Totally baffling to me why Labour and the Lib Dems are not contesting particularly the latter who would probably have won with a local candidate. Speak in some emotional haste then repent at leisure seems apt.
How can any sentient person - let alone someone claiming to have the best interests of the UK at heart - genuinely believe that Boris Johnson is capable of steering the country through what is coming over the next few years?
I'm not sure HY is sentient any more. Its muscle memory - err post a poll showing 9.29% of Tory voters aged 59.215874 would still back Boris and thats why all this noise is bad news for Starmer.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
My God man, can't you see how selfless this poor chap is.
He took private health insurance, even though he didn't want it, so as to avoid burdening the NHS with additional costs. You say you support the NHS, yet every time you see a doctor, you denude it of funds. This man put his money where his mouth is, and made a private company pay the bills.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Your muscle/fat ratio is key though. If that's high you might still look ok despite the scales telling a horror story.
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
This doesn't look good for the government, because they already officially briefed earlier that the report would be out in two parts, with the dodgy parts not released for now, by implication under some form of legal imperative.
With them having done this, it now seems that both Gray and the Met are trashing this as any sort of officially agreed view.
Oh dear.
Yes a terrible mess which seems to be unravelling this afternoon.
It looks like Johnson and the inner circle have tried to suppress SG's report under the pretext of the Met police investigation, but the Met don't seem to have asked for this at all.
So did Johnson call in the police to try and buy time? As per the Nasreddin fable to which we've just been treated by NickyBreakspear?
I'm still not sure the slippery sod won't get away with this but it's not looking good for him.
Sue Gray referred it to the police
I wonder why you are worried he may remain in office when he is the oppositions best recruiting sergeant according to some
Why?
Because he brings Politics into disrepute Because he brings his offfice into disrepute Because he brings the country into disrepute
Every day that he stays may well be great news on narrow partisan grounds for those of us who want the Tories out. But every day is also a national disaster as the very institutions of state are dragged into a gutter they will struggle to climb out of.
Its not all about party politics. Sometimes its basic morality. Right and wrong. Boris is Wrong.
Indeed. We have now reached the point where no patriot of whatever political persuasion could possibly want Johnson to carry on.
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Well, for a start, effort isn't everything; a fool who has an obsession with purity but realises the service is poor might well put in a lot of effort, but a fat lot of good that effort will do if it's uninformed or blinded by ideology. What you want is someone with understanding of how huge organisations work, how to improve them, and how to get value for money from them, against the hugely difficult problems of political interference, the institutional inertia, the changing technology, and the reluctance to learn from best practice elsewhere.
Whether a candidate uses private healthcare is just about the most irrelevant criterion you could come up with, especially since nearly all qualified candidates will have done.
But surely if Mr Johnson decides he doesn't want to compromise the Met Police investigation he must can the report. He can reveal his precis and summarise its findings, namely that no law was broken by Mr Johnson. Although there was a drinking culture in Downing Street that he was unaware of and it must be curtailed forthwith. A whole raft of Civil Servants will be dismissed with immediate effect to reorder to he house.
Today has been a massive win for Johnson.
Its no longer in his remit to do so. Officially he may have the power to yay or nay the thing, but in practice he doesn't. He can't hide behind "sub judice" because the Met have asked that it be published. He can't redact it because juicy stuff has already been leaked and if its not there someone will leak it after massive political pressure against his cover-up. He can't be seen to stand in its way at all if he is going to have any political "I'm the real victim here" cards left to play.
I think he's won. He gave a robust defence of himself earlier. If he decides the report is unfair to his defence he can claim subjudice. Surely his lawyers are working on it as we speak.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
How can any sentient person - let alone someone claiming to have the best interests of the UK at heart - genuinely believe that Boris Johnson is capable of steering the country through what is coming over the next few years?
He can because he has steered us admirably through the last couple of years.
He shouldn't because while doing so be broke his own laws and lawmakers can't be lawbreakers.
As @RochdalePioneers said the other day it's like a model employee who is hitting all their KPIs who gets drunk at lunch then punches their boss, knocking him out.
It doesn't matter how good the employee was, it doesn't matter that he's capable of doing his job, that is Gross Misconduct and he has to be fired.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Your muscle/fat ratio is key though. If that's high you might still look ok despite the scales telling a horror story.
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yes, I think you’re right. I started going to the gym about 5 years ago and I am much more “buff” (as much as you can be for a man of my advanced years) than I used to be. Toned, even. Also a tan at the moment
Before my gym days I would have noticed the serious weight gain earlier, as when I am fat my face turns into a football, right now it’s more kind of rugby ball
But it’s too much. It has to go. Time for some serious austerity. Sigh
This doesn't look good for the government, because they already officially briefed earlier that the report would be out in two parts, with the dodgy parts not released for now, by implication under some form of legal imperative.
With them having done this, it now seems that both Gray and the Met are trashing this as any sort of officially agreed view.
Oh dear.
Yes a terrible mess which seems to be unravelling this afternoon.
It looks like Johnson and the inner circle have tried to suppress SG's report under the pretext of the Met police investigation, but the Met don't seem to have asked for this at all.
So did Johnson call in the police to try and buy time? As per the Nasreddin fable to which we've just been treated by NickyBreakspear?
I'm still not sure the slippery sod won't get away with this but it's not looking good for him.
Sue Gray referred it to the police
I wonder why you are worried he may remain in office when he is the oppositions best recruiting sergeant according to some
Why?
Because he brings Politics into disrepute Because he brings his offfice into disrepute Because he brings the country into disrepute
Every day that he stays may well be great news on narrow partisan grounds for those of us who want the Tories out. But every day is also a national disaster as the very institutions of state are dragged into a gutter they will struggle to climb out of.
Its not all about party politics. Sometimes its basic morality. Right and wrong. Boris is Wrong.
Indeed. We have now reached the point where no patriot of whatever political persuasion could possibly want Johnson to carry on.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
"You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game,"
He will use many NHS services; he will have gone private for a few. If he ever uses GPs, then he has skin in the game.
Yours is a totally bogus argument IMO: should a rail chief not have a car, so he has to travel everywhere by train? Of course not - as long as he makes some journeys. If someone never goes to the doctors because they are healthy, should they be disallowed from running the servie?
This fetishisation of the NHS will destroy it eventually.
It's not fetishisation. Most people don't have private health insurance - they rely on the NHS. I would want the person running the NHS to know how that feels. Your comparison with rail is absurd because most rail users also have a car.
It's not absurd. It's challenging the statement you made.
This is a little personal to me. As I've said passim, the NHS mucked up an operation when I was 15 that left me in intermittent pain. It was fixed about ten years later by a private surgeon after many operations. Thanks to that surgeon, I can walk properly.
I was lucky to get a good surgeon. But the NHS did not give a damn about their negligence.
So yes, it is a fetishisation. And it is one that will kill people - see the Stafford hospital scandal (c) Andy Burnham for an example.
