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Popular mandates – politicalbetting.com

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  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,456

    Nigelb said:

    If it's got a good bed and bedding, a clean bathroom, comprehensible lighting, unobtrusive air conditioning, unbroken internet access, an iron and ironing board, and a good bar (decent food and drinks), it's a luxury hotel. Throw in a gym, a terrace and a great location and you're in paradise. IMO.

    Pillows softer than concrete is a win in my book.

    I always take my own. It's too important not to.

    Yes, I hate the Premier Inn pillows - and the mattresses don't suit me either. I have always slept terribly when staying there.

    The best sleep I ever get is in a standard cabin with a porthole on the Brittany ferry from Plymouth to Santander, and back again.

    One of the worst I ever had was a night on the floor of a Korean hanok.
    On a quilt barely thicker than a blanket.

    The Airbnb I stayed in Seoul was fantastic.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,361
    carnforth said:

    So Labour avoided putting up petrol prices in the budget because of institutional memory of the 2000 fuel protests, but ended up with a much worse french-style farmer's protest on the way?

    They also put up other motoring costs, I just think with all the other noise people haven't realised.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,593
    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    Patel is opposed to leaving the ECHR, isn't she? I wonder who'll get the Home Office.

  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,054
    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
  • Scott_xP said:

    @IAPolls2022
    📊 Final Polling by Research Co. (#52)

    🔵 Michigan - Harris 51-47%
    🔵 Wisconsin - Harris 51-47%
    🔵 Pennsylvania - Harris 50-49%
    ——
    🔴 Florida - Trump 52-46%
    🔵 Minnesota - Harris 53-45%
    🔵 Virginia - Harris 52-46%
    🔴 Missouri - Trump 56-41%
    🔵 Washington - Harris 57-41%
    🔵 New York - Harris 58-42%
    🔵 New Jersey - Harris 58-41%
    🔵 California - Harris 65-32%

    #52 (2.4/3.0) | 11/2-3 | 4,950 LV

    https://x.com/IAPolls2022/status/1853437461600288945

    This looks good to me. Is this a reliable poller?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,698

    "It will be like the Highland Clearances" says LibDem MP about farming IHT in the Commons just now.

    LOL.

    Given that the current arrangements weren't set up until 1970, 1990 or 2015 depending who you ask, some people do seem to be having quite a number of performative kittens.

    If farmers want to reduce their holdings, I'm sure we can have it as access land, or land alongside country roads for mobility tracks to keep us safe from the rural Hoons.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,339
    Scott_xP said:

    @IAPolls2022
    📊 Final Polling by Research Co. (#52)

    🔵 Michigan - Harris 51-47%
    🔵 Wisconsin - Harris 51-47%
    🔵 Pennsylvania - Harris 50-49%
    ——
    🔴 Florida - Trump 52-46%
    🔵 Minnesota - Harris 53-45%
    🔵 Virginia - Harris 52-46%
    🔴 Missouri - Trump 56-41%
    🔵 Washington - Harris 57-41%
    🔵 New York - Harris 58-42%
    🔵 New Jersey - Harris 58-41%
    🔵 California - Harris 65-32%

    #52 (2.4/3.0) | 11/2-3 | 4,950 LV

    https://x.com/IAPolls2022/status/1853437461600288945

    If the first three are right she is POTUS.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,409
    Nigelb said:

    viewcode said:

    +++BETTING POST+++

    Please be advised that between 1 and 2pm today I bet the following

    LOW RISK: STATE: MINNESOTA: 1/14 Kamela to win: £200 bet
    LOW RISK: STATE: VIRGINIA: 2/17 Kamela to win: £500 bet
    MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: ARIZONA: 2/9 Reuben Gallego to win (D): £200 bet
    MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: MONTANA: 1/5 Tim Sheehy to win (R): £100

    Total waged: £1000 (fuuuck)
    Total returns if all win: 558.82+214.29+244.44+120 = £1,137.55
    Potential profit: £137.55
    Potential loss: £1000.

    Hmm. As you may have noticed I lost track during the betting and bet £500 not £250 on Virginia as intended. Lots of talking and bingy sounds, brain got confused. Doesn't look like a good idea now you say it out loud. Ah well, don't walk into the shop with money if you don't want to spend it: we will see what happens.

