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At what point could Sunak be in trouble? – politicalbetting.com

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Comments

  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,592
    Scott_xP said:

    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards.

    As in the ending of Get Carter
    Never seen it. I guess you mean this? (nsfw)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-iHjUKkoWM

    That's different to how I imagined it; more aerial ropeway than conveyor. But thanks.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    The NE Seabed disaster linked to dredging of the freeport has the potential to sink Sunak; not the original disaster but the apparent refusal to halt work whilst independent investigations are carried out and seemingly, deliberate misdirection from DEFRA.

    Disaster? Is there a story we all missed?
    1-2 centuries' accumulated toxins in Tees estuary sediment dredged up and dumped offshore - mass mortality of marine life. Fishing industry and conservationists and anglers very, very unhappy, ditto tourist industry.
    More exactly - it may not have been in the material removed, but in the material uncovered.
    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards. When I walked past twenty years ago, the conveyor belts had gone, and the sea was eroding the cliffs. Beneath, people were fishing from a beach that had multi-colored puddles from the pollution.

    I'm not saying this excuses this latest news, but it'll be interesting to k now what the levels of pollution are compared to those historical levels.

    The link below *should* show one of the puddles near the fishermen. This was just south of Sunderland.
    https://imgur.com/a/4Ft4u1c
    The issue would be (if this is what happened) that since the dumping ended, sediment has accumulated, locking much of the pollution in lower layers. So it all looked great...

    When the dredging happened, this exposed the polluted layers again. Which will take a number of years to be covered over again.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,072

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    The NE Seabed disaster linked to dredging of the freeport has the potential to sink Sunak; not the original disaster but the apparent refusal to halt work whilst independent investigations are carried out and seemingly, deliberate misdirection from DEFRA.

    Disaster? Is there a story we all missed?
    1-2 centuries' accumulated toxins in Tees estuary sediment dredged up and dumped offshore - mass mortality of marine life. Fishing industry and conservationists and anglers very, very unhappy, ditto tourist industry.
    More exactly - it may not have been in the material removed, but in the material uncovered.
    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards. When I walked past twenty years ago, the conveyor belts had gone, and the sea was eroding the cliffs. Beneath, people were fishing from a beach that had multi-colored puddles from the pollution...
    Are those also in the scene from Get Carter ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzbFTUjp-Y
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,951
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ‘Not our lived experience’: Tunbridge Wells leaders rubbish Sunak levelling up boast https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/10/tunbridge-wells-rishi-sunak-levelling-up-boast?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

    You do realise TWBC is now led by the Liberal Democrats?
    Oh, so if it were Tories they'd deliberately keep quiet about the truth?
    LD councils spin to trash the Tory government shock
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,951
    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sunak has at least improved the Tory poll ratings still Truss left from about 20 to 25% to 25 to 30% now.

    However under Boris the Tories were polling 30 to 35% before he resigned despite the fact OGH was saying he had to be removed for their rating ti be improved.

    So if Sunak is heading for a heavy defeat in the polls before the next election campaign and the Times are still leaking heavily to RefUK and DK then Boris may well be brought back to fight that election campaign

    I would suggest that you study the graph in the lead more closely?
    Tories at 30%+ under Johnson in late June, still better than now yes
  • glwglw Posts: 9,906

    With the big price spike of the summer long gone and the wholesale price of electricity back in its usual place, I can understand the minister's reluctance. But the question is what he intends to do about it - if the input price is low and the output price is business-ending high, someone is making a bucket load of money.

    Happily the Conservative and Unionist Party can be trusted not to make policy judgements based on donations, and never ever favours its corrupt friends.

    I think one thing you are not accounting for is that the price spike might have gone, but they were futures contracts. That makes it harder to assess what is a fair price to pay now, and how much subsidy the government should be making. Someone here will probably have a better idea of what is going on.

    That said I think the government should taper the change in subsidy.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,784

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    That might be a reasonable argument if trade unions and their members had the same rights generally that their counterparts in the rest of democratic Europe have.

    It feels like the Tories have read the Road to Serfdom and taken inspiration from the title.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Nigelb said:

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    The NE Seabed disaster linked to dredging of the freeport has the potential to sink Sunak; not the original disaster but the apparent refusal to halt work whilst independent investigations are carried out and seemingly, deliberate misdirection from DEFRA.

