@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Portman Road is about ten minutes walk from Ipswich railway station, does that count?
Walking to the City Ground from the station is/was half the fun.
Fun fact. There’s a fully functioning train station, linked to the mainline station, right next to Coventry’s new (well 2000ish) station. It doesn’t run on match days….
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
I'm starting the night playing Poker, which will pause for the exit poll, which will include beer. after the poker finishes the rest of the night will be English Whiskey interleaved with Coffees.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park railway station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand (I can vouch for this!).
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
Back to politics and betting for a moment. Those who recall my epic "London Falling" thread from a couple of weeks back my recall I offered these as attractive bets for the election:
Harrow East – CON 9/4 Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner – CON 4/5 Bromley & Biggin Hill – CON 11/8 Croydon East – CON 10/1 Croydon South – CON 2/1 Romford – CON 6/4
In the light of some comments expressing the view the Conservatives may not do too badly in Outer London compared with other areas, I thought I'd see what I was standing in against the latest Survation MRP.
Harrow East - Lab 41.4%, Con 38.6% - Conservatives out to 5/2 but looks a decent bet. Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner - Lab 34.6%, Con 34.2% - Conservatives still 4/5, Labour 10/11 so the bookies taking no chances. Bromley & Biggin Hill Lab 36.8%., Con 28.8% - Conservatives still 11/8 but I may be on the wrong side of the bet. Croydon East Lab 46.6%, Con 26.2% - Conservatives still 10/1. The humble pie is in the oven and cooking slowly but I will be astonished if Labour win this by 20 points. Croydon South Lab 46.7%, Con 31.4% - Conservatives now 5/2. Rather like Harrow East, I don't believe the MRP but as I've said on here more than once just before you don't believe or can conceive of something happening doesn't mean it can't happen. Romford Lab 36.3%, Con 35% - Conservatives 6/4 and I'm still happy with the bet.
I also offered Sutton & Cheam as an LD gain at 11/10. The Survation MRP has the LDs at 31.1% and the Conservatives at 25.7%. The LDs are now 10/11 with the Conservatives at 11/10 so I might just be on the right side of that one.
Closer to home (well, my home) the MRP for East Ham has Labour down to 65% and the Conservatives at 10.6% with a real scrap on for third between the Greens, Reform and the Newham Indpendents.
I have Labour friends in Croydon East - they are quietly confident though taking no chances.
It's mostly the old Croydon Central seat, which had a 6,000 Labour majority last time. Something weird would have to happen to go Tory (although the council going bankrupt in 2020 under Labour might have some effect I suppose).
Back to politics and betting for a moment. Those who recall my epic "London Falling" thread from a couple of weeks back my recall I offered these as attractive bets for the election:
Harrow East – CON 9/4 Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner – CON 4/5 Bromley & Biggin Hill – CON 11/8 Croydon East – CON 10/1 Croydon South – CON 2/1 Romford – CON 6/4
In the light of some comments expressing the view the Conservatives may not do too badly in Outer London compared with other areas, I thought I'd see what I was standing in against the latest Survation MRP.
Harrow East - Lab 41.4%, Con 38.6% - Conservatives out to 5/2 but looks a decent bet. Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner - Lab 34.6%, Con 34.2% - Conservatives still 4/5, Labour 10/11 so the bookies taking no chances. Bromley & Biggin Hill Lab 36.8%., Con 28.8% - Conservatives still 11/8 but I may be on the wrong side of the bet. Croydon East Lab 46.6%, Con 26.2% - Conservatives still 10/1. The humble pie is in the oven and cooking slowly but I will be astonished if Labour win this by 20 points. Croydon South Lab 46.7%, Con 31.4% - Conservatives now 5/2. Rather like Harrow East, I don't believe the MRP but as I've said on here more than once just before you don't believe or can conceive of something happening doesn't mean it can't happen. Romford Lab 36.3%, Con 35% - Conservatives 6/4 and I'm still happy with the bet.
I also offered Sutton & Cheam as an LD gain at 11/10. The Survation MRP has the LDs at 31.1% and the Conservatives at 25.7%. The LDs are now 10/11 with the Conservatives at 11/10 so I might just be on the right side of that one.
Closer to home (well, my home) the MRP for East Ham has Labour down to 65% and the Conservatives at 10.6% with a real scrap on for third between the Greens, Reform and the Newham Indpendents.
I have Labour friends in Croydon East - they are quietly confident though taking no chances.
The only one in Croydon that could be interesting is Croydon South.
Unless New Addington, Forestdale & Monks Orchared have suddenly become uberFaragist, East should be a case of Labour weighing the vote.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Reading Green Park train station has just opened - meaning there's trains to 10 minutes from the stadium and the walk is easily the most picturesque walk to a stadium in the country: https://x.com/TheTilehurstEnd/status/1789268633580879902
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand.
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
One of the only stations named after a football ground too.
The original name of Lion's Holt Halt was more whimsical though.
Although I am very much in the camp that AI isn't going to be all jobs in every sector in 2-3 years, not to be even having a discussion about how it will effect education and work is quite crazy. We know productivity is piss poor, we should be looking at what it can do for many aspects of the state (this is where Big Dom was actually onto something).
