Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
There are many countries with equally fucked up relationships with alcohol, if not worse. All over the world
Korea can be fucking punchy. Japan is weird (but not violent). Parts of Australia - white and aboriginal - wow. Cities in America, Finland. The Nordics. Cities in Thailand. Central Asia. Greenland. Etc etc etc
What Britain does have, almost uniquely, is an intense pub culture. Very few societies revolve around The Place Where You Drink as much as we do (even now, despite pub closures) .This is both good and bad
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
That's what I mean. You need to forget about materiality (of impact) to argue that this merits a Westminster veto. And if you do that you're setting a precedent that affects devolution. Dilutes what it means.
I don't think the bill is a mistake but, no, that's not the point when it comes to the intervention. The point is it was a bill properly passed by the democratic parliament of Scotland. You need big big reasons to veto that.
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
There are many countries with equally fucked up relationships with alcohol, if not worse. All over the world
Korea can be fucking punchy. Japan is weird (but not violent). Parts of Australia - white and aboriginal - wow. Cities in America, Finland. The Nordics. Cities in Thailand. Central Asia. Greenland. Etc etc etc
What Britain does have, almost uniquely, is an intense pub culture. Very few societies revolve around The Place Where You Drink as much as we do (even now, despite pub closures) .This is both good and bad
Blending (so to speak) current topics), this might be a useful source of ideas:
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
The test apparently is not whether Jack is “right” but whether his concerns are “reasonable”. So ScotGov has to prove they are unreasonable. Given all the advice they were given, but ignored, about interaction with the Equality Act before they passed the bill that may not be a hill they wish to die on.
Timely reminder. Now 18 months since Supreme Court ruled UN Convention on Rights of Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was unlawful because exceeded devolved powers. FM said it left her unable to fully protect children’s rights She is still to bring back an amended bill. 1/2
The Q of which government is making a “full frontal assault” on devolution over the GRR bill will similarly be resolved in court with onus potentially placed on SG to bring back an amended bill which satisfies GRA reform and legal competence. 2/2
The S35 order is gift week for the SNP. It doesn't matter about the GRR bill, its now an assault on Westminster Tories on Holyrood to impose a Tory veto on anything they do. That stalwart of Scottish independence Lord Falconer tears the Tory argument apart in a detailed thread: https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615400867015819278
What it means for Scotland isn't good.
This will be the third time the SNP have been told they were exceeding their powers - the first two in the courts. Did either of the earlier two see a surge in support for independence? The first rebuff was over children’s rights, which one might think a more sympathetic case than the current one.
Alistair Jack’s statement seemed pretty cogent to me.
A former Lord Chancellor has posted a long twitter thread detailing why he believes the opposite to be true. Its a political football, and not helped by that tool DRoss standing up in the Commons saying it was right the S35 be applied because he lost a debate in Holyrood.
The most hilarious commentary is from the self deceiving numpties claiming this has all been 'engineered' by the Nats. An actual Scotch expert:
Yes, it’s totally preposterous that the Scottish government are trying to engineer a row, about something over which they were repeatedly warned over the past few months would overreach their devolved powers.
Edit: Nats all co-ordinating “since 2016” and “six years”, as if this wasn’t something they passed only a fortnight ago.
I see your insights from a great distance are even more knowledgeable about Scottish politics than they are about English. I do have to concede that people who bleated incessantly about the tyranny of the EU setting common standards for vacuum cleaners and lied about the EU banning the UJ on British farm produce are experts in what is an engineered row.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
The test apparently is not whether Jack is “right” but whether his concerns are “reasonable”. So ScotGov has to prove they are unreasonable. Given all the advice they were given, but ignored, about interaction with the Equality Act before they passed the bill that may not be a hill they wish to die on.
Timely reminder. Now 18 months since Supreme Court ruled UN Convention on Rights of Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was unlawful because exceeded devolved powers. FM said it left her unable to fully protect children’s rights She is still to bring back an amended bill. 1/2
The Q of which government is making a “full frontal assault” on devolution over the GRR bill will similarly be resolved in court with onus potentially placed on SG to bring back an amended bill which satisfies GRA reform and legal competence. 2/2
The S35 order is gift week for the SNP. It doesn't matter about the GRR bill, its now an assault on Westminster Tories on Holyrood to impose a Tory veto on anything they do. That stalwart of Scottish independence Lord Falconer tears the Tory argument apart in a detailed thread: https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615400867015819278
What it means for Scotland isn't good.
This will be the third time the SNP have been told they were exceeding their powers - the first two in the courts. Did either of the earlier two see a surge in support for independence? The first rebuff was over children’s rights, which one might think a more sympathetic case than the current one.
Alistair Jack’s statement seemed pretty cogent to me.
A former Lord Chancellor has posted a long twitter thread detailing why he believes the opposite to be true. Its a political football, and not helped by that tool DRoss standing up in the Commons saying it was right the S35 be applied because he lost a debate in Holyrood.
The most hilarious commentary is from the self deceiving numpties claiming this has all been 'engineered' by the Nats. An actual Scotch expert:
Yes, it’s totally preposterous that the Scottish government are trying to engineer a row, about something over which they were repeatedly warned over the past few months would overreach their devolved powers.
Edit: Nats all co-ordinating “since 2016” and “six years”, as if this wasn’t something they passed only a fortnight ago.
I see your insights from a great distance are even more knowledgeable about Scottish politics than they are about English. I do have to concede that people who bleated incessantly about the tyranny of the EU setting common standards for vacuum cleaners and lied about the EU banning the UJ on British farm produce are experts in what is an engineered row.
Also rather odd to whine about the bill being passed a fortnight ago when it was being discussed for 6 years. You'd think that HMG in London had not bothered to keep an eye on what HMG in Scotland and the Holyrood Parliament were doing.
Edit: And the '6 years' point is being made by people of all parties. It's not what some of us like to call a 'Nat' thing, but a cross-party one.
