Eye catching statement from the Institute of Exports upon our CPTPP accession:
“We can fly the flag for brand Britain with our desirable fashion lines. Clotted cream from Cornwall, shortbread from Scotland and, of course, delicious Welsh cakes will be readily available to a new audience.”
Is Wales famous for its cake exports? Was the man just reaching for something to say and his eye fell on the buffet?
You'll be telling us you've never had caul mamgu and laverbread.
Welsh cakes are a kind of in between a fruit scone, drop scone (Scots pancake) and biscuit cooked on a girdle. I suppose they are a form of bannock, actually.
When hiking in Wales I used to buy a bag fresh from the baker ideally early in the morning and nibble them as I walked.
Great plain food. But I'm not sure they are quite enough of a delicacy to export, esp if they have to be kept fresh. Laverbread would be more it.
Being introduced to Welsh cakes were definitely one of the positive consequences of my daughter's mother moving to rural North Wales. At one stage they were within 100m of one of the small local bakeries that supplied shops in the area.
Is it me or is every single Government decision I've seen in the past month a scorched earth policy of destroying or starting things now so they can't be reversed.
We have rail ticket offices being closed, pay offers without any money to pay for them and insane road schemes like £1.7bn round stonehenge. When even in the height of summer the road isn't that bad and doesn't go close anymore..
Of course. They’re salting the earth. Two minutes into a Labour government (Dear God please let it be a Labour government. Or a Lab/Lib coalition) the Tories and their media shills will be attacking Labour for everything being shit, even though it’s all their fault. That’s politics, I suppose.
Heard Badenoch on the radio earlier, lauding this Pacific rimming bullshit the government have signed us up to, which is forecast to add a mighty 0.08% to the economy over the next decade. Wittering on about an expanding market of 500m people. She was saying it’s up to British businesses to make it work, otherwise the puny economic benefit will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So all the countless businesses and industries that are suffering because of leaving the EU, and that huge, rich market on our doorstep, that market we get shit tons of food from - which will become markedly more expensive from October - all they have to do is trade with fucking Indonesia or some such bollocks. It’s insane.
The Tories know it’s insane. But they’re salting the earth, making it harder for the next government to tack back towards the EU.
It’s government by swivel-eyed ideologue fucking mentalists. They’re impoverishing the country and they don’t give a flying fuck.
Also- if/when Brexit is agreed to be a fiasco, it will be the fault of Britain for not deserving it, rather than the fault of those who insisted on doing a damn silly thing in a damn silly way.
Off topic, the Coop have followed Tesco in introducing Members' Prices on some items. Not something I am in favour of, but needs must, so yesterday I signed up to the scheme.
Anyway, today, even without buying any items with two-tier pricing, I was "rewarded" with £4.25 off my shopping. Which was nice.
Sainsbury's too. I've duly signed up for Nectar but they've not sent me the card yet.
Nothing new under the sun nostalgia: in the old days, you (or your family) had a Co-op number which you'd recite at the cash register, and once a year or so they'd give you some money.
My Mum’s was 3780 and and my Aunt Fanny’s was 2989. If you were sent to the Co-op, the first question when you returned was “did you tell them the divi number”?
I'm old enough to have had sticking the Green Shield Stamps into the booklet as one of my little jobs.
Is it me or is every single Government decision I've seen in the past month a scorched earth policy of destroying or starting things now so they can't be reversed.
We have rail ticket offices being closed, pay offers without any money to pay for them and insane road schemes like £1.7bn round stonehenge. When even in the height of summer the road isn't that bad and doesn't go close anymore..
Of course. They’re salting the earth. Two minutes into a Labour government (Dear God please let it be a Labour government. Or a Lab/Lib coalition) the Tories and their media shills will be attacking Labour for everything being shit, even though it’s all their fault. That’s politics, I suppose.
Heard Badenoch on the radio earlier, lauding this Pacific rimming bullshit the government have signed us up to, which is forecast to add a mighty 0.08% to the economy over the next decade. Wittering on about an expanding market of 500m people. She was saying it’s up to British businesses to make it work, otherwise the puny economic benefit will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So all the countless businesses and industries that are suffering because of leaving the EU, and that huge, rich market on our doorstep, that market we get shit tons of food from - which will become markedly more expensive from October - all they have to do is trade with fucking Indonesia or some such bollocks. It’s insane.
