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Next Sunak will announce water is wet – politicalbetting.com

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  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Ah, Pagan2, and your native speaking Cornish mother. Never change, my andsome, never change
    It was my grandparents that didnt really speak much english. However doesnt stop you being an idiot who values things because they are seen as posh. Anything where you have to say its an aquired taste whether tripe or caviar means its something no one would eat if they actually had a choice then it becomes rarer and suddenly the in thing to have....you are merely a food fashion victim
    Caviar and oysters are “suddenly” the “in thing”? Are you measuring time geologically?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Ah, Pagan2, and your native speaking Cornish mother. Never change, my andsome, never change
    It was my grandparents that didnt really speak much english. However doesnt stop you being an idiot who values things because they are seen as posh. Anything where you have to say its an aquired taste whether tripe or caviar means its something no one would eat if they actually had a choice then it becomes rarer and suddenly the in thing to have....you are merely a food fashion victim
    I kind of understand your argument, and it is not without merit

    It is true to say I probably ate my first oyster because it seemed sophisticated or adult to do so, but then that is true of so many things we consume (not just "posh"). From beer to tobacco, kids try things coz grown ups do it, people with more experience of life, and you want to be one of them. And then, even if they are not immediately appealing, they start appeal to you in an of themselves

    Cf oysters. By my third plate of oysters I was absolutely a fan. Now I genuinely love them. I will seek out oysters in any new country I visit (if they have an oyster culture). I love the ritual that surrounds them, the choosing, the season, the cleaning, the shucking, the serving - and in what way?

    And I love love love the eating. I believe they actually give me a high, a pep of energy and happiness. Zinc? Potassium? I generally walk out of a good oyster bar feeling zippier and happier than when I walk out of any other restaurant
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
  • Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Try a pun. “No marrow escape for Bone”
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Good, more for us oyster lovers.

    First encountered the bivalve in New Orleans at Acme & Felix oyster bars (can't remember which I went to first) on Iberville Street in the French Quarter.

    Plump oysters - typical pronounced "ersters" by the locals - on the half shell. Ordered half dozen, washed down with cold Dixie and/or Jax beer then the hometown brews of NO.

    Then I ordered another half dozen. Then went across street to the other oyster bar . . .

    About same time, discovered the Po' Boy. My favorites being oyster and shrimp in that order.

    And my friends, this was back when a po' boy damn sure WAS a po' boy. Very traditional, with very fresh French bread, oysters deep fried while you waited and sometimes watched, then "dressed" (also very traditionally) with mayonnaise, lettuce & tomato, with ketchup and Tabasco sauce to taste.

    AND BIG. Huge sandwiches. With at least half-dozen plump, juicy, meaty perfectly-fried oysters.
    Ah, old pal, I LOVE the oyster bars of Nawlins. Half a dozen on the half shell on Bourbon Street. That is happiness. A cliche, but happiness nonetheless

    And I love the little saltine crackers you do in Louisiana
  • So nominative determinism strikes again.

    First it was Chris Pincher, now Peter Bone, should Rishi Sunak be worried about Greg Hands?

    There's always an exception to the rule, I give you James Cleverly.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
  • eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Oyster? I just use my Contactless card these days :lol:
    Personally have an Orca card in my wallet, good for travel on local & regional busses, ferries and light rail.

    BTW (also FYI) Orcas LOVE Oysters.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372
    I'm disappointed that while being sidetracked looking for Babylon 5 references nobody has spotted the fact the header is a clear reference to Victor Canning's 1963 spy thriller The Limbo Line.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    First person to spot the Babylon 5 reference earns kudos.

    Who are the Babylon 5?

    First person to spot the Babylon 5 reference earns kudos.

    Who are the Babylon 5?
    "Ignorance, you see, can be outhought. Arrogance can be outmaneuvered. But ignorance and arrogance combined are unassailable."
    Somehow we're back on the subject of Amanda Spielman.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    The division between those who love oysters and those who loathe them is one of the most brutal and interesting in the culinary world, maybe in all humanity

    I don't deny I perceive a fundamental inadequacy and an unearned but real inferiority in the oyster-loathers
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067

    So nominative determinism strikes again.

    First it was Chris Pincher, now Peter Bone, should Rishi Sunak be worried about Greg Hands?

