Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
In terms of eventual winner I’d say this is the most open World Cup ever
Could be any of:
South Africa France Ireland NZ Oz England Scotland Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
You are David Cameron AICMFP. These things are ten-a-penny now for use as home offices so if you drop the mezzanine, you can probably find one off the shelf.
I've looked. They are ghastly and expensive for what they are. The shepherds huts are unbelievably pretentious.
None of the ones I've seen are really what I'm looking for.
My wife has created something very similar, an artist’s studio, with a green roof.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Romania and Namibia are pretty poor but other other so called lesser nations have played reasonably well and have definitely improved in the last decade or so.
I think your analogy with the soccer World Cup is fair. I remember the shock when Cameron beat Argentina in the first game of Italia 90. African nations were just supposed to be making up the numbers. There’d be no such shock now.
Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
Wales beat Portugal by a lot last time. While I would admit Wales didn’t have their best team out it was a lot closer this time. Mind you, I’ve rather given up on Rugby Union; I much prefer League.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
“In 2015 readers of Prospect magazine voted Russell Brand the fourth most significant thinker in the world, behind Thomas Piketty, Yanis Varoufakis and Naomi Klein.”
Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
In terms of eventual winner I’d say this is the most open World Cup ever
Could be any of:
South Africa France Ireland NZ Oz England Scotland Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
A difference between football and rugby, I think, is that with football it isn't totally unusual for a side to dominate a game but lose due to the resilience and good fortune of the other (or at least for the scoreline to remain respectable). That's really unusual in rugby because the scorecard does tend to tick over, plus being under pressure is so physically demanding that the last twenty minutes often see the dominant team disappearing out of sight.
It's basically very hard to park the bus in rugby in the way teams can in football.
Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
In terms of eventual winner I’d say this is the most open World Cup ever
Could be any of:
South Africa France Ireland NZ Oz England Scotland Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
The standard of play in the most recent World Cup was astonishing. England played superbly, well enough to win, in many years. But, France were just that little bit better, and Argentina, a little bit better still.
Yes. A stunning tournament and suitably concluded with perhaps the greatest football match ever played
No other sport can match that but this is no shame. Football is now on a different level to every other sport in the world, in every way
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I have learnt from true crime programmes that a woman disappearing into the woods with a man with an axe and a saw doesn’t usually end well. Maybe just buy one of those David Cameron shepherd huts?
I'm going to start a petition to ban those daft huts. They are for stupid people with more money than sense who think of their garden as an "outdoor room" and the Cotswolds as countryside. I'd cheerfully take an axe to the whole bloody lot of them.
I wasn’t condoning them, super naff and twee and probably available on the Boden website. I just didn’t want you to disappear into the woods with a mad axeman.
Here there are quite a lot of homes with German Bunkers in their property which have been turned into all sorts of useful and fun spaces. Some great private bars with the advantage that you can take a class of pupils in them knowing they won’t collapse.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
Some lessons from m y shed experience -
1. Worth a solid concrete base. Do you need to screw or strap down in the Cumbrian gales? I did. 2. Maybe replace or cover the bog standard felt roof with foam insulation and stronger felt. I did (or rather paid the roofer to do it). 3. Maybe line with foam insulation and panel (I didn't). Maybe waterproof ply rather than plasterboard? 4. Maybe insulate the floor as well, or at least think about it - is it raised timber or concrete? (Maynot be possible with some firms who just dump and assemble and clear off.) 5. What I forgot was (a) guttering and rainwater barrel and (b) a soakaway from the barrel for rainwater for watering the garden (it splits in hard frost so needs to be kept empty). 6. Painted mine with Sadolin - got the exact shade of green to merge in with the rest of the garden. I did bother to use non-waterbased filler, knot stopper and aluminium undercoat though.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
OT in decluttering (ie throwing away my old books) I've just come across a 1990 St Thomas's Hospital Medical School rag mag. I imagine some of the jokes will be appreciated only by that doctor who wrote to the Times. Is rag week still a thing? It used to be that every year medical students dressed as clowns wearing white coats and stethoscopes would burst into tube carriages demanding money.
St Thomas's is no longer an independent medical school. London's hospitals and medical schools have been "rationalised" and combined. St Thomas' Hospital is the one opposite Parliament across Westminster Bridge.
Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
In terms of eventual winner I’d say this is the most open World Cup ever
Could be any of:
South Africa France Ireland NZ Oz England Scotland Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
This is a hostage to fortune, and odd things can happen in a knock-out competition. But it'd be a huge surprise to me if the winner came from outside the first four names on your list.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
Romania used to be a really good side. The game was well structured and embedded within the army. They also had regular games with major nations and played France yearly. The revolution changed that. The national Rugby sides captain was one of the first people killed.
They didn’t used to be rubbish. Far from it. There is a great tradition of Rugby in the country. But losing their young people abroad, lack of money and investment from the IRB and a few other issues have hampered them. They had a side that was bankrolled by a wealthy Romanian, CSM Pantelimon, that won the national league. His money was withdrawn and the club just died.
So they may well improve and get back to the level they were in the seventies and eighties. But it relies on a lot of things including investment from the IRB.
Thrashings, like the ones we see here, don’t help.
Manchester United in crisis but Chelsea with all their spending look equally as bad with just 5 points from 5 games
I think that ten Hag is in serious danger of losing his job in the next couple of weeks. He has bought, at considerable expense, a collection of players who are no better than the ones currently at the club and seems to have no clear idea what system he wants them to play.