The GE is quite weird. Labour nor Tories really have any big new ideas, its just rehashing old policies with new names as if the world hasn't changed at all since 1997. Other big issues like knife crime, shop lifting, phone snatching, the most I have heard is some nonsense from Labour about well we will make Apple make it harder to reactivate them (but they already all go to China where this is irrelevant).
I’ve talked with people in the film/TV graphics business about AI. Because it has trouble with context, it is, once again useful as an autocomplete tool for small pieces of the work. Bit like how the old masters had a horde of assistants who filled in backgrounds for them.
Same in my industry - software development. It’s being used as a somewhat improved code completion tool. Once you beyond doing some simple functions it rapidly becomes a tool for generating code that does the wrong thing.
For soft stuff it is interesting - ask it what topics are missing in an essay, for example.
There will probably be an arms race to generate vast piles of documents, in certain jobs - and to read them and condense them on the other end.
I'd imagine in editing/producing, it'll be able to do a lot of the initial work. Chopping up the story, identifying different people, transcribing dialogue, and making connections. It probably won't be able to do the 'human' side of understanding humour, but it's not like we need more TV. If it can be made cheaper then there is likely not to be as much work.
I'm an artist, who works mostly designing book covers, and sadly that's something that AI finds far too easy.
If things worked according to predictions there should by now be virtually no hard copy books because of internet, kindle, smartphones and all that; and therefore already no book covers.
Books (I predict) will do fine. I hope the same can be said for proper covers.
The economics of books are a bit weird, though -- there was an interesting blog post a while back analysing the evidence given in the recent Penguin/Simon & Schuster merger lawsuit: https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books . Apparently almost all books are very low sales subsidised by the handful of unexpected breakout hits (think Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc) and backlist perennials like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. So unless AI can reliably write bestsellers (or reliably identify the bestsellers by reading the slushpile!) I don't think it will upend the business model. Filtering of incoming submissions probably the easiest place to apply it first, I guess.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Portman Road is about ten minutes walk from Ipswich railway station, does that count?
Gillingham Station is similarly only about 12 minutes from Priestfield.
Ipswich were voted into the Football League at Gillingham’s expense back in the day which is why I’ve kept my allegiance quiet in this part of the world.
One of the stands at the Hawthorns is the Halfords Lane Stand, on surprisingly enough Halfords Lane, at the bottom of Halfords Lane is the Hawthorns Station. A ten to 15 minute walk. Back in the day Halesowen Baggies had a fanzine called Last Train to Rolfe Street, Smethwick Rolfe Street station is a bit further away, but not far.
Today's factoid: In the BBC detective series New Tricks Jimmy Bolam plays DI Halford, Alun Armstrong plays DI Lane and Denis Waterman plays DI Standing- Halfords Lane Standing!
Just wanted to say that after Stephen Frys latest outburst, there can be no doubt that he is C@@t of epic proportions. No amount of apologising is going to alter this verité
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
I'm starting the night playing Poker, which will pause for the exit poll, which will include beer. after the poker finishes the rest of the night will be English Whiskey interleaved with Coffees.
If I was Starmer I would be praying for a poll showing Labour lead down to 4-5% to put the wind up those tempted to vote SNP/Green/Libdem "as Labour will win anyway"
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park railway station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand (I can vouch for this!).
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
Does St James' Park (Newcastle) not literally have a train station underneath it?
The argument among Philhellenes has always been that the Greeks invented democracy (except for women, slaves, metics, ie 90% of the population), and that Ottoman rule was totally illegitimate. Hence, the Ottomans had no right to give away the marbles that the locals didn’t care about.
It shows Labour 427 seats, Conservative 134, Liberal Democrat 48, and SNP 18, giving an overall Labour majority of 206.
That forecast uses the current default settings, fairly similar to those used for reasonably accurate forecasts in the past, using the actual candidate list and taking some account of incumbency and tactical voting. To be honest, though, it is very easy to produce a range of results just by adjusting the algorithm slightly, ranging from similar to most MRP polls (Con seats 83) through to similar to UNS (Con seats 175). Which is correct in the current political circumstances? After some detailed research, and reading some of the experts in the field - I wish I knew!
This looks about right to me, and would suit my betting position, much as I would like to see the Tories down to double figures.
Reform null points I see.
It's still quite difficult to forecast any Reform gains without adding in candidate-specific code to the algorithm.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park railway station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand (I can vouch for this!).
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
Does St James' Park (Newcastle) not literally have a train station underneath it?
Just wanted to say that after Stephen Frys latest outburst, there can be no doubt that he is C@@t of epic proportions. No amount of apologising is going to alter this verité
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
I'm starting the night playing Poker, which will pause for the exit poll, which will include beer. after the poker finishes the rest of the night will be English Whiskey interleaved with Coffees.
I've tried a few of the St Georges Distillery whiskeys which are nice but not in the same league as wire works.
I need to get myself a bottle or two of Costwolds as what I tasted was nice but heading out on holiday I didn't want to buy a bottle there and then.