    There's always an exception to the rule, I give you James Cleverly.
    Even the Tories can do irony occasionally.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,288

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Will they hold off moving Wellingborough to see if Blackpool South will be put through a recall petition?
  • On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I like Oysters. I was brought up in a village just south of Whitstable so there were a lot of them about.
    I had my first age 16. Was unsure. By my third I was a total addict

    Weirdly similar to me heroin-taking career, actually
    I had my first at 14 on holiday in France. Oysters that is. I’ve yet to experience the delights of smack.
    Give heroin at least three goes, is my advice. The first time you often just puke, and it's horrid. The second time is commonly mixed, you get the sense of a high, but there is still nausea, and maybe a little fear

    It's the third time when you get the peculiar blissful but unequalled heroin rush: like you've been kidnapped by the world's most loving gangsters and been rushed to a velvet brothel in the richest part of town where they are feeding you, blindfold, the exquisite sorbets of orgasm
    I’m not going to lie. That sounds fucking disturbing.
    Why?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631
    DougSeal said:

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Try a pun. “No marrow escape for Bone”
    Will Bone fracture Sunak's plans?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Are you finding it too hard?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,496
    edited December 2023
    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I like Oysters. I was brought up in a village just south of Whitstable so there were a lot of them about.
    I had my first age 16. Was unsure. By my third I was a total addict

    Weirdly similar to me heroin-taking career, actually
    I had my first at 14 on holiday in France. Oysters that is. I’ve yet to experience the delights of smack.
    Give heroin at least three goes, is my advice. The first time you often just puke, and it's horrid. The second time is commonly mixed, you get the sense of a high, but there is still nausea, and maybe a little fear

    It's the third time when you get the peculiar blissful but unequalled heroin rush: like you've been kidnapped by the world's most loving gangsters and been rushed to a velvet brothel in the richest part of town where they are feeding you, blindfold, the exquisite sorbets of orgasm
    I have a family member whose melancholy task at work from time to time is to take away babies at birth from their heroin taking mothers, so, while no sort of expert I slightly feel the story doesn't always end quite this way.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,070
    edited December 2023
    The 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are on AI this year. The presenter, Mike Wooldridge, gave a lecture on Generative AI earlier in the year.
  • ydoethur said:

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Are you finding it too hard?
    It's a rib tickler for sure
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    So nominative determinism strikes again.

    First it was Chris Pincher, now Peter Bone, should Rishi Sunak be worried about Greg Hands?

    You've forgotten Matt Hancock.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372
    DougSeal said:

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Try a pun. “No marrow escape for Bone”
    Bone's time is out of joint?
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 1,130
    viewcode said:

    The 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are on AI this year.

    Wake me up when they're *by* AI :-)


  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,070
    DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Eminem had a point of view about the Spice Girls
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    edited December 2023
    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I like Oysters. I was brought up in a village just south of Whitstable so there were a lot of them about.
    I had my first age 16. Was unsure. By my third I was a total addict

    Weirdly similar to me heroin-taking career, actually
    I had my first at 14 on holiday in France. Oysters that is. I’ve yet to experience the delights of smack.
    Give heroin at least three goes, is my advice. The first time you often just puke, and it's horrid. The second time is commonly mixed, you get the sense of a high, but there is still nausea, and maybe a little fear

    It's the third time when you get the peculiar blissful but unequalled heroin rush: like you've been kidnapped by the world's most loving gangsters and been rushed to a velvet brothel in the richest part of town where they are feeding you, blindfold, the exquisite sorbets of orgasm
    I have a family member whose melancholy task at work from time to time is to take away babies at birth from their heroin taking mothers, so, while no sort of expert I slightly feel the story doesn't always end quite this way.
    A good friend of mine died of a heroin overdose. I went to his funeral in a vast cemetery in Hammersmith, as I stood by the grave watching them shovel the first dirt on his coffin, I made a deal with another friend there, and we went off to score more heroin

    It is a nihilistic drug which commonly ends in death, dereliction or despair. It nearly killed me: many times. I am merely pointing out that it has a profound upside: or people would not do it
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,494
    ydoethur said:

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Are you finding it too hard?
    Hardly.

    Will Bone stand again? Or withdraw?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870
    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    ydoethur said:

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    Are you finding it too hard?
    Hardly.

    Will Bone stand again? Or withdraw?
    He was definitely a flop.
  • DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Only plebs think Posh Spice is Posh.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    edited December 2023

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Good, more for us oyster lovers.

    First encountered the bivalve in New Orleans at Acme & Felix oyster bars (can't remember which I went to first) on Iberville Street in the French Quarter.

    Plump oysters - typical pronounced "ersters" by the locals - on the half shell. Ordered half dozen, washed down with cold Dixie and/or Jax beer then the hometown brews of NO.

    Then I ordered another half dozen. Then went across street to the other oyster bar . . .

    About same time, discovered the Po' Boy. My favorites being oyster and shrimp in that order.

