Nah, it's a great film, with genuine laughs and an entertainingly perky cast and plot.
It's...fine. Probably as good as you could have done with a Barbie movie, it had a few decent laughs in it, but it only had two basic jokes/points, repeated over and over.
I congratulate the filmmakers on their success, and for getting people out to the cinema, but I confess to being a bit baffled how it became such an event movie (Oppenheimer to a lesser degree the same, being a decent but overlong biopic, so again pretty standard).
Then again Super Mario Bros and Avatar 2, two other massively successful films, are also very forgettable movies (the latter far worse written though). And much of the rest of the top 20 are a lot worse (I've seen 15 of them).
That list is so depressing.
Why?
I've seen three on that list at the cinema, which is more than I've seen at the cinema in a year since my kids were born. Relatedly there's a theme to the three I've seen: Barbie, Super Mario Bros and Little Mermaid.
All 3 were pretty good. None were what I'd have chosen myself, OK maybe Super Mario Bros, but the girls enjoyed them all.
I don't see anything depressing in having multiple options for families to watch - and they're not all family movies either.
Besides, family movies tend to come out over the summer and be bigger summer blockbusters. Horror movies are often more October anyway. There's still a few months left.
In all seriousness when people claim such a list is depressing it can be just a question of snobbish dislike of what happens to be popular. A lot of popular movies are, paradoxically, pretty safe, formulaic, and dull. Or a certain genre is dominant.
But popular genres will shift. Westerns don't bank big bucks anymore. 80s style action flicks are smaller budget affairs or straight to netflix. Marvel style action/comedy hybrids are starting to bomb, and only the genuinely good ones are making money whereas a few years ago anything of that genre was almost guaranteed to hit £500m+. So if it is the type of movie people don't like, well, things are changing.
It's also true there's a lot of remakes and sequels, more than their used to be, which can be a bit of a bummer sometimes, I wouldn't deny that. But you can bet a lot of money that people also really like a film from their younger days which was, unknown to them, a remake or adaption of some other work.
The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer is also against the trend, so clearly it can happen.
Edit: Viewcode also sums this up in about 25 works if people don't want to read all this.
I'm just reflecting on the number of people on this site who are only too happy to see the old and the poor and the disadvantaged and the disabled dumped by the side of the road of what they see as progress - cash, bank branches, internet access, all of that sort of thing.
One day, they will be old (one hopes, i.e, not dead) and perhaps poor, incapacitated, and unable to cope with the changes of that time. Then they will realise why people such as I think their attitude is fucking callous and selfish.
I think its very disrespectful to the old to suggest they're somehow incapable of paying via contactless.
Indeed not having to make unnecessary trips to the cash machine, or fiddle with coins while you're in your 90s and arthritic and being able to just tap a payment makes things easier for my grandparents, not tougher.
I for one welcome that progress that makes things easier for them.
Indeed. It’s pretty shocking, the way the elderly and poor are patronised on here.
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
It’s architecturally exquisite! A completely unharmed 13th-19th century English market town with the Shropshire hills at the end of every road
John Betjeman called it the “prettiest town in England”
However it definitely feels a lot poorer than somewhere like Hereford. Indeed, as I say, it reminds me of Hereford three decades ago - before it was gentrified
I wouldn’t go that far, but the wealth (or lack thereof) is certainly different. Hereford is squaddies and urban families relocated from a bunch of cities including, bizarrely, Glasgow (metalworking basically). There’s a lot of light industry in the city, not least Bulmers/Heineken.
Ludlow however is proper Herefordshire rural with a smattering of expat gastro Londoners. It was also, believe it or not, the epicentre of the computer games magazine industry in the 1980s.
If you want rural poor, Craven Arms is just one stop up the railway line. Good locally owned supermarket, though.
I went back to Hereford recently and it was proper posh compared to what I knew as a lad. I grew up there - I had Scottish friends and friends with SAS dads for the reasons you state
Every night there was a good chance of a major fight. They were guaranteed at weekends
Now it’s all sushi bars and gastro pubs and gleaming vinoteks
And for a good reason. It’s a handsome, safe, largely unspoiled cathedral city surrounded by magnificent countryside. A fine place to live. Not that I appreciated this age 17 and bored witless
A town of two halves. I thought the Widemarsh St. end of HighTown looked good, walking down to the newish food court shopping centre (where the Cattle Market used to be) is great. The other end, Maylords Orchard and the street that used to house Chadds, whose name escapes me, looks tired. Commercial Street down to the Hospital is the same as it ever was.
Ross, by the way is much improved. Much better kept than Ledbury and Newent.
You won't like Leominster or Bromyard as they are Eastern European conclaves.
That’s good. I’d heard sad things about Ross so yay
Leominster was lovely in my memory (possibly faulty); Bromyard was always basically Birmingham
Leominster is fine. Lots of antique shops.
In Ross, there is a really nice little deli/cake shop/cafe if you turn right at the market house coming up from Oveross. I think it is called something like the Secret Garden. If you have a vehicle, the Moody Cow at Upton Bishop is a decent place to eat.
The Southern Marches seem to get towns right. Alongside Herefordshire's Ledbury, Leominster and Ross there is much to be recommended in Monmouth, Abergavenny, Crickhowell, Hay, and of course Ludlow.
They also as others have noted sit somewhat outside the normal English and Welsh cultures and social fabric. They are sui generis.
i think it’s probably just luck
Too remote to be seriously industrialized. Off the track for any major wars. Not many targets for the Luftwaffe. Not important enough to get the serious attention of corrupt, greedy and/or lefty town planners after WW2
So they have survived intact. Once, most British towns were likely as pretty as Ludlow/Ross/Hereford etc
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
It is worth watching what happens to the government over their solution to the 'nitrates' issue that has been 'blocking housebuilding'. Their idea is to selectively disapply the EU Habitats directive which it can do as a 'Brexit dividend', IE scrap european environmental law. But of course it always promised that it would never do that, and it is also doing it at a time where there is massive controversy over the conduct of utilities companies and pollution. I can't see this working out well for them.