Ten Hag's reputation has fallen faster than Liz Truss's. At least she achieved something in office. She stopped Charles singing the national anthem.
She did?
She abolished Sunak's hateful NIC healthcare surcharge which would have ratchetted ever further upwards. For that, it is worth having had her as Prime Minister, however briefly and however much it trashed her reputation.
Even though it cost me a small fortune by meaning I lost my £5000 Sunak bet, although I'd laid some of that off by the end to pay out on her win but still.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania have very badly regressed, but Georgia have come through and now beat teams like Wales
Also Tbilisi is infinitely nicer than Bucharest.
They get good crowds for Rugby matches in Georgia. It’s very popular and they have done amazingly well in recent years. They have some excellent players who get big money contracts in France. Mamuka Gorgodze was a fantastic back row forward in his day. One of the best in the world.
The lesser nations need to be competitive for 80 minutes. Not 50 or 60
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Are there no mismatches in the football World Cup?
I do feel free to not post about it. I also feel free to mention it. I hope that's ok! I kind of like rugby, but shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport. It's all a bit sad, really. I'm arguing for a better tournament, not for it to go away.
As for the football world cup, they're expanding it to 48 teams next iteration. Bound to be worse mismatches in there. I'm sure you'll hear me complain about that too, when the time comes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not just have the top 4 sides in the World Cup?
Don’t forget upsets happen. Wales can testify to that, and SA against Japan. A couple of heavy defeats in a group game does not make the World Cup rubbish.
In terms of eventual winner I’d say this is the most open World Cup ever
Could be any of:
South Africa France Ireland NZ Oz England Scotland Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
This is a hostage to fortune, and odd things can happen in a knock-out competition. But it'd be a huge surprise to me if the winner came from outside the first four names on your list.
England have a fairly easy route to the semis
Once there anything can happen. It’s just two games
And with all these new yellow and red cards even the best teams can fall apart
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania had a strong rugby side back in the day. However I recall seeing them demolished at Twickenham 138(?) - 0. Genuinely a turkey shoot that day. The current games have not been that. I don’t agree that most of the games so far have been that one sided. Wales V Portugal wasn’t. England Argentina wasn’t. Scotland v SA wasn’t.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania have very badly regressed, but Georgia have come through and now beat teams like Wales
Also Tbilisi is infinitely nicer than Bucharest.
Romania have sadly regressed, I posted the other day that if you had been asked in the 80’s if another team would join the 5 Nations then everyone would have said it would be Romania not Italy.
These lower tier nations though need to play in world cups to improve their game, improve Rugby’s profile and attractiveness in their countries and generate funds to help development. Nobody would have given Japan a hope a couple of decades ago.
Again world rugby need to be creative and put together big continental versions of 6N so an American championship, African Championship etc and insist that all tier one nations have to play a set number of tests against tier two and lower tiers every two years. It’s in their interest as world rugby will benefit from the short term loss of revenue when there is a massive take off of rugby in the US (it’s building) and the Middle East for the money and sponsorship opportunities.
With the right backing rugby can grow - I look at Jersey where the rugby team was irrelevant a while ago to being Champinonship champions last season, and would have been in the Premiership this season if the ground held the required spectators, just beat consecutively London Scottish and Bath (both away) in the cup competition and I’m really looking forward to going to watch them v Exeter Chiefs next weekend. It doesn’t have the baggage that football does and can grow anywhere.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania have very badly regressed, but Georgia have come through and now beat teams like Wales
Also Tbilisi is infinitely nicer than Bucharest.
Romania have sadly regressed, I posted the other day that if you had been asked in the 80’s if another team would join the 5 Nations then everyone would have said it would be Romania not Italy.
These lower tier nations though need to play in world cups to improve their game, improve Rugby’s profile and attractiveness in their countries and generate funds to help development. Nobody would have given Japan a hope a couple of decades ago.
Again world rugby need to be creative and put together big continental versions of 6N so an American championship, African Championship etc and insist that all tier one nations have to play a set number of tests against tier two and lower tiers every two years. It’s in their interest as world rugby will benefit from the short term loss of revenue when there is a massive take off of rugby in the US (it’s building) and the Middle East for the money and sponsorship opportunities.
With the right backing rugby can grow - I look at Jersey where the rugby team was irrelevant a while ago to being Champinonship champions last season, and would have been in the Premiership this season if the ground held the required spectators, just beat consecutively London Scottish and Bath (both away) in the cup competition and I’m really looking forward to going to watch them v Exeter Chiefs next weekend. It doesn’t have the baggage that football does and can grow anywhere.
I wouldn’t read too much into Premiership Cup results, tbh. This is always going to be an odd set of matches as the International players are away and club sides have varying levels of interest in the games.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania had a strong rugby side back in the day. However I recall seeing them demolished at Twickenham 138(?) - 0. Genuinely a turkey shoot that day. The current games have not been that. I don’t agree that most of the games so far have been that one sided. Wales V Portugal wasn’t. England Argentina wasn’t. Scotland v SA wasn’t.
After the revolution it all went to pot for them.
While the IRFU did little to develop the game post war until the nineties The French set up FIRA and encouraged lesser nations to play against each other regularly. This helped develop the game and promotion and relegation among the divisions also helped as it means games meant something.