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
I'm talking about the social pressure from others to drink. I've only really experienced that in the UK and Russia. There are plenty of other places where people cane the hooch but they don't seem to care as much if other people don't.
On drinking, imho the studies are a bit uncertain. Too many confounders etc and everyone lies about alcohol intake. There's a general picture, but it's very hard to set a 'safe' or even 'low risk' level. Timing could be as important as overall quantity.
Alcohol is bad for you, for sure (this is the general picture) but then most things are in excess (to greater or lesser extents). The protective effects of a glass of red wine etc studies have been largely discredited - failed to account for other things. There's also the point that we're all different and epidemiology is great at working out average effects but that masks a lot of differences between different people.
As pointed out by others, many things we do will, on average, reduce healthy life expectancy - any extreme sports (compared to being active in less exciting ways), driving to see friends/family, having children (possibly), not sleeping enough (related!). But it would be a pretty empty (if possibly long) life living in a secure room on an optimal diet with only a treadmill/exercise bike for activity.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
For your 30 cases do you buy it (mixed, presumably) case by case or bottle by bottle. Or is your spare room filled to the ceiling with cases from Octavian? The logistics of buying a case of wine every 10 days or so are surely formidable.
I buy from supermarkets a lot - you can get really interesting bottles from Waitrose, Tesco, M&S - if you go online
I also buy mixed boxes (of 6 or 12 or 18) from Vivino
I get it delivered - when in London - about once a week. It’s not a logistical nightmare! It just turns up at your door
Sounds good. If for me a bit of a hassle having to spend so much time choosing wine and having it delivered.
No snark, but having to choose this case or that (assuming you don't just go for their "box of the week") every week, always, and then having it delivered or left on your doorstep, week in week out seems a hassle.
Edit: I love supermarkets; I really regret Tesco closing their wine dept and Aldi now has virtually nothing online.
But I really like wine and so I like choosing it. Anticipation is a great part of the pleasure, as Freud said (pre-pleasure - Vofreude = “pre-joy” - like agreeably choosing a holiday)
i agree about Tesco. They used to have an AMAZING online wine department. Some phenomenal bargains. I still have some Grand Crus I bought from them ten years back. Now they just have nice wine, with the odd gem
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
The test apparently is not whether Jack is “right” but whether his concerns are “reasonable”. So ScotGov has to prove they are unreasonable. Given all the advice they were given, but ignored, about interaction with the Equality Act before they passed the bill that may not be a hill they wish to die on.
Timely reminder. Now 18 months since Supreme Court ruled UN Convention on Rights of Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was unlawful because exceeded devolved powers. FM said it left her unable to fully protect children’s rights She is still to bring back an amended bill. 1/2
The Q of which government is making a “full frontal assault” on devolution over the GRR bill will similarly be resolved in court with onus potentially placed on SG to bring back an amended bill which satisfies GRA reform and legal competence. 2/2
The S35 order is gift week for the SNP. It doesn't matter about the GRR bill, its now an assault on Westminster Tories on Holyrood to impose a Tory veto on anything they do. That stalwart of Scottish independence Lord Falconer tears the Tory argument apart in a detailed thread: https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615400867015819278
What it means for Scotland isn't good.
This will be the third time the SNP have been told they were exceeding their powers - the first two in the courts. Did either of the earlier two see a surge in support for independence? The first rebuff was over children’s rights, which one might think a more sympathetic case than the current one.
Alistair Jack’s statement seemed pretty cogent to me.
A former Lord Chancellor has posted a long twitter thread detailing why he believes the opposite to be true. Its a political football, and not helped by that tool DRoss standing up in the Commons saying it was right the S35 be applied because he lost a debate in Holyrood.
The most hilarious commentary is from the self deceiving numpties claiming this has all been 'engineered' by the Nats. An actual Scotch expert:
Yes, it’s totally preposterous that the Scottish government are trying to engineer a row, about something over which they were repeatedly warned over the past few months would overreach their devolved powers.
Edit: Nats all co-ordinating “since 2016” and “six years”, as if this wasn’t something they passed only a fortnight ago.
I see your insights from a great distance are even more knowledgeable about Scottish politics than they are about English. I do have to concede that people who bleated incessantly about the tyranny of the EU setting common standards for vacuum cleaners and lied about the EU banning the UJ on British farm produce are experts in what is an engineered row.
I see that you’re not actually engaging with my argument, in the same way that much of the Scottish government response has been trying to avoid the question of whether they passed legislation that’s specifically outside their competence.
Good to hear that LSE has ended its formal partnership with Stonewall. Paying a lobby group which advocates for "no debate" to train university staff, and to advise on (and assess) university policy, is incompatible with academic freedom. Well done, everyone involved.
"If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance."
I drink, on average, a bottle of red wine every day and a smattering of gin and tonics. Sometimes more, rarely less. The odd dry day here and there
And I have had a a fucking HOOT for forty adult years
No doubt you're exaggerating like "hellraisers" always do. If a "hellraiser" says he's on a bottle of vodka a day the truth will be about a third of that.
But on the offchance you're not, I'd ease off a bit.
A bottle a day is pretty standard, because if God wasn't OK with it why did he make bottles that size? I would be genuinely happy if Brexit had led to wine coming in pints, because half bottles are too small to bother with.
Too much for one not enough for two is I believe the official categorisation according to Boris Winston.
Albeit he was talking about champagne presumably as a sharpener before his proper drinking began.
His sharpener was actually a tumbler of scotch in his bathroom in the morning. He called it his “mouthwash”. Or so the anecdote has it
It is remarkable to think that our greatest prime minister got the nation through its greatest crisis, and achieved perhaps its greatest triumph, while being completely shitfaced 85% of the waking day
The point about Churchill's mouthwash is that it was so dilute, presumably from his days in India when the water could not be trusted. Champagne by the pint and brandy came later in the day.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
Just had the best part of three months in hospital, so no alcohol. Come home to at least a glass of wine every night, which, apart from colouring my urine bag, seems to have had little effect.