Indeed. Politics and timing. They have a sort of point about this narrow issue. But to make the change when everyone in rural constituencies is thinking about polluted watercourses and nitrate runoff is…brave. It’s a remainer gift too.
Dad hasn't worked out Apple Pay yet but has been all in on Contactless for years
There really is some utter shite peddled on here about cashless living. Two completely false accounts of my experiences in the space on a hour.
There is so little reason to use cash, the PB Cash Fetishists now resort to just making stuff up!!
They are loons.
I’d be happy for a statutory requirement that certain public or quasi-public services must accept cash, but otherwise you are basically just burdening small enterprises.
Attempts to make us feel sorry for mythical 93 year olds who cannot cope without their passbooks as they drive their 1981 diesel across the ULEZ border for their monthly trip to see their parish priest are beyond parody.
Just think of the people using bank books at the moment. They can't be scammed or ripped off, unless someone physically steals their bank book. Isn't that a positive thing.
Dad hasn't worked out Apple Pay yet but has been all in on Contactless for years
There really is some utter shite peddled on here about cashless living. Two completely false accounts of my experiences in the space on a hour.
There is so little reason to use cash, the PB Cash Fetishists now resort to just making stuff up!!
They are loons.
I’d be happy for a statutory requirement that certain public or quasi-public services must accept cash, but otherwise you are basically just burdening small enterprises.
Attempts to make us feel sorry for mythical 93 year olds who cannot cope without their passbooks as they drive their 1981 diesel across the ULEZ border for their monthly trip to see their parish priest are beyond parody.
Make it a statutory requirement that banks must offer banking services to everyone, without discrimination, and any "problems" with people not having access are resolved.
If businesses prefer to continue to accept cash, to pander to its fetishists, then that's their free choice, no harm in that.
Finally finished my mad week's work; I've done seventy seven hours since the Bank Holiday
I'm going to do precisely fuck all tomorrow
I don't even have to walk the dog as my folks are away (in Sandbanks, with the dog) .. (I don't ever have to walk the dog, I just always do in the morning on days off. My Dad pays me in fine wine)
ps $13,300 per bottle is in Argentinian Pesos, not US dollars. About thirty quid
This wine is seriously good
It's lightly oaked, and extremely fruity; almost like a near neat plum and red berry cordial. The fruitiness completely covers the tannins, and the 14% alcohol. It has a slightly treacly aftertaste
If you're someone who would pay thirty quid for a bottle of wine, get this
They only made about ten thousand bottles of it
What is it? Your description leaves me not knowing if I’d like or loath it. I love bright, berry-fruity reds (the description sounds like a Cabernet or Merlot) but I hate jammy tasting over-alcoholic tongue burners. Which of those is it?
I linked to the vineyard's website in a 'this' in my first post
It's 2020 Matias Riccitelli Tinto De La Casa from Mendoza
It's a blend of two malbecs, that doesn't burn my tongue!
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
You're not easily impressed are you.
I may have been being a bit churlish; Ludlow is lovely. It has a fine church, an interesting and quite well-preserved castle, and a lot of good C17th buildings.
A weekend is plenty though, I don't think we'll be going back for a few years.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
You want to ban cash based retail when the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions?
Er, nope.
I have said on here several times, probably dozens of time, I wouldn’t ban cash nor cash based retail.
Do I need to say it yet again FFS?
Ban was your word not mine. But you are happy to "restrict", as you said above.
Wrong. You said I wanted to ban cash - a lie. I have said repeatedly otherwise.
You introduced the word ban. I didn't.
I'll leave it there
You said I wanted to ban cash. You wrote that. It’s a simple lie.
You had a meal in a restaurant without checking if it conforms to your extremist beliefs, or that you had enough cash for a sensible period of time? That's *brave*. Seriously ****ing insane. You could have been washing plates till 5 am.
Paying electronically is an extremist belief? Not in this day and age.
If a firm only wants to take payment by cash, or only electronically, then they should say that up front nowadays. If they do and its not the one you want, then don't dine their. If they don't, then its a bit late afterwards and they might need to be flexible to get their payment, eg accept a BACS transfer if no card machine.
I had similar a few months ago when I had my MOT done. New garage I'd never been to before, needed a new clutch and other work so I'd found it online and it was by far the cheapest for all the work needed. Booked it, had the work done, then surprise, surprise the card machine was "broken". Great, well I don't carry cash let alone £570 of cash with me and no I'm absolutely not going to the bank to withdraw it. So I offered a BACS transfer, I said there was not a chance I was going to pay cash because of their "broken" machine, the guy working there was clearly disgruntled about having electronic records of the payment.
Guess now I know how they quoted so cheap, but seriously WTF?
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
You want to ban cash based retail when the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions?
Er, nope.
I have said on here several times, probably dozens of time, I wouldn’t ban cash nor cash based retail.
Do I need to say it yet again FFS?
Ban was your word not mine. But you are happy to "restrict", as you said above.
Wrong. You said I wanted to ban cash - a lie. I have said repeatedly otherwise.
You introduced the word ban. I didn't.
I'll leave it there
You said I wanted to ban cash. You wrote that. It’s a simple lie.
You had a meal in a restaurant without checking if it conforms to your extremist beliefs, or that you had enough cash for a sensible period of time? That's *brave*. Seriously ****ing insane. You could have been washing plates till 5 am.
Paying electronically is an extremist belief? Not in this day and age.
If a firm only wants to take payment by cash, or only electronically, then they should say that up front nowadays. If they do and its not the one you want, then don't dine their. If they don't, then its a bit late afterwards and they might need to be flexible to get their payment, eg accept a BACS transfer if no card machine.