Interesting, thanks. I will have a look. I’ve never thought to look into it. It feels like a hard thing to start from scratch because of the casks, but time to broaden my mind.
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park railway station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand (I can vouch for this!).
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
Does St James' Park (Newcastle) not literally have a train station underneath it?
Fry keeps having yo apologise for the tone of his comments. He does it because he is now old and it's the only way to get his name in the news. The MCC must be regretting offering him the Presidency.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Exeter City. St James’ Park station is right next to the stadium St James’ Park. A 30-second walk from the Big Bank stand.
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
One of the only stations named after a football ground too.
The original name of Lion's Holt Halt was more whimsical though.
I didn’t know that about Lion’s Holt Halt. Thank you. Great info.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
You can travel to St James' Park, Gateshead Stadium and the Stadium of Shite on the Tyne & Wear Metro.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
Portman Road is about ten minutes walk from Ipswich railway station, does that count?
Gillingham Station is similarly only about 12 minutes from Priestfield.
Ipswich were voted into the Football League at Gillingham’s expense back in the day which is why I’ve kept my allegiance quiet in this part of the world.
One of the stands at the Hawthorns is the Halfords Lane Stand, on surprisingly enough Halfords Lane, at the bottom of Halfords Lane is the Hawthorns Station. A ten to 15 minute walk. Back in the day Halesowen Baggies had a fanzine called Last Train to Rolfe Street, Smethwick Rolfe Street station is a bit further away, but not far.
Today's factoid: In the BBC detective series New Tricks Jimmy Bolam plays DI Halford, Alun Armstrong plays DI Lane and Denis Waterman plays DI Standing- Halfords Lane Standing!
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
I'm starting the night playing Poker, which will pause for the exit poll, which will include beer. after the poker finishes the rest of the night will be English Whiskey interleaved with Coffees.
I've tried a few of the St Georges Distillery whiskeys which are nice but not in the same league as wire works.
I need to get myself a bottle or two of Costwolds as what I tasted was nice but heading out on holiday I didn't want to buy a bottle there and then.
Interesting, thanks. I will have a look. I’ve never thought to look into it. It feels like a hard thing to start from scratch because of the casks, but time to broaden my mind.
The oldest of the new distilleries is St Georges (2006), Wire Works is newer (2018). be aware though, just because they are younger whiskeys it doesn't mean that they are the same as the similar ages Scotch Whiskeys, they mature quicker further south.
Edit: also as they are new distilleries they were designed for taste as opposed to most Scottish distilleries which were designed in the 18th or 19th Century to make as much alcohol as possible
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
You can travel to St James' Park, Gateshead Stadium and the Stadium of Shite on the Tyne & Wear Metro.
Ninian Park Station used to be around the corner from Ninian Park. It's a little bit further to the New Cardiff City Stadium by dint of where the entrance has been sited.
Just wanted to say that after Stephen Frys latest outburst, there can be no doubt that he is C@@t of epic proportions. No amount of apologising is going to alter this verité
I haven't seen it - will have a look.
Is he due for another flounce off Twitter?
At first reading it was not clear whether he meant removing the marbles from the UK or originally from Greece was the issue , and comparable to Hitler.
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Although I am very much in the camp that AI isn't going to be all jobs in every sector in 2-3 years, not to be even having a discussion about how it will effect education and work is quite crazy. We know productivity is piss poor, we should be looking at what it can do for many aspects of the state (this is where Big Dom was actually onto something).
The GE is quite weird. Labour nor Tories really have any big new ideas, its just rehashing old policies with new names as if the world hasn't changed at all since 1997. Other big issues like knife crime, shop lifting, phone snatching, the most I have heard is some nonsense from Labour about well we will make Apple make it harder to reactivate them (but they already all go to China where this is irrelevant).
I’ve talked with people in the film/TV graphics business about AI. Because it has trouble with context, it is, once again useful as an autocomplete tool for small pieces of the work. Bit like how the old masters had a horde of assistants who filled in backgrounds for them.
Same in my industry - software development. It’s being used as a somewhat improved code completion tool. Once you beyond doing some simple functions it rapidly becomes a tool for generating code that does the wrong thing.
For soft stuff it is interesting - ask it what topics are missing in an essay, for example.
There will probably be an arms race to generate vast piles of documents, in certain jobs - and to read them and condense them on the other end.
I'd imagine in editing/producing, it'll be able to do a lot of the initial work. Chopping up the story, identifying different people, transcribing dialogue, and making connections. It probably won't be able to do the 'human' side of understanding humour, but it's not like we need more TV. If it can be made cheaper then there is likely not to be as much work.
I'm an artist, who works mostly designing book covers, and sadly that's something that AI finds far too easy.
If things worked according to predictions there should by now be virtually no hard copy books because of internet, kindle, smartphones and all that; and therefore already no book covers.
Books (I predict) will do fine. I hope the same can be said for proper covers.
Even eBooks need covers - if anything the predictions were that there would be more books published, which is exactly what happened.