I noticed that my mother (who at 92 I believe has some years on you) has quietly switched from a daily glass of wine to a daily glass of port. And it seems to have done her no harm and a significant amount of good in terms of her daily life, although we don't have the counterfactual had she been teetotal.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
I'm talking about the social pressure from others to drink. I've only really experienced that in the UK and Russia. There are plenty of other places where people cane the hooch but they don't seem to care as much if other people don't.
You will also find that social pressure in parts of China, Australia, Mongolia, Japan, and plenty other places
Toasting with booze is a big thing throughout much of Asia, and it is deemed quite odd not to join in
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K. This section has no associated Explanatory Notes (1)If a Bill contains provisions— (a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or (b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
I'm talking about the social pressure from others to drink. I've only really experienced that in the UK and Russia. There are plenty of other places where people cane the hooch but they don't seem to care as much if other people don't.
You will also find that social pressure in parts of China, Australia, Mongolia, Japan, and plenty other places
Toasting with booze is a big thing throughout much of Asia, and it is deemed quite odd not to join in...
South Korea, too. Similar to Japan, the 회식 "dining together" work event is traditionally accompanied by semi mandatory downing of shots - but per capita booze consumption seems to have declined quite significantly in the last decade. Young Koreans drink a lot less than their parents did.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
I hardly ever drink, so this wouldn't affect me. But a limit or guidance of two drinks a week is bloody ridiculous. If people want to be personally puritanical that's fine, imposing it on others is obnoxious.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
My parents tried this - wine or cider with dinner when I was 15 or so - but I'm afraid it didn't work with me. Soon as I got to Uni in London I went berserk. But it's good to think about what's best so don't let that put you off. Barely 18, beamed from yorkshire mining town to South Ken, full grant, not very interested in degree subject, there's only one way that's going. But no biggie, here I still am, 62, typing away.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
Based on my daughter's party I would say your characterisation of the nation's youth is somewhat wide of the mark...
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
I'm talking about the social pressure from others to drink. I've only really experienced that in the UK and Russia. There are plenty of other places where people cane the hooch but they don't seem to care as much if other people don't.
You will also find that social pressure in parts of China, Australia, Mongolia, Japan, and plenty other places
Toasting with booze is a big thing throughout much of Asia, and it is deemed quite odd not to join in...
South Korea, too. Similar to Japan, the 회식 "dining together" work event is traditionally accompanied by semi mandatory downing of shots - but per capita booze consumption seems to have declined quite significantly in the last decade. Young Koreans drink a lot less than their parents did.
Yes, the decline in youthful boozing seems to be happening across the advanced world. Smart phones and social media must be a major cause
I hardly ever drink, so this wouldn't affect me. But a limit or guidance of two drinks a week is bloody ridiculous. If people want to be personally puritanical that's fine, imposing it on others is obnoxious.
I am the same in regard to alcohol but absolutely agree attempts to impose weekly limits is absurd
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
But how far will the pendulum swing before it turns? Will our children torment us by making another attempt to prohibit alcohol to blight our later years?
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K. This section has no associated Explanatory Notes (1)If a Bill contains provisions— (a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or (b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Good morning, BigG, and thank you for saving me the trouble.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill whicg the UK government sides with Scots on them she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
As I said you simply do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to suggest they will surrender devolution for rule by Westminster
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
Based on my daughter's party I would say your characterisation of the nation's youth is somewhat wide of the mark...
There’s no arguing with the stats. Boozing is way down with the Kidz. They don’t go to pubs as much. Also, things like teenage pregnancies are down. They are having less sex. Socialising rather less. This is all documented - not me imagining data
i also have personal evidence from my own kids and my friends’ kids - in their late teens. A surprising number are entirely sober. That was unheard of in my youth
Possibly a bit disappointing for @LibDems and @UKLabour, who need a fair bit of tactical voting to knock a few holes in the so-called 'Blue Wall'? Maybe @EdwardJDavey needs a bigger orange mallet?
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
Just had the best part of three months in hospital, so no alcohol. Come home to at least a glass of wine every night, which, apart from colouring my urine bag, seems to have had little effect.
I noticed that my mother (who at 92 I believe has some years on you) has quietly switched from a daily glass of wine to a daily glass of port. And it seems to have done her no harm and a significant amount of good in terms of her daily life, although we don't have the counterfactual had she been teetotal.
Was the change due to deteriorating tastebuds?
I think just needed a bigger hit more efficiently.
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K. This section has no associated Explanatory Notes (1)If a Bill contains provisions— (a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or (b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
So the key points are
Does the Bill make modifications of the law
Do those modifications apply to reserved matters
Does the Secretary of State have reasonable grounds to believe that
Those modifications have an adverse effect on the operation of the law
And that those adverse effects apply to reserved matters
The first two bullet points are straight questions of law, but the key third bullet point is a question of reasonable belief which can be difficult to argue against if sufficient advice has been taken by the Secretary of State to facilitate his belief.
Possibly a bit disappointing for @LibDems and @UKLabour, who need a fair bit of tactical voting to knock a few holes in the so-called 'Blue Wall'? Maybe @EdwardJDavey needs a bigger orange mallet?
Possibly a bit disappointing for @LibDems and @UKLabour, who need a fair bit of tactical voting to knock a few holes in the so-called 'Blue Wall'? Maybe @EdwardJDavey needs a bigger orange mallet?
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K. This section has no associated Explanatory Notes (1)If a Bill contains provisions— (a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or (b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K. This section has no associated Explanatory Notes (1)If a Bill contains provisions— (a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or (b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
Is this a reserved matter?
The Scotland Act is a reserved matter. The Equality Act is a reserved matter. Jack yesterday set out the reasons he believes Scotlands GRR Bill has an adverse effect on the operation of the Equality Act. To succeed in court the Scottish Government has to prove his grounds are unreasonable - a fairly high hurdle.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
There’s a lag of several months between harvest and supermarket, so last autumn’s wheat is now being sold as bread. Which is why I am predicting (possibly optimistically) a crash in inflation in the coming months, as these factors work through the system.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
Shipping must have something to do with it. I just bought a Getrag GS6-53BZ transmission (if you know, you know) from Texas and had to pay over $2,000 just to ship it!