I had similar a few months ago when I had my MOT done. New garage I'd never been to before, needed a new clutch and other work so I'd found it online and it was by far the cheapest for all the work needed. Booked it, had the work done, then surprise, surprise the card machine was "broken". Great, well I don't carry cash let alone £570 of cash with me and no I'm absolutely not going to the bank to withdraw it. So I offered a BACS transfer, I said there was not a chance I was going to pay cash because of their "broken" machine, the guy working there was clearly disgruntled about having electronic records of the payment.
Guess now I know how they quoted so cheap, but seriously WTF?
You're the one being unreasonable. Cash is legal tender. Some mobile phone isn't.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
You want to ban cash based retail when the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions?
Er, nope.
I have said on here several times, probably dozens of time, I wouldn’t ban cash nor cash based retail.
Do I need to say it yet again FFS?
Ban was your word not mine. But you are happy to "restrict", as you said above.
Wrong. You said I wanted to ban cash - a lie. I have said repeatedly otherwise.
You introduced the word ban. I didn't.
I'll leave it there
You said I wanted to ban cash. You wrote that. It’s a simple lie.
You had a meal in a restaurant without checking if it conforms to your extremist beliefs, or that you had enough cash for a sensible period of time? That's *brave*. Seriously ****ing insane. You could have been washing plates till 5 am.
Paying electronically is an extremist belief? Not in this day and age.
If a firm only wants to take payment by cash, or only electronically, then they should say that up front nowadays. If they do and its not the one you want, then don't dine their. If they don't, then its a bit late afterwards and they might need to be flexible to get their payment, eg accept a BACS transfer if no card machine.
I had similar a few months ago when I had my MOT done. New garage I'd never been to before, needed a new clutch and other work so I'd found it online and it was by far the cheapest for all the work needed. Booked it, had the work done, then surprise, surprise the card machine was "broken". Great, well I don't carry cash let alone £570 of cash with me and no I'm absolutely not going to the bank to withdraw it. So I offered a BACS transfer, I said there was not a chance I was going to pay cash because of their "broken" machine, the guy working there was clearly disgruntled about having electronic records of the payment.
Guess now I know how they quoted so cheap, but seriously WTF?
You're the one being unreasonable. Cash is legal tender. Some mobile phone isn't.
You're wrong, as legal tender is a next-to-meaningless phrase in this country, so that's moot. Shops, businesses and individuals are under no legal or moral obligation to pay with obsolete "legal tender".
https://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/policies-and-guidelines/legal-tender-guidelines/#:~:text=Notes:,in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means that a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays into court in legal tender. It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation. Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes.
Any business can demand payment in any way they see fit, only for settlement of debts in courts in exact legal tender is it relevant.
Nah, it's a great film, with genuine laughs and an entertainingly perky cast and plot.
It's...fine. Probably as good as you could have done with a Barbie movie, it had a few decent laughs in it, but it only had two basic jokes/points, repeated over and over.
I congratulate the filmmakers on their success, and for getting people out to the cinema, but I confess to being a bit baffled how it became such an event movie (Oppenheimer to a lesser degree the same, being a decent but overlong biopic, so again pretty standard).
Then again Super Mario Bros and Avatar 2, two other massively successful films, are also very forgettable movies (the latter far worse written though). And much of the rest of the top 20 are a lot worse (I've seen 15 of them).
Of those only Live and Let Die, Magnum Force and Battle for The Planet of the Apes would be considered as sequels. Some real variety too, in terms of what pulled in the audiences.
Just think of the people using bank books at the moment. They can't be scammed or ripped off, unless someone physically steals their bank book. Isn't that a positive thing.
Ludlow has at least five pubs dating from pre-16th century ie medieval. I know this coz I just walked past them
The pub I’m in now dates from 1102
1102!!!!
When this pub was built the fields and hovels all around would still have been full of Anglo Saxons staring murderously at the obnoxious new Normans in the shiny new castle. I sense some of them are still staring
“Nothing to write home about”???
FFS
No mate, when that pub was built (as a house not a pub) Charles II was on the throne. So it's quite old but not C12th.
You've fallen for the guff they put on the food menu. There was an ale house on the site in 1102 but not this one.
“Hidden away in a courtyard, this is probably Ludlow?s oldest pub. It has medieval origins with the rear wing dating from the C15, while a two-light window in the rear wall probably dates from the C14. “
Very difficult to date fabric of a non church building back before C14, but they claim to have deeds as a building (not a pub) dating to 1102
I’m struggling to work out what the cash debate protagonists are arguing about, policy wise, but maybe I missed an earlier explainer.
Is it one side saying that shops shouldn’t be allowed to be cash-only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or one side saying shops shouldn’t be allowed to be card / contactless only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or is it Twitter-style cognitive dissonance where one side believes shops should be forced to accept cash but allowed to refuse cards, and the other says they should be forced to take cards but allowed to refuse cash?
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
Nah, it's a great film, with genuine laughs and an entertainingly perky cast and plot.
It's...fine. Probably as good as you could have done with a Barbie movie, it had a few decent laughs in it, but it only had two basic jokes/points, repeated over and over.
I congratulate the filmmakers on their success, and for getting people out to the cinema, but I confess to being a bit baffled how it became such an event movie (Oppenheimer to a lesser degree the same, being a decent but overlong biopic, so again pretty standard).
Then again Super Mario Bros and Avatar 2, two other massively successful films, are also very forgettable movies (the latter far worse written though). And much of the rest of the top 20 are a lot worse (I've seen 15 of them).
Of those only Live and Let Die, Magnum Force and Battle for The Planet of the Apes would be considered as sequels. Some real variety too, in terms of what pulled in the audiences.
And yet in 1973 there were only 23 movies that sold more than a million tickets.