    Disaster? Is there a story we all missed?
    1-2 centuries' accumulated toxins in Tees estuary sediment dredged up and dumped offshore - mass mortality of marine life. Fishing industry and conservationists and anglers very, very unhappy, ditto tourist industry.
    More exactly - it may not have been in the material removed, but in the material uncovered.
    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards. When I walked past twenty years ago, the conveyor belts had gone, and the sea was eroding the cliffs. Beneath, people were fishing from a beach that had multi-colored puddles from the pollution...
    Are those also in the scene from Get Carter ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzbFTUjp-Y
    Remington 700. Right tool for the job. Wish I had one.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,434

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    It's an EU harmonisation. That's why Scott P, Southam and the rest complaining about it so passionately is so funny.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Private Eye have a long running thing in the massive gap between the advances on celebrity biographies and sales. With politicians, it seems to be donating money - but like over paying for newspaper columns (history of that going back to the start of mass newspapers).

    What is going on with celebs has always been hard to understand. The Private Eye suggestion is that the “advances” themselves are bullshit. As in $20 million or whatever is actually what would get paid if the book sold a zillion copies. The actual cash handed over, in nearly all cases, as an actual, real advance was orders of magnitude smaller.

    The size of the advance was part of the publicity for the media package as a whole, in other words.
    Yes, that makes sense that they only paid him a couple of million upfront, with the rest of the ‘advance’ not actually being an advance but dependent on sales.

    In which case, why has he sold out his entire family for only a couple of million bucks? Given that he’s managed to upset the Taliban, that will barely cover his personal security for the next couple of years.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,526

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    It's typical that the minimum service levels will ONLY apply when there's a strike. On non-strike days, minimum service level? Oh, no, just hope for the best, eh?
  • Scott_xP said:

    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards.

    As in the ending of Get Carter
    Never seen it. I guess you mean this? (nsfw)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-iHjUKkoWM

    That's different to how I imagined it; more aerial ropeway than conveyor. But thanks.
    Get Carter is one of the classics of British cinema. You really ought to watch it.

    Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Carter
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    edited January 2023
    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Private Eye have a long running thing in the massive gap between the advances on celebrity biographies and sales. With politicians, it seems to be donating money - but like over paying for newspaper columns (history of that going back to the start of mass newspapers).

    What is going on with celebs has always been hard to understand. The Private Eye suggestion is that the “advances” themselves are bullshit. As in $20 million or whatever is actually what would get paid if the book sold a zillion copies. The actual cash handed over, in nearly all cases, as an actual, real advance was orders of magnitude smaller.

    The size of the advance was part of the publicity for the media package as a whole, in other words.
    Yes, that makes sense that they only paid him a couple of million upfront, with the rest of the ‘advance’ not actually being an advance but dependent on sales.

    In which case, why has he sold out his entire family for only a couple of million bucks? Given that he’s managed to upset the Taliban, that will barely cover his personal security for the next couple of years.
    The remapping of words can be funny.

    A friend was buying a property. The seller was using Foxtons.

    Foxtons had specifically stated, in writing, that the seller was a cash buyer for their next property, and they (Foxtons) had checked.

    The chain collapsed because the "cash buyer" failed to get approval for his mortgage.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567

    Scott_xP said:

    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards.

    As in the ending of Get Carter
    Never seen it. I guess you mean this? (nsfw)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-iHjUKkoWM

    That's different to how I imagined it; more aerial ropeway than conveyor. But thanks.
    Get Carter is one of the classics of British cinema. You really ought to watch it.

    Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Carter
    Even when viewed in the 90's, it made the north-east look like a different century. Seedy and squalid don't begin to cover it.

    And Caine is at his imperious best.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567
    Seems the Putin regime have offended the weather Gods:

    https://twitter.com/MrFukkew/status/1612184995161939973/photo/1
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,951
    edited January 2023
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Fair to say there were also not queues around the block for it, in fact there was no queue at all outside WH Smith this morning for the first copies.

    Meanwhile as posted yesterday a new Yougov has 64% of British voters having a negative view of Harry, just 26% positive

    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/01/09/prince-harry-favourability-falls-new-low-after-run
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,786

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    It's an EU harmonisation. That's why Scott P, Southam and the rest complaining about it so passionately is so funny.
    I don't have a strong view one way or the other, but I think that your observation can be rather turned on its head don't you? For instance:

    a) This Brexit Govt seems keen to harmonise with the EU
    b) Remainers were happy they didn't need to harmonise with the EU on everything

    That interpretation is as rational as yours.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Boeing should give Harry a job on the AH-64 sales team. He'd be pretty awesome at that. Ex-operator, royal bullshit for those impressed by that, knows how to take that and party. Perfect profile for the role.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Charming....
  • Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Besides, what is the right price for a book anyway? RRP of anything is basically a made-up number to allow a discount to be applied.

    Presumably, there's a bit of motivated reasoning here- we don't like Harry, so everything he does must be an idiotic failure now.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    Dura_Ace said:

    Boeing should give Harry a job on the AH-64 sales team. He'd be pretty awesome at that. Ex-operator, royal bullshit for those impressed by that, knows how to take that and party. Perfect profile for the role.