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania have very badly regressed, but Georgia have come through and now beat teams like Wales
Also Tbilisi is infinitely nicer than Bucharest.
Romania have sadly regressed, I posted the other day that if you had been asked in the 80’s if another team would join the 5 Nations then everyone would have said it would be Romania not Italy.
These lower tier nations though need to play in world cups to improve their game, improve Rugby’s profile and attractiveness in their countries and generate funds to help development. Nobody would have given Japan a hope a couple of decades ago.
Again world rugby need to be creative and put together big continental versions of 6N so an American championship, African Championship etc and insist that all tier one nations have to play a set number of tests against tier two and lower tiers every two years. It’s in their interest as world rugby will benefit from the short term loss of revenue when there is a massive take off of rugby in the US (it’s building) and the Middle East for the money and sponsorship opportunities.
With the right backing rugby can grow - I look at Jersey where the rugby team was irrelevant a while ago to being Champinonship champions last season, and would have been in the Premiership this season if the ground held the required spectators, just beat consecutively London Scottish and Bath (both away) in the cup competition and I’m really looking forward to going to watch them v Exeter Chiefs next weekend. It doesn’t have the baggage that football does and can grow anywhere.
I wouldn’t read too much into Premiership Cup results, tbh. This is always going to be an odd set of matches as the International players are away and club sides have varying levels of interest in the games.
Absolutely but it shows how quickly things can change. And they weren’t just wins they were demolitions of teams that are in the league above 34-10 v Bath and 43-0 v Scottish.
Manchester United in crisis but Chelsea with all their spending look equally as bad with just 5 points from 5 games
I think that ten Hag is in serious danger of losing his job in the next couple of weeks. He has bought, at considerable expense, a collection of players who are no better than the ones currently at the club and seems to have no clear idea what system he wants them to play.
Ten Hag's reputation has fallen faster than Liz Truss's. At least she achieved something in office. She stopped Charles singing the national anthem.
She did?
She abolished Sunak's hateful NIC healthcare surcharge which would have ratchetted ever further upwards. For that, it is worth having had her as Prime Minister, however briefly and however much it trashed her reputation.
Even though it cost me a small fortune by meaning I lost my £5000 Sunak bet, although I'd laid some of that off by the end to pay out on her win but still.
The thing with the NIC surcharge is that splitting NIC into separate healthcare and pension / unemployment benefits payments makes perfect sense
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
Conleth Burns @BurnsConleth 🚨Mid-Beds Focus Group 🚨 This week, @Moreincommon_ spoke to undecided voters in Mid-Bedfordshire ahead of next month’s by-election. Striking contrast between a by-election that has dominated Westminster for weeks, but barely registered with these voters (1/12)
Conleth Burns @BurnsConleth · 6h ⚪️Surprise win for independent can’t be completely written off. 4/9 were thinking of voting independent and their broad disillusionment put them on the look out for something fresh. (6/12)
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania had a strong rugby side back in the day. However I recall seeing them demolished at Twickenham 138(?) - 0. Genuinely a turkey shoot that day. The current games have not been that. I don’t agree that most of the games so far have been that one sided. Wales V Portugal wasn’t. England Argentina wasn’t. Scotland v SA wasn’t.
Even just thinking about the score, Wales v Portugal was in the "close game" half, if you rank them by points difference:
Only five games have been closer. And that's a Portugal side who are better than Romania, and a Wales side that are pretty terrible compared to their often high standard of the last couple of decades.
Portugal look like they don't quite belong at this level. Romania look ridiculous.
I think we're narrowing in on a sensible pool of teams. And it does look like about 12 or 16 to give the mix of not too many turkey shoots and enough games to let the tournament live a little.
Do the same for the 6N? Would not be that dissimilar.
Fiji are playing well - but one poor tactic - they are passing too wide - too slowly. A few more crash balls in midfield will suck in the Australian defence and then open the wide spaces. They need to 'earn the right to go wide'.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
We built an A-frame potting shed, clad in local western red cedar. Nice DIY project (though we did get roofers in to tile the roof:
The football World Cup used to be like this. You’d get Germany beating Zaire 9-0 and the like
But the game grew and the skills widened and now the football World Cup in its final tournament is ultra competitive at every level, with almost zero obvious wins
Yes, but do you think the world cup was the mechanism behind that? I don't. I think widescale participation was, and I don't think the world cup drove that.
How much does the average Romanian think about rugby, one year to the next? Probably a lot less than the average Congolese thinks about football. Similar for playing the sport.
Of course Romania are going to be rubbish* at rugby. And they will always be rubbish. For DR Congo/football there's hope. For Romania/rugby, there's just a bleak, repeated skewering. It makes rugby look bad.
*yeah yeah when they inevitably beat Scotland that proves nothing. Nothing I tell you!
A bizarre sequence of arguments. Fiji just beat England for the first time. The game is levelling and slowly expanding. No, it’s not football, but nothing is
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
Romania had a strong rugby side back in the day. However I recall seeing them demolished at Twickenham 138(?) - 0. Genuinely a turkey shoot that day. The current games have not been that. I don’t agree that most of the games so far have been that one sided. Wales V Portugal wasn’t. England Argentina wasn’t. Scotland v SA wasn’t.
Even just thinking about the score, Wales v Portugal was in the "close game" half, if you rank them by points difference:
Only five games have been closer. And that's a Portugal side who are better than Romania, and a Wales side that are pretty terrible compared to their often high standard of the last couple of decades.