Finally finished my mad week's work; I've done seventy seven hours since the Bank Holiday
I'm going to do precisely fuck all tomorrow
I don't even have to walk the dog as my folks are away (in Sandbanks, with the dog) .. (I don't ever have to walk the dog, I just always do in the morning on days off. My Dad pays me in fine wine)
ps $13,300 per bottle is in Argentinian Pesos, not US dollars. About thirty quid
This wine is seriously good
It's lightly oaked, and extremely fruity; almost like a near neat plum and red berry cordial. The fruitiness completely covers the tannins, and the 14% alcohol. It has a slightly treacly aftertaste
If you're someone who would pay thirty quid for a bottle of wine, get this
They only made about ten thousand bottles of it
Thanks for the tip, but I don’t think you actually named the wine, unless I missed it?
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
You're not easily impressed are you.
I may have been being a bit churlish; Ludlow is lovely. It has a fine church, an interesting and quite well-preserved castle, and a lot of good C17th buildings.
A weekend is plenty though, I don't think we'll be going back for a few years.
No, you’re a fucking idiot if you thought Ludlow is “nothing to write home about”
It is historically and architecturally stunning. 500+ listed buildings. Perhaps the most per sq m anywhere in the UK
Right now I am sitting in my bedroom overlooking the weir under the castle on the hill and all I can hear is some happy summer evening conversation in the soft soft warmth and then the gushing water outside, which is perfect, because Ludlow comes from Old English “hlud” = loud, and “hlow”, hill or hillock, so Ludlow means the hill by the loud water, which is where I am precisely, and happily drunk after a superb meal cooked by a genius young chef who worked for Raymond Blanc when he was 17
I’m struggling to work out what the cash debate protagonists are arguing about, policy wise, but maybe I missed an earlier explainer.
Is it one side saying that shops shouldn’t be allowed to be cash-only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or one side saying shops shouldn’t be allowed to be card / contactless only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or is it Twitter-style cognitive dissonance where one side believes shops should be forced to accept cash but allowed to refuse cards, and the other says they should be forced to take cards but allowed to refuse cash?
One side is saying retailers should be forced to accept cash, the other side is saying it’s up to the retailers what they accept (the status quo). Bart, Correct and I are on the side of the status quo…
(Literally nobody is suggesting banning cash unless I’ve missed that?)
64 films this year have already surpassed the million ticket mark, which is 41 more than 1973, and the year isn't over yet.
So much for the demise of variety or the cinema.
And if you scroll down the full list rather than just the top names, there's quite a bit of variety in that 64 so far to hit a million plus. And then there's Cocaine Bear of course.
Nostalgia about the "good old days" is typically misplaced. There's more variety today, its not all sequels or comic/action films either.
Finally finished my mad week's work; I've done seventy seven hours since the Bank Holiday
I'm going to do precisely fuck all tomorrow
I don't even have to walk the dog as my folks are away (in Sandbanks, with the dog) .. (I don't ever have to walk the dog, I just always do in the morning on days off. My Dad pays me in fine wine)
ps $13,300 per bottle is in Argentinian Pesos, not US dollars. About thirty quid
This wine is seriously good
It's lightly oaked, and extremely fruity; almost like a near neat plum and red berry cordial. The fruitiness completely covers the tannins, and the 14% alcohol. It has a slightly treacly aftertaste
If you're someone who would pay thirty quid for a bottle of wine, get this
They only made about ten thousand bottles of it
Thanks for the tip, but I don’t think you actually named the wine, unless I missed it?
Finally finished my mad week's work; I've done seventy seven hours since the Bank Holiday
I'm going to do precisely fuck all tomorrow
I don't even have to walk the dog as my folks are away (in Sandbanks, with the dog) .. (I don't ever have to walk the dog, I just always do in the morning on days off. My Dad pays me in fine wine)
ps $13,300 per bottle is in Argentinian Pesos, not US dollars. About thirty quid
This wine is seriously good
It's lightly oaked, and extremely fruity; almost like a near neat plum and red berry cordial. The fruitiness completely covers the tannins, and the 14% alcohol. It has a slightly treacly aftertaste
If you're someone who would pay thirty quid for a bottle of wine, get this
They only made about ten thousand bottles of it
Thanks for the tip, but I don’t think you actually named the wine, unless I missed it?
Ludlow it is! A foaming pint of virtual perry for @Carnyx and a faux thimble of Ludlow gin for @boulay
What a stunning little town
My hotel in the first pic is Dinham Weir House
Here’s my room in case anyone is scared that I’m suffering unduly on my Official Gazette Welsh Marches Road Trip
We were in Ludlow for a weekend a month ago. It's alright - nothing to write home about though.
You're not easily impressed are you.
I may have been being a bit churlish; Ludlow is lovely. It has a fine church, an interesting and quite well-preserved castle, and a lot of good C17th buildings.
A weekend is plenty though, I don't think we'll be going back for a few years.
With towns I think you either remain at arms length and do the sights, or get sucked into the vibe. The latter is purely a personal response. Clearly Ludlow didn’t pull at your heart, just the head.
I think we all get that differentiated response when we travel. Some places suck us in such that we’d gladly spend a month just flâneuring around and soaking up the atmosphere while others we find interesting but it’s a more transactional.
I had that with the Derby dales recently. Interesting but no emotional pull. Abroad I get the same in Venice, Madrid, Florence, Amsterdam, San Francisco, got it with Corsica last year too - I could appreciate the beauty but never really felt it. Whereas surprising places like Ludlow, Beaujolais or Copenhagen do it.
Each government has its own tone. David Cameron's had vast carelessness. Theresa May's had desperation. Boris Johnson's had chaos and Liz Truss's was a death cult. Rishi's Sunak's, it is becoming clear, is defined by a simmering resentment of the ungrateful bastards who make up the electorate.
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
2) Topped up with what?
Cash or bank transfer. The post office is a semi-public utility and so can play a role even if competitive private businesses choose to shun cash.
