No mention of the British cheese and Welsh lamb and English wine and Scotch whisky that could now go to Australia tariff free? Or the vegemite we now can get more easily? For goodness sake we have only managed to get 2 trade deals of any significance we did not already have with the EU, with Australia and New Zealand. Both Commonwealth realms, English speaking with populations of mainly British Isles ancestry. If we couldn't get trade deals with them, who could we get trade deals with? Yet for diehard Remainers even those trade deals are too far?
But they’re shit trade deals negotiated by a shit PM. What do you want us to do? Celebrate any old crap labelled a “trade deal”?
It might be worth mentioning that HYUFD is a "remainer" too. He is, however, one of those oddities that in spite of a tsunami of evidence, has shifted from the side where logic lies to the side where pure naivety, political and economic stupidity resides. While most people flee from an engulfing fire, I guess there are some, that in pure terror, run straight toward it.
There is an EU-NZ deal which has been signed but not yet come into force. (But the UK deal has only just done so, so we're not talking about a massive difference there). And talks are ongoing between Australia and the EU.
But is the Presidential Election a Presidential Election? Or is it a change administration election? In which case it’s actually the change it to what election. And the, I am happy with the administration carrying on 4 years, but he is old for eighty, and a bit doddery, so what happens if something happens in the next 4 years, what happens then? To which the answer is working out what happens if something were to happen, such as veep being more a voter consideration than perhaps normal. I personally think they don’t swap round enough mid term in the administration. I’ll give you an example. If veep went to Secretary of State, it would probably do more for her campaign in 4 years than staying at veep, whilst if buttlegieg filled her hole it would do wonders for him in 4 years too, so why not be a president who cares about succession. But buttlegieg as veep would do wonders for Biden’s election chances too as people wonder what might happen if something happens would know that some one quite capable would be the happening thing.
I know plenty of 80 year olds: Biden is not an old 80.
But he is still 80 years old.
Good morning
My wife would endorse your comment as applied to myself as I near my 80th birthday
But is the Presidential Election a Presidential Election? Or is it a change administration election? In which case it’s actually the change it to what election. And the, I am happy with the administration carrying on 4 years, but he is old for eighty, and a bit doddery, so what happens if something happens in the next 4 years, what happens then? To which the answer is working out what happens if something were to happen, such as veep being more a voter consideration than perhaps normal. I personally think they don’t swap round enough mid term in the administration. I’ll give you an example. If veep went to Secretary of State, it would probably do more for her campaign in 4 years than staying at veep, whilst if buttlegieg filled her hole it would do wonders for him in 4 years too, so why not be a president who cares about succession. But buttlegieg as veep would do wonders for Biden’s election chances too as people wonder what might happen if something happens would know that some one quite capable would be the happening thing.
I know plenty of 80 year olds: Biden is not an old 80.
But he is still 80 years old.
Good morning
My wife would endorse your comment as applied to myself as I near my 80th birthday
I've just had mine. Mick Jagger is 80 next month. 80 is just a number.
Indeed, Al Pacino a dad again at 83. Jagger was a dad again at 73 as well as being a great grandad
The utter selfishness of fathering a child at 83 appals me. Will the child ever know it’s father and what effect will that have on it, for all the money he or she will inherit?
Indeed, though Pacino did allegedly have a DNA test to check the child his 29 year old girlfriend is having was definitely his.
Pacino has a net worth of $183 million, so the child will be well provided for but that doesn't make up for the fact it will barely get to know its Dad. Indeed Pacino could be its great grandad let alone its father
That is true, but losing a parent is not uncommon. Wasn't it recently reported that many Prime Ministers came from one-parent families?
I would assume the greatest problem with losing a parent is poverty and/orthe other parent not there because they are working all the time, which is not necessarily an issue if you are rich. Dealing with the consequences of having famous parent(s) I would think is the bigger concern for a rich one parent family.
Also not all parents are great. One parent may be better than 2 if one is abusive or not a caring parent.
I was reading an article the other week about rapper Eminem’s daughter, who somehow turned out completely normal, got a degree and a regular job, and is getting married.
So it can be done, but she’s the exception rather than the rule. IIRC she was sent away to a boarding school, so was friends with a lot of old money kids, rather than a load of rappers and drugs in Detroit.