    Particularly since the previous Royal salesman (Andrew) has rather blotted his copybook.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,990

    Scott_xP said:

    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards.

    As in the ending of Get Carter
    Never seen it. I guess you mean this? (nsfw)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-iHjUKkoWM

    That's different to how I imagined it; more aerial ropeway than conveyor. But thanks.
    Get Carter is one of the classics of British cinema. You really ought to watch it.

    Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Carter
    Even when viewed in the 90's, it made the north-east look like a different century. Seedy and squalid don't begin to cover it.

    And Caine is at his imperious best.
    I visited the car park before it was demolished
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,329
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    One suspects it does not take much to produce and so even at half price they make money , will sell more books and as someone said drag in other sales of books , coffee, cakes , etc
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,963

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    It's an EU harmonisation. That's why Scott P, Southam and the rest complaining about it so passionately is so funny.
    Have you got a source for that? I've looked and can't find one. Seems too good to be true.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,157
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Fair to say there were also not queues around the block for it, in fact there was no queue at all outside WH Smith this morning for the first copies
    I happen to have got a book token for Christmas. Was going to use it to add to my collection of Japanese/Korean magical realist bleak house noir but now with Spare coming out ... hmm dilemma.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,963

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    It's typical that the minimum service levels will ONLY apply when there's a strike. On non-strike days, minimum service level? Oh, no, just hope for the best, eh?
    "We'll go on strike and that will improve the quality of the service" would be a powerful message to send.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,786
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Cheers for that Leon. That is not the obvious thing that comes to mind if like me you don't have any knowledge in the area. I obviously have no idea if that is accurate, but I put more weight on it coming from someone in the industry. Thanks.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,362
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    Because the original price was a fiction to enable discounts against? £28 for a mass-printed book?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,157
    edited January 2023
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    Publishers accept not making a profit on the weighty memoirs of figures of global importance. They see it as a matter of public service and also - less altruistically - hope to benefit from the association.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    A 'Spare' film must be in the works. Noah Dingle out of Emmerdale has just the right level of ginger adjacent gormlessness to play Harry.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727

    Seems the Putin regime have offended the weather Gods:

    https://twitter.com/MrFukkew/status/1612184995161939973/photo/1

    Surprised the Russians have moved their (marked in red) border into Finland again given what happened last time :open_mouth:
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727
    kinabalu said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    Publishers accept not making a profit on the weighty memoirs of figures of global importance. They see it as a matter of public service and also - less altruistically - hope to benefit from the association.
    They'll be wanting a profit from Harry's book then? :wink:
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Charming....
    Strange, I'd say.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,662
    Was unfortunate enough to see a bit of GMB.

    Poor Susanna Reid. To go from Piers Morgan to Richard Madeley is like finally escaping Josef Fritzl's basement only to be picked up by Jimmy Savile in his campervan.

    Still at least the pay is good
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,310

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    That might be a reasonable argument if trade unions and their members had the same rights generally that their counterparts in the rest of democratic Europe have.

    Genuine question: what rights do trade unions and their members here do not have that their counterparts in the rest of Europe have?

    And why is that the case given that EU law and the ECHR have been applicable all this time?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,990
    NEW profile of the most powerful civil servant in Britain

    “I hate that man — he’s a worm,” spat one official who has worked in numerous government departments. The sentiment is not uncommon.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/cabinet-secretary-simon-case-british-civil-service-spy-chief-prince-harry-william-royals-spare/
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    edited January 2023
    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,664
    If you can write something on the side of a quark, you'll get a Nobel prize.

    I don't see why anyone cares whether anyone buys Spare. Will it spawn a franchise, "Spare, the movie"? Will William bring out 'Heir'? Will Kate bring out "Hair'?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,643

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    That might be a reasonable argument if trade unions and their members had the same rights generally that their counterparts in the rest of democratic Europe have.
    To take one of the items on your laundry list, how many countries in Europe allow voting without photo ID?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    Er, it’s number 1 on amazon. So, yes
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    I knew a chap who actually managed to buy a shirt at full price in TM Lewin.

    Managing to avoid their perpetual sales took skill, I think.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    Jonathan said:

    If you can write something on the side of a quark, you'll get a Nobel prize.

    I don't see why anyone cares whether anyone buys Spare. Will it spawn a franchise, "Spare, the movie"? Will William bring out 'Heir'? Will Kate bring out "Hair'?

    Really? Who made this experiment and what did they write?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,157

    Was unfortunate enough to see a bit of GMB.

    Poor Susanna Reid. To go from Piers Morgan to Richard Madeley is like finally escaping Josef Fritzl's basement only to be picked up by Jimmy Savile in his campervan.