I'm very sorry to hear about your experience, but a lot more people will suffer if the NHS continues to wither on the vine as is happening now.
So terminating the fetishism, getting fresh blood in who will challenge it to improve, is the way to stop it withering then.
Don't leave it to rot with a cosetted group who've never seen the need to do anything else running it.
Sorry if this has already been asked/answered but is there any legal reason why Gray could not or would not just publish her report when finished with a recommendation that the Met follow up on matters raised and evidenced in the report rather than request the Met involvement before she reports?
Surely unless she was under pressure in some way then that would have been best and quickest solution?
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Your muscle/fat ratio is key though. If that's high you might still look ok despite the scales telling a horror story.
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
...and Boris Johnson. A narrative recently proposed you will recall by a pirate of this parish.
But surely if Mr Johnson decides he doesn't want to compromise the Met Police investigation he must can the report. He can reveal his precis and summarise its findings, namely that no law was broken by Mr Johnson. Although there was a drinking culture in Downing Street that he was unaware of and it must be curtailed forthwith. A whole raft of Civil Servants will be dismissed with immediate effect to reorder to he house.
Today has been a massive win for Johnson.
Its no longer in his remit to do so. Officially he may have the power to yay or nay the thing, but in practice he doesn't. He can't hide behind "sub judice" because the Met have asked that it be published. He can't redact it because juicy stuff has already been leaked and if its not there someone will leak it after massive political pressure against his cover-up. He can't be seen to stand in its way at all if he is going to have any political "I'm the real victim here" cards left to play.
I think he's won. He gave a robust defence of himself earlier. If he decides the report is unfair to his defence he can claim subjudice. Surely his lawyers are working on it as we speak.
Big Dog is saved. Woof, woof!
He will try that. A few major problems: 1. He can't tell the former DPP what is and isn't sub judice 2. The Met have said that the report can and should be published 3. The most damning bits have been Johnson publicly confessing to crimes at the dispatch box 4. Parliamentary privilege - can't stop Starmer or other MPs quoting from the report
So if he decides its all sub judice when the former DPP and the police and other leading QCs all say its not, that political defence will not hold. It just makes it worse not better for the big dog.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
You want the best people to run big complex organisations.
You have an argument (skin in the game) that the current head of the NHS shouldn’t rely on private health insurance, but that doesn’t hold for historical usage
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
That's barmy. Surely you want someone who DOES recognise that the service isn't good enough?
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Someone who has chosen not to use it.
They're clearly not naively blinded into thinking nothing needs improving.
We live in a country currently led by people who think they are better than everyone else, who think that public services are for the little people and whose disdain for the rest of us is evident in their every action, from partying at number 10 to contracts for their chums and under investment in the services that most people rely on. Putting a guy in charge of the NHS who doesn't even use it is just another example of this kind of mindset. If it was an isolated thing it maybe wouldn't matter. But it's not, it's a pattern of elitist behaviour that has brought us to the sorry situation we find ourselves in now.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Your muscle/fat ratio is key though. If that's high you might still look ok despite the scales telling a horror story.
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yes, I think you’re right. I started going to the gym about 5 years ago and I am much more “buff” (as much as you can be for a man of my advanced years) than I used to be. Toned, even. Also a tan at the moment
Before my gym days I would have noticed the serious weight gain earlier, as when I am fat my face turns into a football, right now it’s more kind of rugby ball
But it’s too much. It has to go. Time for some serious austerity. Sigh
Switch to whisky and ice. Should be plenty of that there. No rice or flatbreads. No curries with sugar. Just ones with loads of coconut milk.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
Oh dear oh dear. Does this mean that someone who is in charge of alleviating poverty has to "have skin in the game"? Does the minister in charge of free school meals have to eat them breakfast lunch and dinner? The NHS is a bureaucracy ffs. Why do you on the left so want to turn it into some sort of religion? It is childish. Appoint the person who has the skills to make it the best it can be.
Sorry if this has already been asked/answered but is there any legal reason why Gray could not or would not just publish her report when finished with a recommendation that the Met follow up on matters raised and evidenced in the report rather than request the Met involvement before she reports?
Surely unless she was under pressure in some way then that would have been best and quickest solution?
Yes I asked and @Cyclefree responded. Wasn't clear cut and I'm not convinced one way or the other.
How can any sentient person - let alone someone claiming to have the best interests of the UK at heart - genuinely believe that Boris Johnson is capable of steering the country through what is coming over the next few years?
He can because he has steered us admirably through the last couple of years.
He shouldn't because while doing so be broke his own laws and lawmakers can't be lawbreakers.
As @RochdalePioneers said the other day it's like a model employee who is hitting all their KPIs who gets drunk at lunch then punches their boss, knocking him out.
It doesn't matter how good the employee was, it doesn't matter that he's capable of doing his job, that is Gross Misconduct and he has to be fired.
And this is how you and I can reach across the political divide and agree on this one. You think he's done a great job, I think the opposite. That doesn't matter as he is unfit to be in the office.
We have standards in this country and it debases all of of across the political spectrum to have him remain in Downing Street any longer.
This by-election demonstrates another way in which Boris is lucky.
Too many entities are essentially competing for the old Brexit Party vote that went tory but feels alienated and betrayed by Boris.
The vote is now splintered, making it more difficult for one united group (ie Reform) to land a proper punch.
Ah yes, I remember them. How did they do in Brexit supporting North Shropshire again?
Not great I grant you, but much better than UKIP, who are being tipped up as a potential challenger here...!
In North Shropshire Labour and the LDs were standing, as were the Greens.
In Southend the only party standing other than the Tories which has ever got more than 10% in a UK general election is UKIP (UKIP got 12% in 2015) and RefUK are not standing either
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
"You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game,"
He will use many NHS services; he will have gone private for a few. If he ever uses GPs, then he has skin in the game.
Yours is a totally bogus argument IMO: should a rail chief not have a car, so he has to travel everywhere by train? Of course not - as long as he makes some journeys. If someone never goes to the doctors because they are healthy, should they be disallowed from running the servie?
This fetishisation of the NHS will destroy it eventually.
It's not fetishisation. Most people don't have private health insurance - they rely on the NHS. I would want the person running the NHS to know how that feels. Your comparison with rail is absurd because most rail users also have a car.
Should we fire all those in the NHS with private medical coverage in their contracts, incidentally?
I propose that anyone who opts for private provision be marked somehow. It would be easier to keep track of them as apparently the taint never goes away.
You obviously don't get the joke - we, the tax payers, are paying for medical insurance for senior NHS management staff to use private healthcare.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
That's barmy. Surely you want someone who DOES recognise that the service isn't good enough?
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Someone who has chosen not to use it.
They're clearly not naively blinded into thinking nothing needs improving.
We live in a country currently led by people who think they are better than everyone else, who think that public services are for the little people and whose disdain for the rest of us is evident in their every action, from partying at number 10 to contracts for their chums and under investment in the services that most people rely on. Putting a guy in charge of the NHS who doesn't even use it is just another example of this kind of mindset. If it was an isolated thing it maybe wouldn't matter. But it's not, it's a pattern of elitist behaviour that has brought us to the sorry situation we find ourselves in now.