You may enjoy this book: https://amzn.to/3N6oq9V "How's Your Dad: The Sons and Daughters of Rock Royalty" by Zoe Street Howe (herself the daughter-in-law of Yes's Steve Howe). Lots of examples of kids doing OK.
That sounds like a fun read, from the reviews. I guess it’s the wild children, who either go into the entertainment industry, or end up famous for being famous and doing nothing, who attract the media’s attention, but good to hear of a few that turned out relatively normal. Must be a very weird way to grow up.
Good bit further down where Lord Patten says 'We're in one Hell of a mess and it's because of Brexit'. This government and it's 2019 supporters should be put in front of a firing squad.
So one day you’re bemoaning food price inflation, and the next you’re bemoning the government agreeing imports of cheaper sources of food?
No I'm laughing at the cuck farmers.
Nearly as funny as like the Red Wallers cucks and Leon who voted for fewer immigrants and now are seeing record breaking migration.
Does it ever occur to you that those red wallers might have got fed up with a cabal whose principal purpose is and always has been the enrichment and protection of the French farmer and actually wanted the option of cheaper food?
Red Wallers voted for levelling up
Since the Brown Bust in 2008 the growth and recovery in the economy has been heavily skewed towards the South.
Other regions of the country just about recovered in comparison.
When the reality is low wage jobs in call centres or supermarkets and Brexit offers an improvement on that, and remain offers more of the same, why not vote for improvement. What do you have to lose anyway ? Min wage jobs in a call centre ?
It would be great if everybody in the Red Wall benefited from Brexit by getting high wage, high status jobs.
But it does rather beg the question. Who would then fill the low wage jobs in the supermarkets or call centres that you refer to?
Well those jobs are still needed but it is the higher wage, skilled jobs, these areas are lacking and sees younger people and aspirational people often have to move away. Look at how the age profile has changed in places like Hartlepool and Bishop Auckland for example
It would just be nice if these jobs were created in these regions as well.
We have had uneven growth in wealth.
Quite what the solution is I don’t know but it is not unreasonable that poorer areas want a bigger piece of the pie. Osborne recognised it and tried to do something’s
Govt strategy now seems to be Freeport’s and moving some govt jobs around. Cannot see it working.
Especially given that the UK's door is still very open for migration of high-wage workers.
I'm not sure I like the Singapore/Middle East model of getting migrants in to do the low pay rubbish jobs, but I can understand the nationalist logic of it.
Well that was also our model a couple,of generations ago with the windrush generation.
The argument against unskilled migration was a surplus of it depresses wages.
But many red wall regions simply wanted some levelling up which the govt have talked the talk on but not delivered and won’t and neither will labour.
I can imagine in 20 years time some towns in the red wall will be like those bleak places in the US you see YouTubers driving around like Gary IN.
You do get YouTubers doing it in the U.K. in places like Spennymoor but these are far worse in the US
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The distasteful bit isn't that Schofield's career is dead so much as the ongoing stabbing of the corpse. That feels pretty vindictive.
It's what the British press tend to do, of course. With one side order of homophobia to make their readers' flesh creep and another of midmarket newspapers seeing a way to do down their commercial rivals in midmarket TV.
Schofield has clearly messed up his life in important ways and hurt people as a result. But the "without sin/first stone" principle is a good one.
I have never watched any of his programmes, know little about him and really could not care less about this story. Am amazed it is taking up so much airtime and that MPs are reportedly getting involved. What on earth has it got to do with them?
No mention of the British cheese and Welsh lamb and English wine and Scotch whisky that could now go to Australia tariff free? Or the vegemite we now can get more easily? For goodness sake we have only managed to get 2 trade deals of any significance we did not already have with the EU, with Australia and New Zealand. Both Commonwealth realms, English speaking with populations of mainly British Isles ancestry. If we couldn't get trade deals with them, who could we get trade deals with? Yet for diehard Remainers even those trade deals are too far?
But they’re shit trade deals negotiated by a shit PM. What do you want us to do? Celebrate any old crap labelled a “trade deal”?
It might be worth mentioning that HYUFD is a "remainer" too. He is, however, one of those oddities that in spite of a tsunami of evidence, has shifted from the side where logic lies to the side where pure naivety, political and economic stupidity resides. While most people flee from an engulfing fire, I guess there are some, that in pure terror, run straight toward it.
Our farming industry sold down the Ganges and Congo by the Tories for forty pieces of silver. This is what this spell of Tory government will be remembered for.