    Still at least the pay is good

    I'd say it's even worse than that.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    SPARE is also number 1 in amazon Canada


    https://www.amazon.ca/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    And in the UK

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers/zgbs

    And Australia


    https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/bestsellers/books


    I think we can rest easy that it is “selling well”
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    edited January 2023
    ydoethur said:

    Jonathan said:

    If you can write something on the side of a quark, you'll get a Nobel prize.

    I don't see why anyone cares whether anyone buys Spare. Will it spawn a franchise, "Spare, the movie"? Will William bring out 'Heir'? Will Kate bring out "Hair'?

    Really? Who made this experiment and what did they write?
    "The Full And Complete Expertise of the Department" - a DfE publication.

    There was space left over for the Lords Prayer.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,402
    Scott_xP said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Back in the 1970s, when John Merrill walked the coast, he reported conveyor belts tipping mining waste over the cliffs, causing the cliffs to move seawards.

    As in the ending of Get Carter
    Never seen it. I guess you mean this? (nsfw)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-iHjUKkoWM

    That's different to how I imagined it; more aerial ropeway than conveyor. But thanks.
    Get Carter is one of the classics of British cinema. You really ought to watch it.

    Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Carter
    Even when viewed in the 90's, it made the north-east look like a different century. Seedy and squalid don't begin to cover it.

    And Caine is at his imperious best.
    I visited the car park before it was demolished
    It’s a Tesco now.

    Get Carter is a fabulous movie. Many of the iconic backdrops to it are still there. Newcastle as a city really does blend the old with the new pretty well.

    Gateshead is a shithole.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,402

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    I knew a chap who actually managed to buy a shirt at full price in TM Lewin.

    Managing to avoid their perpetual sales took skill, I think.
    Akin to paying full price for A Dominoes pizza, I’d guess.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Do you reckon he's coining it or did he get fucked by his agent/publisher because he's as thick as shit?
  • LennonLennon Posts: 1,779
    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    I knew a chap who actually managed to buy a shirt at full price in TM Lewin.

    Managing to avoid their perpetual sales took skill, I think.
    Akin to paying full price for A Dominoes pizza, I’d guess.
    Or a non-sale DFS Sofa
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    Email from Waterstones “This year’s most incredible autobiography is here!”

    Yep, that about sums it up.
  • Was unfortunate enough to see a bit of GMB.

    Poor Susanna Reid. To go from Piers Morgan to Richard Madeley is like finally escaping Josef Fritzl's basement only to be picked up by Jimmy Savile in his campervan.

    Still at least the pay is good

    Susanna still looks OK :)
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,157
    Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com

    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    It's a juggernaut and no mistake. I'm pleased for Harry but I'm worried for him too. His problem is where on earth he goes from here. I realize I'm talking to a toothless granny about sucking eggs but it can be tough for an author to hit the jackpot with their 1st work. Expectations are raised, pressure builds to produce more where that came from - but what if there isn't any more where that came from? What if that was it? What if that was THE book, the book that had to come forth, that almost wrote itself, but now the creative well is dry? What then? One thinks of Salinger and Catcher and of course Lee's Mocking Bird. Let's hope this isn't the fate of Spare.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    Dura_Ace said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Do you reckon he's coining it or did he get fucked by his agent/publisher because he's as thick as shit?
    He’ll be absolutely minting it, but so will his publishers/agent. They will all have great lawyers, after all

    My guess is that Random House bought global rights to the book, if they did indeed pay $20m as rumoured

    That means that Random House get the sub rights: they can then sell it on to all the other big territories - UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Oz, Canada, etc

    Random will also get a chunk of audio rights (significant these days), book club rights, any adaptation rights. Harry and his agent will also get a hefty chunk

    It is fairly unprecedented (as far as I know) for a book to go to number 1 in so many countries so quickly. This is new territory. Random might easily earn out that $20m and make even more. Harry is sorted for life (not that he wasn’t before)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    Lennon said:

    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    I knew a chap who actually managed to buy a shirt at full price in TM Lewin.

    Managing to avoid their perpetual sales took skill, I think.
    Akin to paying full price for A Dominoes pizza, I’d guess.
    Or a non-sale DFS Sofa
    Somewhere, in the multiverse, is someone sitting on a crap sofa, eating crap pizza, wearing a crap shirt. Having paid full price for all three...
  • Or getting Liz Truss to negotiate a trade deal.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567
    Remarkable. Putin managed to kill his decades-in-the-making leverage over Germany in 10 months:

    https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1612684023398109185
  • Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    Eat your heart out "The Spice Twins", "Phil Collins Secret", etc.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,190

    Looks like the new anti-strike laws are being tabled today. No other peacetime government has overseen the removal of so many rights and freedoms from UK citizens as this one. After ending our freedom of movement in Europe, making it harder to vote, criminalising peaceful protest and further restricting employees’ ability to organise collectively and withdraw their labour, what will be next? Holiday pay and safety standards at work, I suspect.