The problem is that AI can produce "proper covers" that are better than the majority of designers. Some of the most accomplished artists worked in fantasy and sci-fi, and there are already AI covers in those areas are simply beautiful.
Books will be fine - whether they're written by people is another thing. AI might not be able to write good books, but it will certainly be able to churn out the kind of books that currently sell in big numbers.
I am impressed that you posted that before William Glenn did.
Yes, clearly Trump is serious about pushing for a swift Ukrainian victory. If he said the opposite it would create complacency among Ukraine's European allies and give Russia an opportunity.
Trump is pushing for a swift Ukranian victory? What brings you to that interpretation?
What is the effect of his words if not to push European countries to pull their finger out and reduce dependence on the US?
An alternative theory suggests Trump is a humongous turd who will do his best to see Ukraine defeated. This is to return the favour to his friend Vladimir for his help in subverting the American political system to Trump's personal benefit.
You mean a conspiracy theory?
More like Occam’s razor.
No Western leader spent more time talking with Putin than Angela Merkel, who unilaterally took the decision to close down Germany’s nuclear power stations. Does Occam’s razor apply?
For election night I shall try to pace myself. Its the time up to 0100 or so that needs a bit of trading if betting position not quite right, so best not be too cut.
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
I'm starting the night playing Poker, which will pause for the exit poll, which will include beer. after the poker finishes the rest of the night will be English Whiskey interleaved with Coffees.
Do you have an English whisky recommendation?
My current favourite is White Peak Distillery/Wire Works, The one I like most that they've got on sale at the moment is the Over Smoke (https://product/wire-works-whisky-over-smoke/). but if you see the Necessary Evil finish it's a collaboration with Thornbridge Brewery where both beer and whiskey have been matured int he same barrels (whiskey then beer then whiskey). you can get the beers (https://thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/collections/necessary-evil)
I've tried a few of the St Georges Distillery whiskeys which are nice but not in the same league as wire works.
I need to get myself a bottle or two of Costwolds as what I tasted was nice but heading out on holiday I didn't want to buy a bottle there and then.
Interesting, thanks. I will have a look. I’ve never thought to look into it. It feels like a hard thing to start from scratch because of the casks, but time to broaden my mind.
The oldest of the new distilleries is St Georges (2006), Wire Works is newer (2018). be aware though, just because they are younger whiskeys it doesn't mean that they are the same as the similar ages Scotch Whiskeys, they mature quicker further south.
Edit: also as they are new distilleries they were designed for taste as opposed to most Scottish distilleries which were designed in the 18th or 19th Century to make as much alcohol as possible
Lol. I see they have chosen the Scottish spelling. We should have created a third way.
For election night I shall try to pace myself. Its the time up to 0100 or so that needs a bit of trading if betting position not quite right, so best not be too cut.
A bottle of red and plenty of cheese methinks.
I will wait for the Exit Poll and then go to bed as I will want to be fresh for celebrating the surprise Tory majority with a good pissy lunch on the Friday which will extend into the Saturday.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
Although I am very much in the camp that AI isn't going to be all jobs in every sector in 2-3 years, not to be even having a discussion about how it will effect education and work is quite crazy. We know productivity is piss poor, we should be looking at what it can do for many aspects of the state (this is where Big Dom was actually onto something).
The GE is quite weird. Labour nor Tories really have any big new ideas, its just rehashing old policies with new names as if the world hasn't changed at all since 1997. Other big issues like knife crime, shop lifting, phone snatching, the most I have heard is some nonsense from Labour about well we will make Apple make it harder to reactivate them (but they already all go to China where this is irrelevant).
I’ve talked with people in the film/TV graphics business about AI. Because it has trouble with context, it is, once again useful as an autocomplete tool for small pieces of the work. Bit like how the old masters had a horde of assistants who filled in backgrounds for them.
Same in my industry - software development. It’s being used as a somewhat improved code completion tool. Once you beyond doing some simple functions it rapidly becomes a tool for generating code that does the wrong thing.
For soft stuff it is interesting - ask it what topics are missing in an essay, for example.
There will probably be an arms race to generate vast piles of documents, in certain jobs - and to read them and condense them on the other end.
I'd imagine in editing/producing, it'll be able to do a lot of the initial work. Chopping up the story, identifying different people, transcribing dialogue, and making connections. It probably won't be able to do the 'human' side of understanding humour, but it's not like we need more TV. If it can be made cheaper then there is likely not to be as much work.
I'm an artist, who works mostly designing book covers, and sadly that's something that AI finds far too easy.
If things worked according to predictions there should by now be virtually no hard copy books because of internet, kindle, smartphones and all that; and therefore already no book covers.
Books (I predict) will do fine. I hope the same can be said for proper covers.
Even eBooks need covers - if anything the predictions were that there would be more books published, which is exactly what happened.
The problem is that AI can produce "proper covers" that are better than the majority of designers. Some of the most accomplished artists worked in fantasy and sci-fi, and there are already AI covers in those areas are simply beautiful.
Books will be fine - whether they're written by people is another thing. AI might not be able to write good books, but it will certainly be able to churn out the kind of books that currently sell in big numbers.