The Tories know it’s insane. But they’re salting the earth, making it harder for the next government to tack back towards the EU.
It’s government by swivel-eyed ideologue fucking mentalists. They’re impoverishing the country and they don’t give a flying fuck.
Also- if/when Brexit is agreed to be a fiasco, it will be the fault of Britain for not deserving it, rather than the fault of those who insisted on doing a damn silly thing in a damn silly way.
This works the other way too: if/when the EU is agreed to be a fiasco, it will be the fault of Britain for leaving it, rather than the fault of those who insisted.... etc, etc.
The Sunday Rawnsley, brought to you from Trondheim Hospital (not serious):
The BBC is not perfect, but its flaws are greatly outweighed by its many virtues. No other country has a national broadcaster like it and we’d be fools to allow it to be destroyed.
Trustworthy news is critical when so much of public life is being drenched by a tsunami of misinformation and the threat from deep fakery is growing ever greater.
Exploitation of the BBC’s travails by Tories is in service of their agendas. The near-term one is about the run-up to a general election that they expect to be extremely tough for them. The Conservatives can usually count on the majority of the newspapers to megaphone Tory messages and take lumps out of their opponents. That makes it highly important to the health of our democracy that our media ecosystem has non-partisan broadcasters. It will suit the Conservative machine if the BBC becomes too cowed to perform its vital function of scrutinising all the parties without fear or favour.
It is not novel for the ruling party to have a combative relationship with the BBC....What’s new today is that there is a significant faction on the right who are not satisfied with merely bashing the BBC. They want to emasculate and even obliterate it as a universal service dedicated to impartial reporting.
The BBC is sufficiently robust and popular to weather the storm over Huw Edwards. Another Conservative government could pose a much more lethal threat to its existence.
I am starting to dare to dream that Starmer is waking up to the need for the next Labour government to pursue genuine institutional and structural reform in order to build the foundations of a fairer society, rather than relying on old shibboleths like turning on the spending taps.
There were already positive signs in respect of the house building/planning policies and from the tone of his interview this morning it feels like he is laying the groundwork for more where that came from.
The big test will be the NHS. In many ways we need a Labour government to reform it, because like Nixon and China there is a route for Labour to do so without being seen with the same level of suspicion as the Tories. We will see what comes out in the manifestos.
The next government will not be viewed kindly by history if it fails to get a grasp on some big underlying issues in the way the country and its institutions are run. I wasn’t terribly convinced Starmer got this, but I am starting to think he may. Whether the wider Labour Party have woken up to this yet is still up for debate.
I think most of the party is in "This looks difficult, let's hope Starmer can sort it out" mode, and he'll have a honeymoon of a year or two to lay down the direction before there's a significant revolt on anything. I know lots of members with a definite view on a specific policy, but even the far left don't seem especially convinced that they have an overall strategy.
I read an article recently (New Statesman, I think) which stated that Labour's top people are haunted by the fate of Francois Hollande. A dull stolid "safe pair of hands" who was elected after a lengthy period of increasingly turbulent conservative government (Chirac/Sarkozy). In the event his attempt to steer a middle course pleased no-one and by the end of his term the Socialists had tanked to the extent that he didn't even attempt re-election.
How does Starmer avoid a similar fate? The solution, apparently, is to deliver for Labour's core vote, and sod the rest. That, at least, avoids complete meltdown. Therefore a Starmer Govt may be more radical and left-wing than we think. And more aggressive in dealing with interest groups which are not naturally pro-Labour (pensioners, for instance.)
Not sure I agree, but it's an interesting take.
Whatever, no matter how large the majority next year, the succeeding election will be no walk-over for Labour as it was for Blair in 2001. Part of the voter coalition is bound to peel off.
Eye catching statement from the Institute of Exports upon our CPTPP accession:
“We can fly the flag for brand Britain with our desirable fashion lines. Clotted cream from Cornwall, shortbread from Scotland and, of course, delicious Welsh cakes will be readily available to a new audience.”
Is Wales famous for its cake exports? Was the man just reaching for something to say and his eye fell on the buffet?
You'll be telling us you've never had caul mamgu and laverbread.
Welsh cakes are a kind of in between a fruit scone, drop scone (Scots pancake) and biscuit cooked on a girdle. I suppose they are a form of bannock, actually.