The supposed spokeswoman for British farming spends all her time campaigning for more competition from the EU.
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The power imbalance is why, in every job I have ever worked in, a relationship with someone below you in the reporting chain is forbidden.
Whereas Biden went down fortunately not too badly in Colorado.
If he really had dementia, he likely wouldn't have put out his arms to break his fall.
Its not just dementia - reflexes can go with ageing. My mum, not yet 80, managed to face plant while out running a few months ago. No injuries to her hands and arms - implies didn't react fast enough.
Biden is fine, but its sad that there seems to be no slightly younger candidates to take the pressure off him.
Would a younger candidate have got the debt ceiling deal done quietly and efficiently?
Thats the kind of politicking I admire. No-one likes the deal, everyone takes a small hit from it, and a bigger one from their own base, but the alternatives, for everyone, were all worse.
With most modern politicians that would have resulted in long delays, markets tanking, investments delayed, employees furloughed and plunged into more financial stress, before eventually reaching a similar deal after a couple of months of pointless egotistical grandstanding.
Very well done Joe in avoiding all that, I hope the electorate realise they have a good one there.
I don't think there was any real danger that the US would have allowed itself to default - they do this every few years, after all.
All the deal has done is pushed the reckoning for Biden's (and Congress's) wildly irresponsible fiscal policy another few years down the line. Maybe that's the best he could have achieved, but it doesn't make him a good one at anything other than moving the sludge through the pipes of Congress, no matter how damaging that is in the medium and long term.
Thirty-Six Republican Senators voted against the deal that went through Congress. The direction of travel of the Republicans is pretty clear, and one of the things it is trending towards is a US debt default.
And they continually vote for massive tax cuts which increase the deficit.
The argument over the debt limit is basically the GOP holding the current administration hostage over debt already incurred, which they helped more than most to rack up.
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
Quite a bit driving the story is merely revenge from people he has crossed or had over.
But I did post a link to this story of a Tv presenter on Coast who first met her husband when he was 12 and she was his teacher earlier in the week. A rather more fawning article.
Grooming is a bit of an irregular verb. You can add Emmanuel Macron to the list as well.
I think the Schofield situation is a bit more complicated given that this guy ended up working at ITV. It's the power dynamics that's a bit troubling.
But, to be honest, unless the guy has anything else to say, this should really be the end of the matter and everyone should move on.
It does appear that he’s upset an awful lot of people over the years, and everyone who worked with him covered up this affair, including the station bosses.
Still not sure why it’s still headline news in the British press though, there’s a lot going on in the rest of the world this week.
Because any Philip Schofield story gets a lot of clicks on the Daily Mail website so add more of the same.
And newspapers love the ability to continue to kick someone when they are down...
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The distasteful bit isn't that Schofield's career is dead so much as the ongoing stabbing of the corpse. That feels pretty vindictive.
It's what the British press tend to do, of course. With one side order of homophobia to make their readers' flesh creep and another of midmarket newspapers seeing a way to do down their commercial rivals in midmarket TV.
Schofield has clearly messed up his life in important ways and hurt people as a result. But the "without sin/first stone" principle is a good one.
I wonder if Schofield regrets trying to out Lord Bramall and the others life on TV?
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The distasteful bit isn't that Schofield's career is dead so much as the ongoing stabbing of the corpse. That feels pretty vindictive.
It's what the British press tend to do, of course. With one side order of homophobia to make their readers' flesh creep and another of midmarket newspapers seeing a way to do down their commercial rivals in midmarket TV.
Schofield has clearly messed up his life in important ways and hurt people as a result. But the "without sin/first stone" principle is a good one.
I have never watched any of his programmes, know little about him and really could not care less about this story. Am amazed it is taking up so much airtime and that MPs are reportedly getting involved. What on earth has it got to do with them?
Like some of the Z listers coming out with irrelevant complaints about questions they were asked on the show, they are just jumping on the bandwagon. It is nothing to do with the MPs. But this is the calibre of modern MPs. Jumping on a bandwagon for attention.
I think Starmer is going to find things more difficult in office than Biden because of these differences. You think I am continuing to underrate him.
If Starmer operates as successfully in Government as opposition, Labour will be in government for a decade.
Big if, Bat, big if. Opposition is a lot easier. Opposing the muppets that are in power at the moment, after 13 years, is the easiest of all. I mean, PB would do a decent job.