For children it's a way to give access to pocket money digitally without needing a full bank account.
There's a few ways to do it but someone needs to play the utility role. Whether that's every business in the country (cash compulsory), large businesses only, banks or a post office.
Ludlow has at least five pubs dating from pre-16th century ie medieval. I know this coz I just walked past them
The pub I’m in now dates from 1102
1102!!!!
When this pub was built the fields and hovels all around would still have been full of Anglo Saxons staring murderously at the obnoxious new Normans in the shiny new castle. I sense some of them are still staring
“Nothing to write home about”???
FFS
No mate, when that pub was built (as a house not a pub) Charles II was on the throne. So it's quite old but not C12th.
You've fallen for the guff they put on the food menu. There was an ale house on the site in 1102 but not this one.
“Hidden away in a courtyard, this is probably Ludlow?s oldest pub. It has medieval origins with the rear wing dating from the C15, while a two-light window in the rear wall probably dates from the C14. “
Very difficult to date fabric of a non church building back before C14, but they claim to have deeds as a building (not a pub) dating to 1102
I seem to recall there are several pubs claiming to be 'Ludlow's oldest', which I don't have an issue with. Ye Old Bull Ring Tavern has a 'circa 1365' sign on it's C19th facade. It's all a bit of fun.
Have you seen The Reader's House yet? One of Ludlow's 8 grade 1 listed buildings. It's round the back of the church.
I’m struggling to work out what the cash debate protagonists are arguing about, policy wise, but maybe I missed an earlier explainer.
Is it one side saying that shops shouldn’t be allowed to be cash-only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or one side saying shops shouldn’t be allowed to be card / contactless only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or is it Twitter-style cognitive dissonance where one side believes shops should be forced to accept cash but allowed to refuse cards, and the other says they should be forced to take cards but allowed to refuse cash?
One side is saying retailers should be forced to accept cash, the other side is saying it’s up to the retailers what they accept (the status quo). Bart, Correct and I are on the side of the status quo…
(Literally nobody is suggesting banning cash unless I’ve missed that?)
The flip side of retailers being forced to accept cash presumably being that they should also be forced to accept cards. Both involve cost - commission for cards, and lock boxes and security / travel to the bank for cash.
But I expect I’m about 100 steps behind in this debate so I’ll leave you to it.
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
2) Topped up with what?
Cash or bank transfer. The post office is a semi-public utility and so can play a role even if competitive private businesses choose to shun cash.
For children it's a way to give access to pocket money digitally without needing a full bank account.
There's a few ways to do it but someone needs to play the utility role. Whether that's every business in the country (cash compulsory), large businesses only, banks or a post office.
Sounds like the Post Office Card Account (closed 2022). Another triumph for privatisation.
Here’s my private chef for the evening. Harry. Started work at Hibiscus (Michelin 1 star) age 12. Literally 12. Worked for Nathan Outlaw and Raymond Blanc since
Mad isn’t it: half ten in September and I’m sitting out in t-shirt and shorts on the patio. The local weather station current temperature is 20C, and it’s warmer still further west.
Red wine in a Champagne flute? Careful when you tip it back or you'll have a dry cleaner's bill....
Some kind of aperitif, shirley? Pineau des Charentes Rouge?
Edit: no wait, I've got this one... A fairly rare Lambrusco?
The french are somewhat tasteless when it comes to aperitifs. Not for them the palate-sharpening cold dry fino - I had a gross concoction of port and wine and herbs and sugar in an otherwise rather good restaurant in Mersault.
Hands are too big. A person's hands are approximately as big as the face (chin to eyebrows/forehead), but the portraits hands are as big/bigger than the head. Was the photo of the portrait taken at an angle?
Less than a third of Gen Z polled think Royal family is good for Britain
YouGov poll reveals stark decline in support for the monarchy, with roughly a 50 per cent drop among young people in a decade
Only three in 10 young people think the Royal family is good for Britain, a new YouGov poll has revealed.
A majority of those aged 18-24 also said they held a negative opinion of the King as he approaches the first anniversary of his reign, with 52 per cent expressing disapproval.
The figures pose a significant problem for the monarchy, suggesting that attitudes among Generation Z have not improved in the last three years.
Younger Britons have been divided on whether or not to keep the monarchy since 2020, when the Duke of York’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Harry and Meghan’s fractious exit from royal life saw support plummet.
The latest survey suggests that just over a third of 18 to 24-year-olds want the UK to retain the monarchy, while 40 per cent would prefer an elected head of state.
Given 62% of 18 to 24s voted for Corbyn in 2019 and just 19% voted Tory, for 18 to 24s to be almost equally split 40-36% on the monarchy is actually pretty good for monarchists.
54% of 18 to 24s have a positive view of Prince William and just 29% negative, 53% also have a positive view of the Princess of Wales and they will be King and Queen by the time 18 to 24s get anywhere near relevant electorally given the age of the median UK voter is now 50
Each government has its own tone. David Cameron's had vast carelessness. Theresa May's had desperation. Boris Johnson's had chaos and Liz Truss's was a death cult. Rishi's Sunak's, it is becoming clear, is defined by a simmering resentment of the ungrateful bastards who make up the electorate.
Hands are too big. A person's hands are approximately as big as the face (chin to eyebrows/forehead), but the portraits hands are as big/bigger than the head. Was the photo of the portrait taken at an angle?
You can always tell when an artist has just used a generator by looking at the hands, Cash in the bank...
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
That's interesting, I always assumed that the problem is the otherway round. You have much less of a feeling how much you are spending when paying with a card or an app, which i would have thought easily leads to overspending. I was in the UK last month and it was annoying how many barstaff would hold the card reader with the amount being charged facing them, so I had to stand on tiptoes, lean over and read the price upside down.