    Apparently the new minimum service levels are widely in place in European countries

    I understand they will apply to ambulance, fire and rail
    That might be a reasonable argument if trade unions and their members had the same rights generally that their counterparts in the rest of democratic Europe have.
    To take one of the items on your laundry list, how many countries in Europe allow voting without photo ID?
    I've voted several times in Germany, and have I never been asked for, nor seen anyone else asked for photo ID.
    Of course everyone who has the vote in Germany will already have photo ID, which is not the case in the UK.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567

    Lennon said:

    Taz said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because there isn’t demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    They’re selling at half price, because Amazon and Waterstones are selling it at half price.

    How’s anyone actually making money?
    You can tell when a high profile book is doing well: when exactly this happens. Everyone massively discounts it

    It is paradoxical but true
    Exept that Amazon and Waterstones (online) have been selling it half price since the day it was announced. No-one’s buying an extra coffee from Amazon as they browse around the shop.

    WHS are matching the online price, because they’d be selling none of them otherwise.

    Do we really think that hundreds of thousands of people are actually buying this book, given that everything in it has been all over the papers for the past week?
    I knew a chap who actually managed to buy a shirt at full price in TM Lewin.

    Managing to avoid their perpetual sales took skill, I think.
    Akin to paying full price for A Dominoes pizza, I’d guess.
    Or a non-sale DFS Sofa
    Somewhere, in the multiverse, is someone sitting on a crap sofa, eating crap pizza, wearing a crap shirt. Having paid full price for all three...
    For those wondering what Liz Truss is doing now....
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567
    Selebian said:

    Seems the Putin regime have offended the weather Gods:

    https://twitter.com/MrFukkew/status/1612184995161939973/photo/1

    Surprised the Russians have moved their (marked in red) border into Finland again given what happened last time :open_mouth:
    Russians are not good at learning from their mistakes!
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,072
    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Nigelb said:

    LOL. Even Pence is on the grift.

    It looks like Mike Pence's leadership PAC spent $91,000 on copies of his new book in November.

    Putting donor money to good use!

    https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1612118129034891276

    As was discussed on here yesterday, the book market is very weird and easily open to market manipulation to generate headlines.
    Particularly in the age of digital sales.

    Apparently, it’s not unknown for people to buy large orders of digital books from themselves. This only costs the Amazon (or whatever) tax, since nothing physical is involved.

    The old classic is counting “despatched to book shop” as sold, by the publisher. This is done for political biographies which are “supported” by the publisher - the publisher is actually giving the politician a pile of cash, dressed up as a book deal…
    There’s a really good job for an investigative journalist, to look at the Harry book numbers.

    It has a retail of £28, but both Amazon and Waterstones have been selling it for £14 for months now. If the publisher paid Harry a $20m advance for the book, there’s no way they’re making the money back in sales, and any serialisation in papers has been totally undermined by leaks.

    So, what’s the actual business model here? Because it clearly isn’t selling books, which will be in the six figures worldwide, not close to getting the advance back as far as the publisher s concerned.

    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m at full price, it’s hard to imagine Harry is going to come anywhere close to that.
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72949-the-obamas-book-deals-spark-65-million-mystery.html
    Just passed WH Smith and Spare already being sold at half price
    They’re not selling it at half price because of a lack of demand. They’re selling it at half price because it is REALLY popular and lots of people want to buy it, so it makes sense to heavily discount a really popular book so more people come in the shop and end up buying other things

    PB’s collected knowledge of the publishing industry could be written on the side of a quark
    Charming....
    Strange, I'd say.
    Top comment.

  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,567


    Poor Susanna Reid. To go from Piers Morgan to Richard Madeley is like finally escaping Josef Fritzl's basement only to be picked up by Jimmy Savile in his campervan.

    Now there's a script....
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397

    Selebian said:

    Seems the Putin regime have offended the weather Gods:

    https://twitter.com/MrFukkew/status/1612184995161939973/photo/1

    Surprised the Russians have moved their (marked in red) border into Finland again given what happened last time :open_mouth:
    Russians are not good at learning from their mistakes!
    You have to admit you’ve made a mistake before you can learn from it.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,190

    Remarkable. Putin managed to kill his decades-in-the-making leverage over Germany in 10 months:

    https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1612684023398109185

    He seems to have made a miscalculation by reducing gas supplies to Europe after invading Ukraine instead of cutting them off completely. Now he's lost his leverage, lost his customers, but gas storage isn't empty. Worst of both worlds, no?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    At this rate SPARE might be one of the best selling non fiction books of the century, so far
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,485
    Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.

    Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.