On Schofield, PopBitch reported that very early in his career Jimmy Savile gave him some advice “Be nice to people on the way up, you’ll need them on the way down”. Schofield offered to buy Savile a drink to thank him, but Savile declined as “it wouldn’t be appropriate”.
What’s striking about his fall is not the viciousness of the press, but the deafening silence of his former colleagues.
I think Starmer is going to find things more difficult in office than Biden because of these differences. You think I am continuing to underrate him.
If Starmer operates as successfully in Government as opposition, Labour will be in government for a decade.
Big if, Bat, big if. Opposition is a lot easier. Opposing the muppets that are in power at the moment, after 13 years, is the easiest of all. I mean, PB would do a decent job.
Yes fair point. I think Labour will do fine, better than the current lot but that is a very low bar.
A funeral parlour is offering the bereaved coffins with designs of a Greggs sausage roll, a pint of Tennent’s lager or a can of Irn-Bru.
The Edinburgh undertaker Go As You Please Funerals allows patrons to pick any photo or design to be printed on a wooden coffin, inspired by favourite movies, musicians or even soft drinks.
Murdo Chambers, the parlour’s manager, said the quirky coffins challenge preconceived notions of what a funeral should look like.
With the increasingly less sombre style of funeral on the rise (ACDC "Highway to Hell" as funeral music etc) I think that Ghana coffins would sell well here. A good business for the right entrepreneur.
My brother used Highway to Hell as his music. It was fine. I think that the important thing to remember is that funerals are about the living, not the dead who are gone. If it gives closure and some comfort to those left behind it has achieved its purpose.
We played my mum's favourite song at hers, but it was Forever Autumn so still sounded appropriately melancholy.
They did use a version without the Richard Burton bits talking about the massacre of mankind though.
Peter Sellers asked for 'In The Mood' to be played at his funeral, because he hated it and wouldn't be able to hear it.
I am having 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners played at mine, so that all those bastards present who have outlived me suffer for a few minutes.
My father in law has 'So What' on his list, mainly for the title (Miles Davis, rather than Pink - I think!)
ETA: A guy I new who died in an accident at 23 had Metallica's Nothing Else Matters (he was a big fan) and it was very moving. Vicar's face was a bit of a picture.
A metal head school friend of mine had "Stairway to Heaven" for his funeral music when he died young. Both parents and fellow headbangers thought it perfect.
I think Starmer is going to find things more difficult in office than Biden because of these differences. You think I am continuing to underrate him.
If Starmer operates as successfully in Government as opposition, Labour will be in government for a decade.
Big if, Bat, big if. Opposition is a lot easier. Opposing the muppets that are in power at the moment, after 13 years, is the easiest of all. I mean, PB would do a decent job.
Yes fair point. I think Labour will do fine, better than the current lot but that is a very low bar.
I'm looking forward the to change. The country needs it. I know the flags outside Downing Street when Blair arrived was very contrived but there was an enormous sense of change in 1997. I don't think it will quite the same in 2024 but we need someone else to have a crack at the job.
On Schofield, PopBitch reported that very early in his career Jimmy Savile gave him some advice “Be nice to people on the way up, you’ll need them on the way down”. Schofield offered to buy Savile a drink to thank him, but Savile declined as “it wouldn’t be appropriate”.
What’s striking about his fall is not the viciousness of the press, but the deafening silence of his former colleagues.
I think Starmer is going to find things more difficult in office than Biden because of these differences. You think I am continuing to underrate him.
If Starmer operates as successfully in Government as opposition, Labour will be in government for a decade.
Big if, Bat, big if. Opposition is a lot easier. Opposing the muppets that are in power at the moment, after 13 years, is the easiest of all. I mean, PB would do a decent job.
Yes fair point. I think Labour will do fine, better than the current lot but that is a very low bar.
I'm looking forward the to change. The country needs it. I know the flags outside Downing Street when Blair arrived was very contrived but there was an enormous sense of change in 1997. I don't think it will quite the same in 2024 but we need someone else to have a crack at the job.
Change is important in democracies like ours.
If they are rubbish I will be voting Tory to get them out.
I just hope the Tory Party will return to being of my mindset, it was once.
A funeral parlour is offering the bereaved coffins with designs of a Greggs sausage roll, a pint of Tennent’s lager or a can of Irn-Bru.