    And my friends, this was back when a po' boy damn sure WAS a po' boy. Very traditional, with very fresh French bread, oysters deep fried while you waited and sometimes watched, then "dressed" (also very traditionally) with mayonnaise, lettuce & tomato, with ketchup and Tabasco sauce to taste.

    AND BIG. Huge sandwiches. With at least half-dozen plump, juicy, meaty perfectly-fried oysters.
    Originally food for farmers and dockworkers, I think ?
    (Similarly, for oysters, in Victorian England.)

    Pepys was fairly keen on them, too.


  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Only plebs think Posh Spice is Posh.
    She needed to be posh when fame and fortune Beckhamed.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,783
    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    This is coming from someone who once posted (and it stuck in my mind from so long ago it was so striking) you were down the pub watching the rugby drinking white wine. Drinking white wine? I drink bitter in the pub, my wife drinks white wine.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,215
    edited December 2023

    DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Only plebs think Posh Spice is Posh.
    Next you will be saying that Emma Bunton was more than a year old.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    Nigelb said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Good, more for us oyster lovers.

    First encountered the bivalve in New Orleans at Acme & Felix oyster bars (can't remember which I went to first) on Iberville Street in the French Quarter.

    Plump oysters - typical pronounced "ersters" by the locals - on the half shell. Ordered half dozen, washed down with cold Dixie and/or Jax beer then the hometown brews of NO.

    Then I ordered another half dozen. Then went across street to the other oyster bar . . .

    About same time, discovered the Po' Boy. My favorites being oyster and shrimp in that order.

    And my friends, this was back when a po' boy damn sure WAS a po' boy. Very traditional, with very fresh French bread, oysters deep fried while you waited and sometimes watched, then "dressed" (also very traditionally) with mayonnaise, lettuce & tomato, with ketchup and Tabasco sauce to taste.

    AND BIG. Huge sandwiches. With at least half-dozen plump, juicy, meaty perfectly-fried oysters.
    Originally food for farmers and dockworkers, I think ?
    (Similarly, for oysters, in Victorian England.)

    Pepys was fairly keen on them, too.


    Apocryphally - maybe really - there was once a strike by 'prentices and marketboys in London because they were being fed "too much salmon and oysters"

    At the time these were seen as proletarian, everyday food. However, as you rightly state. Pepys talks approvingly of these foods, and he was a social-climbing snob

    Perhaps centuries elapsed between the two things, explaining the discrepancy
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,818
    edited December 2023

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Oyster? I just use my Contactless card these days :lol:
    Personally have an Orca card in my wallet, good for travel on local & regional busses, ferries and light rail.

    BTW (also FYI) Orcas LOVE Oysters.
    Orcas? Oysters?! Don't you mean sea otters and walruses?

    Have a happy memory of a trip to Seattle for a conference and having a plane ticket which meant that effectively I got two days' free to look around - one visit was to the aquarium near the Pioneer Market to see the otters, auks, etc. etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAlztMwWoE4
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631
    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    I wouldn't go so far, but sparkling wine is wasted on me. I can drink it, but far prefer still wines.

    As for oysters, I think them overrated. They never live up to their reputation. I had a dozen once and only eight of them worked.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Only plebs think Posh Spice is Posh.
    Next you will be saying that Emma Bunton was more than a year old.
    A Spice Girl's lot is not an 'appy one.
  • On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067

    Leon said:

    DougSeal said:

    Leon said:

    Contra the skepticism on the prior thread, I can happily report that J Sheekeys (after a post-pandemic wobble) is back to its oyster shucking best

    The Jersey natives are incredible: morsels of intense oceanic sweetness

    And the fruits de mer for one is spiffingly generous (ie. enough for two, easily). With pukka chips. And a whole load of Xmas cheer in central London taaaaan, which is ebullient and full of life. Charlotte St in particular seems entirely healed from Covid now, indeed better than ever, and is rocking the festive season

    9/10

    My ex-Boss was a big fan of J Sheekeys. He took me there. After lunch, by mid-afternoon, I was performing an intestinal pyrotechnic show in the gents so loud people in the corridor, probably the street, could hear. No one at that firm ever looked at me the same way again. I spent most of the journey home on the floor of the train toilet praying for death’s merciful release.

    The wine was good though, IIRC. So 5/10.
    Sheekey's is the equal second best oyster bar in London. alongside Bentleys

    Scott's is first

    Randall and Aubin is probably fourth, Wright Brothers fifth, or Fishworks maybe?

    Sheeks has the best atmos especially around Xmas, coz of Soho, Covent Garden and theatreland

    Scott's is supreme for absolutely food quality, however
    Does anyone want their fish pie recipe?