    #BigBoyPants

    Virginia is pretty damn safe, though.

    If it were me, I'd just have stuck £100 on Georgia. More potential profit; downside £100.
    Yes, I don't really see the point of betting a significant sum (£1,000) to win a pittance that you could burn in the pub in a few hours. That said, I find the betting practices of @Viewcode bizarre at best – this is the guy that insists on putting his own bets on in cash at a betting shop then whines when he can't get a bet on because either a) the shop won't lay the bet and/or b) he lacks the time to actually go to the shop.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,659

    Is htere such a thing as an unpopular mandate?

    This Labour Govt fits the bill.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,682
    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Well I'd not worry too much about Leon's weird views. Wine is though quite an unusual market. At the top end I think you can only really appreciate it if you can drink such wines with some regularity. Firstly there's a degree of unpredictability (I'm mainly thinking red here), and I'm far from certain that food is something you want to pair it with!

    I've only ever gone to a couple of really great wine tastings where great wines would be compared to merely good wines, and at both events I think it needed an expert hand to select the wines and guide the event. Wonderful, but I'd certainly not be able to reproduce.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707
    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    edited November 4
    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    Wonder what jobs Jenrick and Patel are going to get.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,629
    Purge
  • Leon said:

    Fishing said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night

    However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”

    I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT

    But *you* are not paying, right?
    no, obvs not

    looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
    Each to his own, but I've spent far too many nights in "luxury" hotels in foreign cities to be jealous. Personally, despite the often shitty weather and depressing grey skies, I prefer my own bedroom, possessions, home-prepared food, etc.
    "Luxury" hotels are such a poor bang for buck. And half the time they're not even relaxing. Watching out for being shafted for £10 for a bottle of water, trying to master room light switches and shower controls that didn't need reinventing, getting a migraine trying to work out what room category to select to get what upgrade based on what pathetically named elite status I have with the chain.

    This is a ridiculous debate. Of course a luxury hotel is not gonna be fun if you only barely afford it. And every bill makes you nervous

    If you can barely afford it DON’T STAY THERE - it won’t be enjoyable or relaxing. Check in to a nice cheerful 3 star and enjoy your holiday

    Only go to a luxury hotel if it is free or you are seriously rich and don’t care about the bar bill. Then they can be immensely fun and they are not “overrated” at all

    Pushing a seven figure income this year, my overexcitable recently unbanned friend, but like most people who've actually built wealth I didn't get to that point by feeling perversely validated by someone bending me over and charging me £10 for a bottle of water...
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,554
    Trump rally playing testimony of mothers of daughters killed by immigrants.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,279
    Closing ads from each of the campaigns:

    https://x.com/frankluntz/status/1853448203762602264
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,339

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,704

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Why on earth does Patel need to be given a big job? She got all of 14 votes from MPs.
  • TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    A mate of mine always argued that you can’t appreciate wine more than two price points above your standard drink. So essentially if you are normally drinking £12 wine then beyond £40 you’ll probably not notice further improvements.

    It has proven a good motto when buying wine as a gift so you don’t get carried away buying something furiously expensive for someone whose daily drop is a Yellow Tail abomination.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,741
    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Well I'd not worry too much about Leon's weird views. Wine is though quite an unusual market. At the top end I think you can only really appreciate it if you can drink such wines with some regularity. Firstly there's a degree of unpredictability (I'm mainly thinking red here), and I'm far from certain that food is something you want to pair it with!

    I've only ever gone to a couple of really great wine tastings where great wines would be compared to merely good wines, and at both events I think it needed an expert hand to select the wines and guide the event. Wonderful, but I'd certainly not be able to reproduce.
    Well I could say the same about Bugattis. Don't often get to drive in them but that's the nature of cars and wine and hotels. Something for everyone.
  • Those programmes with Monica and Giles, well it used to be Giles but now I think it's Rob, where they go and work in the world's poshest hotels, and fawn over how beautifully integrated they are into the local culture and how sustainable everything is and blah blah blah. And how discerning the guests are and how special and how no request is too much. God, they make me want to vomit.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,054

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,741
    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,456
    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Well I'd not worry too much about Leon's weird views. Wine is though quite an unusual market. At the top end I think you can only really appreciate it if you can drink such wines with some regularity..
    That also requires a palate which is actually able to discern subtle differences - something that can't be trained. You either have it or you don't. That's just genes, not experience.

