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

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  • Who is Harry's ghostwriter, J R Moehringer - and how much did he make?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64217330
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758
    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.
    The issue isn’t that. It’s that there is no doubt.
  • 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
    I understand that Spare was ghost written by JR Moehringer. Presumably his fee would come out of Harry's 20m advance? Is the ghost fee likely to be fixed, or royalty based?
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,169
    20.7GW on the old wind power currently by the way. Record was 20.91 so I fancy we'll beat that. Hefty demand currently and a lot of imports too.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758

    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
    I understand that Spare was ghost written by JR Moehringer. Presumably his fee would come out of Harry's 20m advance? Is the ghost fee likely to be fixed, or royalty based?
    Sounds like it was a fixed fee from the article above, but at $1 million I don’t suppose he’s too worried about that.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    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
    Err, whoops!

    Don’t Indian dispatchers count the number people on the plane, before allowing it to depart? 50 people, depending on where they were(n’t) sitting, could have an appreciable effect on the balance of the plane.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758
    Currently on a train from Shrewsbury to Abergavenny. One of the new TfW sets. Rather nice. Decent legroom which is not as common as it should be on modern trains.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,401

    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
    I have a coffee mug featuring the Get Carter car park in Gateshead. Now sadly demolished.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,401
    ydoethur said:

    Currently on a train from Shrewsbury to Abergavenny. One of the new TfW sets. Rather nice. Decent legroom which is not as common as it should be on modern trains.

    Class 67 on a set of Mark 4s? Nice.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,522

    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
    The plane goes first, the passengers can go later?
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772

    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 have an ex who always felt she'd been victimised by the world, and sometimes she had. One way this played out is that she always wanted me to fix everything. So, when she lost her job she became upset when I didn't do the things she thought I ought to do to get her job back - like camp outside her boss's house until that happened.

    That was not something I was willing to attempt, which is one reason why she's now my ex. Looking at Harry's behaviour I see some echoes of this time. I see someone who feels incredibly wronged, but unlike my ex, they have greater means to attempt to rectify the situation in their eyes.

    I don't think he's going to get the justice he feels he deserves, and these doomed attempts to do so are only going to leave him feeling more pain for longer. It's not illegal for people to behave badly, and you can't force them to apologise for doing so. Harry needs to accept that and let it go, or he will never find peace.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    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 found the Netflix doc unwatchable - managed 30 mins - because it focused on the Love Story between him and Meg and I'm not interested in that. Might get the book though. A genuine insight into how the Royals and the Press operate sounds worth a look. Ok, plus a bit of titillation, but I'm not too lofty for that. And I thought he came over well in the plugging interviews. Sincere, troubled, decent. I like how he's questioning things his background programmed him to believe. It's always easier not to do that. The self-absorption is unattractive, it can sniff of preciousness, but he's more sinned against than sinning imo. I wish him well. In particular I hope he and her IS a Love Story and therefore lasts. If it does he'll be fine, I sense. I think that's the most important thing - the thing I'm not interested in - their relationship.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,401
    TimS said:

    20.7GW on the old wind power currently by the way. Record was 20.91 so I fancy we'll beat that. Hefty demand currently and a lot of imports too.

    Solar not doing so well this morning!
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,401
    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.

    Modi. Friend of Putin. With Sunak in his pocket.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,343
    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.

    Perhaps this is because:

    Delight is muted when solutions to intractable problems are not apparent

    Ditto when there is little substance underpinning the thought processes of the major parties and it is impossible to identify what they distinctly stand for

    Ditto when competence, modesty and honesty are required but not really expected.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,674
    Cyclefree said:

    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?
    In most EU countries you cannot get rid of workers for a pittance unlike the UK.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 4,199

    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.
    Not sure what IshmaelZ's random comments or Harry's accommodation have to do with it, but I missed both of these important stories.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    edited January 2023
    malcolmg said:

    Cyclefree said:

    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?
    In most EU countries you cannot get rid of workers for a pittance unlike the UK.
    A number, like Spain, have introduced tiers of employment. For the old style contracts, you are protected in all sorts of ways.

    To deal with the problem about reluctance to hire that this has created, there are now other ways to hire people. Sometimes with less rights than in the UK (in some countries).
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758
    edited January 2023
    TimS said:

    20.7GW on the old wind power currently by the way. Record was 20.91 so I fancy we'll beat that. Hefty demand currently and a lot of imports too.