What utter rot.
Should the person in charge of DWP be someone who has always been on Jobseekers Allowance until they're hired?
What matters is can the person do their job. Prejudices about people because of their characteristics or because of their past that is immaterial to that are just wrong.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
That's barmy. Surely you want someone who DOES recognise that the service isn't good enough?
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Someone who has chosen not to use it.
They're clearly not naively blinded into thinking nothing needs improving.
We live in a country currently led by people who think they are better than everyone else, who think that public services are for the little people and whose disdain for the rest of us is evident in their every action, from partying at number 10 to contracts for their chums and under investment in the services that most people rely on. Putting a guy in charge of the NHS who doesn't even use it is just another example of this kind of mindset. If it was an isolated thing it maybe wouldn't matter. But it's not, it's a pattern of elitist behaviour that has brought us to the sorry situation we find ourselves in now.
That is a complete false comparison. How about the high priests of the NHS? The doctors who can never do wrong? Should they all be fired for having private practice? How well do you think the Holy Cow would produce its milk if there are no men and women in white coats (they with the big fat public sector pensions) to keep milking it?
How can any sentient person - let alone someone claiming to have the best interests of the UK at heart - genuinely believe that Boris Johnson is capable of steering the country through what is coming over the next few years?
He can because he has steered us admirably through the last couple of years.
He shouldn't because while doing so be broke his own laws and lawmakers can't be lawbreakers.
As @RochdalePioneers said the other day it's like a model employee who is hitting all their KPIs who gets drunk at lunch then punches their boss, knocking him out.
It doesn't matter how good the employee was, it doesn't matter that he's capable of doing his job, that is Gross Misconduct and he has to be fired.
Paragraph 1. The clown car steering wheel came off in his hands several times.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
It’s weird, the last time I was in Sri Lanka I was slim as a reed and could have scoffed myself silly, yet the food was mediocre if not rubbish
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
I feel a new Cummings revelation coming on this week.
He needs the Gray report to be out so he can reveal something that isn't in it.
At which point it would be game over for Boris unless Sue Gray was a total idiot (and she won't be)
“Here is an email of evidence I sent Sue Gray which has mysteriously not made it into the redacted summary presented by the PM at the despatch box.”
Steve Baker is right, it’s checkmate. My spirit has lifted from this morning, almost time for a glass of something.
Yes, I've had a strong feeling for a while of not only something like that, but also that he may be saving something else, entirely separate, and as eek says, for after the Gray report. He's even somewhat raised the possibility of this in his tweets.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
I had great food in Switzerland last summer, especially in the Italian bit, but my God, it was fucking expensive, luckily I wasn’t paying
For a diet surely the best place in the advanced world is Norway. Obscenely pricey AND it’s shit? Iceland close behind
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Maybe you could blame it on the gravity being different there?
Sadly the impact would be the other way - people weigh less in tropical climes due to being further from the centre of the earth, since the earth bulges near the equator.
True, though the main factor is the centrifugal force* due to the Earth's spin. The additional distance from the centre of the Earth reduces your weight by about 0.1%, while the centrifugal force reduces it by about 0.4%.
*Yes, I know centrifugal force isn't an actual force, but it's a useful shorthand.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
No. If they were arrested they’d have to report it on a visa application.
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
Well, yes. But it does have at least one absurdly expensive McDonald's.
Maybe I was lucky, but the hotel was the one thing about Geneva that I didn't think was expensive - it was ~£130 per night in 2013 (~£175 to £200 now at the same hotel according to Google) for a 4 star hotel that was bloody excellent.
I feel a new Cummings revelation coming on this week.
He needs the Gray report to be out so he can reveal something that isn't in it.
At which point it would be game over for Boris unless Sue Gray was a total idiot (and she won't be)
“Here is an email of evidence I sent Sue Gray which has mysteriously not made it into the redacted summary presented by the PM at the despatch box.”
Steve Baker is right, it’s checkmate. My spirit has lifted from this morning, almost time for a glass of something.
Is it checkmate, tho? This is British politics, not chess. There are no rules which say You have lost, unless he is VONC’d, and even then he might stay on? Remember Brown clinging on after he clearly lost the ELECTION in 2010
How can any sentient person - let alone someone claiming to have the best interests of the UK at heart - genuinely believe that Boris Johnson is capable of steering the country through what is coming over the next few years?
He can because he has steered us admirably through the last couple of years.
He shouldn't because while doing so be broke his own laws and lawmakers can't be lawbreakers.
As @RochdalePioneers said the other day it's like a model employee who is hitting all their KPIs who gets drunk at lunch then punches their boss, knocking him out.
It doesn't matter how good the employee was, it doesn't matter that he's capable of doing his job, that is Gross Misconduct and he has to be fired.
Paragraph 1. The clown car steering wheel came off in his hands several times.
And yet despite that the country has performed admirably.
But it doesn't matter. Thatcher was the greatest peacetime leader this country ever had but she was rightly ousted. Boris is good but no Thatcher and despite being good, he's committed Gross Misconduct so has to go.
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
I guess if he does resign he will be a better man than Boris Johnson, though that is a fairly low bar.
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
That's barmy. Surely you want someone who DOES recognise that the service isn't good enough?
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Someone who has chosen not to use it.
They're clearly not naively blinded into thinking nothing needs improving.
We live in a country currently led by people who think they are better than everyone else, who think that public services are for the little people and whose disdain for the rest of us is evident in their every action, from partying at number 10 to contracts for their chums and under investment in the services that most people rely on. Putting a guy in charge of the NHS who doesn't even use it is just another example of this kind of mindset. If it was an isolated thing it maybe wouldn't matter. But it's not, it's a pattern of elitist behaviour that has brought us to the sorry situation we find ourselves in now.
"doesn't even use it" is misrepresenting that situation.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
It’s weird, the last time I was in Sri Lanka I was slim as a reed and could have scoffed myself silly, yet the food was mediocre if not rubbish
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
I couldn't understand your previous claim to have found no good food in SL, since in my experience you could eat more or less anything at the cheapest roadside stall and it would be absolutely delicious. I'm glad your impressions have improved. I know you're not a big drinker but should you find yourself feeling worse for wear at some point I would recommend getting some kothu roti at the end of the night, the fat and carbs are great at absorbing the alcohol and it's probably my favourite Sri Lankan food even consumed sober.
One day, while Nasreddin was visiting the capital city, the Sultan took offense to a joke that was made at his expense. He had Nasreddin immediately arrested and imprisoned; accusing him of heresy and sedition. Nasreddin apologized to the Sultan for his joke, and begged for his life; but the Sultan remained obstinate, and in his anger, sentenced Nasreddin to be beheaded the following day. When Nasreddin was brought out the next morning, he addressed the Sultan, saying "Oh Sultan, live forever! You know me to be a skilled teacher, the greatest in your kingdom. If you will but delay my sentence for one year, I will teach your favorite horse to sing."