My children (!) drink less than I do, but more than their teenage children" although at our Diamond wedding party the teenage girls seemed to knock back a lot of Prosecco!
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
The two most obvious explanations would be that: 1. Retail companies previously did not pass on all the price increases, and so are now not passing on the price decreases so that they can rebuild profit margins. 2. Other costs have increased, perhaps in part due to increased inflation expectations, and so higher inflation is now embedded into the economy.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
I think the polling pretty consistently shows the Scots are happy with Holyrood as an institution, although their opinion of its incumbents may not be as rosy.
Plus look at our society. Try to buy a Birthday/Anniversary/Congratulations on your New Job/Happy 10th Birthday card and 85% of them use some droll alcohol/gin reference.
We get plastered, blotto, sloshed, etc. All vaguely heroic-sounding states.
Go to LHR or any airport at 8.30am and the bars are chock full with people drinking.
Then go to A&E on a Friday or Saturday night and see what this causes.
As I, ahem, may have mentioned I used to do doorwork in Central London on Fridays and Saturdays and although Friday was marginally better (people simply not having had enough time to get fuelled up), Saturdays were often carnage.
The UK does have a fantastically ugly relationship with alcohol. Only Russia comes close in my experience.
Since my early 20s I've only ever had one tot of pusser's on Taranto Night and that's it for the year but I jacked that in about 5 years when we ran out and I couldn't be arsed to get another bottle. What I've noticed is that other people can be quite fantastically discommoded if you refuse to drink,
Then you haven’t experienced much
I'm talking about the social pressure from others to drink. I've only really experienced that in the UK and Russia. There are plenty of other places where people cane the hooch but they don't seem to care as much if other people don't.
You will also find that social pressure in parts of China, Australia, Mongolia, Japan, and plenty other places
Toasting with booze is a big thing throughout much of Asia, and it is deemed quite odd not to join in...
South Korea, too. Similar to Japan, the 회식 "dining together" work event is traditionally accompanied by semi mandatory downing of shots - but per capita booze consumption seems to have declined quite significantly in the last decade. Young Koreans drink a lot less than their parents did.
Yes, the decline in youthful boozing seems to be happening across the advanced world. Smart phones and social media must be a major cause
Having to pay college fees and the realisation they have to save to pay for expensive housing comes into it, too.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
Supermarket profits, look how long it took for them to bring the petrol price down.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
Shipping must have something to do with it. I just bought a Getrag GS6-53BZ transmission (if you know, you know) from Texas and had to pay over $2,000 just to ship it!
It's route-dependent, but on average, the worst of the shipping cost spike is over.
Possibly a bit disappointing for @LibDems and @UKLabour, who need a fair bit of tactical voting to knock a few holes in the so-called 'Blue Wall'? Maybe @EdwardJDavey needs a bigger orange mallet?
...I'll try again having botched and been timed out on the previous edit.
Perhaps not.
43% would easily cover the GE19 Labour vote in a lot of these blue wall places
Many GE19 Con -> LDs will regard themselves as switchers rather than tactical voters. GE19 LDs will mostly stick LD and will not regard it as tactical. So, a lot of the tactical bit is likely to be GE17/19 Lab to LD switching.
43% seems substantial given the different thought processes that might be at play.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
Possibly a bit disappointing for @LibDems and @UKLabour, who need a fair bit of tactical voting to knock a few holes in the so-called 'Blue Wall'? Maybe @EdwardJDavey needs a bigger orange mallet?
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
Shipping must have something to do with it. I just bought a Getrag GS6-53BZ transmission (if you know, you know) from Texas and had to pay over $2,000 just to ship it!
$2k in shipping for a gearbox, from the US? Give me a bag of sand, and I’ll go there and collect it for you!
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
Based on my daughter's party I would say your characterisation of the nation's youth is somewhat wide of the mark...
There’s no arguing with the stats. Boozing is way down with the Kidz. They don’t go to pubs as much. Also, things like teenage pregnancies are down. They are having less sex. Socialising rather less. This is all documented - not me imagining data
i also have personal evidence from my own kids and my friends’ kids - in their late teens. A surprising number are entirely sober. That was unheard of in my youth
tbf, your kids might just be deriving vicarious lessons from their dad's example ? Of mine, one drinks and the other doesn't much at all, FWIW.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
There’s a lag of several months between harvest and supermarket, so last autumn’s wheat is now being sold as bread. Which is why I am predicting (possibly optimistically) a crash in inflation in the coming months, as these factors work through the system.
The interesting thing is that is happening in Ireland already. They had negative month-on-month inflation in December, compared to +0.4% in the UK.
So the questions then are, is there a longer lag for the British economy, or are there some other factors which are sustaining inflation at a higher rate?
Will be interesting to see if the difference is sustained.
Having to pay college fees and the realisation they have to save to pay for expensive housing comes into it, too.
There's something else at play too. Plenty of my students (admittedly middle class over-achievers) don't drink and view it as something 'scrotes', 'scrandies' and 'slines' do. It's just not cool.
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
Based on my daughter's party I would say your characterisation of the nation's youth is somewhat wide of the mark...
There’s no arguing with the stats. Boozing is way down with the Kidz. They don’t go to pubs as much. Also, things like teenage pregnancies are down. They are having less sex. Socialising rather less. This is all documented - not me imagining data
i also have personal evidence from my own kids and my friends’ kids - in their late teens. A surprising number are entirely sober. That was unheard of in my youth
tbf, your kids might just be deriving vicarious lessons from their dad's example ? Of mine, one drinks and the other doesn't much at all, FWIW.
My three are all teetotal. The eldest is five though (and he has asked to try my beer, so his abstentionism may not last).