Portugal look like they don't quite belong at this level. Romania look ridiculous.
I think we're narrowing in on a sensible pool of teams. And it does look like about 12 or 16 to give the mix of not too many turkey shoots and enough games to let the tournament live a little.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
We built an A-frame potting shed, clad in local western red cedar. Nice DIY project (though we did get roofers in to tile the roof:
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
We built an A-frame potting shed, clad in local western red cedar. Nice DIY project (though we did get roofers in to tile the roof:
Ooh. Dragon or wyvern?
Good spot - a Wessex wyvern. We're in Dorset after all.
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
Because of the somewhat daft construction of a firearm carrying a taser which looks like a torch, as most of them do, carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. It’s not even 1% as dangerous as that dog.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
We built an A-frame potting shed, clad in local western red cedar. Nice DIY project (though we did get roofers in to tile the roof:
Ooh. Dragon or wyvern?
Good spot - a Wessex wyvern. We're in Dorset after all.
The sad thing is that they had the match against Wales stolen by crap refereeing and could be running away with the group however England fans have to be careful as we probably don’t want to meet them again in the knock out rounds based on the last match against them.
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
Because of the somewhat daft construction of a firearm carrying a taser which looks like a torch, as most of them do, carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. It’s not even 1% as dangerous as that dog.
What kind of selfish moronic c*nt thinks it is acceptable to walk a dog like that around a park, terrorising everyone, and potentially endangering kids - and all other dogs?
This is one thing that mystifies me about dog lovers battling for the bully. The most likely victim of these hell hounds is another dog
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
Because of the somewhat daft construction of a firearm carrying a taser which looks like a torch, as most of them do, carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. It’s not even 1% as dangerous as that dog.
What kind of selfish moronic c*nt thinks it is acceptable to walk a dog like that around a park, terrorising everyone, and potentially endangering kids - and all other dogs?
This is one thing that mystifies me about dog lovers battling for the bully. The most likely victim of these hell hounds is another dog
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
Because of the somewhat daft construction of a firearm carrying a taser which looks like a torch, as most of them do, carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. It’s not even 1% as dangerous as that dog.
What kind of selfish moronic c*nt thinks it is acceptable to walk a dog like that around a park, terrorising everyone, and potentially endangering kids - and all other dogs?
This is one thing that mystifies me about dog lovers battling for the bully. The most likely victim of these hell hounds is another dog
Hm, what I'm latching onto is that it's seemingly protesting when he pushes it around unexpectedly. And he's supposed to be the master. If it had a bad morning with the haemmorhoids or he catches a nerve ...
I once met a lady with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and asked about its webbed feet (a colleague had been telling me about them). She just pushed its bum down into the mud without warning, grabbed its front leg and handed it to me to examine and poke at. That dog just looked mildly surprised. That's fine. But that bully, no way would I go within a hundred metres.
Manchester United in crisis but Chelsea with all their spending look equally as bad with just 5 points from 5 games
I think that ten Hag is in serious danger of losing his job in the next couple of weeks. He has bought, at considerable expense, a collection of players who are no better than the ones currently at the club and seems to have no clear idea what system he wants them to play.
Ten Hag's reputation has fallen faster than Liz Truss's. At least she achieved something in office. She stopped Charles singing the national anthem.
She did?
She abolished Sunak's hateful NIC healthcare surcharge which would have ratchetted ever further upwards. For that, it is worth having had her as Prime Minister, however briefly and however much it trashed her reputation.
Even though it cost me a small fortune by meaning I lost my £5000 Sunak bet, although I'd laid some of that off by the end to pay out on her win but still.
The thing with the NIC surcharge is that splitting NIC into separate healthcare and pension / unemployment benefits payments makes perfect sense
Why?
Everyone should pay for all of it, for all of their life, which is why it should be rolled into one solitary income tax.
Pensions are not some contributory pot to which people have paid, they are PAYG and the AYG element shouldn't end when you retire. If I've paid for car insurance and I make a claim, then I still have to pay for car insurance the following year (indeed my premiums would rise in that instance). If I've paid for home insurance, or any other form of insurance, I still need to make ongoing payments even after I claim.
Why should pensions, uniquely of all "insurance" stop having contributions once you start claiming?
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
The sad thing is that they had the match against Wales stolen by crap refereeing and could be running away with the group however England fans have to be careful as we probably don’t want to meet them again in the knock out rounds based on the last match against them.
Fiji aren't that good, they lost to Wales last week, a side who have lost twice to England this year.
I know I’m banging on Jesus F Christ look at the size of this XL Bully. You would have precisely zero chance if it came for you. And the ludicrous owner would have zero chance of restraining it
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
The Spectator should hire that Sean T chap to spend a few days looking after an XL Bully to give an insight into how evil/lovable they are. If Sean T survives then no ban, if not then they must all be destroyed. At least if they eat him he won’t be stalking you anymore.
Because of the somewhat daft construction of a firearm carrying a taser which looks like a torch, as most of them do, carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. It’s not even 1% as dangerous as that dog.
What kind of selfish moronic c*nt thinks it is acceptable to walk a dog like that around a park, terrorising everyone, and potentially endangering kids - and all other dogs?