The Edinburgh undertaker Go As You Please Funerals allows patrons to pick any photo or design to be printed on a wooden coffin, inspired by favourite movies, musicians or even soft drinks.
Murdo Chambers, the parlour’s manager, said the quirky coffins challenge preconceived notions of what a funeral should look like.
With the increasingly less sombre style of funeral on the rise (ACDC "Highway to Hell" as funeral music etc) I think that Ghana coffins would sell well here. A good business for the right entrepreneur.
My brother used Highway to Hell as his music. It was fine. I think that the important thing to remember is that funerals are about the living, not the dead who are gone. If it gives closure and some comfort to those left behind it has achieved its purpose.
We played my mum's favourite song at hers, but it was Forever Autumn so still sounded appropriately melancholy.
They did use a version without the Richard Burton bits talking about the massacre of mankind though.
Peter Sellers asked for 'In The Mood' to be played at his funeral, because he hated it and wouldn't be able to hear it.
I am having 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners played at mine, so that all those bastards present who have outlived me suffer for a few minutes.
My father in law has 'So What' on his list, mainly for the title (Miles Davis, rather than Pink - I think!)
ETA: A guy I new who died in an accident at 23 had Metallica's Nothing Else Matters (he was a big fan) and it was very moving. Vicar's face was a bit of a picture.
If I get cremated, I was thinking of "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers.
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The distasteful bit isn't that Schofield's career is dead so much as the ongoing stabbing of the corpse. That feels pretty vindictive.
It's what the British press tend to do, of course. With one side order of homophobia to make their readers' flesh creep and another of midmarket newspapers seeing a way to do down their commercial rivals in midmarket TV.
Schofield has clearly messed up his life in important ways and hurt people as a result. But the "without sin/first stone" principle is a good one.
I wonder if Schofield regrets trying to out Lord Bramall and the others life on TV?
Noticed this interesting double-peak structure in the output from gas power stations in the UK. This is a sign of the peak output from PV solar supplying a lot of electricity around the middle of the day, and reducing the amount of gas burnt.
I haven't noticed it before, but the recent high pressure only a few weeks from the solstice is ideal for solar PV.
(From gridwatch)
Interesting thread on renewables (I agree with the conclusions).
You often hear that "electricity is only around 20% of global primary energy", so even if we manage to convert all electricity to low-carbon sources, it won't really make much difference.
Note also, as large amounts of transport convert to electric power, the heat loss bit works additionally to the benefit of renewables in the calculation.
Ah, that's a great thread.
The problematic bits will be domestic space heating and industrial processes where heat generation is the end-use, but it gives a better sense of the scale of the issue and the extent to which electricity generation would need to increase to satisfy those uses - not as much as typically claimed.
So one day you’re bemoaning food price inflation, and the next you’re bemoning the government agreeing imports of cheaper sources of food?
No I'm laughing at the cuck farmers.
Nearly as funny as like the Red Wallers cucks and Leon who voted for fewer immigrants and now are seeing record breaking migration.
Does it ever occur to you that those red wallers might have got fed up with a cabal whose principal purpose is and always has been the enrichment and protection of the French farmer and actually wanted the option of cheaper food?
But that was the problem (well, one of the problems) of the Leave campaign. It promised everything to everybody. Cheaper food in the red wall, a better deal for agriculture to British farmers.
It's one reason why Brexit was always ultimately doomed to be a failure to its supporters. They couldn't all get what they expected.
Is it not however true that the mercosur trade deal being negotiated by the EU would also have been equally detrimental to british farmers, and that was started well before the referendum we had.
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
I don't think that is really fair at all. It has been raised as part of this story that his behaviour was glossed over initially in the praising of him for being brave in coming out, whereas if he had simply had an affair with an 19 year old woman that would have been the story (TV presenter shags teenager would likely have been a story for 'wholesome' breakfast tv presenters). So it is not true it would not have been a story if he were hetrosexual.
Who is going to be the most cancelled in a year's time ? 1) Schofield 2) Andrew Tate 3) Roger Waters 4) JK Rowling
Answers on a postcard.
Most likely to be in that order. Schofield is toast, Tate is close to toast, Waters still has a huge fan base for his music, and Rowling will still be making hundreds of millions.
Who is going to be the most cancelled in a year's time ? 1) Schofield 2) Andrew Tate 3) Roger Waters 4) JK Rowling
Answers on a postcard.