    ETA - I mean Sheekey's
    Yes.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631
    Carnyx said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Oyster? I just use my Contactless card these days :lol:
    Personally have an Orca card in my wallet, good for travel on local & regional busses, ferries and light rail.

    BTW (also FYI) Orcas LOVE Oysters.
    Orcas? Oysters?! Don't you mean sea otters and walruses?

    Have a happy memory of a trip to Seattle for a conference and having a plane ticket which meant that effectively I got two days' free to look around - one visit was to the aquarium near the Pioneer Market to see the otters, auks, etc. etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAlztMwWoE4
    Glad someone brought up walruses in this context, as Walruses have the biggest penis bone.

    https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/walrus-baculum.html

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    .
    Carnyx said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Oyster? I just use my Contactless card these days :lol:
    Personally have an Orca card in my wallet, good for travel on local & regional busses, ferries and light rail.

    BTW (also FYI) Orcas LOVE Oysters.
    Orcas? Oysters?! Don't you mean sea otters and walruses?

    Have a happy memory of a trip to Seattle for a conference and having a plane ticket which meant that effectively I got two days' free to look around - one visit was to the aquarium near the Pioneer Market to see the otters, auks, etc. etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAlztMwWoE4
    Orcas like sea otters - they apparently see them as something like hairy popcorn…
  • Foxy said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    I wouldn't go so far, but sparkling wine is wasted on me. I can drink it, but far prefer still wines.

    As for oysters, I think them overrated. They never live up to their reputation. I had a dozen once and only eight of them worked.
    I went to Cornwall once. I had a Cornish pasty and chips. It was lovely! 👍
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    I flew on Ryanair at the weekend. Booked a front row seat for £21. At the gate they inexplicably changed my seat to one at the back which I refused to accept, I just sat in the original seat. They had reallocated the seat to someone who hadn't paid extra for it but fortunately she wasn't bothered and just agreed to sit in another seat that was empty.

    I am confused by this airline. They sell tickets for below cost price. They need to make up the difference by selling extra services, then when you pay for them, they do insulting things like this. Why don't they actually try and make an effort? It is like they prioritise their hatred for customers over everything else.

  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930

    Should I be worried that I cannot come up with a single innuendo in the headline for the thread I'm writing about Peter Bone and the by election?

    The Peter Principle.
  • On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
    It's 2 May. Fire up the Tesla!
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,494
    edited December 2023

    DougSeal said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    I think she was underrated. While Sporty and Scary were the heart and soul of the band, Posh caught the zeitgeist more than the others.
    Only plebs think Posh Spice is Posh.
    I think it was proven when she used to shut the toilet door when on the pot. So posh she is
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,818
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Oyster? I just use my Contactless card these days :lol:
    Personally have an Orca card in my wallet, good for travel on local & regional busses, ferries and light rail.

    BTW (also FYI) Orcas LOVE Oysters.
    Orcas? Oysters?! Don't you mean sea otters and walruses?

    Have a happy memory of a trip to Seattle for a conference and having a plane ticket which meant that effectively I got two days' free to look around - one visit was to the aquarium near the Pioneer Market to see the otters, auks, etc. etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAlztMwWoE4
    Glad someone brought up walruses in this context, as Walruses have the biggest penis bone.

    https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/walrus-baculum.html

    Oh, yes. I got one of those in my finals exam many, many years ago. Proud to say I nailed it. (The secret is, it has no synovial joint or epiphyseal plate at either end, and it's bilaterally symmetrical, and at that size ...).
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930
    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,818
    darkage said:

    I flew on Ryanair at the weekend. Booked a front row seat for £21. At the gate they inexplicably changed my seat to one at the back which I refused to accept, I just sat in the original seat. They had reallocated the seat to someone who hadn't paid extra for it but fortunately she wasn't bothered and just agreed to sit in another seat that was empty.

    I am confused by this airline. They sell tickets for below cost price. They need to make up the difference by selling extra services, then when you pay for them, they do insulting things like this. Why don't they actually try and make an effort? It is like they prioritise their hatred for customers over everything else.

    Was the lady, erm, a lot smaller than you? That is the excuse I have had with airlines with a much better rep - the need for wight distribution, albeit in a much smaller plane than Ryanair bother with.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,818

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Veblenian conspicuous consumption, innit. Special glasses, big pop, so everyone for dozens of yards knows what you are having.

    Depending on the colour, the other drinks are indistinguishable from piss at a distance.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    The point is you aren't drink and eat what you enjoy was the whole point. Don't start telling people they are wrong for disliking things and not manly
  • On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
    And his choice is either to put down his one remaining chip in May, when it almost certainly loses, or bide his time until October when he even more almost certainly loses. The effect of people remortgaging trumps any tax cuts he can pretend to offer.