This is one thing that mystifies me about dog lovers battling for the bully. The most likely victim of these hell hounds is another dog
Hm, what I'm latching onto is that it's seemingly protesting when he pushes it around unexpectedly. And he's supposed to be the master. If it had a bad morning with the haemmorhoids or he catches a nerve ...
I once met a lady with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and asked about its webbed feet (a colleague had been telling me about them). She just pushed its bum down into the mud without warning, grabbed its front leg and handed it to me to examine and poke at. That dog just looked mildly surprised. That's fine. But that bully, no way would I go within a hundred metres.
Yes, he’s clearly not in control and the dog snaps at him. No wonder he looks nervous
I would exit that park immediately if I saw that THING
The government really needs to start the muzzling now before more people are hurt and killed
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
The sad thing is that they had the match against Wales stolen by crap refereeing and could be running away with the group however England fans have to be careful as we probably don’t want to meet them again in the knock out rounds based on the last match against them.
Fiji aren't that good, they lost to Wales last week, a side who have lost twice to England this year.
I’m trying not to hex anything.
Mind you they are one of the best teams to watch when neutral, like the early Klopp Liverpool but heavy metal rugby not football.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
City backs Labour as Mark Carney claims Truss turned Britain ‘into Argentina’ ... Two thirds of money managers and traders surveyed by Bloomberg said that either a Labour-led government or a Labour-led coalition would be the “most market-friendly outcome” at the next general election.
The majority cited the fallout from the mini-Budget bond market meltdown under Liz Truss as the reason for backing Sir Keir Starmer’s party, with 80pc of the 227 people surveyed saying confidence in British assets had not yet fully recovered.
It came as former Bank of England governor Mark Carney accused Ms Truss of turning Britain into “Argentina on the Channel” ... “Those with little experience in the private sector – lifelong politicians masquerading as free marketeers – grossly under-value the importance of mission, of institutions, and of discipline to a strong economy.” ... The Canadian said: “Nothing, even far right populist politicians, can demolish our efforts more quickly than a fiscal crisis, and the market reaction to the Truss budget underscored the tough new macroeconomic environment.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/17/city-backs-labour-mark-carney-truss-made-uk-argentina/ (£££)
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Yes. I read that too. Astonishing the ignorance of those with public sector DB schemes.
There is only one private sector company offering a DB scheme to new employees (Croda).
We regularly see public sector retirees eligible for pension benefits which would need a £1M plus private sector fund (built up from actual employee/employer contributions) to equate to. The other day we dealt with a client with a £62,000 pa public sector pension, indexed and with a 50% spouse pension. Utterly astonishing.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Yes. I read that too. Astonishing the ignorance of those with public sector DB schemes.
There is only one private sector company offering a DB scheme to new employees (Croda).
We regularly see public sector retirees eligible for pension benefits which would need a £1M plus private sector fund (built up from actual employee/employer contributions) to equate to. The other day we dealt with a client with a £62,000 pa public sector pension, indexed and with a 50% spouse pension. Utterly astonishing.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
My 83 year old wife's pension is £4,800 pa
been pretty solidly working since 86....contributing what I can afford into a dc scheme earning more than average wages all the time my private pension isnt much more than that...talking hundreds if if want it index linked
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
My 83 year old wife's pension is £4,800 pa
been pretty solidly working since 86....contributing what I can afford into a dc scheme earning more than average wages all the time my private pension isnt much more than that...talking hundreds if if want it index linked
To be fair my wife only has the state pension of £4,800
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
Yeah sure...tell that to me who had a home they couldnt sell and had to live there despite going through a nasty split with the gf. The flat we paid 48000 for got no offers even at 40k....we couldnt afford to sell
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
Will US democracy survive another Trump presidency?
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
Hopefully not, swingback is a real thing don't forget.
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
Will US democracy survive another Trump presidency?
I think its highly doubtful. It barely survived a Trump defeat.
“In 2015 readers of Prospect magazine voted Russell Brand the fourth most significant thinker in the world, behind Thomas Piketty, Yanis Varoufakis and Naomi Klein.”
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
Yeah sure...tell that to me who had a home they couldnt sell and had to live there despite going through a nasty split with the gf. The flat we paid 48000 for got no offers even at 40k....we couldnt afford to sell
Do you want another bottle of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? While you insist with three other Yorkshiremen how tough you had it in your day?
You had a home. That's more than most since you have had even after decades of work.
The thing that's worse than having a home you can't sell, is never being able to get a home in the first place. 🤦♂️
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
Yeah sure...tell that to me who had a home they couldnt sell and had to live there despite going through a nasty split with the gf. The flat we paid 48000 for got no offers even at 40k....we couldnt afford to sell
Do you want another bottle of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? While you insist with three other Yorkshiremen how tough you had it in your day?
You had a home. That's more than most since you have had even after decades of work.
The thing that's worse than having a home you can't sell, is never being able to get a home in the first place. 🤦♂️
Do fuck off you dont count the costs of 3 people sharing a flat they cant sell because it would put them in to much debt while two of them are tearing shreds off each other because they dont want to be there....you only count economic costs not mental health costs
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
Will US democracy survive another Trump presidency?
Probably, there is always a counter-revolution. It could be argued that the shenanigans behind the scenes in the Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon years were terrible. Clinton was a piece of shit morally, Bush Jnr wasn’t some beacon of hope, Obama a damp squib and a damp squid, Biden decrepit- the whole idea that the US is some shining beacon of liberty and perfection on the hill has been BS from the start - slave owning early presidents to start with.