The Sultan did not believe that such a thing was possible; but his anger had cooled, and he was amused by the audacity of Nasreddin's claim. "Very well," replied the Sultan, "you will have a year. But if by the end of that year you have not taught my favorite horse to sing, then you will wish you had been beheaded today."
That evening, Nasreddin's friends were allowed to visit him in prison, and found him in unexpected good spirits. "How can you be so happy?" they asked. "Do you really believe that you can teach the Sultan's horse to sing?" "Of course not," replied Nasreddin, "but I now have a year which I did not have yesterday; and much can happen in that time. The Sultan may come to repent of his anger, and release me. He may die in battle or of illness, and it is traditional for a successor to pardon all prisoners upon taking office. He may be overthrown by another faction, and again, it is traditional for prisoners to be released at such a time. Or the horse may die, in which case the Sultan will be obliged to release me." "Finally," said Nasreddin, "even if none of those things come to pass, perhaps the horse can sing."
"Of course not," replied Nasreddin, "but starting tomorrow the Telegraph will be publishing columns like 'New scientific discoveries show that what we call 'whinnying' is actually an ancient form of song evolved by horses'; the Express will lead with 'Now EU losers PRETEND horses can't sing' and by next week the Today programme will be giving an eminent (but previously unheard of) horse musicologist a prime slot to rebut David Attenborough's opinion that horses don't sing."
And of course the DAFS might decide the equine has TB and drag it off.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
It’s weird, the last time I was in Sri Lanka I was slim as a reed and could have scoffed myself silly, yet the food was mediocre if not rubbish
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
Seriously, if you have a chance, check it out. Listed as one of the best 50 Restaurants in Asia. I doubt that, but nevertheless, very good.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Cressida Dick made that point earlier saying it is a fixed penalty notice of £100 but of course Boris is very politically exposed and is far from safe
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
Oh dear oh dear. Does this mean that someone who is in charge of alleviating poverty has to "have skin in the game"? Does the minister in charge of free school meals have to eat them breakfast lunch and dinner? The NHS is a bureaucracy ffs. Why do you on the left so want to turn it into some sort of religion? It is childish. Appoint the person who has the skills to make it the best it can be.
All good points, but I think you mean "keep it as some sort of religion" - it clearly already is.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
I guess if he does resign he will be a better man than Boris Johnson, though that is a fairly low bar.
Quite. It is certainly an interesting question whether he is right to leave it to his colleagues. He could well be doing the right thing there. But maybe not.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
I had great food in Switzerland last summer, especially in the Italian bit, but my God, it was fucking expensive, luckily I wasn’t paying
For a diet surely the best place in the advanced world is Norway. Obscenely pricey AND it’s shit? Iceland close behind
If the only options were rotting shark then you would lose five stone in a month.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
Pharmacists used to be advised to contest all drug related charges, even minor ones about incorrect/incomplete or whatever prescriptions, since to be convicted meant one had a 'drug related conviction' and could have trouble entering the USA.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
It’s weird, the last time I was in Sri Lanka I was slim as a reed and could have scoffed myself silly, yet the food was mediocre if not rubbish
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
I couldn't understand your previous claim to have found no good food in SL, since in my experience you could eat more or less anything at the cheapest roadside stall and it would be absolutely delicious. I'm glad your impressions have improved. I know you're not a big drinker but should you find yourself feeling worse for wear at some point I would recommend getting some kothu roti at the end of the night, the fat and carbs are great at absorbing the alcohol and it's probably my favourite Sri Lankan food even consumed sober.
Yes, I am happy to be proven completely wrong. I reckon my previous poor impression was a combination of 1. Sheer bad luck (we did keep trying), and 2. the fact that I was being hosted in super luxury hotels aimed at the timid rich, so everything was blandified
I’m in Colombo which has far fewer tourists, the food is aimed at the locals, and it’s effing brilliant. Really really good.
This by-election demonstrates another way in which Boris is lucky.
Too many entities are essentially competing for the old Brexit Party vote that went tory but feels alienated and betrayed by Boris.
The vote is now splintered, making it more difficult for one united group (ie Reform) to land a proper punch.
Ah yes, I remember them. How did they do in Brexit supporting North Shropshire again?
Not great I grant you, but much better than UKIP, who are being tipped up as a potential challenger here...!
In North Shropshire Labour and the LDs were standing, as were the Greens.
In Southend the only party standing other than the Tories which has ever got more than 10% in a UK general election is UKIP (UKIP got 12% in 2015) and RefUK are not standing either
To be fair, I have only ever owned up to the fact RefUK is not making inroads so far, and never really argued their cause on here, or tipped them up for anything.
I merely pointed out that what there is of the tory spillout vote is splintered, which it is.
Most tories who are unhappy with the party abstain, which means they get a government that's even less amenable to them than the one they were unhappy with.
It's Tice's task to get them to vote for him instead, and so far he is not having much success.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
It’s weird, the last time I was in Sri Lanka I was slim as a reed and could have scoffed myself silly, yet the food was mediocre if not rubbish
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
Seriously, if you have a chance, check it out. Listed as one of the best 50 Restaurants in Asia. I doubt that, but nevertheless, very good.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
Does a fixed penalty parking fine
Guess we have to wait and see whether these parties served only cheese and wine
I think Labour's criticism is absolutely valid. Why trust someone to run the NHS if they don't rely on it themselves? The argument that the private health insurance was provided by his employer is bogus because I am sure he could have turned it down (as I have). For similar reasons, nobody with power over the state education system should use private schools. You want people in charge of things to have personal skin in the game, not to have demonstrated that they think that the service they are in charge of isn't good enough for them.
That's barmy. Surely you want someone who DOES recognise that the service isn't good enough?
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Someone who has chosen not to use it.
They're clearly not naively blinded into thinking nothing needs improving.
We live in a country currently led by people who think they are better than everyone else, who think that public services are for the little people and whose disdain for the rest of us is evident in their every action, from partying at number 10 to contracts for their chums and under investment in the services that most people rely on. Putting a guy in charge of the NHS who doesn't even use it is just another example of this kind of mindset. If it was an isolated thing it maybe wouldn't matter. But it's not, it's a pattern of elitist behaviour that has brought us to the sorry situation we find ourselves in now.
"doesn't even use it" is misrepresenting that situation.
He has sinned against the State Religion. He is therefore an outcast, an infidel, not worthy of ever being readmitted to the temple again.
This by-election demonstrates another way in which Boris is lucky.
Too many entities are essentially competing for the old Brexit Party vote that went tory but feels alienated and betrayed by Boris.
The vote is now splintered, making it more difficult for one united group (ie Reform) to land a proper punch.
Ah yes, I remember them. How did they do in Brexit supporting North Shropshire again?
Not great I grant you, but much better than UKIP, who are being tipped up as a potential challenger here...!