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
As I understand it the inflation is year on year - so the prices in Jan 2022 vs Jan 2023. In the next couple of months we go past the surge in inflation last year, so the inflation rate should reduce markedly, just not quite yet.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
You just keep reaffirming your utter ignorance of the Scots and their politics
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
You just keep reaffirming your utter ignorance of the Scots and their politics
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
25% of Scots voted against devolution even in 1997, I expect more unpopular bills like this from Sturgeon will increase that total and certainly increase support for the Union
Having to pay college fees and the realisation they have to save to pay for expensive housing comes into it, too.
There's something else at play too. Plenty of my students (admittedly middle class over-achievers) don't drink and view it as something 'scrotes', 'scrandies' and 'slines' do. It's just not cool.
I think online gaming has a lot to do with it. Young peeople much prefer to stay in their room and play whatever the latest game is with their friends rather than going out.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
You just keep reaffirming your utter ignorance of the Scots and their politics
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
25% of Scots voted against devolution even in 1997, I expect more unpopular bills like this from Sturgeon will increase that total and certainly increase support for the Union
Having to pay college fees and the realisation they have to save to pay for expensive housing comes into it, too.
There's something else at play too. Plenty of my students (admittedly middle class over-achievers) don't drink and view it as something 'scrotes', 'scrandies' and 'slines' do. It's just not cool.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
You just keep reaffirming your utter ignorance of the Scots and their politics
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
25% of Scots voted against devolution even in 1997, I expect more unpopular bills like this from Sturgeon will increase that total and certainly increase support for the Union
"If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance."
I drink, on average, a bottle of red wine every day and a smattering of gin and tonics. Sometimes more, rarely less. The odd dry day here and there
And I have had a a fucking HOOT for forty adult years
No doubt you're exaggerating like "hellraisers" always do. If a "hellraiser" says he's on a bottle of vodka a day the truth will be about a third of that.
But on the offchance you're not, I'd ease off a bit.
A bottle a day is pretty standard, because if God wasn't OK with it why did he make bottles that size? I would be genuinely happy if Brexit had led to wine coming in pints, because half bottles are too small to bother with.
Too much for one not enough for two is I believe the official categorisation according to Boris Winston.
Albeit he was talking about champagne presumably as a sharpener before his proper drinking began.
His sharpener was actually a tumbler of scotch in his bathroom in the morning. He called it his “mouthwash”. Or so the anecdote has it
It is remarkable to think that our greatest prime minister got the nation through its greatest crisis, and achieved perhaps its greatest triumph, while being completely shitfaced 85% of the waking day
The point about Churchill's mouthwash is that it was so dilute, presumably from his days in India when the water could not be trusted. Champagne by the pint and brandy came later in the day.
IIRC he did the one about adding more soda to his whisky and soda as the day progressed - so it started strong and ended up as virtually pure soda water
An insane number of my friends are giving up booze altogether. I now try only to drink on Saturday during winter and Friday and Saturday otherwise (1x bottle per night). And the very, very occasional (because I feel worse on T+1) strong gin on those nights.
And although I bloody love drinking a decent rouge of an evening, nevertheless even one bottle gives me a fuzzy head the next day I don't like. I really like the feeling of clarity and sharpness, today for example, when I haven't drunk anything for a few days.
Given the PB demographic of mainly old white blokes I am genuinely surprised that people here drink 1x bottle/day. That is a lot and each morning must feel a struggle. I don't like that struggle.
Plus the docs (what do they know) say give it a few alcohol-free days per week and who's to say they aren't right in this instance.
But I simply don’t get that fuzzy head. I don’t get hangovers (they stopped about 20 years ago). This might be a sign I am about to die of cirrhosis, but it hasn’t happened yet. I have to drink TWO bottles of red (and I rarely go that far) before I start to feel a bit shit next day
Otherwise, I feel fine when I wake. No struggle at alll
Truly a gift.
No wonder you are so carefree about the wine you try out.
That is 30 cases a year of wine you are drinking.
Yes, I drink a FUCK of a lot of wine, so I like to vary it, and the exploration is fun. If I was more like you and having one bottle every now and then I would probably retreat to guaranteed quality
This does not apply in Thailand however. Here I drink 19 Crimes - Red Blend,Shiraz. Malbec, Cab Sauv. It’s perfectly acceptable and…. It does not cost £40 a bottle like every other red wine. Taxes on wine here are insane
How sad that you need alcohol - you'll feel so much better if you quit
Er, with all due respect, how the fuck do you know? We’ve never met
I ENJOY drinking. Indeed I love it. I love the buzz of that first cracking gin and tonic. I love the discovery of a new red from some mad place. I love the mouthfeel of an excellent margarita, the salt on the lips, crunchy, and intoxicating. MMMMMM. I love a picnic in sunny English countryside knowing there’s a chilled bottle of Nyetimber or Meursault waiting to go with the cheese and strawberries and jamon iberica de bellota
It also makes meals much more enjoyable, it makes socialising smoother and happier, it gives the day a delicious structure. You work hard, you go the gym, you meet and you greet, and then there is your reward. BOOZE
God would not have made wine so enjoyable if he did not want us to get rat faced
Alcohol is a good social lubricant. I drink if I go out but almost never drink at home, I just don't see the point. I didn't drink any alcohol on our recent two week holiday because we were with my in-laws who don't drink, and it had no detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the holiday whatsoever. As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Are teenagers no longer allowed alcohol with meals? That would be the obvious preparation.
Up to a point, although when they turn 18 and leave home they won't typically be going to a lot of dinner parties.
My son seems to be establishing himself as teetotal, which is a bit of a shame given his father is now a vigneron but certainly means there's less of a fear around teenage parties.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
The pendulum will swing. This generation rising is puritan, judgmental and sober. Woke. Earnest and a bit humourless. if you are mean they are boring gits, if you approve they are upstanding citizens
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
Based on my daughter's party I would say your characterisation of the nation's youth is somewhat wide of the mark...