When hiking in Wales I used to buy a bag fresh from the baker ideally early in the morning and nibble them as I walked.
Great plain food. But I'm not sure they are quite enough of a delicacy to export, esp if they have to be kept fresh. Laverbread would be more it.
Being introduced to Welsh cakes were definitely one of the positive consequences of my daughter's mother moving to rural North Wales. At one stage they were within 100m of one of the small local bakeries that supplied shops in the area.
But if Wales can't successfully export their cakes to the rest of the UK, how are they supposed to manage to export them to Peru or Papau New Guinea?
Is it me or is every single Government decision I've seen in the past month a scorched earth policy of destroying or starting things now so they can't be reversed.
We have rail ticket offices being closed, pay offers without any money to pay for them and insane road schemes like £1.7bn round stonehenge. When even in the height of summer the road isn't that bad and doesn't go close anymore..
Of course. They’re salting the earth. Two minutes into a Labour government (Dear God please let it be a Labour government. Or a Lab/Lib coalition) the Tories and their media shills will be attacking Labour for everything being shit, even though it’s all their fault. That’s politics, I suppose.
Heard Badenoch on the radio earlier, lauding this Pacific rimming bullshit the government have signed us up to, which is forecast to add a mighty 0.08% to the economy over the next decade. Wittering on about an expanding market of 500m people. She was saying it’s up to British businesses to make it work, otherwise the puny economic benefit will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So all the countless businesses and industries that are suffering because of leaving the EU, and that huge, rich market on our doorstep, that market we get shit tons of food from - which will become markedly more expensive from October - all they have to do is trade with fucking Indonesia or some such bollocks. It’s insane.
The Tories know it’s insane. But they’re salting the earth, making it harder for the next government to tack back towards the EU.
It’s government by swivel-eyed ideologue fucking mentalists. They’re impoverishing the country and they don’t give a flying fuck.
Also- if/when Brexit is agreed to be a fiasco, it will be the fault of Britain for not deserving it, rather than the fault of those who insisted on doing a damn silly thing in a damn silly way.
This works the other way too: if/when the EU is agreed to be a fiasco, it will be the fault of Britain for leaving it, rather than the fault of those who insisted.... etc, etc.
Brexit is already agreed to be a fiasco though, no if/when about it.
Of course, not by 100%, but nothing is, not the moon landings nor evolution.
Eye catching statement from the Institute of Exports upon our CPTPP accession:
“We can fly the flag for brand Britain with our desirable fashion lines. Clotted cream from Cornwall, shortbread from Scotland and, of course, delicious Welsh cakes will be readily available to a new audience.”
Is Wales famous for its cake exports? Was the man just reaching for something to say and his eye fell on the buffet?
You'll be telling us you've never had caul mamgu and laverbread.
Welsh cakes are a kind of in between a fruit scone, drop scone (Scots pancake) and biscuit cooked on a girdle. I suppose they are a form of bannock, actually.
When hiking in Wales I used to buy a bag fresh from the baker ideally early in the morning and nibble them as I walked.
Great plain food. But I'm not sure they are quite enough of a delicacy to export, esp if they have to be kept fresh. Laverbread would be more it.
Being introduced to Welsh cakes were definitely one of the positive consequences of my daughter's mother moving to rural North Wales. At one stage they were within 100m of one of the small local bakeries that supplied shops in the area.
But if Wales can't successfully export their cakes to the rest of the UK, how are they supposed to manage to export them to Peru or Papau New Guinea?
Wales pretty much exports nothing. It’s a largely dormant economy.
The Welsh government even look as if they’re not keen on tourism.
It’s quite sad, as Welsh Labour are useless and crooked, and the Welsh Tories are worse.
Having said all of this, the “Welsh Collier” brand of cheddar is broadly available in New York and I try to buy it because American cheddar is a sick joke.
Eye catching statement from the Institute of Exports upon our CPTPP accession:
“We can fly the flag for brand Britain with our desirable fashion lines. Clotted cream from Cornwall, shortbread from Scotland and, of course, delicious Welsh cakes will be readily available to a new audience.”
Is Wales famous for its cake exports? Was the man just reaching for something to say and his eye fell on the buffet?
You'll be telling us you've never had caul mamgu and laverbread.
Welsh cakes are a kind of in between a fruit scone, drop scone (Scots pancake) and biscuit cooked on a girdle. I suppose they are a form of bannock, actually.