In North Shropshire Labour and the LDs were standing, as were the Greens.
In Southend the only party standing other than the Tories which has ever got more than 10% in a UK general election is UKIP (UKIP got 12% in 2015) and RefUK are not standing either
To be fair, I have only ever owned up to the fact RefUK is not making inroads so far, and never really argued their cause on here, or tipped them up for anything.
I merely pointed out that what there is of the tory spillout vote is splintered, which it is.
Most tories who are unhappy with the party abstain, which means they get a government that's even less amenable to them than the one they were unhappy with.
It's Tice's task to get them to vote for him instead, and so far he is not having much success.
Could that be because most Conservatives are not fascists?
Mask-wearing at about 80 per cent plus at Sainsbury's today. That's how desperate everyone was to abandon face nappies.
Coincidentally I wore mine in Sainsbury's earlier today.
I can't wait to dump the stupid and ridiculous masks but am respecting and waiting until the law changes on Thursday.
Let's wait and see how many choose to wear the stupid things once it's optional before prematurely judging hey? But 20% refusing to follow the law (don't give me any nonsense about them being exempt) speaks volumes.
Yep, I've been judicious about wearing mine in shops although I completely forgot on the train the other day simply because nobody else in my carriage was wearing one.
So... after a few hours of it seeming like the Cabinet Office would not publish the Sue Gray report until the Police have concluded their investigation, now the Met seems to have indicated they have no objection, the report may be published sooner rather than later in any case https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1485993778041217025
So as I said. We get publication of a brutal report followed immediately by the police crawling all over it AND more revelations being dropped in when they will do the most harm.
Its worst case scenario for the Tories. No redacted friendly report. No mere stern words. Its pain followed by more pain.
Totally O/t but tomorrow I am logging into a discussion about electric cars (etc) vs Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) ones. Some of the questions posed are: 1. I have heard that ICE cars cannot refuel at home while you sleep. How often do you have to refill elsewhere? Is this several times a year? Will there be a solution for refuelling at home?
2. Which parts will I need service on and how often? The car salesperson mentioned a box with gears in it. What is this, and will I receive a warning with an indicator when I need to change gear? What about mufflers, tailpipes, filters, oil, and pollution control equipment. The sales rep said I have to change those frequently.
3. Can I accelerate and brake with one pedal as I do today with my electric car?
4. Do I get fuel back when I slow down or drive downhill? I assume so, but need to ask to be sure.
5. The car I test drove seemed to have a delay from the time I pressed the accelerator pedal until it began to accelerate. Is that normal in petrol cars?
6. We currently pay about £2/100 kilometres to drive our electric car. I have heard that petrol can cost up to five times as much, so I reckon we will lose some money in the beginning. We drive about 20,000 kilometres a year. Let’s hope more people start using petrol so prices go down.
7. Is it true that petrol is flammable? Should I empty the tank and store the petrol somewhere else while the car is in the garage?
8. Is there an automatic system to prevent petrol from catching fire or exploding in a collision? What does this cost?
9. I’m told ICE cars are noisy. Will that upset my neighbours?
10. I understand the main ingredient in petrol is oil. Is it true that the extraction and refining of oil causes environmental problems as well as conflicts and major wars that over the last 100 years have cost millions of lives? Is there a solution to these problems?
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Would it count as a criminal record of the kind that interests US border authorities?
Does a fixed penalty parking fine
Guess we have to wait and see whether these parties served only cheese and wine
Just to be clear, there's a fixed penalty notice, which is an alternative to prosecution, and a fine, which is the result of one. A fine is almost certainly the sort of criminal record the US is interested in. FPN, not so much.
Mask-wearing at about 80 per cent plus at Sainsbury's today. That's how desperate everyone was to abandon face nappies.
Coincidentally I wore mine in Sainsbury's earlier today.
I can't wait to dump the stupid and ridiculous masks but am respecting and waiting until the law changes on Thursday.
Let's wait and see how many choose to wear the stupid things once it's optional before prematurely judging hey? But 20% refusing to follow the law (don't give me any nonsense about them being exempt) speaks volumes.
Not really. It has been around 80 to 90 per cent for as long as I can remember.
And will continue to be worn because unless like Bartholmew, most of us aren't selfish and idiots.
They work as well as anything can to prevent a nasty airborne virus which is still around.
Why selfish? Those who are concerned about omicron or indeed any other respiratory bug are at liberty to wear an FFP3 should they wish. Nobody is preventing them from doing so.
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Cressida Dick made that point earlier saying it is a fixed penalty notice of £100 but of course Boris is very politically exposed and is far from safe
Is it time to swing back to the 'only Vlad can save Johnson now' position yet?
What days!!
Yes, I've rarely been more gripped by the twists and turns of a political drama. It's also rarely been more important for a Prime Minister to be gone, which helps focus my attention, too.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
Well, yes. But it does have at least one absurdly expensive McDonald's.
Maybe I was lucky, but the hotel was the one thing about Geneva that I didn't think was expensive - it was ~£130 per night in 2013 (~£175 to £200 now at the same hotel according to Google) for a 4 star hotel that was bloody excellent.
Everything is expensive there from Macdonalds to beers in a crappy “pub”. When I lived there I was seriously underwhelmed by the food - the Genevois would rave about certain restaurants and you would go and it was incredibly ordinary, very little variety and grossly overpriced.
You would be recommended an auberge in one of the very smart communes as being amazing and I would find myself afterwards with my best Alan Partridge “so what” face.
There also seemed to be very little joy in the restaurants - all taken a bit seriously.
The only place I really enjoyed was a very basic looking Peruvian place down a back street in Eaux Vives. Hope it’s still there.
I feel a new Cummings revelation coming on this week.
He needs the Gray report to be out so he can reveal something that isn't in it.
At which point it would be game over for Boris unless Sue Gray was a total idiot (and she won't be)
“Here is an email of evidence I sent Sue Gray which has mysteriously not made it into the redacted summary presented by the PM at the despatch box.”
Steve Baker is right, it’s checkmate. My spirit has lifted from this morning, almost time for a glass of something.
Is it checkmate, tho? This is British politics, not chess. There are no rules which say You have lost, unless he is VONC’d, and even then he might stay on? Remember Brown clinging on after he clearly lost the ELECTION in 2010
I was not a fan of Mr Brown, but I think that is a myth. He was obliged to remain PM until all negotiating avenues were no longer open to him and that Cameron was able to demonstrate he had formed a coalition.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
I had great food in Switzerland last summer, especially in the Italian bit, but my God, it was fucking expensive, luckily I wasn’t paying
For a diet surely the best place in the advanced world is Norway. Obscenely pricey AND it’s shit? Iceland close behind
If the only options were rotting shark then you would lose five stone in a month.
True story: when I was a young man doing my first gigs for the Flint Knappers Gazette I was sent to Iceland with a photographer friend (those were the days), My commission was: Oh just go and find something interesting . Literally (as I say those were the days!)