There’s no arguing with the stats. Boozing is way down with the Kidz. They don’t go to pubs as much. Also, things like teenage pregnancies are down. They are having less sex. Socialising rather less. This is all documented - not me imagining data
i also have personal evidence from my own kids and my friends’ kids - in their late teens. A surprising number are entirely sober. That was unheard of in my youth
tbf, your kids might just be deriving vicarious lessons from their dad's example ? Of mine, one drinks and the other doesn't much at all, FWIW.
My lad certainly enjoys a drink and seems to behave pretty much as I did at his age (19). Perhaps the main difference is that he and his mates tend to have "pres" at someone's house before going out clubbing rather than going to the pub because pubs are so expensive nowadays (with the exception of 'spoons). He tells me that Oxford is awash with booze at various events, and that half the private school kids are on cocaine.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
Or alternatively, the people of Scotland can just elect a different Scottish government at the next elections.
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
And as the alternative would be a Labour or Conservative government, same as the rest of GB, why do they need the SNP and Scottish government anyway at that point?
You just keep reaffirming your utter ignorance of the Scots and their politics
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
25% of Scots voted against devolution even in 1997, I expect more unpopular bills like this from Sturgeon will increase that total and certainly increase support for the Union
Increase support for the Union is not the same as your flight of fantasy that the Scots want to abolish Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster
I never said they did, however unpopular bills like this from Holyrood will reduce support for devolution as well as for independence was my point, even if more like you support the former but not the latter
I understand exactly 0% of that article. Is this guy a moron, greedy or a victim or all three?
Cryptocurrency itself isn’t a scam. Usually. The currencies exists and people buy and sell them.
It’s just that 100% of the exchanges, vendors etc of Crypto currencies are a curious combination of sharks, crooks, idiots and self-delusional. Generally, all of those at once.
It’s like coming across a Mexican Drug cartel that runs out of bullets and drugs. Because the guy running it decided to invest all the income in fur bearing trout farms.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
As I understand it the inflation is year on year - so the prices in Jan 2022 vs Jan 2023. In the next couple of months we go past the surge in inflation last year, so the inflation rate should reduce markedly, just not quite yet.
Looking at the figures for recent months in Ireland and the UK, and there seems to be a bit of a divergence.
FWIW Whether the s35 Order is justified depends on reasons advanced by HMG for saying GRR has adverse effect on UK equality law. For the reasons I have tweeted those reasons do not begin to justify its use. It’s a nuclear weapon used in a minor skirmish. https://twitter.com/LordCFalconer/status/1615424816680472594
I agree. I've read the UKG submission and it's flimsy imo. Unless you dispense with the concept of materiality I can't see how it stands.
I'm not predicting how any ruling will go. I'm just pointing out that this sets a very low bar for the use of what is a constitutional sledgehammer.
The Scottish legislation may well be a mistake, but devolution, if we're serious about it, means letting the Scottish parliament make its own mistakes. If we're not, that will also have consequences.
Quite, not least because ignoring devolution means the Westminster parliament imposing its mistakes on Scotland. For instance, not doing anything to abolish feudal law. It took the reconvened Scottish Parliament to sort that out pretty quickly (and that was when it was firmly Unionist in composition).
I'm on the opposite side to you on independence - if I had a vote on the issue, I'd vote against it. But I wouldn't deny Scotland a further vote on independence, and I take devolution seriously.
Quite. That major change (of huge benefit to those people whose feudal superiority hadn't been bought out at a large ransom already - think leasehold vs freehold in England) happened long before anyone seriously thought Holyrood Parliaments could lead to independence; indeed, the whole reason for the latter was to kill indy stone dead.
If Sturgeon keeps making legislation 2/3 of Scots oppose like this one, then soon there won't just be increased opposition to independence but increased support to scrap Holyrood completely and restore the original Union as it was before Blair
Good morning
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
Certainly if Sturgeon keeps taking deeply unpopular positions with most Scots like on her Gender Reform Bill which the UK government sides with Scots on then she will increase support for the Union.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
So because a few polls show that people aren't supportive of the GRR bill, they will turn away from the SNP and support the Tories instead? The same Tories who were so riven on the issue that they were given a free vote despite Dross being so vehemently opposed? That instead of supporting Scottish independence they will now back the use of a Tory veto in Westminster to neuter them?
You do have a vivid imagination! Its literally "we may be 20 points plus behind in the polls, but don't worry - propagating the fear of the lady cock will win the day!!!"
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
The trading price of a bushel of wheat may have dropped, the production cost has increased thanks to the culling of farming subsidies and of the UK's ability to make fertiliser.
Bit like H&S - every rule is written as a result of accident(s)/incident(s).
The best analogy I’ve seen in the last few months, is that “Crypto” is currently speedrunning through the past century and a half of financial regulation, seemingly having learned nothing, in pursuit of a big buck.
In aviation, it’s often said that the regulations are written in blood, so many of them having come out of the relentless analysis of incidents and accidents. Which is why fewer people are killed on planes now than decades ago, despite an exponential increase in air traffic.
Bit like H&S - every rule is written as a result of accident(s)/incident(s).
The best analogy I’ve seen in the last few months, is that “Crypto” is currently speedrunning through the past century and a half of financial regulation, seemingly having learned nothing, in pursuit of a big buck.
In aviation, it’s often said that the regulations are written in blood, so many of them having come out of the relentless analysis of incidents and accidents. Which is why fewer people are killed on planes now than decades ago, despite an exponential increase in air traffic.
The analogy I use at work is
'Crypto is what Robert Maxwell would have created if he had gone into finance rather than publishing.'
Having to pay college fees and the realisation they have to save to pay for expensive housing comes into it, too.
There's something else at play too. Plenty of my students (admittedly middle class over-achievers) don't drink and view it as something 'scrotes', 'scrandies' and 'slines' do. It's just not cool.
I think online gaming has a lot to do with it. Young peeople much prefer to stay in their room and play whatever the latest game is with their friends rather than going out.