  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,994
    Yougov on feelings about a Labour or Tory win at next election.

    https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1612726348031864833?s=20&t=O9WgqyJf84g-m2fwchL0Lw

    TLDR: people are far less partisan in their passions this time. Biggest changes are decline in number of people who would be "delighted" with a Tory win (from 27% to 8%) and increase in those who "wouldn't mind" a Labour win (from 12% to 26%). But at the same time the delighted at Labour win count has declined from 26 to 22% as the BJOs of this world regret the passing of Jezza.

  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?
    When setting out for revenge, first dig two graves….

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,485
    Jonathan said:

    If you can write something on the side of a quark, you'll get a Nobel prize.

    I don't see why anyone cares whether anyone buys Spare. Will it spawn a franchise, "Spare, the movie"? Will William bring out 'Heir'? Will Kate bring out "Hair'?

    Chesly Davy

    Fair
  • Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    I had some sympathy with Harry we he said the royal lifestyle wasn't for him, and he and his wife just wanted to vanish into the sunset. But I'm now getting the impression the man's an attention junkie who wants the universe to all be about him. I think a future bid for Meghan to become US president isn't beyond the realms of possibility.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,190
    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    He may feel that the royal family is a rotten institution that gets away with treating people badly precisely because people (in the know) calculate that it is in their interests to let them get away with it, and his book might help lead to much-needed reform.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,362
    Leon said:

    At this rate SPARE might be one of the best selling non fiction books of the century, so far

    Do you know what the current best-selling non-fiction book of the century is?

    Can't say I have a clue. I'd guess one of the Harry Potters would be the best-selling fiction book
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,269
    TimS said:

    Yougov on feelings about a Labour or Tory win at next election.

    https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1612726348031864833?s=20&t=O9WgqyJf84g-m2fwchL0Lw

    TLDR: people are far less partisan in their passions this time. Biggest changes are decline in number of people who would be "delighted" with a Tory win (from 27% to 8%) and increase in those who "wouldn't mind" a Labour win (from 12% to 26%). But at the same time the delighted at Labour win count has declined from 26 to 22% as the BJOs of this world regret the passing of Jezza.

    I think the "wouldn't mind" category may be key. Starmer seems to be concentrating on the "We are Social Democrats" pitch, which is all about reducing the "anything but Labour" motivation to as near zero as he can, while picking up centre votes.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312

    Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.

    Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.

    I never had any doubt it would be huge. The British Royal Family is the most popular and widely watched real life soap opera in the world. It dwarfs anything else. It even has its own TV spin off, The Crown, which is itself probably the most watched TV programme in the world


    ““The Crown” Season 5 has taken the throne on this week’s Netflix Top 10’s English TV chart as the No. 1 show over the Nov. 7-13 viewing window. According to the streamer’s figures, the show’s fifth season was viewed for 107.39 million hours following its premiere on Nov. 9, and is in the Top 10 in 88 countries.

    In addition, the show also reached No. 1 in 37 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, and France

    https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/the-crown-season-5-no-1-globally-netflix-1235432965/

    What can match that? Nothing

    The Royal Family should not worry too much. With this sort of interest their future is assured for many decades

    The time they need to worry is when The Crown has only 7 viewers and a book by a British Prince only reaches number 1,629 on the Amazon “memoirs by British toffs” sub list
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Leon said:

    At this rate SPARE might be one of the best selling non fiction books of the century, so far

    Do you know what the current best-selling non-fiction book of the century is?

    Can't say I have a clue. I'd guess one of the Harry Potters would be the best-selling fiction book
    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m, that’s the most likely #1. Can’t see Harry beating that, even with everyone selling it at half price.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366
    kamski said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    He may feel that the royal family is a rotten institution that gets away with treating people badly precisely because people (in the know) calculate that it is in their interests to let them get away with it, and his book might help lead to much-needed reform.
    It's hard to find the killer crime in all the noise though. With Diana, Charles immediately calling up his affair partner on the night of the wedding was damning, and made clear who was to blame. With Harry and Meghan, I am struggling to find the fact that makes them in the right. The Royals didn't leak to the tabloids enough in her defence? It all feels very weak.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,312
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    At this rate SPARE might be one of the best selling non fiction books of the century, so far

    Do you know what the current best-selling non-fiction book of the century is?

    Can't say I have a clue. I'd guess one of the Harry Potters would be the best-selling fiction book
    Obama’s memoir sold 1.7m, that’s the most likely #1. Can’t see Harry beating that, even with everyone selling it at half price.
    If you include copies in translation, which you should, then SPARE will very easily outsell Obama’s book. It might even outsell Obama’s book just in the USA

    The best selling fiction book is FIFTY SHADES
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.

    Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.