    Also excellent news on water resources. Severn Trent’s reservoirs jumped from 79.7 to 89.7% full. And it’s still raining. With lag, I’d say even money they’re full by next week.

    We have been fabulously lucky with the weather so far this winter. Near as bugger it exactly what we needed.
  • Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
  • RandallFlaggRandallFlagg Posts: 1,151

    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 suspect Meghan might actually manage to outdo McGovern in leading the Dems to a landslide defeat if she got the nomination (not that she would, even if she did ever run).
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,268

    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
    I understand that Spare was ghost written by JR Moehringer. Presumably his fee would come out of Harry's 20m advance? Is the ghost fee likely to be fixed, or royalty based?
    For a lesser known ghost writer, it's a flat fee paid by the publisher. For someone on top of their game (and I presume Random/Harry's people got the best available) the writer can expect a good fee AND a chunk of the royalties. Not a huge chunk, however. Maybe 2% or 5% of overall royalties? 10% max?


    Plucking figures out of my butt I'd suggest the writer might get something like a $250,000 flat fee and 5% of royalties. So if it sells 5m copies (not unfeasible) in hardback that's sweet money

    Translation rights and other ancillary fees will add more
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,169

    TimS said:

    20.7GW on the old wind power currently by the way. Record was 20.91 so I fancy we'll beat that. Hefty demand currently and a lot of imports too.

    Solar not doing so well this morning!
    Indeed. Lights on in my home office today.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758
    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,169
    Indeed: great to get away from that awful period of personality politics we had to suffer during the Boris-Jeremy era. Last election was a British version of Bolsonaro v Lula.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,522
    Indeed. It's driven my people moving from "dismayed" under Corbyn to "wouldn't mind" under Sir Keir.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758

    ydoethur said:

    Currently on a train from Shrewsbury to Abergavenny. One of the new TfW sets. Rather nice. Decent legroom which is not as common as it should be on modern trains.

    Class 67 on a set of Mark 4s? Nice.
    It’s not too bad at all.

    If I have a criticism it’s that the ride is quite taut and the lights are flickering from time to time possibly as a result. But that may partly be the permanent way.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941
    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    But she accepted it while not in a public office?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,268
    I am old enough to remember when Bangkok had literally zero high rise buildings. This is from my hotel room window
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,461
    Many people on here, in the press and elsewhere who really think Harry should shut the fuck up seem to be undeterred from giving his book as much publicity as they can.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,047
    Regarding Amazon, Harry's publisher will have a 360 degree deal with Amazon to promote the book in every possible way. This will include things like making it number 1 in 'Top rated', though it has only had a handful of reviews and they aren't universally positive, offering the half-price deal, exposure on various lists and edits, and probably some form of review collecting. I am not suggesting that the bestseller list is necessarily up for grabs, but we're not party to those calculations. If it garners reviews (good or bad) commensurate with its supposed sales in the coming weeks, we will know it's legit.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758
    Leon said:

    I am old enough to remember when Bangkok had literally zero high rise buildings. This is from my hotel room window

    Looks like a giant phallus. Is Andrew Tate staying nearby?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772
    edited January 2023
    The thing that strikes me about those numbers is that even after everything that happened in 2022, fewer people would be dismayed by a Conservative victory now than would have been dismayed by a Labour victory in 2019.

    If you refuse to learn from Labour and Corbyn's defeat in 2019 then you've no chance of ever winning an election with left-wing policies.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941
    edited January 2023
    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    It does get Harry off the hook in terms of birthday/Christmas/anniversary gifts though.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,169
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    Or a mayor of a medium-sized midwestern town?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,758

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,785
    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625

    The thing that strikes me about those numbers is that even after everything that happened in 2022, fewer people would be dismayed by a Conservative victory now than would have been dismayed by a Labour victory in 2019.

    If you refuse to learn from Labour and Corbyn's defeat in 2019 then you've no chance of ever winning an election with left-wing policies.
    {The 1982 Labour Manifesto (AKA The Longest Suicide Note) has entered the chat}

    Indeed. Phase One in politics is not motivating people to vote against you. That gives you the opening to try and get people to vote *for* you.