How do you decide if one cover is 'better' than another? What metric do you use?
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
The argument among Philhellenes has always been that the Greeks invented democracy (except for women, slaves, metics, ie 90% of the population), and that Ottoman rule was totally illegitimate. Hence, the Ottomans had no right to give away the marbles that the locals didn’t care about.
A preposterous argument, or rather a whole bundle of them. 1. Are you giving them no credit at all for "inventing democracy" because they didn't emerge as fully fledged Guardian readers? Do you also sneer at the loser Newton because his equations break down as you approach c? 2. What evidence do you have as to how much the locals cared about the marbles? Point me to a source: primary or secondary, I don't mind. I'll assess it on its merits. Surely you wouldn't be making this claim purely at random and without evidence? 3. Even if you can make the claim good, so what? I imagine 1943 Parisians didn't care much about the arc de triomphe compared to staying alive. Would that justify the nicking of the arc de triomphe?
Or do you just think to that a posh Scotch earl with a classical education from Harrow has more right to Greece's heritage than a bunch of Greeks?
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Some of us appreciated the picture and the sentiment/actions behind it. It is just apparently easier to mock/criticise than to praise.
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Lovely looking pooch. Looks like will need plenty of walkies.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
Been at Dads making a fuss of him for Father's day, struck by the total lack of electoral paraphernalia anywhere in either of the constituencies travelled through hence and back. I think turnout is going to be absolutely shocking. I'm having a nibble at under 60%. I also think turnout filters on polling are way off as a result, but I'm not sure what effect that would have.
I saw several cars on the M23 with 'Vote Labour' posters in the back window.
Bolton Wanderers is approximately 200 metres from Horwich Parkway station.
Derby County used to have a temporary station when it was at the Baseball Ground, on the Derby to Birmingham line and very near to the ground. The new stadium is next to the old railway loco works, but is much further away from the station. But being the main station in Derby, many more trains call at it than at the old Baseball Ground station.
For me cowgate is the story of the weekend. It seems like evidence that the country is ungovernable. I can't understand why the cow wasn't just shot dead in the first five minutes. It is 500 kilos and running around on the road, it could collide with a car or kill a person by running in to it. If either of these outcomes happened then there would be a different complaint investigation/public inquiry to the one that is now happening. Honestly why are they following a cow around for 5 hours and then there is this half measure of hitting the cow with the car?
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
I wish you many years of joy with your new canine companion.
Bolton Wanderers is approximately 200 metres from Horwich Parkway station.
Derby County used to have a temporary station when it was at the Baseball Ground, on the Derby to Birmingham line and very near to the ground. The new stadium is next to the old railway loco works, but is much further away from the station. But being the main station in Derby, many more trains call at it than at the old Baseball Ground station.
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Sorry.
I will now rescue a beer from the fridge. And rehome it inside me.
@OliverKay For any England or Serbia fans who are still in the middle of Gelsenkirchen (or worse still not there yet), I’d recommend you set off on foot if you can.
It’s about three miles but the public transport situation is a total mess #ENGSER
@OliverKay Agree. It’s been really bad! Nothing like this in 2006
Maybe it's not just Britain where everything is falling apart.
It’s really not. I walk to all football matches, an hour plus. Queues are for mugs. I assumed everyone knew this???
I was staying with friends in Munich over Christmas and saying over dinner how wonderfully efficient and clean it was. The response was along the lines of “Germany’s fucked, we’re looking to move over the border to Austria and hedging our bets with a house in Kent”. The grass is always greener etc.
Other than the London and Manchester clubs, do any English clubs actually have any public transport to any of their grounds, other than buses ?
You can travel to St James' Park, Gateshead Stadium and the Stadium of Shite on the Tyne & Wear Metro.
Ninian Park Station used to be around the corner from Ninian Park. It's a little bit further to the New Cardiff City Stadium by dint of where the entrance has been sited.
Wrexham's Racecourse ground is 200 yards from Wrexham General station. There used to be an even closer stop - Wrexham Exchange - that was directly across the street from the Crispin Lane entrance but it was merged with General and the exit closed so fans have to walk an extra 100 yards.
I am impressed that you posted that before William Glenn did.
Yes, clearly Trump is serious about pushing for a swift Ukrainian victory. If he said the opposite it would create complacency among Ukraine's European allies and give Russia an opportunity.
Trump is pushing for a swift Ukranian victory? What brings you to that interpretation?
What is the effect of his words if not to push European countries to pull their finger out and reduce dependence on the US?
An alternative theory suggests Trump is a humongous turd who will do his best to see Ukraine defeated. This is to return the favour to his friend Vladimir for his help in subverting the American political system to Trump's personal benefit.
You mean a conspiracy theory?
A conspiracy theory that a deliberate policy to starve Ukraine of the means to avoid defeat could be a deliberate policy to ensure defeat?
Yeah. I might buy into that.
How do you reconcile Trump's opposition to Germany filling Russia's coffers and underspending on defence with the view that he is determined to help Russian expansionism?
Your view depends on seeing the US as the only real actor in this with European countries reduced to being merely pawns. In a strange way you see eye-to-eye with Putin.