    On the same basis, for a third of the population (me included) coriander tastes like soap.

    So for 90%+ of the population (I'm not sure what the figure for 'super-tasters' is, but it's not big), anything better than decent wine is pretty pointless.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,629
    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Because I have quite a few friends who work deeply in the wine industry, and they quietly admit a load of it is bollocks. One is a Master of Wine, another owns the chain Vinoteca, etc

    Above £50 you’re paying to exhibit status, or your nerves about your status, if that matters to you, good luck and enjoy

    Fascinating fact, in some blind tastings supposed wine experts can’t even distinguish between red and white, absent visual clues

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white

    Nighty night from Korea
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,698

    MattW said:

    On topic (though TBF I can't remember).

    All these "Bargepole Badenoch" types who are going "Shadow Cabinet ... Noooooooooo, Not on Your Nelly" are interesting.

    Why are they doing it?

    According to Guido, we have Steve Barclay, Rishi Sunk, Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, and Oliver Dowden so far. Plus Select Committee Chairs.

    Who's left over to join the Shad Cab? Is she going to have to go after the Leeanderthal Man?

    She is going to surprise on the upside
    I'll welcome that. We need a strong opposition.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,758

    Nigelb said:

    viewcode said:

    +++BETTING POST+++

    Please be advised that between 1 and 2pm today I bet the following

    LOW RISK: STATE: MINNESOTA: 1/14 Kamela to win: £200 bet
    LOW RISK: STATE: VIRGINIA: 2/17 Kamela to win: £500 bet
    MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: ARIZONA: 2/9 Reuben Gallego to win (D): £200 bet
    MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: MONTANA: 1/5 Tim Sheehy to win (R): £100

    Total waged: £1000 (fuuuck)
    Total returns if all win: 558.82+214.29+244.44+120 = £1,137.55
    Potential profit: £137.55
    Potential loss: £1000.

    Hmm. As you may have noticed I lost track during the betting and bet £500 not £250 on Virginia as intended. Lots of talking and bingy sounds, brain got confused. Doesn't look like a good idea now you say it out loud. Ah well, don't walk into the shop with money if you don't want to spend it: we will see what happens.

    #BigBoyPants

    Virginia is pretty damn safe, though.

    If it were me, I'd just have stuck £100 on Georgia. More potential profit; downside £100.
    Yes, I don't really see the point of betting a significant sum (£1,000) to win a pittance that you could burn in the pub in a few hours. That said, I find the betting practices of @Viewcode bizarre at best – this is the guy that insists on putting his own bets on in cash at a betting shop then whines when he can't get a bet on because either a) the shop won't lay the bet and/or b) he lacks the time to actually go to the shop.
    Why do you think I need or want your approval?

    I appreciate you disapprove of the way I gamble, but I do not come here to ask for your approval and I do not need it. I record my betting here to lay down an audit trail so I can prove to others that I bet X at time T on event Y. What you do is up to you.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    The Iowa/Kansas thing re. Harris is interesting, if it's happening.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,600
    edited November 4

    Closing ads from each of the campaigns:

    https://x.com/frankluntz/status/1853448203762602264

    Trump's is better, Id' say. Partly because it hasn't got all that much Trump in it! Harris's, by contrast, has a lot of her voiceover and some - to my eyes - cringeworthy moments with the voters.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,456
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Because I have quite a few friends who work deeply in the wine industry, and they quietly admit a load of it is bollocks. One is a Master of Wine, another owns the chain Vinoteca, etc

    Above £50 you’re paying to exhibit status, or your nerves about your status, if that matters to you, good luck and enjoy

    Fascinating fact, in some blind tastings supposed wine experts can’t even distinguish between red and white, absent visual clues

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white

    Nighty night from Korea
    Did you do barbecue yet ?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 41,942
    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    Patel shadowing Lammy. That's an interesting match-up.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,758
    Andy_JS said:

    The Iowa/Kansas thing re. Harris is interesting, if it's happening.