    See the story of New Labour.....
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    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 suspect Meghan might actually manage to outdo McGovern in leading the Dems to a landslide defeat if she got the nomination (not that she would, even if she did ever run).
    It would be rather amusing to see her run for office in the US, if only for the opposition research which would undo years of very careful curation of her image.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    Good news. For every vote he attracted for Labour, Corbyn attracted two to the Tories. That trend has reversed.
  • 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.
    Teesians looking enviously at other water systems that only have sewage to deal with.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,765

    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
    I have a coffee mug featuring the Get Carter car
    park in Gateshead. Now sadly demolished.
    Get Carter is close to perfection, especially Roy Budd’s music.

  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884
    ydoethur said:

    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.
    The issue isn’t that. It’s that there is no doubt.
    The differential treatment of Catherine and Meghan by the press seems a real thing - Kate does X and the press loves is, Meghan does X and gets slated.

    I also heard it suggested that being critical of Meghan was a policy choice for tabloid editors - 'how do we sell most papers?"

    And yet, and yet. The rumours are that Meghan tried to treat palace staff in the hig handed manner that some A-listers treat their flunkies, fundamentally missing the mutual respect and loyalty associated with Royal employees.

    I don't doubt that the two women don't get on, and that makes it hard for the husbands, but families can be like that.

    And yes - publicly saying how you just want a quiet life away from the media and then doing this is conflicted...
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,765
    Sandpit 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?



    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 suspect Meghan might actually manage to outdo McGovern in leading the Dems to a landslide defeat if she got the nomination (not that she would, even if she did ever run).
    It would be rather amusing to see her run for office in the US, if only for the opposition research which would undo years of very careful curation of her image.
    I think she could make it into Congress as a celebrity far left Democrat, representing a seat in New York or California.
  • ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
    Hillary beat him in the popular vote (ie. more Americans chose her than chose Trump).
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
    Hillary beat him in the popular vote (ie. more Americans chose her than chose Trump).
    The popular vote is no doubt distorted by the voting system used. Same in any system that isn’t a direct election.
  • Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Not to get all Parisian tangoey, but correlation rather than causation I hope?
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,522

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
    Hillary beat him in the popular vote (ie. more Americans chose her than chose Trump).
    Which rather proves the point - she spent too long campaigning in the wrong places.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,785

    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.
    Teesians looking enviously at other water systems that only have sewage to deal with.
    The mass marine deaths obsessed Reach media for a month or two, but it didn't really get beyond that.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    Sean_F 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
    I have a coffee mug featuring the Get Carter car
    park in Gateshead. Now sadly demolished.
    Get Carter is close to perfection, especially Roy Budd’s music.

    But what about the remake...
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    This is hilarious

    Grant Shapps appears to have now deleted a tweet that had deleted the former PM Boris Johnson from a photograph of the two of them... https://twitter.com/ChristinaMcS/status/1612774637129138176 https://twitter.com/ionewells/status/1612777957113892864/photo/1
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884
    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    Driver said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
    Hillary beat him in the popular vote (ie. more Americans chose her than chose Trump).
    Which rather proves the point - she spent too long campaigning in the wrong places.
    Hence the story of Bill Clinton pounding the car seats in frustration.

    Taking a vacation in the Hamptons in mid campaign was demented.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912
    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.

    I saw a moderately Pro-Russian article in the English language press in Sri Lanka when we were there over Christmas.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 4,199

    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?
    Half of the top 10 most democratic countries in the world have a monarch as head of state - including the top 2 Norway and New Zealand.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149
    kamski said:

    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?
    Half of the top 10 most democratic countries in the world have a monarch as head of state - including the top 2 Norway and New Zealand.
    Yes, but the NZers don't have to pay for theirs. It'd be very different else.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Old_Hand said:

    Regarding the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex is planning to enter American politics, someone needs to draw her attention to the last paragraph of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: "And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under (the United States), shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatsoever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."

    She hasn’t AFAIK. Her husband has, and she gets the title effectively by courtesy.

    She hasn’t shown any sign of being a potentially capable President though.
    What the US needs next, after Biden, is a successful Governor of a largish state. So they get someone with executive experience of actually doing the job. See Clinton.
    Problem is the person who most obviously fits that profile is de Santis. And I’m not sure he’s what anyone needs, now or ever.
    de Santis is successful for the Donald Trump value of successful. As in total, serial, fuck up.
    Who wins elections. Which makes him somewhat more successful than the egregious orange haired ape.
    He did beat Hillary.... Which is a low bar. She has a tin ear for elective politics.
    Hillary beat him in the popular vote (ie. more Americans chose her than chose Trump).
    Happy Metropolitan Railway Birthday by the way!
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    Scott_xP said:

    Sean_F 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
    I have a coffee mug featuring the Get Carter car
    park in Gateshead. Now sadly demolished.
    Get Carter is close to perfection, especially Roy Budd’s music.