Weirdly their best hope of pulling through is their corporate culture where everyone wants to make money and you need a free society to do that. If that goes then the American dream goes and voters won’t like that.
That almost certainly means that Trump wins. He won the last time with less of the vote and it wasn't as close as that. Americans are truly mad, absolutely bonkers.
Hopefully not, swingback is a real thing don't forget.
Swingback from only a 1% deficit a year before the election should put Biden back into the lead by election day.
For swingback to be "real", it would help if either nothing significant happened during 2020 or if Clinton had enjoyed a polling rally by election day in 2016.
OT webcast talk on ww1 plastic surgeon Harold Gillies next Sunday from the (American) National ww1 Museum.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. WWI claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. Amidst this brutality, there were those who endeavored to alleviate suffering. “The Facemaker” tells the extraordinary story of pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but a wounded face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded, but also their spirits.
The New York Times bestselling author Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris will join us virtually, as we discuss Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjQKkRRhD0
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
Yeah sure...tell that to me who had a home they couldnt sell and had to live there despite going through a nasty split with the gf. The flat we paid 48000 for got no offers even at 40k....we couldnt afford to sell
Do you want another bottle of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? While you insist with three other Yorkshiremen how tough you had it in your day?
You had a home. That's more than most since you have had even after decades of work.
The thing that's worse than having a home you can't sell, is never being able to get a home in the first place. 🤦♂️
Do fuck off you dont count the costs of 3 people sharing a flat they cant sell because it would put them in to much debt while two of them are tearing shreds off each other because they dont want to be there....you only count economic costs not mental health costs
And you ignore the mental health costs of people going decades going from home to home, never able to get on the housing ladder because of ever-escalating price rises, while getting evicted at 2 months notice whenever the landlord wants to get someone else in and put the price up. Never having any stability and never being more than 2 months from homelessness, despite being on time with rent.
Yes what you describe is bad, its also transient.
What I describe is worse, and ongoing for decades.
Just because you temporarily had something bad, doesn't mean others don't permanently have something worse.
Being on the ladder, no matter how uncomfortable it is, is better than the alternative. And by the end of the 20th century there were a higher share on the ladder than ever before. Then the ladder got pulled up.
One of my projects is to build a sort of woman-shed on my land: wooden, with a verandah, log burner, green roof, internal mezzanine, space for my books and yet more plants and with one side in glass so that I can bask in sunshine and views. It will be where I go to hide and dream and potter and outside will be a sort of courtyard with paths leading to gorgeously planted beds and a potager etc.
One day I will, DV, sit on a chair there after lunch, fall asleep, never wake up and my sending off will involve flowers picked from the garden.
Anyway that's the dream. But finding such a cabin or even someone to build one is surprisingly hard. But recently I got into correspondence with a carpenter who makes such cabins - but dammit - he is in the US and his cabins are gorgeous.
How infuriating. Still chit-chatting with a carpenter about roofs and verandahs and types of wood is a huge amount of fun.
What I need is a sort of local Amish community so we could have a Witness-style barn raising. I'd make the lemonade.
Completely off topic of course but if you learn that I've run away with a hunky carpenter to some remote woods somewhere you'll know why .....
I may be missing something, but shed, summer houses, and full-on log-cabins are purchasable off-the-shelf
Wood changes colour as it ages and is exposed, so make sure your wood is preserved in some fashion to retain the richness
Many of these sheds have felt tiles. Try to get something thicker or more weatherproof
If you are intending to stay inside instead of just storing tools, make sure the inside is lined and plasterboarded
Planning permission is not necessary if it is within your garden and a certain distance away from the boundaries. I doubt this applies for two storey ones, tho.
If you want something more sophisticated still then you are looking at modular buildings, which is a whole different ball game.
If it's a pitched roof and less than 4 metres high no planning permission is needed.
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
My wife has a diploma in garden design. If you PM me, I could give you her email.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
We built an A-frame potting shed, clad in local western red cedar. Nice DIY project (though we did get roofers in to tile the roof:
I do wonder if we shouldnt ask people here commenting on pensions whether they are on a defined contribution scheme or a defined benefits scheme....it makes a huge difference to how well off they will be in retiremend. For example a person doing form filling in a an office earning 24k a year for forty years....dc they may get 2 to 3k pension.....db they are probably on 12k
Fair question. But the triple lock can't go on forever, pensions would end up costing more than 100% GDP.
Not saying it can nor do I think it should. I am merely querying how many here realise how crappy the majorities private pension is actually going to be
Pensions are almost a second order issue, the biggest issue (as always) is housing.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
My generation is worse off than yours...not only did gen x lost out on db pensions...Most of us not being able to go to uni....endure the unemployment of the 80's, the price crash of the 90's we also need to endure the whinging of your generation about "its so unfair"
The price crash of the 90s was a fantastic thing, not something to "endure".
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
Yeah sure...tell that to me who had a home they couldnt sell and had to live there despite going through a nasty split with the gf. The flat we paid 48000 for got no offers even at 40k....we couldnt afford to sell
Do you want another bottle of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? While you insist with three other Yorkshiremen how tough you had it in your day?
You had a home. That's more than most since you have had even after decades of work.