    More detail plz?
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,704

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Having offered Shadow foreign secretary to Patel? That would look absurd wouldn't it.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,155

    Sean_F said:

    viewcode said:

    Sean_F said:

    Nigelb said:

    Fishing said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night

    However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”

    I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT

    But *you* are not paying, right?
    no, obvs not

    looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
    Each to his own, but I've spent far too many nights in "luxury" hotels in foreign cities to be jealous. Personally, despite the often shitty weather and depressing grey skies, I prefer my own bedroom, possessions, home-prepared food, etc.
    Luxury hotels are overrated. But then luxury is overrated, in my opinion, at the cost charged. It's like first class air: it's not remotely worth the value for the flight unless you take as sufficiently important not mixing with common people.
    That's probably the luxury that you're paying for.
    And then Leon shows up...
    I find that hotel room prices bear little relation to the standard of the hotel. This year:

    The Lynch, is a wonderful country house hotel in Somerton. I can get a vast double bedroom for £140 a night.

    Sofitel Gatwick, and Harbour Hotel Salcombe, are both soulless, bog standard hotels, at £200-£235 per night.

    San Francisco al Monte is a stunningly good luxury hotel in Naples, where a junior suite with views over the Bay will cost you £240 a night.
    Premier Inn is usually good enough, although the dining areas/bars can be icky.
    Premier Inn always seems to me a bit like a prison.
    Have you stayed in either?

    Whitbread are selling their Premier Inn adjacent restaurants, so breakfasts are no longer available as before in all locations. With their supply and demand fluctuating prices they are not good value for money. Although not as bad as Travelodge they are still pretty dreary. Through booking.com there are better, cheaper alternatives
    Blimey, I've just been flagged by Premier Inn!
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707
    Selebian said:

    Closing ads from each of the campaigns:

    https://x.com/frankluntz/status/1853448203762602264

    Trump's is better, Id' say. Partly because it hasn't got all that much Trump in it! Harris's, by contrast, has a lot of her voiceover and some - to my eyes - cringeworthy moments with the voters.
    Remember the Americans love a bit of Schmalz though.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,741
    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Because I have quite a few friends who work deeply in the wine industry, and they quietly admit a load of it is bollocks. One is a Master of Wine, another owns the chain Vinoteca, etc

    Above £50 you’re paying to exhibit status, or your nerves about your status, if that matters to you, good luck and enjoy

    Fascinating fact, in some blind tastings supposed wine experts can’t even distinguish between red and white, absent visual clues

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white

    Nighty night from Korea
    Weird. An MW who says it's bollocks? Rubbish. That is simply not what they think. They're only saying it to humour you.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,339
    Student fees up from april 2025
  • Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Omnium said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    Some restaurants seem to follow this policy! I went to an Italian the other day and thought perhaps a Brunello di Montalcino - the cheapest they had was £350, so when you add service it's not far off. (Admittedly you probably couldn't get it for £10 in Italy)
    It's weird that people (ie @Leon) accepts there is a price difference in just about everything and for very good reasons, but not with wine, of all things, where there is arguably the easiest difference in actual product and one that should be trivially simple for a supposed gourmand to understand.
    Because I have quite a few friends who work deeply in the wine industry, and they quietly admit a load of it is bollocks. One is a Master of Wine, another owns the chain Vinoteca, etc

    Above £50 you’re paying to exhibit status, or your nerves about your status, if that matters to you, good luck and enjoy

    Fascinating fact, in some blind tastings supposed wine experts can’t even distinguish between red and white, absent visual clues

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white

    Nighty night from Korea
    Did you do barbecue yet ?
    Completely agree. When I have been in France and South Africa plus Spain I buy directly from the vineyard and never pay more than £20.00 ish. Speaking to people locally they tell me to order table wine in the restaurants and would not pay a fortune for a bottle of wine. One you reach a price point for good quality wine there is little point in going over it for the sake of snobbery value and bragging rights.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,629

    Leon said:

    Fishing said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night

    However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”

    I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT

    But *you* are not paying, right?
    no, obvs not

    looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
    Each to his own, but I've spent far too many nights in "luxury" hotels in foreign cities to be jealous. Personally, despite the often shitty weather and depressing grey skies, I prefer my own bedroom, possessions, home-prepared food, etc.
    "Luxury" hotels are such a poor bang for buck. And half the time they're not even relaxing. Watching out for being shafted for £10 for a bottle of water, trying to master room light switches and shower controls that didn't need reinventing, getting a migraine trying to work out what room category to select to get what upgrade based on what pathetically named elite status I have with the chain.