    Even if May leads to a smaller defeat for the party, October leads to a better, longer stay in No 10 for Sunak and a longer time in Parliament for many of his MPs.

    And that's his dilemma.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rates and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    Leon said:

    The division between those who love oysters and those who loathe them is one of the most brutal and interesting in the culinary world, maybe in all humanity

    I don't deny I perceive a fundamental inadequacy and an unearned but real inferiority in the oyster-loathers

    Not really.
    There are just those who like them, those who don’t - and those who didn’t fancy the idea of trying them at all. Just like quite a few other foods.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930
    Only 13.2% of Wellingborough voters signed Bone’s recall petition. That must mean 86.8% of Wellingborough voters must have been dead, in hospital, in jail, out of the country or intellectually challenged.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,723
    Amazing cricket score. 267 for 3.@ 20 overs
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    Only 13.2% of Wellingborough voters signed Bone’s recall petition. That must mean 86.8% of Wellingborough voters must have been dead, in hospital, in jail, out of the country or intellectually challenged.

    Or illiterate.

    Perhaps they attended schools judged 'Outstanding' by Chris Russell.
  • Enjoyed my kids nativity tonight, proud of my eldest, she told her teacher that she wanted a speaking role this year and was told the only speaking role unassigned yet was a boy role and would she be happy to be a boy in the nativity? She said yes, so tonight she was Joseph.

    As we got closer to today she started to get more nervous, would people make fun of her for being a boy - I said that its acting and everyone's playing a role, her younger sister (a sheep in the nativity) backed that up by saying she's "a human and not a sheep, but she's playing a sheep" so no reason she couldn't be Joseph.

    In the end she did it, and did it well. :)
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372
    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rates and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    Are you kidding?
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    edited December 2023

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne suffers from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rat
    es and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    That all sounds great, and fab, and I agree with 90% and I will buy your wine in Whitstable, but there is simply no way I am ever going to "Deptford High Street"
  • On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
    And his choice is either to put down his one remaining chip in May, when it almost certainly loses, or bide his time until October when he even more almost certainly loses. The effect of people remortgaging trumps any tax cuts he can pretend to offer.

    Even if May leads to a smaller defeat for the party, October leads to a better, longer stay in No 10 for Sunak and a longer time in Parliament for many of his MPs.

    And that's his dilemma.
    The longer he drags it on the more damage is done to the party. His one wildcard is the Labour war against sanity Starmer.

    Its entirely possible that Starmer collapses that lead. Its big but its soft. May blew things up, could Starmer also falter? Especially when put under the right amount of stress?
  • Back to Tax, if I may .... I know someone who lives in Scotland but commutes over the border to work in Newcastle. Will he get taxed at the new higher Scottish rate, or the lower English one? Is he taxed according to his residence or his place of employment?
  • Amazing cricket score. 267 for 3.@ 20 overs

    Truly incredible batting, nominative determination again as Salt is well worth his salt.
  • kjh said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    This is coming from someone who once posted (and it stuck in my mind from so long ago it was so striking) you were down the pub watching the rugby drinking white wine. Drinking white wine? I drink bitter in the pub, my wife drinks white wine.
    Maybe he meant to say he was having a white whine.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    edited December 2023

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne gets you pissed much quicker. Because of the bubbles. This is why it is popularly served at social receptions where a more instaneous intoxication, or cheeriness, is required
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930
    Leon said:

    The division between those who love oysters and those who loathe them is one of the most brutal and interesting in the culinary world, maybe in all humanity

    I don't deny I perceive a fundamental inadequacy and an unearned but real inferiority in the oyster-loathers

    They’re ok, but not as tasty as slow roasted venison, beef, lamb, hogget and mutton. Does that mean I’m beyond the pale?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    Back to Tax, if I may .... I know someone who lives in Scotland but commutes over the border to work in Newcastle. Will he get taxed at the new higher Scottish rate, or the lower English one? Is he taxed according to his residence or his place of employment?

    If he lives in Scotland, he pays Scottish tax rates.

    https://greaveswestayre.co.uk/news-and-events/blog/living-in-one-country-working-in-another-what-are-the-tax-implications/
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,246
    edited December 2023
    Nice to see we're almost back on topic.

    The problem with fish (pace Leon's London apprentices) is that it all tastes of ... fish ... especially when cooked the English way. In the non-English way you get fish korma, fish vindaloo and various stages in between but that is to create a distinction where no difference exists. It's a marvel of nature that fish - monk, oyster, salmon, hake ... ad infinitim - all taste the same no matter how diverse their appearance.