And a lot of young people will be officially-teetotal Muslims; others will have nowhere to go because so many pubs have closed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64294885 Ministers are facing a clash with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit. Under government proposals, thousands of laws are due to expire automatically after December unless specifically kept or replaced. It has prompted concerns that important legislation could lapse by accident...
One, it's an enormous waste of civil service time - yet another Brexit distraction - and two, it's an enormous legislative power grab by ministers, largely bypassing Parliamentary discussion.
Can anyone explain these continual price rises? Commodities like oil and wheat have come right down but it doesn't seem to be helping much at the supermarket.
The trading price of a bushel of wheat may have dropped, the production cost has increased thanks to the culling of farming subsidies and of the UK's ability to make fertiliser.
And changes in output prices lag commodity price changes, both on the way up and the way down.
Bit like H&S - every rule is written as a result of accident(s)/incident(s).
The best analogy I’ve seen in the last few months, is that “Crypto” is currently speedrunning through the past century and a half of financial regulation, seemingly having learned nothing, in pursuit of a big buck.
In aviation, it’s often said that the regulations are written in blood, so many of them having come out of the relentless analysis of incidents and accidents. Which is why fewer people are killed on planes now than decades ago, despite an exponential increase in air traffic.
We're going to see a lot of this over JRM's "bonfire of EU regulations" over the next few months too. As soon as the bonfire hits actual real life - especially environmental and animal welfare protections - is becomes clear either why the rules are there in the first place, or that the rules aren't strict enough and need to be tightened.
Same will be true of any regulations affecting consumer protection. A lot of people like the abstract idea of cutting red tape and deregulation to set enterprise free, until they realise that means more nitrates leaching into their nearby river, toys with dangerous bits that toddlers might choke on or oddly named chemicals on their fruit and veg.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64294885 Ministers are facing a clash with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit. Under government proposals, thousands of laws are due to expire automatically after December unless specifically kept or replaced. It has prompted concerns that important legislation could lapse by accident...
One, it's an enormous waste of civil service time - yet another Brexit distraction - and two, it's an enormous legislative power grab by ministers, largely bypassing Parliamentary discussion.
As it happens I was just doing my last post on it when you asked. More binfire than bonfire.
Comments
There are many countries with equally fucked up relationships with alcohol, if not worse. All over the world
Korea can be fucking punchy. Japan is weird (but not violent). Parts of Australia - white and aboriginal - wow. Cities in America, Finland. The Nordics. Cities in Thailand. Central Asia. Greenland. Etc etc etc
What Britain does have, almost uniquely, is an intense pub culture. Very few societies revolve around The Place Where You Drink as much as we do (even now, despite pub closures) .This is both good and bad
I don't think the bill is a mistake but, no, that's not the point when it comes to the intervention. The point is it was a bill properly passed by the democratic parliament of Scotland. You need big big reasons to veto that.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jan/18/moment-that-changed-me-i-began-wearing-skirts-with-pockets-big-enough-to-hold-wine-bottle
Sensible lady; Mrs C always used to put pockets into the full 1950s-style skirts that she used to wear for casual when we were younger.
(A variation of a theme, courtesy of George Best).
I do have to concede that people who bleated incessantly about the tyranny of the EU setting common standards for vacuum cleaners and lied about the EU banning the UJ on British farm produce are experts in what is an engineered row.
Edit: And the '6 years' point is being made by people of all parties. It's not what some of us like to call a 'Nat' thing, but a cross-party one.
Alcohol is bad for you, for sure (this is the general picture) but then most things are in excess (to greater or lesser extents). The protective effects of a glass of red wine etc studies have been largely discredited - failed to account for other things. There's also the point that we're all different and epidemiology is great at working out average effects but that masks a lot of differences between different people.
As pointed out by others, many things we do will, on average, reduce healthy life expectancy - any extreme sports (compared to being active in less exciting ways), driving to see friends/family, having children (possibly), not sleeping enough (related!). But it would be a pretty empty (if possibly long) life living in a secure room on an optimal diet with only a treadmill/exercise bike for activity.
i agree about Tesco. They used to have an AMAZING online wine department. Some phenomenal bargains. I still have some Grand Crus I bought from them ten years back. Now they just have nice wine, with the odd gem
Good to hear that LSE has ended its formal partnership with Stonewall. Paying a lobby group which advocates for "no debate" to train university staff, and to advise on (and assess) university policy, is incompatible with academic freedom. Well done, everyone involved.
https://twitter.com/EdinUniAFAF/status/1615476375410053120
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Ethanol-content-of-beverages-and-fruits_tbl1_309725826
As a parent one difficulty I have is knowing precisely how to navigate the situation around alcohol as our kids approach 18. Legally the situation is basically nothing until your 18th birthday, then go ahead and knock yourself out. It seems to me that it's better to give them some leeway for underage drinking in their late teens so that it's a more gradual transition under a degree of parental supervision and they know how to handle it when they leave home - de facto this is what my parents did and I was a much more sensible drinker at Uni than the kids who hadn't been allowed to drink. But I've run into problems with that approach, eg my 16yo daughter had a party, we bought some 4% beer and cider, but some of the kids turned up with bottles of vodka and some of them ended up dangerously drunk (not my daughter, she was fine). I don't think it's reasonable (or even right) to expect them not to drink at all but it's a bit of a minefield both legally and morally.
Toasting with booze is a big thing throughout much of Asia, and it is deemed quite odd not to join in
i agree that Russia is probably the most demented
35 Power to intervene in certain cases.U.K.
This section has no associated Explanatory Notes
(1)If a Bill contains provisions—
(a)which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security, or
(b)which make modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters and which the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have an adverse effect on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters,
he may make an order prohibiting the Presiding Officer from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
http://ianssmart.blogspot.com/2023/01/some-thoughts-on-today.html?m=1
I wonder what legal advice Sturgeon has received (if any, she announced she was going to court before the grounds were published) and how the Lord Advocate will argue it.
