab or, imho more likely Hague as interim PM, whilst there is a leadership election.
Or Theresa
Or his mps unite around a single candidate
The latter is same thing as the Cabinet uniting around one name. They wont do that unless the wider MPs agree.
As has been commented on, this a very weak story in the scheme of things and if this is the best the Sundays can do then No 10 will breath a sigh off relief
Could just be the Telegraph putting the boot into Carrie. But yes- The Mirror have gone with Andrew, but there are a few more papers to come. Maybe this is as bad as it gets.
There is nothing in tomorrow's papers so far and Carrie is a non story to be honest, otherwise millions who have done something similar would be in trouble
Not disagreeing (though it's another smallish example of having fun when lots of people were being a lot more scrupulous).
But the main thing is that Boris is torn between Telegraph Toryism and Carrie's Conservatism. This looks like an opportunistic attempt to drag Boris in one direction.
Big G is right from a get Boris done position it doesn’t seem very damaging, to the point of wondering why be so catty and publish. However, You mean This is of significance, the sort of thing to be looking out for, because they can do this now some clique who don’t like carry, her Conservative brand, her influence. So they can publish now get claws out and be horribly catty because the power and influence is gone?
Sweden is one of the few countries I'd be happy for us to help defend.
Sweden is one of only a couple of countries En/GB/UK has never been at war with.
(Well, if you ignore that the Sutton Hoo invasion ship was from what is now Sweden; plus a little administrative hiccup during the Napoleonic wars.)
I don't think the the Sutton Hoo find was an invasion ship. It was a ship burial.
Hmmm… so a ship manufactured in Mälardalen was buried in Suffolk? It’s a tricky one. Sean’s aliens must have transported it there. There is no other reasonable explanation.
I am not sure we know the ship was manufactured in Sweden. But you can get a ship from Sweden to East Anglia by, er, sailing it. It doesn't have to be an invasion, and by the time Raedwald or whoever was buried you were a couple of generations along from the original settlers. So it would have been a consensual visit. Or a purchase.
Tell that to the Swedish history and archaeology professors. It is accepted wisdom in Sweden that the Sutton Hoo ship and its contents and crew were entirely Swedish (or rather, from Svealand, as Sweden is a later invention).
How do they know who the crew were? Yes they could have been Svea, people went back and forth between England and the ancestral homelands. The East Anglian king could have maintained a Svea boat crew. He could have purchased the ship with a complement of rowers, indeed someone would have to sail it. Or they could have been locals. Ships have been found all over the North Sea Germanic world, sailing and shipbuilding skills were common to all nations.
The ship's contents are not entirely Swedish. The shield and its appliques may well be. The gold and garnet work shows Merovingian influence and is not out of place as an example of (particularly fine) insular art. The shoulder clasps hark back to Roman antecedents. While the helmet decoration is Swedish in style (and I believe at least some of the castings can be shown to have come from Sweden) the helmet's manufacture is completely different to the fine Swedish examples from Vendel and Valsgarde and again there are Roman antecedents too. There was no Roman influence we know of in dark age Sweden other than some trade.
And... there is a big Byzantine silver bowl that certainly did not come from Sweden and may have held the king's cremated remains.
I can't believe that Swedish professors believe what you have just quoted as it is certainly untrue by any stretch of modern scholarship.
So you clearly have no idea what you are talking about, just as you had no idea that Great Britain was at war with Sweden between 1717 and 1719.
Well you can't argue there a range of expert topics discussed on PB, seamlessly moving from quality of high street lunch offerings to trends in porn kinks.
I blame The Economist.
These are some of their porn themed articles.
A user’s manual
Hardcore, abundant and free: what is online pornography doing to sexual tastes—and youngsters’ minds?
The big question is where is Gove in all this? Is he the key to everything and is he still tied to the hip with Cummings. Surely they will want to wait until they have the ideal replacement ready.
May well be. However. Look at the managers we've had since Moyes. Benitez, Ancelotti, Martinez, now Belgium, Koeman, went to Barcelona. None have had any success. Moreover. We need a profit of £25m this window not to fall foul of FFP. Rooney's done OK at Derby with zero cash and a transfer ban. It's astonishing they aren't bottom, and would be comfortable halfway without a deduction. We could do a lot worse. At least he'd get the fans onside for a bit.
May well be. However. Look at the managers we've had since Moyes. Benitez, Ancelotti, Martinez, now Belgium, Koeman, went to Barcelona. None have had any success. Moreover. We need a profit of £25m this window not to fall foul of FFP. Rooney's done OK at Derby with zero cash and a transfer ban. It's astonishing they aren't bottom, and would be comfortable halfway without a deduction. We could do a lot worse. At least he'd get the fans onside for a bit.