    Once a week is OK, as with many other things.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    edited December 2023
    ydoethur said:

    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rates and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    Are you kidding?
    No need to go all gruff on me.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,263
    TimS said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne differs from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
    No, there is an actual reason. And I have cited it below
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870

    Back to Tax, if I may .... I know someone who lives in Scotland but commutes over the border to work in Newcastle. Will he get taxed at the new higher Scottish rate, or the lower English one? Is he taxed according to his residence or his place of employment?

    I think its residence
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372
    TimS said:

    ydoethur said:

    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rates and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    Are you kidding?
    No need to go all gruff on me.
    No, butt I enjoy a good pun.
  • Back to Tax, if I may .... I know someone who lives in Scotland but commutes over the border to work in Newcastle. Will he get taxed at the new higher Scottish rate, or the lower English one? Is he taxed according to his residence or his place of employment?

    Residence! Watch the creation of new tax exiles. How many days do you need to be resident in England to be resident there for tax purposes?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631

    Only 13.2% of Wellingborough voters signed Bone’s recall petition. That must mean 86.8% of Wellingborough voters must have been dead, in hospital, in jail, out of the country or intellectually challenged.

    On current polling a narrow Labour win.

    https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1737213359995441496?t=mT1czQDClcPFQasTuqGzyg&s=19

    If so, it confirms the polls that predict a Tory bloodbath.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rat
    es and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    That all sounds great, and fab, and I agree with 90% and I will buy your wine in Whitstable, but there is simply no way I am ever going to "Deptford High Street"
    Not manly enough for Deptford

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62693537.amp
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne differs from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
    No, there is an actual reason. And I have cited it below
    Yes I agree, the pissed quicker thing does work. Hence also martinis.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    Hmmm

    Biden leads Trump among likely voters by 47% to 45% in the new NY Times/Siena poll
    https://twitter.com/geoffgarin/status/1737091916167000496
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930
    ydoethur said:

    Only 13.2% of Wellingborough voters signed Bone’s recall petition. That must mean 86.8% of Wellingborough voters must have been dead, in hospital, in jail, out of the country or intellectually challenged.

    Or illiterate.

    Perhaps they attended schools judged 'Outstanding' by Chris Russell.
    I hadn’t considered the possibility that 86.8% of Wellingborough voters were employed by Ofsted.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,870
    Most of my team are scottish, the ones affected by the new tax rate are already looking at paying more into penisons/salary sacrifice schemes. One also remarked when I mentioned it that most of what it collected was going to be spent on collecting it
  • TimS said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    I left nearly 2 hours ago to serve up my boiled goat and it’s gratifying to see we’re still discussing oysters.

    Not the laffer curve though. The funny thing is I spend much time in my day job arguing the ins and outs of high tax rat
    es and behaviour so I’m far from immune from the charms of laffer. I just don’t like it sprayed about as some kind of law of physics.

    On oysters, there’s a very important thing to know. Not only are they delicious (and the French gobble them on Christmas Eve to counter the sadness they feel at not having Carols from Kings), but they are perfectly matched wine made from Melon de Bourgogne, aka Muscadet.

    There is one vineyard, only one, in the UK that has ever attempted to grow Melon B, and it’s mine. First English Muscadets released probably in 2025 or 26. We are a few miles from Whitatable so I hope to sell much of it there.

    Second thing is on boiled goat. I decided this evening the family should have a pot au feu / bollito misto, so I wandered down to Deptford high street and picked up some Endy bits of beef, some goat scrag end and a few turnips, and boiled it all up in the pressure cooker with parsley, potatoes and little carrots. You should do this. Delicious. Yet strangely virtuous feeling.
    .

    That all sounds great, and fab, and I agree with 90% and I will buy your wine in Whitstable, but there is simply no way I am ever going to "Deptford High Street"
    Not manly enough for Deptford

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62693537.amp
    Deptford station dates from 1836, oldest station in London that's still in use!
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne differs from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
    No, there is an actual reason. And I have cited it below
    Yes I agree, the pissed quicker thing does work. Hence also martinis.
    Why don’t they serve soju, then ?
    Cheap, too.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,653
    Incoming by-election!

    Peter Bone MP loses seat as recall petition triggers by-election

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67767890
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,786
    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne differs from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
    No, there is an actual reason. And I have cited it below
    Champagne makes me fart.

    Oysters are ... ok. I like a seafoody taste, but I find a food you're supposed to drink challenging. I prefer mussels, tbh. Or cockles. Or prawns.
    And I prefer cava to champagne. Though if I were offered a glass of champagne right now I would cheerfully accept.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne gets you pissed much quicker. Because of the bubbles. This is why it is popularly served at social receptions where a more instaneous intoxication, or cheeriness, is required
    So, if I were to market fizzy Buckfast, I would make my fortune in the wine bars of Govan?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631

    On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
    And his choice is either to put down his one remaining chip in May, when it almost certainly loses, or bide his time until October when he even more almost certainly loses. The effect of people remortgaging trumps any tax cuts he can pretend to offer.