From the point of view of my vineyard the trend I really need is for people to drink less often, but mainly at home or with meals in restaurants, and to spend more per bottle. Treat themselves, rather than bingeing on prosecco and pinot grigio or sticking to beer. The less but better trend seems to have been happening with Millennials. The younger generation though seem to be skipping the booze altogether, which is worrying for long term viability.
Similar to Japan, the 회식 "dining together" work event is traditionally accompanied by semi mandatory downing of shots - but per capita booze consumption seems to have declined quite significantly in the last decade.
Young Koreans drink a lot less than their parents did.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64314673
THEIR kids will probably be the most hellraising foul mouthed taboo-busting bunch of drunken druggies you can imagine. Like the 60s kids after the straightlaced 50s
You never fail to make the most ridiculous claims and this is up with the best
You do not know or understand the Scots or Scotland to even suggest that at sometime in the future the Scots will want to restore the original union
I hardly ever drink, so this wouldn't affect me. But a limit or guidance of two drinks a week is bloody ridiculous. If people want to be personally puritanical that's fine, imposing it on others is obnoxious.
In time that may well increase even opposition to devolution too from its current levels of about 20 to 25% of Scots wanting to restore the Union as was pre New Labour
i also have personal evidence from my own kids and my friends’ kids - in their late teens. A surprising number are entirely sober. That was unheard of in my youth
But the cycle will cycle
https://twitter.com/ProfTimBale/status/1615661832974340097
- Does the Bill make modifications of the law
- Do those modifications apply to reserved matters
- Does the Secretary of State have reasonable grounds to believe that
-
- Those modifications have an adverse effect on the operation of the law
- And that those adverse effects apply to reserved matters
The first two bullet points are straight questions of law, but the key third bullet point is a question of reasonable belief which can be difficult to argue against if sufficient advice has been taken by the Secretary of State to facilitate his belief.43% would easily cover the GE19
Editing...
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5#commentary-key-35f6e9baf621cf404c6c2a6a61afb460
(To be fair, this isn't just a Conservative or Unionist blind spot. Something in the British political psyche has a real fear of somewhere dong things differently in case they end up doing it wrong. With the consequences we see around us.)
My children (!) drink less than I do, but more than their teenage children" although at our Diamond wedding party the teenage girls seemed to knock back a lot of Prosecco!
I see we're off on flights of fancy this morning.
Time to get out into the sun....
1. Retail companies previously did not pass on all the price increases, and so are now not passing on the price decreases so that they can rebuild profit margins.
2. Other costs have increased, perhaps in part due to increased inflation expectations, and so higher inflation is now embedded into the economy.
It's route-dependent, but on average, the worst of the shipping cost spike is over.
Perhaps not.
43% would easily cover the GE19 Labour vote in a lot of these blue wall places
Many GE19 Con -> LDs will regard themselves as switchers rather than tactical voters.
GE19 LDs will mostly stick LD and will not regard it as tactical.
So, a lot of the tactical bit is likely to be GE17/19 Lab to LD switching.
43% seems substantial given the different thought processes that might be at play.
Even if the headline Tory voteshare is still a bit less than under Boris with more leakage to RefUK
Of mine, one drinks and the other doesn't much at all, FWIW.
So the questions then are, is there a longer lag for the British economy, or are there some other factors which are sustaining inflation at a higher rate?
Will be interesting to see if the difference is sustained.
https://dlnews.com/articles/celsius-crypto-customer-fred-shanks-fury-as-bitcoin-trapped-in-collapsed-lender
As a supporter of the union I am also a supporter of devolution and hope that in time the Scots elect a different government to the SNP but the idea the Scots would want to eradicate Holyrood and be ruled by Westminster is just one of your many flights of fantasy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Scottish_devolution_referendum
Turns out there was a reason for them.
Bit like H&S - every rule is written as a result of accident(s)/incident(s).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384
It’s just that 100% of the exchanges, vendors etc of Crypto currencies are a curious combination of sharks, crooks, idiots and self-delusional. Generally, all of those at once.
It’s like coming across a Mexican Drug cartel that runs out of bullets and drugs. Because the guy running it decided to invest all the income in fur bearing trout farms.
There's a golden rule in life which particularly applies to banking and financial services, if a deal is too good to be true then it usually is.
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpi/consumerpriceindexdecember2022/
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/december2022
Inflation in Ireland for the last five months comes to +1.9%
Inflation in Britain for the last five months comes to +3.3%
That would seem to be heading for inflation in Ireland moderating to ~4%, but to ~7% in Britain.
I guess it's possible this is just a timing issue, as the OFGEM price cap would create a timing difference, but on the face of it looks concerning.
You do have a vivid imagination! Its literally "we may be 20 points plus behind in the polls, but don't worry - propagating the fear of the lady cock will win the day!!!"
https://youtu.be/Xbq3kc29Tmg
https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/11207
In aviation, it’s often said that the regulations are written in blood, so many of them having come out of the relentless analysis of incidents and accidents. Which is why fewer people are killed on planes now than decades ago, despite an exponential increase in air traffic.
'Crypto is what Robert Maxwell would have created if he had gone into finance rather than publishing.'
Partly because I can say things like “That is an interesting idea. Implementing it will result in 3-5 years under current sentencing guidelines.”
Which is handy for shutting down stupid shit with no blowback.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64294885
Ministers are facing a clash with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit.
Under government proposals, thousands of laws are due to expire automatically after December unless specifically kept or replaced.
It has prompted concerns that important legislation could lapse by accident...
One, it's an enormous waste of civil service time - yet another Brexit distraction - and two, it's an enormous legislative power grab by ministers, largely bypassing Parliamentary discussion.
Same will be true of any regulations affecting consumer protection. A lot of people like the abstract idea of cutting red tape and deregulation to set enterprise free, until they realise that means more nitrates leaching into their nearby river, toys with dangerous bits that toddlers might choke on or oddly named chemicals on their fruit and veg.