I guess the reality is some people have more of a problem overspending with cash in the pocket and others more of a problem overspending with cashless payment.
I think my kids are a similar age to OLB's - and their issue with cash is keeping it in one place. Inevitably some of the abrogate the responsibility and hand their money over to me to keep in my wallet until they want to spend some of it, which inevitably gets muddled with my money, and I have to keep a running mental tally of how much of each daughter's money is mine. And that's without all the money scattered around their room in various piggy banks, money boxes etc which they have acquired over the years. It was a great relief when they started using cards.
Another big problem with cash, right there. It really is a deeply flawed mode of tender.
Cash isn't 'deeply flawed', just as a notepad and pen isn't deeply flawed despite the presence of word processing software. Cash, cards, phones (I guess) - all have their advantages and drawbacks. Despite the inconveniences above, I'm not going to be giving my 8 year old a bank card, because she will lose it.
It is deeply flawed, that's why lots of people simply stopped using it many years ago and have never looked back.
Electronic payments: The buyer taps his phone, the money goes straight into the retailer's account.
Cash: The buyer takes his card to a machine, converting perfectly functional, electronic money into slips of paper and shards of metal that he now has to carry about his person. These odd scraps of material are then offered to a retailer who has to find more scraps of material to give back to the buyer as change. If the retailer lacks the correct composition of material, the transaction fails. Assuming he has the correct composition, the retailer now has to store these scraps of material in a secure place, at cost and risk to himself, before finding additional time in his working week to transport said scraps of material to a place, probably several miles away, so he can given them to a lady in a pin-striped skirt who doesn't want them either. Said lady has to them put them in a secure place, at cost and risk to her own business, so they can be transported at even more cost to her business to an even more secure place, at which point she is able to convert them back into electronic money for the retailer, who could have just been paid directly in electronic money in the first place.
Electronic payments: reliant on thr tech working. Cash: not reliant on the tech working.
Fake news.
I was left high and dry in Southeast Europe recently because the only ATM in the resort I was staying in had conked out, and the restaurant I was eating in took only cash (like lots of the places there, it was a real step back in time). It was a right palaver, which required me to ask a taxi to park illegally at the next resort while I literally legged it in 30c heat to another cashpoint. Cash is an antiquated system that – ironically – relies far too heavily on machines.
You want to ban cash based retail when the business and their customers are happy with those restrictions?
Er, nope.
I have said on here several times, probably dozens of time, I wouldn’t ban cash nor cash based retail.
Do I need to say it yet again FFS?
Ban was your word not mine. But you are happy to "restrict", as you said above.
Wrong. You said I wanted to ban cash - a lie. I have said repeatedly otherwise.
You introduced the word ban. I didn't.
I'll leave it there
You said I wanted to ban cash. You wrote that. It’s a simple lie.
You had a meal in a restaurant without checking if it conforms to your extremist beliefs, or that you had enough cash for a sensible period of time? That's *brave*. Seriously ****ing insane. You could have been washing plates till 5 am.
Paying electronically is an extremist belief? Not in this day and age.
If a firm only wants to take payment by cash, or only electronically, then they should say that up front nowadays. If they do and its not the one you want, then don't dine their. If they don't, then its a bit late afterwards and they might need to be flexible to get their payment, eg accept a BACS transfer if no card machine.
I had similar a few months ago when I had my MOT done. New garage I'd never been to before, needed a new clutch and other work so I'd found it online and it was by far the cheapest for all the work needed. Booked it, had the work done, then surprise, surprise the card machine was "broken". Great, well I don't carry cash let alone £570 of cash with me and no I'm absolutely not going to the bank to withdraw it. So I offered a BACS transfer, I said there was not a chance I was going to pay cash because of their "broken" machine, the guy working there was clearly disgruntled about having electronic records of the payment.
Guess now I know how they quoted so cheap, but seriously WTF?
If everyone could pay electronically you would have a point simple fact is not all can so you position excludes them from society. They cannot buy food get a car repaired etc
Dad hasn't worked out Apple Pay yet but has been all in on Contactless for years
There really is some utter shite peddled on here about cashless living. Two completely false accounts of my experiences in the space on a hour.
There is so little reason to use cash, the PB Cash Fetishists now resort to just making stuff up!!
If you were a sane person and actually has some cash on you like most people it wouldnt have happened....hardly anyones fault apart from yours that you are an idiot
Red wine in a Champagne flute? Careful when you tip it back or you'll have a dry cleaner's bill....
A fairly rare Lambrusco
'Wild Cornish Monkfish'? Do they have tame ones too then?
Farmed, one imagines
No, I don't believe these beauties can be farmed.
Reminds me. I was watching an early Keith Floyd programme during lockdown and he was :eyerolling: cooking a particular shellfish off the coast of SW England. OMG so much work and yuk!
30yrs later I realise it's an Abalone and probably worth a grand in SE Asia if treated properly rather than rubbed with a pot scrubber in between necking wine.
reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) is going to become a massive scandal.
How many public buildings of 60s and 70s used this stuff which a leading materials engineer has told the Guardian he wouldn't touch for roofing structure and most of his colleagues were the same?
Dad hasn't worked out Apple Pay yet but has been all in on Contactless for years
There really is some utter shite peddled on here about cashless living. Two completely false accounts of my experiences in the space on a hour.
There is so little reason to use cash, the PB Cash Fetishists now resort to just making stuff up!!
If you were a sane person and actually has some cash on you like most people it wouldnt have happened....hardly anyones fault apart from yours that you are an idiot
Er, I went to the cash machine in the morning to withdraw what I needed. It was kaput. Do you walk around with €250 in your pocket at all times?
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
Another cash anecdote from Southeast Europe. Took a boat trip, had plenty of cash on me to pay. At the end of the boat trip the guy revealed he had no change, so we couldn’t complete the transaction. In the end, I had to go to a market stall to change my money, just so I could pay him.