    But what about the remake...
    There was no remake.

    Anyone suggesting that there was will be confined for six months in a room with Piers Corbyn, Julian Assange & Piers Morgan. The only food will be pineapple pizza. Radiohead will play on a loop with no control over track or volume. The only entertainment will be a computer that can only access Conservative Home.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,723
    Driver said:

    Indeed. It's driven my people moving from "dismayed" under Corbyn to "wouldn't mind" under Sir Keir.
    With a lot less people delighted to have him as PM
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,047

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Not to get all Parisian tangoey, but correlation rather than causation I hope?
    More likely that than if they were eating it. Margerine is a lot worse, as even the dogs in the steet know these days.
  • Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    A contributing factor could be the surge in early retirement leading to lack of purpose, slumping in front of the telly and nibbling from the kitchen.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,047

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels.
    Like everything in health, its complicated.
  • Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    I'd be interested to see any evidence for this.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,772
    kinabalu 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

    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.
    But both Salinger and Lee were writing works of fiction whilst Harry....never mind.
  • NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.
  • Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    I agree to some extent, yet there is evidence linking high levels with increased risk. Whether the high level is causative is certainly up for grabs, and many people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels.
    Like everything in health, its complicated.
    Yes, most things aren't simple. We all process foods in different ways, and things that are good in small quantities may be bad in large quantities. It's rarely as straightforward as X good, Y bad.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,343
    kamski said:

    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?
    Half of the top 10 most democratic countries in the world have a monarch as head of state - including the top 2 Norway and New Zealand.
    Furthermore, maybe 'almost all democracies are republics', but are almost all republics democracies?

    Anyway it just isn't feasible to compare most countries, however splendid, with one which reliably traces its monarchy to 800 CE and further, doesn't like change, avoids revolutions because it upsets the cat, can manage monarchy and democracy at the same time, and didn't like it at all the last time we did away with it for 11 years.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    I'd be interested to see any evidence for this.
    Bit like rock dust as a fertiliser.....
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,169

    Driver said:

    Indeed. It's driven my people moving from "dismayed" under Corbyn to "wouldn't mind" under Sir Keir.
    With a lot less people delighted to have him as PM
    Yes, Sir Keir doesn't have a praetorian guard of partisan fanboys. Which is an unalloyed good thing.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912
    TimS said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
    And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
  • Leon said:

    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
    I understand that Spare was ghost written by JR Moehringer. Presumably his fee would come out of Harry's 20m advance? Is the ghost fee likely to be fixed, or royalty based?
    For a lesser known ghost writer, it's a flat fee paid by the publisher. For someone on top of their game (and I presume Random/Harry's people got the best available) the writer can expect a good fee AND a chunk of the royalties. Not a huge chunk, however. Maybe 2% or 5% of overall royalties? 10% max?


    Plucking figures out of my butt I'd suggest the writer might get something like a $250,000 flat fee and 5% of royalties. So if it sells 5m copies (not unfeasible) in hardback that's sweet money

    Translation rights and other ancillary fees will add more
    And, of course, someone somewhere still has the audio tapes from which the text was selected and transcribed. If Harry were well-advised he would have retained control of them, so he probably hasn't.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,522
    RobD said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
    Look who posted it. There is your answer.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    TimS said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
    And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
    Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
  • RobD said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
    Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853

    RobD said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
    Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
    Surely the ECML is fast enough already. The problem isn't the time, it is the capacity.

    I know the section from Doncaster to Leeds isn't exactly full speed, but it isn't _that_ bad.
  • RobD said:

    TimS said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
    And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
    Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
    Or course Rishi is eligible to be PM, and can use whatever combination of public and private services he likes.