Schofield. Tate and Waters have their fringe supporters who will loudly cry about how much they are being cancelled, with the latter still bringing in crowds. JK is box office and at the centre of a ongoing political issue with plenty of people backing her stances.
Schofield will presumably just disappear into retirement.
Who is going to be the most cancelled in a year's time ? 1) Schofield 2) Andrew Tate 3) Roger Waters 4) JK Rowling
Answers on a postcard.
Most likely to be in that order. Schofield is toast, Tate is close to toast, Waters still has a huge fan base for his music, and Rowling will still be making hundreds of millions.
Waters got a 5 star review in The Times for the Birmingham gig.
Whereas Biden went down fortunately not too badly in Colorado.
If he really had dementia, he likely wouldn't have put out his arms to break his fall.
Its not just dementia - reflexes can go with ageing. My mum, not yet 80, managed to face plant while out running a few months ago. No injuries to her hands and arms - implies didn't react fast enough.
Biden is fine, but its sad that there seems to be no slightly younger candidates to take the pressure off him.
Would a younger candidate have got the debt ceiling deal done quietly and efficiently?
Thats the kind of politicking I admire. No-one likes the deal, everyone takes a small hit from it, and a bigger one from their own base, but the alternatives, for everyone, were all worse.
With most modern politicians that would have resulted in long delays, markets tanking, investments delayed, employees furloughed and plunged into more financial stress, before eventually reaching a similar deal after a couple of months of pointless egotistical grandstanding.
Very well done Joe in avoiding all that, I hope the electorate realise they have a good one there.
I don't think there was any real danger that the US would have allowed itself to default - they do this every few years, after all.
All the deal has done is pushed the reckoning for Biden's (and Congress's) wildly irresponsible fiscal policy another few years down the line. Maybe that's the best he could have achieved, but it doesn't make him a good one at anything other than moving the sludge through the pipes of Congress, no matter how damaging that is in the medium and long term.
Thirty-Six Republican Senators voted against the deal that went through Congress. The direction of travel of the Republicans is pretty clear, and one of the things it is trending towards is a US debt default.
And they continually vote for massive tax cuts which increase the deficit.
The argument over the debt limit is basically the GOP holding the current administration hostage over debt already incurred, which they helped more than most to rack up.
They certainly won't have a problem raising it if they win the next election. Naked opportunism masquerading as principle - not uncommon across political divides, but they are among the more hysterical examples.
So one day you’re bemoaning food price inflation, and the next you’re bemoning the government agreeing imports of cheaper sources of food?
No I'm laughing at the cuck farmers.
Nearly as funny as like the Red Wallers cucks and Leon who voted for fewer immigrants and now are seeing record breaking migration.
Does it ever occur to you that those red wallers might have got fed up with a cabal whose principal purpose is and always has been the enrichment and protection of the French farmer and actually wanted the option of cheaper food?
Red Wallers voted for levelling up
Since the Brown Bust in 2008 the growth and recovery in the economy has been heavily skewed towards the South.
Other regions of the country just about recovered in comparison.
When the reality is low wage jobs in call centres or supermarkets and Brexit offers an improvement on that, and remain offers more of the same, why not vote for improvement. What do you have to lose anyway ? Min wage jobs in a call centre ?
It would be great if everybody in the Red Wall benefited from Brexit by getting high wage, high status jobs.
But it does rather beg the question. Who would then fill the low wage jobs in the supermarkets or call centres that you refer to?
Well those jobs are still needed but it is the higher wage, skilled jobs, these areas are lacking and sees younger people and aspirational people often have to move away. Look at how the age profile has changed in places like Hartlepool and Bishop Auckland for example
It would just be nice if these jobs were created in these regions as well.
We have had uneven growth in wealth.
Quite what the solution is I don’t know but it is not unreasonable that poorer areas want a bigger piece of the pie. Osborne recognised it and tried to do something’s
Govt strategy now seems to be Freeport’s and moving some govt jobs around. Cannot see it working.
Especially given that the UK's door is still very open for migration of high-wage workers.
I'm not sure I like the Singapore/Middle East model of getting migrants in to do the low pay rubbish jobs, but I can understand the nationalist logic of it.