So I went and had a laugh and we met girls and it was all great and then we got a boat over the Arctic Ocean to the Vestman Islands, and we climbed a live volcano and I took out the two early Ecstasy tablet sI had smuggled in, via my sheepskin coat, and me and my tog friend had one each - this is when E was brilliant, late 80s - and we literally danced on the volcano until we were utterly exhausted with laughter and then we stomped down the lava off the volcano with an appetite like Daniel Lambert after a diet and we marched into the only restaurant to discover that the ONLY dish they were serving was…. Puffin
Two puffin each. Boiled. Beaks and claws on, and heads, everything.
Despite our ravenous hunger we could not eat a morsel. Puffin is disgusting. Like fishy liver, gone rancid.
I think we found a pizzeria the next day and forced them to open at about 10am
In terms of the police, it's a relatively minor investigation (I mean noone's been murdered here / The upper end of the potential punishment would be a large fine - serious as it is for the PM) so I can't see why they wouldn't mind Gray's report also being published.
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
Cressida Dick made that point earlier saying it is a fixed penalty notice of £100 but of course Boris is very politically exposed and is far from safe
So why did students get fined £10k then?
I think they would have to prove that Johnson was the organiser. Be great if Cummings has an email somewhere that proves it!
Theo Bertram @theobertram · 5h There seems to be a lot of lobby focus on process rather than big picture. Don't overspin this. Any gain from Met investigation is - at best - procedural, tactical, minor and short-lived. Politically, substantively, electorally and morally, this is bad. Very bad.
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
As far as I can see the worst thing Doug Beattie did was insult Edwin Poot's wife.
As his main target voters are middle class soft Unionist Alliance voters he may even end up with a poll bounce from that! (Even if he shouldn't have done it)
What’s this news about Rishi attending a Cobra meeting at the same time AND IN THE SAME ROOM as Boris’s birthday surprise.
Does Lulu Lytle go to COBRA now?
Boris is running a fucking circus. Whitehall appears to be a state of total disarray. The country simply cannot afford a day more of these mythomaniacs in charge.
This by-election demonstrates another way in which Boris is lucky.
Too many entities are essentially competing for the old Brexit Party vote that went tory but feels alienated and betrayed by Boris.
The vote is now splintered, making it more difficult for one united group (ie Reform) to land a proper punch.
Ah yes, I remember them. How did they do in Brexit supporting North Shropshire again?
Not great I grant you, but much better than UKIP, who are being tipped up as a potential challenger here...!
In North Shropshire Labour and the LDs were standing, as were the Greens.
In Southend the only party standing other than the Tories which has ever got more than 10% in a UK general election is UKIP (UKIP got 12% in 2015) and RefUK are not standing either
To be fair, I have only ever owned up to the fact RefUK is not making inroads so far, and never really argued their cause on here, or tipped them up for anything.
I merely pointed out that what there is of the tory spillout vote is splintered, which it is.
Most tories who are unhappy with the party abstain, which means they get a government that's even less amenable to them than the one they were unhappy with.
It's Tice's task to get them to vote for him instead, and so far he is not having much success.
Could that be because most Conservatives are not fascists?
If you want an example of an extreme right winger look the guy being tipped up on your own thread header, UKIP's Immigration spokesman.
Everyone in the country knows the service isn't good enough. The question is, who will put the most effort into fixing it, someone who has always relied on it or someone who has chosen not to use it?
Well, for a start, effort isn't everything; a fool who has an obsession with purity but realises the service is poor might well put in a lot of effort, but a fat lot of good that effort will do if it's uninformed or blinded by ideology. What you want is someone with understanding of how huge organisations work, how to improve them, and how to get value for money from them, against the hugely difficult problems of political interference, the institutional inertia, the changing technology, and the reluctance to learn from best practice elsewhere.
Whether a candidate uses private healthcare is just about the most irrelevant criterion you could come up with, especially since nearly all qualified candidates will have done.
It might not the most relevant factor but neither is it anywhere near the least. Somebody who believes in public healthcare to the extent they don't go private despite being able to afford it is likely to be a better choice to run it than somebody with similar profile and abilities who lacks that strength of belief. Ditto with education. Double ditto with education in fact.
LBC saying the Gray report may be sent to no 10 tonight
It’s really hard to understand how this report is in the hands of the people it is investigating to redact / summarise / release at their leisure. Is there not a parliamentary scrutiny committee process, given the most serious accusations politically arguably relate to lying to the house?
Millions of people who only get news from 2 mins slots on music radio or a quick five minutes with the headlines with Hugh Edwards at 10pm are going to only get one thing from today's back and forth:
The police have been called in to investigate all the parties at No 10 during lockdown.
I suspect that millions will be saying "about bloody time".
Totally O/t but tomorrow I am logging into a discussion about electric cars (etc) vs Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) ones. Some of the questions posed are: 1. I have heard that ICE cars cannot refuel at home while you sleep. How often do you have to refill elsewhere? Is this several times a year? Will there be a solution for refuelling at home?
2. Which parts will I need service on and how often? The car salesperson mentioned a box with gears in it. What is this, and will I receive a warning with an indicator when I need to change gear? What about mufflers, tailpipes, filters, oil, and pollution control equipment. The sales rep said I have to change those frequently.
3. Can I accelerate and brake with one pedal as I do today with my electric car?
4. Do I get fuel back when I slow down or drive downhill? I assume so, but need to ask to be sure.
5. The car I test drove seemed to have a delay from the time I pressed the accelerator pedal until it began to accelerate. Is that normal in petrol cars?
6. We currently pay about £2/100 kilometres to drive our electric car. I have heard that petrol can cost up to five times as much, so I reckon we will lose some money in the beginning. We drive about 20,000 kilometres a year. Let’s hope more people start using petrol so prices go down.
7. Is it true that petrol is flammable? Should I empty the tank and store the petrol somewhere else while the car is in the garage?
8. Is there an automatic system to prevent petrol from catching fire or exploding in a collision? What does this cost?
9. I’m told ICE cars are noisy. Will that upset my neighbours?
10. I understand the main ingredient in petrol is oil. Is it true that the extraction and refining of oil causes environmental problems as well as conflicts and major wars that over the last 100 years have cost millions of lives? Is there a solution to these problems?
I have a Tesla. I am almost as smug about that as Leon is about his foreign trips, but I do not feel the need to post on PB when I am driving it.
What’s this news about Rishi attending a Cobra meeting at the same time AND IN THE SAME ROOM as Boris’s birthday surprise.
Does Lulu Lytle go to COBRA now?
Boris is running a fucking circus. Whitehall appears to be a state of total disarray. The country simply cannot afford a day more of these mythomaniacs in charge.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
Bah, that's nothing.
I paid twice that for a room in an appalling three star hotel* in Midland Texas.
* Not appalling compared to the Ritz or the Metropolitan or something. I mean appalling compared to a regular three star hotel.
I feel a new Cummings revelation coming on this week.