Is he loved at Everton? Didn’t he leave for Utd at a fairly early age?
Bercow's sins are all just beyond the Bercow line whereby they count. The man's completely innocent!
Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, has judged Bercow guilty on 21 counts out of another 35 brought by Lord Lisvane, the former clerk of the Commons, and private secretaries Kate Emms and Angus Sinclair
Nothing on front page of Mirror.....was fridge gate the big scoop for this weekend?
Either that or they are holding something back for the later editions, so it is not copied by the other papers. Not sure if that is still a thing though.
May well be. However. Look at the managers we've had since Moyes. Benitez, Ancelotti, Martinez, now Belgium, Koeman, went to Barcelona. None have had any success. Moreover. We need a profit of £25m this window not to fall foul of FFP. Rooney's done OK at Derby with zero cash and a transfer ban. It's astonishing they aren't bottom, and would be comfortable halfway without a deduction. We could do a lot worse. At least he'd get the fans onside for a bit.
Is he loved at Everton? Didn’t he leave for Utd at a fairly early age?
Not loved exactly. But a lot of that damage was repaired when he came back for a year. And was quite shabbily treated tbf. But he's a genuine Evertonian. One of our own. We couldn't accuse him of not caring. Which would be a start at least.
Did Bercow film his response himself or was it somebody at the Times being very naughty making it appear like he is very short so difficult to keep him from dropping below the shot?
Its going to be all out war between the BBC and the government. The BBC bods will see it as they can't come to pass that the Tories win the next GE.
They can't fight the future, tho. Kids just don't watch BBC. My daughter is 15, she probably consumes an hour of BBC output a month. Is that worth £160 a year? No
She watches Youtube, Netflix, TikTok. She watches old programmes on streaming services. "Downton" is as close as she gets to watching traditional TV (I think she consumes it via YouTube)
Her friends watch even less. Dorries is right. It is over for the BBC as it stands. The Culture War thing is a colourful sideshow (and it has maybe accelerated the BBC's demise, mildly). The BBC model is simply broken
Actually, an invasion of "France" is not impossible at all. In fact, quite plausible
But it would not be metropolitan France, that is highly unlikely, it would be French territories overseas, particularly Polynesia
China has just built the world's biggest navy, and is still building. At some point it is going to use it, aggressively, otherwise why make it? Yes, Taiwan, but why not elsewhere?
How about New Caledonia? Mineral rich, with oceanic resources, and with a restive population that almost wants independence, a temporary Chinese occupation could be scripted as a "liberation" from the dying French Empire. China then signs an exclusive trade Treaty with New New Caledonia, job done
What could France do? Attack China with nukes from Savoy? It has a handful of ships in the Pacific and a few thousand troops. America would not help, nor the Aussies. China could do it in a weekend, as the Americans did to Grenada
This, supposedly, is one reason Paris was SO aggrieved by the AUKUS deal. They wanted the Aussies as allies in the region to defend the French Pacific. They know it is endangered
If China was stupid enough to do that it would shift France firmly into line with the USA, Australia and us in containing China. The EU would follow with France being the biggest EU military power.
There would also likely be heavy EU tariffs therefore on Chinese imports to follow
Nothing on front page of Mirror.....was fridge gate the big scoop for this weekend?
Either that or they are holding something back for the later editions, so it is not copied by the other papers. Not sure if that is still a thing though.
No, Mrs Mirror Scoop Maker has said she is off this weekend and not to expect anything. Hence why the big scoop on Saturday paper.
May well be. However. Look at the managers we've had since Moyes. Benitez, Ancelotti, Martinez, now Belgium, Koeman, went to Barcelona. None have had any success. Moreover. We need a profit of £25m this window not to fall foul of FFP. Rooney's done OK at Derby with zero cash and a transfer ban. It's astonishing they aren't bottom, and would be comfortable halfway without a deduction. We could do a lot worse. At least he'd get the fans onside for a bit.
Is he loved at Everton? Didn’t he leave for Utd at a fairly early age?
Not loved exactly. But he's a genuine Evertonian. One of our own. We couldn't accuse him of not caring. Which would be a start at least.
Come to think of it. After today's shambles he could put his boots on.
Comments
I presume Boris and Princess Nut Nut are going to be very angry about their supposed supportive paper going for them.
The Tories popularity has fallen due to the green agenda.