    Even if May leads to a smaller defeat for the party, October leads to a better, longer stay in No 10 for Sunak and a longer time in Parliament for many of his MPs.

    And that's his dilemma.
    Interesting polling today on homeowners.



    I expected that the owners without mortgages would be either wealthy or retired or both. Nonetheless Labour running a pretty close second in a core Tory demographic.

    Can Starmer get out the grey vote?
  • Incoming by-election!

    Peter Bone MP loses seat as recall petition triggers by-election

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67767890

    Brenda from Bristol voice: "Not another one!"
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,930

    Nice to see we're almost back on topic.

    The problem with fish (pace Leon's London apprentices) is that it all tastes of ... fish ... especially when cooked the English way. In the non-English way you get fish korma, fish vindaloo and various stages in between but that is to create a distinction where no difference exists. It's a marvel of nature that fish - monk, oyster, salmon, hake ... ad infinitim - all taste the same no matter how diverse their appearance.

    Once a week is OK, as with many other things.

    There are two things that smell of fish. One of them is fish.
  • What a start! Windies chasing 268 and first ball is a golden duck. 🤣
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,818

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne gets you pissed much quicker. Because of the bubbles. This is why it is popularly served at social receptions where a more instaneous intoxication, or cheeriness, is required
    So, if I were to market fizzy Buckfast, I would make my fortune in the wine bars of Govan?
    What do you need fizz for?

    "Flavour: Intense and sweet aromas of wild fruits such as plums and cherries, intertwined with notes of cola and a touch of anise.

    Taste: It has a sweet and corpulent entrance. On the palate delicious cherry notes are released; shows its soft and pleasant texture."

    https://www.mitchellswine.co.uk/shop/champagne_and_sparkling/sparkling/?=buckfast_tonic_wine&ref=4326
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,188

    So nominative determinism strikes again.

    First it was Chris Pincher, now Peter Bone, should Rishi Sunak be worried about Greg Hands?

    There's always an exception to the rule, I give you James Cleverly.
    Michelle Mone
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,786

    What a start! Windies chasing 268 and first ball is a golden duck. 🤣

    Oh, hello Bart. I was just thinking I hadn't seen you in a while. Have you been taking a break or have I just failed to coincide with you lately?

    A pedant would point out that 'first ball is a golden duck' is a tautology.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,653
    I like oysters but tbh I prefer scallops.

    Champagne has a difficult-to-define quality that most other fizzes don't have, the best English sparkling wines made the same way being an exception. It's a depth of flavour or rather an underlying toasted flavour. Hard to beat.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372
    Foxy said:

    On topic - November next year.

    Mr Sunak will use the LE as a test run for a June election. When the results are, ahem, not quite what he needs then he will panic and delay until November.

    It doesn't matter. Neither immigration nor oysters will save him

    My assumption all along had been that he would go late. Why wouldn't he? But then came the autumn statement, and we have plenty of evidence that Plan A is 2nd May.

    Sunak needs momentum - not just to try and recover the polls, but also to bowl out the lunatics in the five families / ReFUK. A push towards an election is the best momentum he will get.

    By March they will know that the Rwanda bill has bogged down. That's its purpose. Blame the Blob / Labour / Woke, run an immigration election, "the people's priorities vs Labour" etc and hope that Starmer trips himself up.

    Or, don't. Wait it out. Rwanda bogs down with no end in sight. 5 Families out for blood, Farage out for more. Polls not closing. And no cards left to play.
    And his choice is either to put down his one remaining chip in May, when it almost certainly loses, or bide his time until October when he even more almost certainly loses. The effect of people remortgaging trumps any tax cuts he can pretend to offer.

    Even if May leads to a smaller defeat for the party, October leads to a better, longer stay in No 10 for Sunak and a longer time in Parliament for many of his MPs.

    And that's his dilemma.
    Interesting polling today on homeowners.



    I expected that the owners without mortgages would be either wealthy or retired or both. Nonetheless Labour running a pretty close second in a core Tory demographic.

    Can Starmer get out the grey vote?
    By definition, anyone who has a house with no mortgage significantly before retirement in today's housing market must be fairly wealthy.*

    A much bigger problem is they may not feel as if they are.

    *As of today, this could include me although having fixed for 5 years at 1.6% two years ago I'm in no hurry to actually do so.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,786

    Nice to see we're almost back on topic.