He needs the Gray report to be out so he can reveal something that isn't in it.
At which point it would be game over for Boris unless Sue Gray was a total idiot (and she won't be)
“Here is an email of evidence I sent Sue Gray which has mysteriously not made it into the redacted summary presented by the PM at the despatch box.”
Steve Baker is right, it’s checkmate. My spirit has lifted from this morning, almost time for a glass of something.
Is it checkmate, tho? This is British politics, not chess. There are no rules which say You have lost, unless he is VONC’d, and even then he might stay on? Remember Brown clinging on after he clearly lost the ELECTION in 2010
I was not a fan of Mr Brown, but I think that is a myth. He was obliged to remain PM until all negotiating avenues were no longer open to him and that Cameron was able to demonstrate he had formed a coalition.
Correct. "Clinging on" being there needs to be a Prime Minister. Whilst Labour had not won a majority nobody else had, and until the machinery of state were clear that an alternative government could be formed his had to continue in office.
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
As far as I can see the worst thing Doug Beattie did was insult Edwin Poot's wife.
As his main target voters are middle class soft Unionist Alliance voters he may even end up with a poll bounce from that! (Even if he shouldn't have done it)
"A series of derogatory messages came to light referring to women, Muslims, members of the Travelling community and people with mental health issues."
Care to do a word by word analysis of your comparison with that rather nasty tweet about Mrs Poots? And why should middle class and relatively centrist voters be at all impressed by the Mrs Poots joke? Which was extremely personal - look at it.
Jesus Christ I just weighed myself. I thought Sri Lankan food was meant to be healthy and, er, slimming?
it was one of those moments when you look down at the scales and scoff and think Surely not, what nonsense, that’s wrong, so you go find another set of scales and… it’s right.
OMG
I have renewed empathy for Boris “cheese and wine” Johnson, and I’m afraid you can expect weekly if not daily updates on my attempt, beginning after this next Martini but one, to shed the REDACTED pounds I have somehow put on since last summer
Ugh!
Your muscle/fat ratio is key though. If that's high you might still look ok despite the scales telling a horror story.
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
...and Boris Johnson. A narrative recently proposed you will recall by a pirate of this parish.
Ha yes, I'd forgotten that. One of the most eccentric views ever advanced on PB! Certainly in my time.
I have lost 25kg+ since summer by skipping breakfast, and moderately sticking to a regime of dinners before 7pm, lowish carb, lowish alcohol etc.
And running every second day.
Amazing! I have lost 2.5kg+ by largely not behaving but doing a lot less misbehaving than I was doing in the run up to Christmas whilst head mashed with work. Really struggling to find time to do any exercise but that will change soon. A combination of longer days and a return to free gym at the hotel will sort me out.
I have to get out of this hotel. NOW. It has the best food per dollar I have ever encountered. Superb, freshly made curries for £4
I need to check into a hostel above a weirdly expensive McDonalds.
I recommend Geneva.
Where some of the cheaper dishes involve piles of bread dipped into a vast vat of melted cheese... or lake fish swamped in butter sauce with a pile of chips.
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
I had great food in Switzerland last summer, especially in the Italian bit, but my God, it was fucking expensive, luckily I wasn’t paying
For a diet surely the best place in the advanced world is Norway. Obscenely pricey AND it’s shit? Iceland close behind
If the only options were rotting shark then you would lose five stone in a month.
True story: when I was a young man doing my first gigs for the Flint Knappers Gazette I was sent to Iceland with a photographer friend (those were the days), My commission was: Oh just go and find something interesting . Literally (as I say those were the days!)
So I went and had a laugh and we met girls and it was all great and then we got a boat over the Arctic Ocean to the Vestman Islands, and we climbed a live volcano and I took out the two early Ecstasy tablet sI had smuggled in, via my sheepskin coat, and me and my tog friend had one each - this is when E was brilliant, late 80s - and we literally danced on the volcano until we were utterly exhausted with laughter and then we stomped down the lava off the volcano with an appetite like Daniel Lambert after a diet and we marched into the only restaurant to discover that the ONLY dish they were serving was…. Puffin
Two puffin each. Boiled. Beaks and claws on, and heads, everything.
Despite our ravenous hunger we could not eat a morsel. Puffin is disgusting. Like fishy liver, gone rancid.
I think we found a pizzeria the next day and forced them to open at about 10am
We found a couple of good restaurants in Reykjavik. Didn't try the whale, admittedly. There was also a Indian takeaway in a place called Akureyri but but didn't eat there either.
What’s this news about Rishi attending a Cobra meeting at the same time AND IN THE SAME ROOM as Boris’s birthday surprise.
Does Lulu Lytle go to COBRA now?
Boris is running a fucking circus. Whitehall appears to be a state of total disarray. The country simply cannot afford a day more of these mythomaniacs in charge.
Comments
An example of a man with a high muscle/fat ratio is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Whether a candidate uses private healthcare is just about the most irrelevant criterion you could come up with, especially since nearly all qualified candidates will have done.
Big Dog is saved. Woof, woof!
Not sure whether to laugh or be very concerned.
He shouldn't because while doing so be broke his own laws and lawmakers can't be lawbreakers.
As @RochdalePioneers said the other day it's like a model employee who is hitting all their KPIs who gets drunk at lunch then punches their boss, knocking him out.
It doesn't matter how good the employee was, it doesn't matter that he's capable of doing his job, that is Gross Misconduct and he has to be fired.
Before my gym days I would have noticed the serious weight gain earlier, as when I am fat my face turns into a football, right now it’s more kind of rugby ball
But it’s too much. It has to go. Time for some serious austerity. Sigh
Don't leave it to rot with a cosetted group who've never seen the need to do anything else running it.
Surely unless she was under pressure in some way then that would have been best and quickest solution?
1. He can't tell the former DPP what is and isn't sub judice
2. The Met have said that the report can and should be published
3. The most damning bits have been Johnson publicly confessing to crimes at the dispatch box
4. Parliamentary privilege - can't stop Starmer or other MPs quoting from the report
So if he decides its all sub judice when the former DPP and the police and other leading QCs all say its not, that political defence will not hold. It just makes it worse not better for the big dog.
You have an argument (skin in the game) that the current head of the NHS shouldn’t rely on private health insurance, but that doesn’t hold for historical usage
But yes, the worst value for money hotel I ever stayed in was in Geneva. £250 a night for something hovering around student halls of residence standards.
At which point it would be game over for Boris unless Sue Gray was a total idiot (and she won't be)
Job done.
Can't imagine why..
We have standards in this country and it debases all of of across the political spectrum to have him remain in Downing Street any longer.
In Southend the only party standing other than the Tories which has ever got more than 10% in a UK general election is UKIP (UKIP got 12% in 2015) and RefUK are not standing either
Why is this?
Should the person in charge of DWP be someone who has always been on Jobseekers Allowance until they're hired?