Which has seen a rise in support for a party which also is fully on board with the same agenda.
Is,he just trying to get noticed by spouting shite.
PM DITCHES ALL RULES BUT WILL IT SAVE HIM?
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1482464911863300101?s=20
@dixiedean
France has a quite remarkable correlation between geology and land use and presidential first round votes. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/EN_-_2017_French_presidential_election_-_First_round_-_Majority_vote_(Metropolitan_France,_communes).svg/1067px-EN_-_2017_French_presidential_election_-_First_round_-_Majority_vote_(Metropolitan_France,_communes).svg.png
True electoral terroir.
The US has its famous democrat voting geological black belt https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_in_the_American_South#/media/File:Southern_counties_with_40_percent_African-American_population_in_2000.png
Now we have projected Lib Dem seats following the Cretaceous chalk formations of the Chilterns, North and South Downs, and the Jurassic escarpment. I reckon if you included second placed constituencies the correlation would get stronger.
In other words, we (us "youngish" types) would be wearing them quite a lot even if not a regulation.
Anyway, there were several odd things happened during the Napoleonic wars, not least Gothenburgers becoming stinking rich by smuggling Chinese tea into Scotland.
This trait in the English is what annoys so many other nations, of course. They perceive it as arrogance when it is more just lazy complacency, and sometimes the inability to see how others feel
If a single battalion could hold off the combined forces of the Russian Federation to allow me a final relaxing bastu, then I’d also be surprised.
Perhaps the most critical moment came in November 2020 when Dominic Cummings, his erstwhile senior aide, and Lee Cain, then director of communications, left No 10 — losers in a power battle with Carrie Johnson.
Allies of the two Vote Leave veterans say they parted with the prime minister on reasonable terms, with Johnson offering Cummings a peerage (duly declined) and a continuing role in the Cabinet Office. In this account, Johnson’s remaining allies in No 10 briefed against the departing pair, igniting a war of words that has never abated. Cummings has never denied leaking details of Johnson’s unorthodox efforts to enlist Tory donors to cover the costs of renovations to the Downing Street flat.
Johnson’s mistake, however, was to phone newspaper editors to explicitly accuse Cummings of breaking the law. When Cummings read these reports, he went ballistic. A friend said: “He said: ‘I’m not having him accusing me of something that’s libellous and illegal.’ That was Boris’s big mistake. Dom won’t let go until he’s gone.”
When one journalist contacted Cummings last week, he replied that he was too busy “trying to decommission a shopping trolley”, the veering vehicle with which he regularly compares Johnson.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-boris-johnson-finally-sunk-t9ndpfwks
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-boris-johnson-finally-sunk-t9ndpfwks
Blackadder: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
Bye.
IMO the general idea is to import whatever has fucked up America and try it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch
No PM comes back from this level of 'fuck you' to the voters and general public.
Am now citing my (dare I say it) trump card - Anglo-Swedish War of 1810-12 (when we took up the slack!) already referenced by Sunil.
A blood-less war as far as the English were concerned, though Sweden did kill over three dozen . . . wait for it . . . Swedish farmers who objected to being conscripted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Swedish_War_(1810–1812)
Edit: PS I amended the post from 'smiled more' to 'frowned less' before posting, but I think maybe I should have gone further and gone with 'cried less'.
But the main thing is that Boris is torn between Telegraph Toryism and Carrie's Conservatism. This looks like an opportunistic attempt to drag Boris in one direction.
Whether the ship was made in Sweden, I don't know. But there was such a thing as trade. Or maybe it was old when buroed, and came over with the original settlers.
But in any case, to use the burial at Sutton Hoo to postulate a Swedish invasion of England in the 7th Century is ludicrous.
Point of order. Sunak will not be PM next weekend unless the Cabinet only put his name to the Queen when Johnson resigns on Monday. Otherwise we are looking at Raab or, imho more likely Hague as interim PM, whilst there is a leadership election.
Not least because the decisions are all made internationally. We are all heading to net zero come what may, and any economy clinging on to old technology is going to be left behind.
Plus it’s just not a salient culture war cleavage like it is in the US. The UK’s elderly Tory voting masses are by abc large quite fond of their green spaces and clean watercourses
But it would not be metropolitan France, that is highly unlikely, it would be French territories overseas, particularly Polynesia
China has just built the world's biggest navy, and is still building. At some point it is going to use it, aggressively, otherwise why make it? Yes, Taiwan, but why not elsewhere?