How do you reconcile his promise to cut support to Ukraine as his support for Ukraine?
He isn't running to be dictactor of the West and isn't proposing to do anything to prevent Ukraine acting to defend itself.
(This is in contrast to the Biden White House which has imposed conditions on Ukraine and made it fight with one hand tied behind its back as well as limiting what US allies can do to help.)
I had expected at least some engagement with the substantive content that Trump wants to cut aid, but if it is just about being an edgy right-wing internet provocateur, that's boring.
What did I say that's untrue?
The case against Trump is mainly psychological: he doesn't seem to care about which state the Donbas is part of, therefore he's a bad man, therefore everything he does has malign intent.
It's a way of thinking that is detached from the material world. Biden has acted as a drag on the Western world's response all along, placing limits on what military aid is given and how it can be used and using NATO unity as an excuse for not doing more. He also failed to deter Putin in the first place after holding a summit meeting with him before the invasion.
All of this is excused because Biden is deemed to be on the right side. He doesn't want Putin to win, so it doesn't seem to matter what effect his actions have on the outcome.
"...he doesn't seem to care about which state the Donbas is part of,"
There is much to be said about your post, little of which reflects well on you. But I thought I would concentrate on this.
If you look at what Putin has said he wants - including the maximalist surrender-of-Ukraine speech he made the other day, he does not just want the Donbass. He wants much more. Add in the way he is interfering in countries throughout Europe, including the Moldovan elections, and it is obvious you, as much as Trump, have malign intent.
What a disingenuous reply. My comment referred to what Trump wants and you responded by referring to what Putin wants.
I suggest you read the line I quoted. If you think it is just about Donbass, then you're an idiot Or worse.
To be clear; Trump doesn't care about Donbass. Or any other part of Ukraine. Or any other part of Europe. Or, in my view, about America. Trump only cares about Trump. And arse-lickers still want to support the guy.
You're back to psychoanalysis. Why is what they want more important than the effect of their decisions?
Is it better to want peace but take actions that create war, or to want war but take actions that create peace?
What makes you think that Trump cares about anything other than Trump? What contrary evidence do you have?
The person creating war is Putin. We have two choices: to back the countries facing Putin's fascist imperialism, or cave into it - wherever that leads.
You can only talk about 'peace' with people who want peace. Putin's latest so-called 'ceasefire' proposal shows that he is utterly uninterested in anything approaching peace. It is basically: "Give me what I want, and leave yourself defenceless for the future."
You place too much weight on caring and not enough on politics and outcomes. Biden's caring approach is why Putin chose to invade in the first place.
A US president who cares only about himself and his own legacy could nevertheless be the best person for the job.
IMV the only reason that Putin did not order troops to invade the rest of Ukraine before 2022 were Covid (post 2020), and the rather important fact that he was still in the process of building up and renewing his military after the travails of the 1990s and 2000s.
Fortunately for the free world, Putin's military still was not ready in 2022.
Also that Trump told him that if he did he would Nuke Moscow.
As Trump himself admitted, Putin didn't 50% believe it, not even 10%; he maybe 5% believed it. But that was enough.
Would YOU put Trump past doing that?
Isn't this something Trump has claimed he said to Putin, rather than is known to have said? And he claimed it *after* the invasion?
Whereas it is known that Trump called Putin a 'genius' for the invasion...
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
I’m really not sure that thesis makes sense either - the thing with the hard and far right is that it can always go further, usually without worrying about having to actually do it. Reduce immigration? Ok, we’ll stop it. Stop immigration? We’ll repatriate. Repatriating? We’ll do second generation too, then. Etc.
The Tories need their natural-party-of-government mojo back and do the hard yards of rebuilding to appeal to the centre.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
Even then there are more Tories who have gone Reform than still now Tory voting Tories like you and TSE who might go Labour or LD
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Sorry.
I will now rescue a beer from the fridge. And rehome it inside me.
No worries. I’ve had my less than glorious moments on here.
Been at Dads making a fuss of him for Father's day, struck by the total lack of electoral paraphernalia anywhere in either of the constituencies travelled through hence and back. I think turnout is going to be absolutely shocking. I'm having a nibble at under 60%. I also think turnout filters on polling are way off as a result, but I'm not sure what effect that would have.
I saw several cars on the M23 with 'Vote Labour' posters in the back window.
A single Alun Cairns poster in a field near St Athan, Labour posters in genteel St Bride's Major and some Labour posters in in not so genteel Barrybados.
Only a handful of Plaid posters between Carmarthen and Lampeter on Friday.
If you are looking for a post election business opportunity post election, I suspect the Welsh Conservatives will be able to knock out unused Tory banners for a song.
On the subject of railway stations near to grounds, Drayton Park is in the shadow of the Emirates, but it shuts two hours before kick off (I use it after work as my routine is to go to the greasy spoon opposite the ground).
Sorry the earlier image is so small. Right clicking and magnify image makes it readable just about.
But for the record, of the 72 seats listed, in 12 the second place challengers are the Lib Dems, in 3 it is Reform and the Greens and SNP are the main challengers in one seat each. The rest all have Labour in second place.