What matters is can the person do their job. Prejudices about people because of their characteristics or because of their past that is immaterial to that are just wrong.
Steve Baker is right, it’s checkmate. My spirit has lifted from this morning, almost time for a glass of something.
This time I have discovered brilliant food everywhere, not least in my own damn hotel, and it costs pennies, and now I can’t eat it. God is cruelly teaching me some perverse lesson, in His ineffable way, the wanker
I mean it's very serious for the PM politically, and lawmakers/lawbreakers but it's not so serious for the police in the grand scheme of things for them.
I had great food in Switzerland last summer, especially in the Italian bit, but my God, it was fucking expensive, luckily I wasn’t paying
For a diet surely the best place in the advanced world is Norway. Obscenely pricey AND it’s shit? Iceland close behind
*Yes, I know centrifugal force isn't an actual force, but it's a useful shorthand.
Remember that UUP chap Ladyt Davidson said would save the Union? Having a bit of a sticky time. (Interesting issue of whether he is also showing a failure of leadership. But certainly nobody at the UUP thought to do a bit of searching, it seems.)
'THE Ulster Unionist Party leader has asked colleagues whether he should resign amid a controversy over historical tweets.
Doug Beattie, who Ruth Davidson has said is "quite possibly" the man who'll save the Union, has faced accusations of misogyny and racism over the content of tweets posted before he entered political life.
The Upper Bann MLA conceded that the posts, the majority of which were written around a decade ago, were “horrendous and horrific”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I will speak to my MLA group today and I will speak to my party officers through my chairman, Danny Kennedy, and if either group feels I should step down, then I will.
“Likewise, if they think I should refer myself to the party executive or the wider council on a vote of no confidence then I shall do that as well, and the party will decide whether or not they can follow my leadership.”'
Maybe I was lucky, but the hotel was the one thing about Geneva that I didn't think was expensive - it was ~£130 per night in 2013 (~£175 to £200 now at the same hotel according to Google) for a 4 star hotel that was bloody excellent.
But it doesn't matter. Thatcher was the greatest peacetime leader this country ever had but she was rightly ousted. Boris is good but no Thatcher and despite being good, he's committed Gross Misconduct so has to go.
I know you're not a big drinker but should you find yourself feeling worse for wear at some point I would recommend getting some kothu roti at the end of the night, the fat and carbs are great at absorbing the alcohol and it's probably my favourite Sri Lankan food even consumed sober.
https://www.ministryofcrab.com/colombo/
What days!!
I’m in Colombo which has far fewer tourists, the food is aimed at the locals, and it’s effing brilliant. Really really good.
AND NOW I CAN’T EAT IT
I merely pointed out that what there is of the tory spillout vote is splintered, which it is.
Most tories who are unhappy with the party abstain, which means they get a government that's even less amenable to them than the one they were unhappy with.
It's Tice's task to get them to vote for him instead, and so far he is not having much success.
It was on my to-do list! I adore crab
I might fast for three days beforehand to justify it, on my last day, or something
1. I have heard that ICE cars cannot refuel at home while you sleep. How often do you have to refill elsewhere? Is this several times a year? Will there be a solution for refuelling at home?
2. Which parts will I need service on and how often? The car salesperson mentioned a box with gears in it. What is this, and will I receive a warning with an indicator when I need to change gear? What about mufflers, tailpipes, filters, oil, and pollution control equipment. The sales rep said I have to change those frequently.
3. Can I accelerate and brake with one pedal as I do today with my electric car?
4. Do I get fuel back when I slow down or drive downhill? I assume so, but need to ask to be sure.
5. The car I test drove seemed to have a delay from the time I pressed the accelerator pedal until it began to accelerate. Is that normal in petrol cars?
6. We currently pay about £2/100 kilometres to drive our electric car. I have heard that petrol can cost up to five times as much, so I reckon we will lose some money in the beginning. We drive about 20,000 kilometres a year. Let’s hope more people start using petrol so prices go down.
7. Is it true that petrol is flammable? Should I empty the tank and store the petrol somewhere else while the car is in the garage?
8. Is there an automatic system to prevent petrol from catching fire or exploding in a collision? What does this cost?
9. I’m told ICE cars are noisy. Will that upset my neighbours?
10. I understand the main ingredient in petrol is oil. Is it true that the extraction and refining of oil causes environmental problems as well as conflicts and major wars that over the last 100 years have cost millions of lives? Is there a solution to these problems?
You would be recommended an auberge in one of the very smart communes as being amazing and I would find myself afterwards with my best Alan Partridge “so what” face.
There also seemed to be very little joy in the restaurants - all taken a bit seriously.
The only place I really enjoyed was a very basic looking Peruvian place down a back street in Eaux Vives. Hope it’s still there.
So I went and had a laugh and we met girls and it was all great and then we got a boat over the Arctic Ocean to the Vestman Islands, and we climbed a live volcano and I took out the two early Ecstasy tablet sI had smuggled in, via my sheepskin coat, and me and my tog friend had one each - this is when E was brilliant, late 80s - and we literally danced on the volcano until we were utterly exhausted with laughter and then we stomped down the lava off the volcano with an appetite like Daniel Lambert after a diet and we marched into the only restaurant to discover that the ONLY dish they were serving was…. Puffin
Two puffin each. Boiled. Beaks and claws on, and heads, everything.
Despite our ravenous hunger we could not eat a morsel. Puffin is disgusting. Like fishy liver, gone rancid.
I think we found a pizzeria the next day and forced them to open at about 10am
@theobertram
·
5h
There seems to be a lot of lobby focus on process rather than big picture. Don't overspin this. Any gain from Met investigation is - at best - procedural, tactical, minor and short-lived. Politically, substantively, electorally and morally, this is bad. Very bad.
https://twitter.com/theobertram/status/1485936651805339648
As his main target voters are middle class soft Unionist Alliance voters he may even end up with a poll bounce from that! (Even if he shouldn't have done it)
Does Lulu Lytle go to COBRA now?
Boris is running a fucking circus. Whitehall appears to be a state of total disarray. The country simply cannot afford a day more of these mythomaniacs in charge.
The police have been called in to investigate all the parties at No 10 during lockdown.
I suspect that millions will be saying "about bloody time".
I have lost 25kg+ since summer by skipping breakfast, and moderately sticking to a regime of dinners before 7pm, lowish carb, lowish alcohol etc.
And running every second day.
On a day of timetable twists and turns, the final decision on publication is in hands of PM.
But expectation is it will be released in full.
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1486015473359724546?s=20
I paid twice that for a room in an appalling three star hotel* in Midland Texas.
* Not appalling compared to the Ritz or the Metropolitan or something. I mean appalling compared to a regular three star hotel.
Care to do a word by word analysis of your comparison with that rather nasty tweet about Mrs Poots? And why should middle class and relatively centrist voters be at all impressed by the Mrs Poots joke? Which was extremely personal - look at it.
https://twitter.com/lmharpin/status/1486016224903454725
Yahoo News. Is that still a thing?