How about New Caledonia? Mineral rich, with oceanic resources, and with a restive population that almost wants independence, a temporary Chinese occupation could be scripted as a "liberation" from the dying French Empire. China then signs an exclusive trade Treaty with New New Caledonia, job done
What could France do? Attack China with nukes from Savoy? It has a handful of ships in the Pacific and a few thousand troops. America would not help, nor the Aussies. China could do it in a weekend, as the Americans did to Grenada
This, supposedly, is one reason Paris was SO aggrieved by the AUKUS deal. They wanted the Aussies as allies in the region to defend the French Pacific. They know it is endangered
Or his mps unite around a single candidate
And they only get a majority of 30-40
Steep mountain to climb.
At 7pm the pressure wave from the Tonga eruption reached the UK. Pressure jumped by 1hPa for a couple of minutes.
Seen here at my vineyard:
https://twitter.com/burstedlittle/status/1482465738791309315?s=21
The same effect has shown up on multiple barometers across the country.
Relative humidity also dropped noticeably at the same time.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-boris-johnson-finally-sunk-t9ndpfwks
My God, Boris was so fucking stupid to alienate Cummings. He knows how smart Cummings is, he knows Cummings has a map of the "cemetery", he knows Cummings is an expert at media manipulation . So he and his team decided to menace Dom's liberty
Genius. Not.
Ms Dorries deciding to hold the licence at £159 for the next two years. Officials calculate that – due to inflation currently running at 5.1 per cent – the Corporation will have to find savings of more than £2 billion over the next six years
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10406491/Nadine-Dorries-hits-BBC-2bn-funding-cut-freezes-annual-licence-fee-charge-2024.html
Are we really sure Big Dom wouldn't have just carried on leaking?
My guess is in reality Big Dom said to Boris you better back me otherwise I know all about your piss ups. Boris backed him for a week, then the media got really bad, and threw him overboard and he did that infamous press conference. And I think that was when it was always going to be war.
That's possibly the only way he doesn't break any.
Soundings will be taken and all that.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9bee3c7a-763c-11ec-b318-3e3a5d689572?shareToken=73df2441e5f158536df3f86012b54863 https://twitter.com/soniasodha/status/1482482242874232833/photo/1
Is the mighty and expanding Chinese navy, which wants to treat the Pacific as a half-Chinese lake, really content to see an old European power hold sway over a vast chunk of it, while that same power is utterly unable to defend it?
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1482481807580872707?s=20
Its going to be all out war between the BBC and the government. The BBC bods will see it as they can't come to pass that the Tories win the next GE.
Yet again we are back to fall of the Borgias! 😟
The ship's contents are not entirely Swedish. The shield and its appliques may well be. The gold and garnet work shows Merovingian influence and is not out of place as an example of (particularly fine) insular art. The shoulder clasps hark back to Roman antecedents. While the helmet decoration is Swedish in style (and I believe at least some of the castings can be shown to have come from Sweden) the helmet's manufacture is completely different to the fine Swedish examples from Vendel and Valsgarde and again there are Roman antecedents too. There was no Roman influence we know of in dark age Sweden other than some trade.
And... there is a big Byzantine silver bowl that certainly did not come from Sweden and may have held the king's cremated remains.
I can't believe that Swedish professors believe what you have just quoted as it is certainly untrue by any stretch of modern scholarship.
So you clearly have no idea what you are talking about, just as you had no idea that Great Britain was at war with Sweden between 1717 and 1719.
https://twitter.com/thesundaytimes/status/1482426800844201991
None have had any success.
Moreover. We need a profit of £25m this window not to fall foul of FFP.
Rooney's done OK at Derby with zero cash and a transfer ban. It's astonishing they aren't bottom, and would be comfortable halfway without a deduction.
We could do a lot worse. At least he'd get the fans onside for a bit.
@MrHarryCole
·
1h
Couple of days back in constituencies starting to bite…
Tim Loughton MP
@timloughton
I have regretfully come to the conclusion that Boris Johnson’s position is now untenable,
But he's a genuine Evertonian.
One of our own. We couldn't accuse him of not caring. Which would be a start at least.
She watches Youtube, Netflix, TikTok. She watches old programmes on streaming services. "Downton" is as close as she gets to watching traditional TV (I think she consumes it via YouTube)
Her friends watch even less. Dorries is right. It is over for the BBC as it stands. The Culture War thing is a colourful sideshow (and it has maybe accelerated the BBC's demise, mildly). The BBC model is simply broken
There would also likely be heavy EU tariffs therefore on Chinese imports to follow