The thing that's worse than having a home you can't sell, is never being able to get a home in the first place. 🤦♂️
Do fuck off you dont count the costs of 3 people sharing a flat they cant sell because it would put them in to much debt while two of them are tearing shreds off each other because they dont want to be there....you only count economic costs not mental health costs
And you ignore the mental health costs of people going decades going from home to home, never able to get on the housing ladder because of ever-escalating price rises, while getting evicted at 2 months notice whenever the landlord wants to get someone else in and put the price up. Never having any stability and never being more than 2 months from homelessness, despite being on time with rent.
Yes what you describe is bad, its also transient.
What I describe is worse, and ongoing for decades.
Just because you temporarily had something bad, doesn't mean others don't permanently have something worse.
Being on the ladder, no matter how uncomfortable it is, is better than the alternative. And by the end of the 20th century there were a higher share on the ladder than ever before. Then the ladder got pulled up.
And I am not on the ladder anymore so yeah I know it well. I will tell you now in no uncertain terms....having to live with someone you hate is far worse that not being able to get on the ladder
Comments
Could be any of:
South Africa
France
Ireland
NZ
Oz
England
Scotland
Maybe even Wales or Argie
Yes they are all traditional powers but they’ve never been this equal
Meanwhile the pacific islands - especially Fiji - are catching up. Rugby is doing OK
I think your analogy with the soccer World Cup is fair. I remember the shock when Cameron beat Argentina in the first game of Italia 90. African nations were just supposed to be making up the numbers. There’d be no such shock now.
Mind you, I’ve rather given up on Rugby Union; I much prefer League.
The biggest threat to rugby is not lack of competitive teams but the absolute menace of head injuries and ensuing lawsuits. That could easily kill pro rugby. And it’s hard to solve
I will have a look. I'd quite like to use solar panel roof tiles or a green roof. I just have a vision in my head and none of the ones I've seen quite match the vision. Day-dreaming about what it should be is part of the fun. I stayed in one in the Rockies which is pretty damn close to what I want.
It's basically very hard to park the bus in rugby in the way teams can in football.
No other sport can match that but this is no shame. Football is now on a different level to every other sport in the world, in every way
Here there are quite a lot of homes with German Bunkers in their property which have been turned into all sorts of useful and fun spaces. Some great private bars with the advantage that you can take a class of pupils in them knowing they won’t collapse.
1. Worth a solid concrete base. Do you need to screw or strap down in the Cumbrian gales? I did.
2. Maybe replace or cover the bog standard felt roof with foam insulation and stronger felt. I did (or rather paid the roofer to do it).
3. Maybe line with foam insulation and panel (I didn't). Maybe waterproof ply rather than plasterboard?
4. Maybe insulate the floor as well, or at least think about it - is it raised timber or concrete? (Maynot be possible with some firms who just dump and assemble and clear off.)
5. What I forgot was (a) guttering and rainwater barrel and (b) a soakaway from the barrel for rainwater for watering the garden (it splits in hard frost so needs to be kept empty).
6. Painted mine with Sadolin - got the exact shade of green to merge in with the rest of the garden. I did bother to use non-waterbased filler, knot stopper and aluminium undercoat though.
Also Tbilisi is infinitely nicer than Bucharest.
St Thomas's is no longer an independent medical school. London's hospitals and medical schools have been "rationalised" and combined. St Thomas' Hospital is the one opposite Parliament across Westminster Bridge.
They didn’t used to be rubbish. Far from it. There is a great tradition of Rugby in the country. But losing their young people abroad, lack of money and investment from the IRB and a few other issues have hampered them. They had a side that was bankrolled by a wealthy Romanian, CSM Pantelimon, that won the national league. His money was withdrawn and the club just died.
So they may well improve and get back to the level they were in the seventies and eighties. But it relies on a lot of things including investment from the IRB.
Thrashings, like the ones we see here, don’t help.
She abolished Sunak's hateful NIC healthcare surcharge which would have ratchetted ever further upwards. For that, it is worth having had her as Prime Minister, however briefly and however much it trashed her reputation.
Even though it cost me a small fortune by meaning I lost my £5000 Sunak bet, although I'd laid some of that off by the end to pay out on her win but still.
The lesser nations need to be competitive for 80 minutes. Not 50 or 60
Once there anything can happen. It’s just two games
And with all these new yellow and red cards even the best teams can fall apart
These lower tier nations though need to play in world cups to improve their game, improve Rugby’s profile and attractiveness in their countries and generate funds to help development. Nobody would have given Japan a hope a couple of decades ago.
Again world rugby need to be creative and put together big continental versions of 6N so an American championship, African Championship etc and insist that all tier one nations have to play a set number of tests against tier two and lower tiers every two years. It’s in their interest as world rugby will benefit from the short term loss of revenue when there is a massive take off of rugby in the US (it’s building) and the Middle East for the money and sponsorship opportunities.
With the right backing rugby can grow - I look at Jersey where the rugby team was irrelevant a while ago to being Champinonship champions last season, and would have been in the Premiership this season if the ground held the required spectators, just beat consecutively London Scottish and Bath (both away) in the cup competition and I’m really looking forward to going to watch them v Exeter Chiefs next weekend. It doesn’t have the baggage that football does and can grow anywhere.
While the IRFU did little to develop the game post war until the nineties The French set up FIRA and encouraged lesser nations to play against each other regularly. This helped develop the game and promotion and relegation among the divisions also helped as it means games meant something.