    I never had any doubt it would be huge. The British Royal Family is the most popular and widely watched real life soap opera in the world. It dwarfs anything else. It even has its own TV spin off, The Crown, which is itself probably the most watched TV programme in the world


    ““The Crown” Season 5 has taken the throne on this week’s Netflix Top 10’s English TV chart as the No. 1 show over the Nov. 7-13 viewing window. According to the streamer’s figures, the show’s fifth season was viewed for 107.39 million hours following its premiere on Nov. 9, and is in the Top 10 in 88 countries.

    In addition, the show also reached No. 1 in 37 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, and France

    https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/the-crown-season-5-no-1-globally-netflix-1235432965/

    What can match that? Nothing

    The Royal Family should not worry too much. With this sort of interest their future is assured for many decades

    The time they need to worry is when The Crown has only 7 viewers and a book by a British Prince only reaches number 1,629 on the Amazon “memoirs by British toffs” sub list
    And within 20 years, the beloved King William and Queen Catherine will be on the throne, although the adulterers in the rear view mirror.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,485

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?
    When setting out for revenge, first dig two graves….

    Well, he looks to me to have a point. It's fairly obvious that many wish he didn't have a point, but I actually watched the interview on Sunday and he came across as honest and fair. I suspect you, like many others, have made your mind up about him before listening to what he has to say.

    Funny old world, ain't it?
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    I had some sympathy with Harry we he said the royal lifestyle wasn't for him, and he and his wife just wanted to vanish into the sunset. But I'm now getting the impression the man's an attention junkie who wants the universe to all be about him. I think a future bid for Meghan to become US president isn't beyond the realms of possibility.
    I don't think it's attention. I think it's money they are after. They have a lavish lifestyle in California, no longer get a Royal stipend and want to afford it all.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Interesting SMO/Global South news...

    Mrs DA in is Mumbai to visit her sister and reports that the video screen in the back of the taxi she took was playing strident Russian propaganda (in HIndi) in place of the normal adverts for fraudulent real estate investments.
  • CorrectHorseBattery3CorrectHorseBattery3 Posts: 2,757
    edited January 2023
    30 point lead soon
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,963

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?
    When setting out for revenge, first dig two graves….

    Well, he looks to me to have a point. It's fairly obvious that many wish he didn't have a point, but I actually watched the interview on Sunday and he came across as honest and fair. I suspect you, like many others, have made your mind up about him before listening to what he has to say.

    Funny old world, ain't it?
    People who talk about wanting a private life and then spend several years seeking every bit of publicity they can possibly get shouldn't expect the benefit of the doubt.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,990
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,485
    kamski said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    He may feel that the royal family is a rotten institution that gets away with treating people badly precisely because people (in the know) calculate that it is in their interests to let them get away with it, and his book might help lead to much-needed reform.
    Who'd a thunk it?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Driver said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?
    When setting out for revenge, first dig two graves….

    Well, he looks to me to have a point. It's fairly obvious that many wish he didn't have a point, but I actually watched the interview on Sunday and he came across as honest and fair. I suspect you, like many others, have made your mind up about him before listening to what he has to say.

    Funny old world, ain't it?
    People who talk about wanting a private life and then spend several years seeking every bit of publicity they can possibly get shouldn't expect the benefit of the doubt.
    People who claim to want privacy, while simultaneously selling out the privacy of everyone they’ve ever known for a few million bucks…
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Spare will probably be the best selling non fiction book of the year, worldwide, and also the most talked-about, adding to its prestige and lustre

    For multiple reasons publishers will pay over the odds for that. The sales figures are almost secondary

    Eg the next huge public figure seeking a publisher is more likely to gravitate to the publishers who did such a good job with SPARE. The publishers of a British prince! Etc etc

    Publishing SPARE says “we are a major player. We change the news. If you want to make a splash, publish with us”

    NB: SPARE is now number 1 overall on amazon.com


    https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books/zgbs/books

    Absolutely. You can smell the desperation, obvious in many PBers, for it to bomb. Yet another PB Not Happening Event.

    Of course, Harry's very interesting life story of sex, drugs, family stifle, mental health problems and prejudice is so far removed from the sheltered existences of many of the cheese-sandwich-eating toy soldiers on here, one can see why they prefer musty hagiographies of ancient kings and detailed accounts of sea battles written by former editors of the Daily Telegraph.

    I never had any doubt it would be huge. The British Royal Family is the most popular and widely watched real life soap opera in the world. It dwarfs anything else. It even has its own TV spin off, The Crown, which is itself probably the most watched TV programme in the world


    ““The Crown” Season 5 has taken the throne on this week’s Netflix Top 10’s English TV chart as the No. 1 show over the Nov. 7-13 viewing window. According to the streamer’s figures, the show’s fifth season was viewed for 107.39 million hours following its premiere on Nov. 9, and is in the Top 10 in 88 countries.