Promoting jobs being offered 100% wfh such as my current job is would be an answer as to how to prevent so much job migration to the south east, I had to leave cornwall to get a job in the 80's and ended up in slough. Jobs being full wfh has finally allowed me to escape the south east.
@Cyclefree incidentally tried to dm you to tap your gardening knowhow but you are set to private. If you would be willing to assist and have a suggestion as how to contact you it would be great
A funeral parlour is offering the bereaved coffins with designs of a Greggs sausage roll, a pint of Tennent’s lager or a can of Irn-Bru.
The Edinburgh undertaker Go As You Please Funerals allows patrons to pick any photo or design to be printed on a wooden coffin, inspired by favourite movies, musicians or even soft drinks.
Murdo Chambers, the parlour’s manager, said the quirky coffins challenge preconceived notions of what a funeral should look like.
With the increasingly less sombre style of funeral on the rise (ACDC "Highway to Hell" as funeral music etc) I think that Ghana coffins would sell well here. A good business for the right entrepreneur.
My brother used Highway to Hell as his music. It was fine. I think that the important thing to remember is that funerals are about the living, not the dead who are gone. If it gives closure and some comfort to those left behind it has achieved its purpose.
We played my mum's favourite song at hers, but it was Forever Autumn so still sounded appropriately melancholy.
They did use a version without the Richard Burton bits talking about the massacre of mankind though.
Peter Sellers asked for 'In The Mood' to be played at his funeral, because he hated it and wouldn't be able to hear it.
I am having 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners played at mine, so that all those bastards present who have outlived me suffer for a few minutes.
My father in law has 'So What' on his list, mainly for the title (Miles Davis, rather than Pink - I think!)
ETA: A guy I new who died in an accident at 23 had Metallica's Nothing Else Matters (he was a big fan) and it was very moving. Vicar's face was a bit of a picture.
I should check you father in law hasn't selected the anti nowhere league version....just saying
A funeral parlour is offering the bereaved coffins with designs of a Greggs sausage roll, a pint of Tennent’s lager or a can of Irn-Bru.
The Edinburgh undertaker Go As You Please Funerals allows patrons to pick any photo or design to be printed on a wooden coffin, inspired by favourite movies, musicians or even soft drinks.
Murdo Chambers, the parlour’s manager, said the quirky coffins challenge preconceived notions of what a funeral should look like.
With the increasingly less sombre style of funeral on the rise (ACDC "Highway to Hell" as funeral music etc) I think that Ghana coffins would sell well here. A good business for the right entrepreneur.
My brother used Highway to Hell as his music. It was fine. I think that the important thing to remember is that funerals are about the living, not the dead who are gone. If it gives closure and some comfort to those left behind it has achieved its purpose.
We played my mum's favourite song at hers, but it was Forever Autumn so still sounded appropriately melancholy.
They did use a version without the Richard Burton bits talking about the massacre of mankind though.
Peter Sellers asked for 'In The Mood' to be played at his funeral, because he hated it and wouldn't be able to hear it.
I am having 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners played at mine, so that all those bastards present who have outlived me suffer for a few minutes.
My father in law has 'So What' on his list, mainly for the title (Miles Davis, rather than Pink - I think!)
ETA: A guy I new who died in an accident at 23 had Metallica's Nothing Else Matters (he was a big fan) and it was very moving. Vicar's face was a bit of a picture.
If I get cremated, I was thinking of "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers.
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
Well, there was Boris and Jennifer Arcuri, not to mention Boris and Carrie Symonds, both women being more than 20 years younger than the ex-Prime Minister, and he lost his job, so there's that.
A funeral parlour is offering the bereaved coffins with designs of a Greggs sausage roll, a pint of Tennent’s lager or a can of Irn-Bru.
The Edinburgh undertaker Go As You Please Funerals allows patrons to pick any photo or design to be printed on a wooden coffin, inspired by favourite movies, musicians or even soft drinks.
Murdo Chambers, the parlour’s manager, said the quirky coffins challenge preconceived notions of what a funeral should look like.
With the increasingly less sombre style of funeral on the rise (ACDC "Highway to Hell" as funeral music etc) I think that Ghana coffins would sell well here. A good business for the right entrepreneur.
My brother used Highway to Hell as his music. It was fine. I think that the important thing to remember is that funerals are about the living, not the dead who are gone. If it gives closure and some comfort to those left behind it has achieved its purpose.