    This is a ridiculous debate. Of course a luxury hotel is not gonna be fun if you only barely afford it. And every bill makes you nervous

    If you can barely afford it DON’T STAY THERE - it won’t be enjoyable or relaxing. Check in to a nice cheerful 3 star and enjoy your holiday

    Only go to a luxury hotel if it is free or you are seriously rich and don’t care about the bar bill. Then they can be immensely fun and they are not “overrated” at all

    Pushing a seven figure income this year, my overexcitable recently unbanned friend, but like most people who've actually built wealth I didn't get to that point by feeling perversely validated by someone bending me over and charging me £10 for a bottle of water...
    At my earning peak I made £500k in a year. Fuck knows where it went. Apart from all the women. And the wine and the caviar and the women and the ok that’s where it went

    But £1m?! That’s impressive!

    If you’re making that much but getting annoyed by overpriced water you’re maybe not enjoying the money. Remember you can’t take it with you..,
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,339
    Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

  • Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    Pathetic.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,843

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,339
    Phillipson coming across as totally unaware how dire the situation in uni sector is.

  • Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    Candlestick maker.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 56,804
    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    I was once given DRC at a Berry Brother's lunch. It was fine, maybe even good, but it was not a style of wine I particularly appreciate.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,456
    .

    Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    Pathetic.
    But also irresponsible, and potentially dangerous.
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,738
    Is she really going to make Bobby J shadow Home Secretary? I think she might you know.
  • Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
  • Nigelb said:

    .

    Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    Pathetic.
    But also irresponsible, and potentially dangerous.
    Agreed.
  • Penddu2Penddu2 Posts: 686
    I have been following American election and have come to the conclusion that it is going to be ridiculously close - with Harris just scraping over the 270 seat winning line - but possibly losing the popular vote. In which case we can expect two months of insurrection, legal fights and spoilt daipers.
  • Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    Nooooo - disgraceful
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,155

    Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    If Trump is planning on being a Dictator and executing his rivals only on day one, isn't there a possibility that say Hillary Clinton will be living in University accomodation at Swansea where she has an honorary teaching role by then. Surely he needs to round them all up before they have the opportunity to make their escape.
  • Penddu2 said:

    I have been following American election and have come to the conclusion that it is going to be ridiculously close - with Harris just scraping over the 270 seat winning line - but possibly losing the popular vote. In which case we can expect two months of insurrection, legal fights and spoilt daipers.

    Loaded Daipers.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,758

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Why on earth does Patel need to be given a big job? She got all of 14 votes from MPs.
    She's doing a Boris: promoting people who are not a threat to her, instead of talent.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707
    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    You don't half get worked up about the fine details of people's opinions on things. It's an S curve, as is the case with almost all consumer goods. There is a bigger difference in quality between the average £5 and £15 bottle than there is between a £50 and £60 bottle.

    Because I have some involvement in the wine world I know what drives price point and a significant chunk of that is cost. Cost is partly to do with the amount of care and attention lavished on a wine - which is reflected in quality of the product - but it's also partly to do with rarity, which in turn is down to yields and economies of scale. Put simply, it's a hell of a lot more expensive to make a bottle of decent wine in South East England, or on the sheer slopes of the Northern Rhone, than it is in the Marne Valley or the Napa Valley.

    And brand is absolutely important. One only has to look at the pricing of the trendy "natural wine" category to see this. Decidedly bog standard wines a lot of them, but no sulphur and no filtration and you're suddenly opening up a different market. And the opposite is true: see the gross under-valuation of say Beaujolais or Vouvray.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    Kemi and Priti. Dream ticket.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,754

    Leon said:

    Fishing said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night

    However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”

    I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT

    But *you* are not paying, right?
    no, obvs not

    looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
    Each to his own, but I've spent far too many nights in "luxury" hotels in foreign cities to be jealous. Personally, despite the often shitty weather and depressing grey skies, I prefer my own bedroom, possessions, home-prepared food, etc.
    Luxury hotels are overrated. But then luxury is overrated, in my opinion, at the cost charged. It's like first class air: it's not remotely worth the value for the flight unless you take as sufficiently important not mixing with common people.
    What an absurd statement