The one thing I can say is the food here is an awful lot better than what Leon was suffering last week in France.
The green roof keeps it incredibly cool in hot weather.
@BurnsConleth
🚨Mid-Beds Focus Group 🚨 This week,
@Moreincommon_
spoke to undecided voters in Mid-Bedfordshire ahead of next month’s by-election. Striking contrast between a by-election that has dominated Westminster for weeks, but barely registered with these voters (1/12)
Conleth Burns
@BurnsConleth
·
6h
⚪️Surprise win for independent can’t be completely written off. 4/9 were thinking of voting independent and their broad disillusionment put them on the look out for something fresh. (6/12)
https://twitter.com/BurnsConleth/status/1703354692061811126
This is like walking around the local park with a flamethrower
“Imagine this dog running towards you”
https://x.com/ascendedyield/status/1703214876087243195?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
They now seem to want to be a great team at 15s too.
You've been rickrolled...
Do you know who else thought industrial scale murder could solve a lot of problems?
* Ken Livingstone disappears again *.
Come on Fiji!
This is one thing that mystifies me about dog lovers battling for the bully. The most likely victim of these hell hounds is another dog
I once met a lady with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and asked about its webbed feet (a colleague had been telling me about them). She just pushed its bum down into the mud without warning, grabbed its front leg and handed it to me to examine and poke at. That dog just looked mildly surprised. That's fine. But that bully, no way would I go within a hundred metres.
Everyone should pay for all of it, for all of their life, which is why it should be rolled into one solitary income tax.
Pensions are not some contributory pot to which people have paid, they are PAYG and the AYG element shouldn't end when you retire. If I've paid for car insurance and I make a claim, then I still have to pay for car insurance the following year (indeed my premiums would rise in that instance). If I've paid for home insurance, or any other form of insurance, I still need to make ongoing payments even after I claim.
Why should pensions, uniquely of all "insurance" stop having contributions once you start claiming?
I would exit that park immediately if I saw that THING
The government really needs to start the muzzling now before more people are hurt and killed
Mind you they are one of the best teams to watch when neutral, like the early Klopp Liverpool but heavy metal rugby not football.
If you get £12k and pay £1k a month on rent, then that leaves you with nothing. If you get £2k and pay £1k a month on rent, then you have negative money and will clearly be living off benefits.
If you get £12k and have no rent, then you can actually use that money to live off.
The problem is that young people today both rent and have DC not DB. So they're doubly f***ed.
DB and no mortgage is a dream situation, but one out of reach of people who are now paying the costs of those DB pensions but won't get one themselves.
...
Two thirds of money managers and traders surveyed by Bloomberg said that either a Labour-led government or a Labour-led coalition would be the “most market-friendly outcome” at the next general election.
The majority cited the fallout from the mini-Budget bond market meltdown under Liz Truss as the reason for backing Sir Keir Starmer’s party, with 80pc of the 227 people surveyed saying confidence in British assets had not yet fully recovered.
It came as former Bank of England governor Mark Carney accused Ms Truss of turning Britain into “Argentina on the Channel”
...
“Those with little experience in the private sector – lifelong politicians masquerading as free marketeers – grossly under-value the importance of mission, of institutions, and of discipline to a strong economy.”
...
The Canadian said: “Nothing, even far right populist politicians, can demolish our efforts more quickly than a fiscal crisis, and the market reaction to the Truss budget underscored the tough new macroeconomic environment.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/17/city-backs-labour-mark-carney-truss-made-uk-argentina/ (£££)
There is only one private sector company offering a DB scheme to new employees (Croda).
We regularly see public sector retirees eligible for pension benefits which would need a £1M plus private sector fund (built up from actual employee/employer contributions) to equate to. The other day we dealt with a client with a £62,000 pa public sector pension, indexed and with a 50% spouse pension. Utterly astonishing.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/en/rugby-union-betting-5
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-biden-poll-2023-09-17/
By the end of the 90s home ownership rates were at the highest ever levels in recorded history. That's a golden generation, not depressing.
Things have gone backwards since.
I’ve had 3 quid
Everyone wants free owls...
A year before the 2020 Presidential election Biden was posting 10 point leads against then-incumbent Trump. By the time of the election that had narrowed considerably. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/07/politics/biden-trump-approval-rating-washington-post-abc-poll/index.html
Swingback from only a 1% deficit a year before the election should put Biden back into the lead by election day.
You had a home. That's more than most since you have had even after decades of work.
The thing that's worse than having a home you can't sell, is never being able to get a home in the first place. 🤦♂️
Weirdly their best hope of pulling through is their corporate culture where everyone wants to make money and you need a free society to do that. If that goes then the American dream goes and voters won’t like that.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. WWI claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. Amidst this brutality, there were those who endeavored to alleviate suffering. “The Facemaker” tells the extraordinary story of pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but a wounded face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded, but also their spirits.
The New York Times bestselling author Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris will join us virtually, as we discuss Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjQKkRRhD0
Yes what you describe is bad, its also transient.
What I describe is worse, and ongoing for decades.
Just because you temporarily had something bad, doesn't mean others don't permanently have something worse.
Being on the ladder, no matter how uncomfortable it is, is better than the alternative. And by the end of the 20th century there were a higher share on the ladder than ever before. Then the ladder got pulled up.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/en/rugby-union/world-cup/australia-v-fiji-betting-32627266