    The problem with fish (pace Leon's London apprentices) is that it all tastes of ... fish ... especially when cooked the English way. In the non-English way you get fish korma, fish vindaloo and various stages in between but that is to create a distinction where no difference exists. It's a marvel of nature that fish - monk, oyster, salmon, hake ... ad infinitim - all taste the same no matter how diverse their appearance.

    Once a week is OK, as with many other things.

    There are two things that smell of fish. One of them is fish.
    I'm not sure they do all taste the same. I can't tell battered cod from battered haddock - but I can tell salmon from cod from plaice from prawn.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,372

    What a start! Windies chasing 268 and first ball is a golden duck. 🤣

    I'm blaming you for those 20 runs.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    Cookie said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    eristdoof said:

    Leon said:

    That said I had some jolly nice oysters at the Red Lion and Sun, a gastropub in Highgate, yesterday

    You can find oyster quality in odd places, but the more peripheral tend to be more variable (and you do NOT want variablity in oysters)

    Your right I do not want variability in my oysters. I want no oysters.
    Can't trust a man who doesn't love oysters. Sorry. It is the ultimate test of masculine soundness

    It means you have overcome your natural but childish aversion to something that looks like donkey phlegm in an ashtray, and you have thought: I can do this. And you've girded your loins and you've tipped back your half shell and you've slurped it all up and then you've realised OMFG they're fantastic!!! And a lifelong love is born: because you were brave

    THAT, my friends, THAT is a man
    I have eaten oysters on several occasions they are fucking disgusting. However I am enough of a man to say they are fucking disgusting rather than to go with the flow because they are seen as haute cuisine by people like you who I suspect mostly go along with this shit because to not like oysters or champagne or caviar somehow marks you down as one of the hoi polloi....Oysters really are disgusting, fizzy wine is foul as for caviar it tastes salty is about the only thing you can say about it. You want to pay huge prices for overrated trash be my guest
    Matter of taste, I think.
    I love almost all seafood, oysters included; my wife dislikes almost all, ditto. Posh is irrelevant in this case.
    It is a matter of taste and there is certainly a food snobbery around many things like champagne, caviar, oysters . That was the whole gist of leons post in essence....you are not man enough to eat them else you would love them.... now imagine saying that to someone about for example liver which many people detest. Personally I enjoy it but I don't claim people are deficient for not sharing my taste.

    Champagne is the worst of it....get offered a glass and go no thanks and its all "but this is champagne" I have tried many from high to low end frankly I would rather put my own urine in a soda stream than drink the muck....hell I would rather have a pint of watneys red barrel than a glass of champagne and that really is foul
    Could someone please explain why I am supposed to enjoy champagne more than wine, real ale, malt whisky, or even piss?
    Champagne differs from its own uppityness. It’s delicious, though English or Welsh sparkling wine is of course equally delicious, but because it’s seen as an occasion wine most people don’t actually drink it for the taste. Or have too high expectations. Which is a shame. It’s simply a good drink, better than crémants or cava, but not holy water.
    No, there is an actual reason. And I have cited it below
    Champagne makes me fart.

    Oysters are ... ok. I like a seafoody taste, but I find a food you're supposed to drink challenging. I prefer mussels, tbh. Or cockles. Or prawns.
    And I prefer cava to champagne. Though if I were offered a glass of champagne right now I would cheerfully accept.
    Champagne (and Cava) do of course cover a vast array of flavour profiles, varietal mixes, ages etc. But generic Cava plus a tiny dab of fino sherry is a lovely combination.
  • Cookie said:

    What a start! Windies chasing 268 and first ball is a golden duck. 🤣

    Oh, hello Bart. I was just thinking I hadn't seen you in a while. Have you been taking a break or have I just failed to coincide with you lately?

    A pedant would point out that 'first ball is a golden duck' is a tautology.
    Been taking a break.

    Only partially tautological, you can have both a golden duck that's not the first ball of an innings of course, as well as a first ball of an innings that's not a wicket so not a golden duck either.

    This match has everything though, Windies making quick work of scoring now to stay in the match for now at least.
  • Pagan2 said:

    Most of my team are scottish, the ones affected by the new tax rate are already looking at paying more into penisons/salary sacrifice schemes. One also remarked when I mentioned it that most of what it collected was going to be spent on collecting it

    Question - whilst tax rates are devolved to Holyrood, is collection? Isn't HMRC responsible for collecting taxes north of the wall? The same HMRC cut to the bone by the Tories?

    Gift Week for Scottish accountants. Will drop a merry Christmas email to mine, wonder how happy he is...
This discussion has been closed.