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
In such a situation we will obviously have replaced democratic governments with a dictatorship. Keeping cash is not going to prevent a dictatorship.
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
The question is not should we have only electronic payments?
It is, do we want to implement legislation that forces merchants to accept cash?
Because if we are unwilling to force businesses to take cash then it will die.
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
The question is not should we have only electronic payments?
It is, do we want to implement legislation that forces merchants to accept cash?
Indeed that is the question, and my answer is no, we should not force them.
Damn this film has a good soundtrack. The framing is deliberate. Dennis Farina and Grissom sat on a pale log in front of a seascape. They are facing in opposite directions.
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
This is already the case! I bought a few grams of heroin on my Amex the other day and next thing I knew the police had arrested me! Managed to sort it out though, and will forgo the air miles next time and use cash.
Serious point though is that heroin is illegal and buying 15 units of alcohol isn’t. If HMG legislates in the future to make buying 15 units is wrong then that’s democracy. Vote against it if you don’t like it.
I think the government needs to take one of two approaches to the phasing out of cash being accepted for payment:
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
The practical problem here is that the government (including the next one) doesn't actually want you to be able to pay for food without everything you do being tracked and permissioned by a private company the follows arbitrary government directions via a secretive, unaccountable route. They created this situation and they want it to continue.
So the only options if we don't want the dystopian outcomes are:
1) Make cryptocurrency work at scale 2) Ally with the powerful Confused Elderly Person lobby to keep cash working for as long as we can
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
The question is not should we have only electronic payments?
It is, do we want to implement legislation that forces merchants to accept cash?
Indeed that is the question, and my answer is no, we should not force them.
Grissom walks thru the victims house. The profiler genre starts here, as he Intuits the events. Holmes with a twist. It's a bad genre and it ends with the victimisation of Colin Stagg. But it's never looked as sexy as this.
The soundtrack is a soundscape: laying down tones to express a mood, and colour to express a mood. Vague industrial sound, synth chords kicking in. Grissom is whispering: you can hear his breathing.
Off topic, but nothing to do with cash versus cards: Vietnam, as some of you must know, banned "Barbie". (They don't like the Chinese map in the movie. They have a point. Probably)
A whistleblower exclusively tells East Anglia Bylines the education secretary deliberately mounted a cover-up of the RAAC dangers
in early February, two months after the risk level was raised to high, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan remarked, “We just need to keep the lid on this for two years and then it’s someone else’s problem.“
A whistleblower exclusively tells East Anglia Bylines the education secretary deliberately mounted a cover-up of the RAAC dangers
in early February, two months after the risk level was raised to high, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan remarked, “We just need to keep the lid on this for two years and then it’s someone else’s problem.“
Everything is clean. The offices are lecture theatres, art galleries. They all have places in the frame. The professionals are controlled, everybody is good at their job
And we're back with the professionals again. White walls, white bars. The pointing is precise. So is the framing. Lecter on one side, Grissom on the other. It's an old trick but a goodie
I have to go shortly because my father is playing up but before I go a question for those that advocate only electronic payments
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
The question is not should we have only electronic payments?
It is, do we want to implement legislation that forces merchants to accept cash?
Indeed that is the question, and my answer is no, we should not force them.
Cash will just go the same way as cheques.
I've received two cheques in my adult life. But one was last week, the other was last year.
Hands are too big. A person's hands are approximately as big as the face (chin to eyebrows/forehead), but the portraits hands are as big/bigger than the head. Was the photo of the portrait taken at an angle?
You can always tell when an artist has just used a generator by looking at the hands, Cash in the bank...
"Would you like to leave me your home phone number?". Brian Cox is good casting for a Mann film, precise enough for the dialog, good at flatness of effect. Hopkins does it better in Silence, but it's a different tone
Comments
But popular genres will shift. Westerns don't bank big bucks anymore. 80s style action flicks are smaller budget affairs or straight to netflix. Marvel style action/comedy hybrids are starting to bomb, and only the genuinely good ones are making money whereas a few years ago anything of that genre was almost guaranteed to hit £500m+. So if it is the type of movie people don't like, well, things are changing.
It's also true there's a lot of remakes and sequels, more than their used to be, which can be a bit of a bummer sometimes, I wouldn't deny that. But you can bet a lot of money that people also really like a film from their younger days which was, unknown to them, a remake or adaption of some other work.
The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer is also against the trend, so clearly it can happen.
Edit: Viewcode also sums this up in about 25 works if people don't want to read all this.
Too remote to be seriously industrialized. Off the track for any major wars. Not many targets for the Luftwaffe. Not important enough to get the serious attention of corrupt, greedy and/or lefty town planners after WW2
So they have survived intact. Once, most British towns were likely as pretty as Ludlow/Ross/Hereford etc
1) Require certain shops (e.g. supermarkets and/or chains above a certain size) to accept cash for transactions up to an agreed value. This is shifting certain public utility considerations onto larger shops to ensure those without a bank account or access to a payment card are able to complete transactions needed to live. The government might want to subsidise or create a market incentive for this if it wanted to be fair to the private firms.
2) Ensure there is a readily available payment solution accessible to everyone, whether they are children or criminals. No one, other than those convicted to be in jail, should be unable to carry out day-to-day activities due to banks refusing their custom. There needs to be a universal solution, such as a cash debit card that can be topped up at your local post office and be used in any card payment machine.
I’d be happy for a statutory requirement that certain public or quasi-public services must accept cash, but otherwise you are basically just burdening small enterprises.
Attempts to make us feel sorry for mythical 93 year olds who cannot cope without their passbooks as they drive their 1981 diesel across the ULEZ border for their monthly trip to see their parish priest are beyond parody.
If businesses prefer to continue to accept cash, to pander to its fetishists, then that's their free choice, no harm in that.
If they don't, no harm in that either.