When hiking in Wales I used to buy a bag fresh from the baker ideally early in the morning and nibble them as I walked.
Great plain food. But I'm not sure they are quite enough of a delicacy to export, esp if they have to be kept fresh. Laverbread would be more it.
Being introduced to Welsh cakes were definitely one of the positive consequences of my daughter's mother moving to rural North Wales. At one stage they were within 100m of one of the small local bakeries that supplied shops in the area.
But if Wales can't successfully export their cakes to the rest of the UK, how are they supposed to manage to export them to Peru or Papau New Guinea?
You could argue that brand Wales is not particularly strong in England, and that they might have more success selling things to other countries that don't have an English sense of superiority about all things Welsh. I'm not entirely convinced, but it's a plausible possibility.
Eye catching statement from the Institute of Exports upon our CPTPP accession:
“We can fly the flag for brand Britain with our desirable fashion lines. Clotted cream from Cornwall, shortbread from Scotland and, of course, delicious Welsh cakes will be readily available to a new audience.”
Is Wales famous for its cake exports? Was the man just reaching for something to say and his eye fell on the buffet?
You'll be telling us you've never had caul mamgu and laverbread.
Welsh cakes are a kind of in between a fruit scone, drop scone (Scots pancake) and biscuit cooked on a girdle. I suppose they are a form of bannock, actually.
When hiking in Wales I used to buy a bag fresh from the baker ideally early in the morning and nibble them as I walked.
Great plain food. But I'm not sure they are quite enough of a delicacy to export, esp if they have to be kept fresh. Laverbread would be more it.
Being introduced to Welsh cakes were definitely one of the positive consequences of my daughter's mother moving to rural North Wales. At one stage they were within 100m of one of the small local bakeries that supplied shops in the area.
But if Wales can't successfully export their cakes to the rest of the UK, how are they supposed to manage to export them to Peru or Papau New Guinea?
You could argue that brand Wales is not particularly strong in England, and that they might have more success selling things to other countries that don't have an English sense of superiority about all things Welsh. I'm not entirely convinced, but it's a plausible possibility.
Wales hasn’t had a competent government since pretty much forever, so I’d start there. I think even Harold Wilson thought Welsh Labour a gang of crooks.
Comments
5-1
But I feel like the Tories are set on working people rimming them for another 18 months.
The BBC is not perfect, but its flaws are greatly outweighed by its many virtues. No other country has a national broadcaster like it and we’d be fools to allow it to be destroyed.
Trustworthy news is critical when so much of public life is being drenched by a tsunami of misinformation and the threat from deep fakery is growing ever greater.
Exploitation of the BBC’s travails by Tories is in service of their agendas. The near-term one is about the run-up to a general election that they expect to be extremely tough for them. The Conservatives can usually count on the majority of the newspapers to megaphone Tory messages and take lumps out of their opponents. That makes it highly important to the health of our democracy that our media ecosystem has non-partisan broadcasters. It will suit the Conservative machine if the BBC becomes too cowed to perform its vital function of scrutinising all the parties without fear or favour.
It is not novel for the ruling party to have a combative relationship with the BBC....What’s new today is that there is a significant faction on the right who are not satisfied with merely bashing the BBC. They want to emasculate and even obliterate it as a universal service dedicated to impartial reporting.
The BBC is sufficiently robust and popular to weather the storm over Huw Edwards. Another Conservative government could pose a much more lethal threat to its existence.
How does Starmer avoid a similar fate? The solution, apparently, is to deliver for Labour's core vote, and sod the rest. That, at least, avoids complete meltdown. Therefore a Starmer Govt may be more radical and left-wing than we think. And more aggressive in dealing with interest groups which are not naturally pro-Labour (pensioners, for instance.)
Not sure I agree, but it's an interesting take.
Whatever, no matter how large the majority next year, the succeeding election will be no walk-over for Labour as it was for Blair in 2001. Part of the voter coalition is bound to peel off.
Of course, not by 100%, but nothing is, not the moon landings nor evolution.
It’s a largely dormant economy.
The Welsh government even look as if they’re not keen on tourism.
It’s quite sad, as Welsh Labour are useless and crooked, and the Welsh Tories are worse.
Having said all of this, the “Welsh Collier” brand of cheddar is broadly available in New York and I try to buy it because American cheddar is a sick joke.
New Threads please!