Bellingham is some player. He just might be the best player in the Euros. At the very least he will give Mbappe some competition.
He's one of the only players I've ever seen who can dominate top quality games, extra striker one moment, extra CB a 60m sprint later for 90 minutes. He just unquestionably has 'it'.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
I’m really not sure that thesis makes sense either - the thing with the hard and far right is that it can always go further, usually without worrying about having to actually do it. Reduce immigration? Ok, we’ll stop it. Stop immigration? We’ll repatriate. Repatriating? We’ll do second generation too, then. Etc.
The Tories need their natural-party-of-government mojo back and do the hard yards of rebuilding to appeal to the centre.
Yes, they need a new Cameron/Osborne combo to do all that hard work all over again.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
Even then there are more Tories who have gone Reform than still now Tory voting Tories like you and TSE who might go Labour or LD
You show amazing disrespect for conservatives who are needed, like my wife and I, to vote conservative to outnumber Farage
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
Water, orange juice and Coke for me to have any chance of doing an all-nighter and still be going for the new PM going to the Palace. Or might attempt a 6-9am kip maybe.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
Even then there are more Tories who have gone Reform than still now Tory voting Tories like you and TSE who might go Labour or LD
You show amazing disrespect for conservatives who are needed, like my wife and I, to vote conservative to outnumber Farage
Under Rishi yes, I was talking about the Conservative leaders in likely opposition who will probably focus on winning back voters lost to Farage first
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
Even then there are more Tories who have gone Reform than still now Tory voting Tories like you and TSE who might go Labour or LD
You show amazing disrespect for conservatives who are needed, like my wife and I, to vote conservative to outnumber Farage
Wait Big G. You're married?! This is startling new information I'm going to need some time to process.
To lighten the mood here’s a picture of our new rescue, Rocko, and the torso of my human alter ego.
Fascinating language creep. You say "rescue" when what I am seeing is a second hand dog. If stuff was happening to it that it really needed "rescuing" from I would be cautious with that breed.
His old owner had one leg and decided a smaller breed was better so gave him up to the council. So we rescued him from Ashford Borough Council. If only we were all so lucky.
Guy has to choose between the dog and his career in the amateur bum-kicking world. I mean, fine, but you bought a second hand dog for a purchase price badged as a "rehoming fee." But I am glad you are happy.
Well that was a lovely, affirming and positive response to my posting a picture of a dog to cheer up the board in what was becoming an acrimonious night on here. Thanks! I’ll do it again sometime.
Sorry.
I will now rescue a beer from the fridge. And rehome it inside me.
No worries. I’ve had my less than glorious moments on here.
GSDs are marvelous. We had a GSD- Border Collie cross years ago. He was a big old boy, but a real gentle giant.
YouTube is full of GSDs fostering kittens. Any intruder interfering with his kittens and the GSD kitten fosterer is content in the knowledge that he could rip the intruder's head off.
At home I usually prefer wine (or whisky) but football always feels like I should have beer. I’m on the fence now, but either way you have made me thirsty!
Agree with beers for sport accompaniment. I am getting slightly concerned I’m going to run out of beers and end up on wine by the time of the England game starting. I accidentally started too early. Bloody 8pm kick offs.
Nip to the corner shop now before kick off, or you’ll be on the weird green liquor you once bought on holiday by half time.
The bigger question is drinks for election night. Some decent wine first, then a bottle of English sparkling from a Lib Dem target constituency ready and chilled but only opened if we beat 30 seats. Otherwise it’s gin.
I start with a decent bottle of red, and get the whisky out for the Scottish seats. Cheese and charcuterie of course.
Water, orange juice and Coke for me to have any chance of doing an all-nighter and still be going for the new PM going to the Palace. Or might attempt a 6-9am kip maybe.
Actually does anyone know when the Starmer and Sunak declarations come? Helps to build the shape of the night.
I'm a sucker for wishful thinking and Patel as party leader is not something I would ever wish for.
Same.
Patel or Badenoch as leader means Farage is brought into the Tory party which is a big fucking red line for me.
Not even Dave or George could persuade me to stay.
Yep, that happens I'm out.
It will be ok both of you. CON will get 150+. No Farage. You can both stay with CON
Please. We need the support! 👍
I hope you are right. But those who think that the Tories need to move right after this shellacking are ignoring the fact that they could lose even more from the centre if they do.
They won't lose anymore from the centre as virtually the entire centre is now voting Labour or LD. They may not win back those voters for a while though, Reform voters are more easy for a more rightwing Conservative leader to get back
Well, @TSE and I are examples of that not being true.
I’m really not sure that thesis makes sense either - the thing with the hard and far right is that it can always go further, usually without worrying about having to actually do it. Reduce immigration? Ok, we’ll stop it. Stop immigration? We’ll repatriate. Repatriating? We’ll do second generation too, then. Etc.
The Tories need their natural-party-of-government mojo back and do the hard yards of rebuilding to appeal to the centre.
Yes, they need a new Cameron/Osborne combo to do all that hard work all over again.