It's 2020 Matias Riccitelli Tinto De La Casa from Mendoza
It's a blend of two malbecs, that doesn't burn my tongue!
A weekend is plenty though, I don't think we'll be going back for a few years.
Very difficult to date fabric of a non church building back before C14, but they claim to have deeds as a building (not a pub) dating to 1102
Is it one side saying that shops shouldn’t be allowed to be cash-only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or one side saying shops shouldn’t be allowed to be card / contactless only, and the other saying that’s their choice?
Or is it Twitter-style cognitive dissonance where one side believes shops should be forced to accept cash but allowed to refuse cards, and the other says they should be forced to take cards but allowed to refuse cash?
In 2022 there were 73 that did so: https://www.the-numbers.com/market/2022/top-grossing-movies
And some real variety there too, in terms of what pulled in the audiences, if you compare like-for-like at the million plus mark.
No, you’re a fucking idiot if you thought Ludlow is “nothing to write home about”
It is historically and architecturally stunning. 500+ listed buildings. Perhaps the most per sq m anywhere in the UK
Right now I am sitting in my bedroom overlooking the weir under the castle on the hill and all I can hear is some happy summer evening conversation in the soft soft warmth and then the gushing water outside, which is perfect, because Ludlow comes from Old English “hlud” = loud, and “hlow”, hill or hillock, so Ludlow means the hill by the loud water, which is where I am precisely, and happily drunk after a superb meal cooked by a genius young chef who worked for Raymond Blanc when he was 17
BURP
(Literally nobody is suggesting banning cash unless I’ve missed that?)
So much for the demise of variety or the cinema.
And if you scroll down the full list rather than just the top names, there's quite a bit of variety in that 64 so far to hit a million plus. And then there's Cocaine Bear of course.
Nostalgia about the "good old days" is typically misplaced. There's more variety today, its not all sequels or comic/action films either.
https://www.the-numbers.com/market/2023/top-grossing-movies
https://matiasriccitelli.com/tienda/tinto-de-la-casa/
It obviously wasn't obvious!
I think we all get that differentiated response when we travel. Some places suck us in such that we’d gladly spend a month just flâneuring around and soaking up the atmosphere while others we find interesting but it’s a more transactional.
I had that with the Derby dales recently. Interesting but no emotional pull. Abroad I get the same in Venice, Madrid, Florence, Amsterdam, San Francisco, got it with Corsica last year too - I could appreciate the beauty but never really felt it. Whereas surprising places like Ludlow, Beaujolais or Copenhagen do it.
Each government has its own tone. David Cameron's had vast carelessness. Theresa May's had desperation. Boris Johnson's had chaos and Liz Truss's was a death cult. Rishi's Sunak's, it is becoming clear, is defined by a simmering resentment of the ungrateful bastards who make up the
electorate.
For children it's a way to give access to pocket money digitally without needing a full bank account.
There's a few ways to do it but someone needs to play the utility role. Whether that's every business in the country (cash compulsory), large businesses only, banks or a post office.
Have you seen The Reader's House yet? One of Ludlow's 8 grade 1 listed buildings. It's round the back of the church.
Theresa May’s parliamentary painting just dropped
But I expect I’m about 100 steps behind in this debate so I’ll leave you to it.
He’s still only 26. Going places
It's over for Sunak.
Edit: no wait, I've got this one... A fairly rare Lambrusco?
https://www.nywinesbar.co.uk/
Never tried one myself, but a friend raves about an aussie sparkling Shiraz.
54% of 18 to 24s have a positive view of Prince William and just 29% negative, 53% also have a positive view of the Princess of Wales and they will be King and Queen by the time 18 to 24s get anywhere near relevant electorally given the age of the median UK voter is now 50
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/5nhnwyt4ui/Internal_RoyalFavourability_230831_W.pdf
The canapés and pud were less wow
But he’s a bloody good young chef who will get a Michelin star if he can be arsed. Born in Ludlow and absolutely dedicated
He genuinely started working in Hibiscus at the age of 12. Used to beg for kitchen work on the way home from school!
https://www.dinhamweirhouse.co.uk/
It’s a beautiful mill house converted into mega-luxe self catering. Hence the private chef
I haven't been to Ludlow since I was a youth hostelling student thirty years ago.
Seems to have gone a tad up market since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu6kfj188jo
Or old concrete.
30yrs later I realise it's an Abalone and probably worth a grand in SE Asia if treated properly rather than rubbed with a pot scrubber in between necking wine.
How many public buildings of 60s and 70s used this stuff which a leading materials engineer has told the Guardian he wouldn't touch for roofing structure and most of his colleagues were the same?
It gives the governement access to everything you spend....how will you feel when your card is refused because the governement has decided to block you buying more than 14 units of alcohol a week...or you cant order a takeaway because you have had to much salt, sugar or whatever this week. Electronic only payments allow this and you want to put that power in the hands of whoever is in charge?
What a bloody daft system, I thought.
(Hope your father is ok)
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey, don't you know that I looove you...
It is, do we want to implement legislation that forces merchants to accept cash?
Because if we are unwilling to force businesses to take cash then it will die.
Serious point though is that heroin is illegal and buying 15 units of alcohol isn’t. If HMG legislates in the future to make buying 15 units is wrong then that’s democracy. Vote against it if you don’t like it.
Steve
So the only options if we don't want the dystopian outcomes are:
1) Make cryptocurrency work at scale
2) Ally with the powerful Confused Elderly Person lobby to keep cash working for as long as we can
The Philipppines may do the same, for the same reason.
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186178724/barbie-movie-philippines-vietnam-china-map
A whistleblower exclusively tells East Anglia Bylines the education secretary deliberately mounted a cover-up of the RAAC dangers
in early February, two months after the risk level was raised to high, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan remarked, “We just need to keep the lid on this for two years and then it’s someone else’s problem.“
Ha.