We played my mum's favourite song at hers, but it was Forever Autumn so still sounded appropriately melancholy.
They did use a version without the Richard Burton bits talking about the massacre of mankind though.
Peter Sellers asked for 'In The Mood' to be played at his funeral, because he hated it and wouldn't be able to hear it.
I am having 'Come On Eileen' by Dexy's Midnight Runners played at mine, so that all those bastards present who have outlived me suffer for a few minutes.
My father in law has 'So What' on his list, mainly for the title (Miles Davis, rather than Pink - I think!)
ETA: A guy I new who died in an accident at 23 had Metallica's Nothing Else Matters (he was a big fan) and it was very moving. Vicar's face was a bit of a picture.
A metal head school friend of mine had "Stairway to Heaven" for his funeral music when he died young. Both parents and fellow headbangers thought it perfect.
In this case I - and probably several others - could remember him picking it out on a guitar earlier that year at a party. If the song is attached to a memory of the person, either as a favourite song of theirs or played at a memorable moment in life or with apt lyrics, then it works.
My father in law always has jazz on (often Miles) while cooking or doing stuff in the kitchen, so that will work very well for him (and 'So what' suits his humour).
I am surprised no-one has noticed the pure homophobia that is driving this story. If he had been heterosexual and had sex with a 19 year old woman it would not have even been a story. As he is gay, they have to assume that he "groomed" the young man. It is credit to Schofield that he has taken the stance he has.
It's the lying which has done for him. Not the affair.
Are there no examples of men taking young girls decades younger under their wing, offering them jobs, roles in films, for instance, and then also embarking on sexual/romantic relationships?
And no examples at all of such behaviour being criticised?
Absolutely none at all?
The distasteful bit isn't that Schofield's career is dead so much as the ongoing stabbing of the corpse. That feels pretty vindictive.
It's what the British press tend to do, of course. With one side order of homophobia to make their readers' flesh creep and another of midmarket newspapers seeing a way to do down their commercial rivals in midmarket TV.
Schofield has clearly messed up his life in important ways and hurt people as a result. But the "without sin/first stone" principle is a good one.
Schofield's attempt to "out" "Tory nonces" makes everything he gets richly deserved.
Comments
And Kenya, apparently.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/eu-aims-to-seal-trade-deals-with-australia-kenya-in-a-few-months/
Including your absolutely hilarious epic fail when you insisted Keir Starmer was in trouble just before the local elections.
The argument against unskilled migration was a surplus of it depresses wages.
But many red wall regions simply wanted some levelling up which the govt have talked the talk on but not delivered and won’t and neither will labour.
I can imagine in 20 years time some towns in the red wall will be like those bleak places in the US you see YouTubers driving around like Gary IN.
You do get YouTubers doing it in the U.K. in places like Spennymoor but these are far worse in the US
NEW: Boris Johnson says he is sending his unredacted WhatsApps (from May 2021 onwards) to the Covid inquiry direct.
He says he wants to pass the WhatsApps from his old phone to them too
https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1664562818534850561
The argument over the debt limit is basically the GOP holding the current administration hostage over debt already incurred, which they helped more than most to rack up.
They are very different characters, but very similar in some respects.
And newspapers love the ability to continue to kick someone when they are down...
What’s striking about his fall is not the viciousness of the press, but the deafening silence of his former colleagues.
1) Schofield
2) Andrew Tate
3) Roger Waters
4) JK Rowling
Answers on a postcard.
If they are rubbish I will be voting Tory to get them out.
I just hope the Tory Party will return to being of my mindset, it was once.
Wonder if this was the old phone?
The problematic bits will be domestic space heating and industrial processes where heat generation is the end-use, but it gives a better sense of the scale of the issue and the extent to which electricity generation would need to increase to satisfy those uses - not as much as typically claimed.
david allen green
@davidallengreen
Be careful about the exact wording Johnson is using before you get too excited.
Eg, the impressively deft use of "relevant" in the seventh paragraph - so well camouflaged you may miss it.
Schofield will presumably just disappear into retirement.
@Cyclefree incidentally tried to dm you to tap your gardening knowhow but you are set to private. If you would be willing to assist and have a suggestion as how to contact you it would be great
Biden's trip has killed this thread
Odds on a two-day Test?
My father in law always has jazz on (often Miles) while cooking or doing stuff in the kitchen, so that will work very well for him (and 'So what' suits his humour).