    In addition, the show also reached No. 1 in 37 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, and France

    https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/the-crown-season-5-no-1-globally-netflix-1235432965/

    What can match that? Nothing

    The Royal Family should not worry too much. With this sort of interest their future is assured for many decades

    The time they need to worry is when The Crown has only 7 viewers and a book by a British Prince only reaches number 1,629 on the Amazon “memoirs by British toffs” sub list
    So how come almost all democracies are republics?
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,994
    edited January 2023

    TimS said:

    Yougov on feelings about a Labour or Tory win at next election.

    https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1612726348031864833?s=20&t=O9WgqyJf84g-m2fwchL0Lw

    TLDR: people are far less partisan in their passions this time. Biggest changes are decline in number of people who would be "delighted" with a Tory win (from 27% to 8%) and increase in those who "wouldn't mind" a Labour win (from 12% to 26%). But at the same time the delighted at Labour win count has declined from 26 to 22% as the BJOs of this world regret the passing of Jezza.

    I think the "wouldn't mind" category may be key. Starmer seems to be concentrating on the "We are Social Democrats" pitch, which is all about reducing the "anything but Labour" motivation to as near zero as he can, while picking up centre votes.
    Yes, that's key I reckon for marginals where Lib Dem tactical voters could swing it for Labour (and indeed Lib Dem targets where the Corbyn fear is no longer there).

    The incredibly low score for delighted at Tory win is key for turnout of low inclination vaguely right wing voters. I think people will stay at home.

    A massive 49% of voters said they would be dismayed at a Labour win in 2019. That's the Corbyn toxicity right there. The more you look at the evidence, including surveys of voters taken immediately after the election, the more it becomes clear it was the unpopularity of Corbyn, not the genius of "Get Brexit Done", that won it for Johnson.

    48% of voters would be dismayed at a Tory win now.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,485
    Driver said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?
    When setting out for revenge, first dig two graves….

    Well, he looks to me to have a point. It's fairly obvious that many wish he didn't have a point, but I actually watched the interview on Sunday and he came across as honest and fair. I suspect you, like many others, have made your mind up about him before listening to what he has to say.

    Funny old world, ain't it?
    People who talk about wanting a private life and then spend several years seeking every bit of publicity they can possibly get shouldn't expect the benefit of the doubt.
    His silence would of course be very convenient for the institutions that he implies have ruined his life.

  • Dura_Ace said:

    Interesting SMO/Global South news...

    Mrs DA in is Mumbai to visit her sister and reports that the video screen in the back of the taxi she took was playing strident Russian propaganda (in HIndi) in place of the normal adverts for fraudulent real estate investments.

    India's aviation regulator has pulled up an airline for leaving behind passengers on the tarmac in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

    A flight by Go First, previously known as Go Air, took off from the airport in Bengaluru city, leaving more than 50 passengers forgotten in a bus.

    Reports said the travellers had checked in their baggage and had boarding passes in hand.

    The airline said it was investigating the incident.


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-64213800
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,994
    Dura_Ace said:

    Interesting SMO/Global South news...

    Mrs DA in is Mumbai to visit her sister and reports that the video screen in the back of the taxi she took was playing strident Russian propaganda (in HIndi) in place of the normal adverts for fraudulent real estate investments.

    This does seem to be their new front.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,434
    kamski said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    SPARE (AKA Le Suppleant) is also number 1 in France


    https://www.amazon.fr/gp/bestsellers/books

    It is number 1 AND number 3 in Germany


    https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/bestsellers/books

    And Italy


    https://www.amazon.it/gp/bestsellers/books

    Do I need to go on?

    You don't.

    There is the short-term impact. And then there is the long-term. Andrew Morton's book on Diana had a huge impact too. Made him a lot of money, I expect. Last I heard he was reduced to doing vanity biographies of African dictators or something. The Diana Panorama interview - huge impact at the time. Well we all know how that story panned out.

    Harry may well feel and genuinely have been hard done by - I dunno - but all this public airing of his grievances has the feel of the furiously well written and entirely justified (in your own eyes) email written late in the evening detailing all the things which have gone wrong and which you are having to deal with and which, if you have any sense at all, you save, print but do not send. Then in the cold light of day - possibly with the benefit of sensible advice - you realise that there are better ways of sorting things or that, having got things off your chest, the best thing to do is just get on with your life and move away from the people who are not bringing you any joy.

    Revenge can feel exciting and rewarding for a while - but it's a double edged sword. And having fed the ravenous press beast he hates so much, how confident is Harry that he can control it? And what it might look for next?



    He may feel that the royal family is a rotten institution that gets away with treating people badly precisely because people (in the know) calculate that it is in their interests to let them get away with it, and his book might help lead to much-needed reform.
    Yes - who could forget the heart wrenching tale of the low-ceilinged poky cottage in Kensington which he and Megan were fobbed off with. As IshmaelZ would have it - a truly unique evil.
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