I'm working a lot, as usual, but I can normally fit in reading at least half of the comments and often all of them. At the moment I'm at about 10%, and I've missed many conversations to which I wanted to contribute
Two that have stuck in my mind:
Pizza Express beats the Hut without the faintest shadow of a doubt. Thin pizza is better than thick. Fresh dough is essential either way. The worst abomination on pizza isn't pineapple; it's bbq sauce. That shit should only be burnt on meat by fire, and nowhere near a pizza
The best version on Son Of A Preacher Man is by The Gaylettes. I love both the versions by Dusty and Aretha, but neither is a party song. Reggae rhythms rule
Comments
British infrastructure.
I believe it’s the only club in England which is owned by its own supporters. I like that.
Unless New Addington, Forestdale & Monks Orchared have suddenly become uberFaragist, East should be a case of Labour weighing the vote.
The original name of Lion's Holt Halt was more whimsical though.
Sir Keir Starmer has published his Labour manifesto. And what a disappointment it is - limpet close to the Tories on Brexit & more austerity.
But he’ll win a huge majority at Westminster. So strong @theSNP voices will be needed to stand up to Sir Keir & stand up for Scotland.
https://x.com/MrJohnNicolson/status/1802410488388792340
Today's factoid: In the BBC detective series New Tricks Jimmy Bolam plays DI Halford, Alun Armstrong plays DI Lane and Denis Waterman plays DI Standing- Halfords Lane Standing!
that he is C@@t of epic proportions. No amount of apologising is going to alter this verité
I've tried a few of the St Georges Distillery whiskeys which are nice but not in the same league as wire works.
I need to get myself a bottle or two of Costwolds as what I tasted was nice but heading out on holiday I didn't want to buy a bottle there and then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James_Metro_station
locals didn’t care about.
Is he due for another flounce off Twitter?
tone of his comments. He does it because he is now old and it's the only way to get his name in the news. The MCC must be regretting offering him the Presidency.
Edit: also as they are new distilleries they were designed for taste as opposed to most Scottish distilleries which were designed in the 18th or 19th Century to make as much alcohol as possible
I'm calling ENG 2 SRB 1
But I did say LAB maj 30 in Ben's competition do DYOR 😈
IIRC it was only used once.
Anyhoo, he's lost a few of his.
The problem is that AI can produce "proper covers" that are better than the majority of designers. Some of the most accomplished artists worked in fantasy and sci-fi, and there are already AI covers in those areas are simply beautiful.
Books will be fine - whether they're written by people is another thing. AI might not be able to write good books, but it will certainly be able to churn out the kind of books that currently sell in big numbers.
A bottle of red and plenty of cheese methinks.
https://x.com/piersmorgan/status/1802388427968487844/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1802388427968487844¤tTweetUser=piersmorgan
Or do you just think to that a posh Scotch earl with a classical education from Harrow has more right to Greece's heritage than a bunch of Greeks?
Thanks Doug.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsline_Halt_railway_station
I will now rescue a beer from the fridge. And rehome it inside me.
Whereas it is known that Trump called Putin a 'genius' for the invasion...
Aside from the mighty Slovenia, this tournament has run to form so far. The difference between the big teams and the smaller ones is significant.
Our eldest had a male and female malamute when he lived in New Zealand and they were magnificent animals
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckrrpgme39po
The Tories need their natural-party-of-government mojo back and do the hard yards of rebuilding to appeal to the centre.
Only a handful of Plaid posters between Carmarthen and Lampeter on Friday.
If you are looking for a post election business opportunity post election, I suspect the Welsh Conservatives will be able to knock out unused Tory banners for a song.
"How Rishi Sunak relies on his Hindu faith to help him through the election" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/15/rishi-sunak-hindu-faith-election-campaign/
Vote for CHANGE was David Cameron's slogan for the Euro elections (whatever they are) in 2009.
Sorry the earlier image is so small. Right clicking and magnify image makes it readable just about.
But for the record, of the 72 seats listed, in 12 the second place challengers are the Lib Dems, in 3 it is Reform and the Greens and SNP are the main challengers in one seat each. The rest all have Labour in second place.
As a longstanding England fan the novelty of seeing the national team pass and control the ball still hasn’t worn off for me.
YouTube is full of GSDs fostering kittens. Any intruder interfering with his kittens and the GSD kitten fosterer is content in the knowledge that he could rip the intruder's head off.
I'm working a lot, as usual, but I can normally fit in reading at least half of the comments and often all of them. At the moment I'm at about 10%, and I've missed many conversations to which I wanted to contribute
Two that have stuck in my mind:
Pizza Express beats the Hut without the faintest shadow of a doubt. Thin pizza is better than thick. Fresh dough is essential either way. The worst abomination on pizza isn't pineapple; it's bbq sauce. That shit should only be burnt on meat by fire, and nowhere near a pizza
The best version on Son Of A Preacher Man is by The Gaylettes. I love both the versions by Dusty and Aretha, but neither is a party song. Reggae rhythms rule
https://youtu.be/Gd8aBtRe6mk