    But when the big political issues are cost of living and the poor state of public services, repeatedly making choices to use expensive private ones makes a chap look out of touch in a bad way, and that has a political cost.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,268
    HELP

    I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open

    Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese

    No politics please, I get an ample share of that here

    Any and all suggestions welcome

  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912
    RobD said:

    TimS said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
    And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
    Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
    Someone who has actively chosen not to use public services is not someone I would trust to fund or manage those services effectively. You are free to be more trusting/gullible if you like.
  • mwadamsmwadams Posts: 3,089
    Sandpit said:

    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…
    While a desire for privacy, a desire for cash, and a desire for revenge may not be entirely compatible, I don't see them as entirely inconsistent either.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,047

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    Perhaps I am unusual in this opinion but I much prefer Flora to butter, taste-wise.
    Then I'd save it for the occasional treat.
  • Driver said:

    RobD said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
    Look who posted it. There is your answer.
    As far as I know the trains were strike bound yesterday
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884
    Leon said:

    HELP

    I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open

    Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese

    No politics please, I get an ample share of that here

    Any and all suggestions welcome

    Check out 'Bad People' on BBC sounds - more psychology, but links to experimental evidence too.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,047

    Pro_Rata said:

    Excess death stats bad and as well as the 'are hospitals stresses involved' and 'post infection' they are singling out heart disease in 50-64 year old men as an issue.

    So, a couple of unevidenced personal suspicions here as possible contributing factors:

    - The resurgence in the popularity of butter
    - The widespread use of erectile dysfunction medicines

    Butter is not bad for the heart. Being overweght, having high cholesterol, taking little or no exercise is bad for the heart.
    Cholesterol is a body repair mechanism. If you have weak blood vessels, your body will produce it. It's therefore an unjustified bogeyman to sell statins and shitty margerines. Like locking up firemen because there's a high correlation between them and housefires.
    I'd be interested to see any evidence for this.
    Bit like rock dust as a fertiliser.....
    Except that ample evidence there was provided, in the form of a large quantity of peer reviewed studies - don't worry, amnesia can strike at the oddest times.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    RobD said:

    TimS said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    As others have pointed out it was Rishi who took the knife to the Eastern leg of HS2 which would have gone to Leeds. After all why bother with high speed rail when you can just jet it?
    And why fund education or the NHS properly when you don't use those either? Out of touch.
    Nonsense, or should we restrict the eligibility of PM to those who have children and are actively using the NHS? Not to mention the vast array of other services the state provides.
    Someone who has actively chosen not to use public services is not someone I would trust to fund or manage those services effectively. You are free to be more trusting/gullible if you like.
    Then your list of candidates for PM must be very short indeed, as I can't imagine there are many people that take full advantage of all the public services that the state provides.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Well, if the trains are on strike, you’d not want to spend six hours in a car doing the trip.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,268

    Leon said:

    HELP

    I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open

    Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese

    No politics please, I get an ample share of that here

    Any and all suggestions welcome

    Check out 'Bad People' on BBC sounds - more psychology, but links to experimental evidence too.
    Ta. On the case
  • boulayboulay Posts: 3,773
    Leon said:

    HELP

    I am belatedly addicted to podcasts thanks to Danny Robins’ Battersea Poltergeist and the follow ups. They are brilliant to listen to during tedious chores - long drives, the gym, household tasks, waiting for the go-go bars to open

    Can anyone recommend some really great podcasts? I like anything on - you guessed it - Wokeness, AI, aliens, ghosts, generally weird things, futurology, mad history, Forteana, extreme military stuff, wine and cheese

    No politics please, I get an ample share of that here

    Any and all suggestions welcome

    On the history and military with a hint of wokeness “the rest is history” is great. You have Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland who both a clever chaps and clearly research their stuff and bring in experts. Like a supercharged and more interesting “In our time”. Good pairing as Sandbrook is anti-woke traditionalist and Holland is a bit more progressive so they riff on their interpretations through those prisms often.

    Also a prodigious output so always many podcasts to keep you busy.
  • RobD said:

    NEW: Rishi Sunak took a private jet to Leeds yesterday, No 10 say, because it was the most efficient use of his limited time. ✈️

    Rishi is useless.

    Why wouldn't you want the PM to be able to get around as quickly and conveniently as possible?
    Us plebs have to use the trains, Rishi got his chopper out and curtailed the Eastern leg of HS2.
    Surely the ECML is fast enough already. The problem isn't the time, it is the capacity.

    I know the section from Doncaster to Leeds isn't exactly full speed, but it isn't _that_ bad.
    But it is DONCASTER.

    Or Doncatraz as it is known locally due to all the prisons nearby.
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