    “Luxury hotels are overrated”

    It’s like saying “small countries should be bigger” or “several colours are similar to green” or “I dislike fabrics”
    It's not remotely absurd. I would not want to stay in many / most luxury hotels. If I had the money to spend, I'd spend it differently.
    Especially if you had to share your expensive luxury with some random uncouth loud-mouthed racist.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,524
    Any PBer who is actually interested in actual election activities (a dwindling minority?) is welcome to check out real-time web-cams posted by King County Elections in the great Evergreen State of Washington:

    https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/about-us/security-and-accountability/watch-us-in-action
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,704
    viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Why on earth does Patel need to be given a big job? She got all of 14 votes from MPs.
    She's doing a Boris: promoting people who are not a threat to her, instead of talent.
    That's the fear. We'll see how it ends up.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,741
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    I was once given DRC at a Berry Brother's lunch. It was fine, maybe even good, but it was not a style of wine I particularly appreciate.
    (Red) Burgundies are some of the most "difficult" or complex of wines imo, and DRC are at the top of the tree. They can be quite demanding. We Brits are much more at home with a claret prob 55% Merlot (sad to say) is where people are happy. Try finding a supermarket cab sauv-based claret. It's a challenge.

    I spent quite some time tasting burgundies for the new vintage at one point in my life and by 5pm you needed nothing so much as a beer and some crisps.
  • viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Why on earth does Patel need to be given a big job? She got all of 14 votes from MPs.
    She's doing a Boris: promoting people who are not a threat to her, instead of talent.
    Patel. Help broker a deal with Farage down the line or fall out with him and win back the Tory voters from Nige.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    IIRC the likes of Horse wanted Labour to reduce fees. Instead they're going up.
  • Andy_JS said:

    Kemi and Priti. Dream ticket.

    Mel Stride is a nation conservative and Priti is not in favour of leaving the ECHR

    I approve of these choices
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 21,758

    Any PBer who is actually interested in actual election activities (a dwindling minority?) is welcome to check out real-time web-cams posted by King County Elections in the great Evergreen State of Washington:

    https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/about-us/security-and-accountability/watch-us-in-action

    I am one such, @SeaShantyIrish2 : you are an endless source of delight.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,155
    Andy_JS said:

    Kemi and Priti. Dream ticket.

    If you say so.

    No Cruella role yet?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,821
    @fleetstreetfox

    Kemi's shadow cabinet so far:

    Chancellor - man who wants to abolish the pensions triple lock
    Education - woman who doesn't understand percentages
    Foreign - woman fired for freelancing policy on Israel

    It's all going really well so far.

    https://x.com/fleetstreetfox/status/1853483280412135538
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    I was once given DRC at a Berry Brother's lunch. It was fine, maybe even good, but it was not a style of wine I particularly appreciate.
    I would definitely drink DRC if I were, well, the president of DRC. Imagine, it would be part of the image. Kicking back in my Kinshasa palace (or the Geneva lake house, or the Cote D'Azur villa), drinking my own-brand wine.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707

    Trump asks rally whether he should hit Michelle Obama.

    If Trump is planning on being a Dictator and executing his rivals only on day one, isn't there a possibility that say Hillary Clinton will be living in University accomodation at Swansea where she has an honorary teaching role by then. Surely he needs to round them all up before they have the opportunity to make their escape.
    I'll tell my son to look her up if he ends up going there.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,821
    @electpoliticsuk

    NEW:

    George Galloway has announced he will not stand in the next general election.

    @LadPolitics

    Will George Galloway stand at the next General Election?

    Yes - 1/2
    No - 6/4
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,682
    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    You don't half get worked up about the fine details of people's opinions on things. It's an S curve, as is the case with almost all consumer goods. There is a bigger difference in quality between the average £5 and £15 bottle than there is between a £50 and £60 bottle.

    Because I have some involvement in the wine world I know what drives price point and a significant chunk of that is cost. Cost is partly to do with the amount of care and attention lavished on a wine - which is reflected in quality of the product - but it's also partly to do with rarity, which in turn is down to yields and economies of scale. Put simply, it's a hell of a lot more expensive to make a bottle of decent wine in South East England, or on the sheer slopes of the Northern Rhone, than it is in the Marne Valley or the Napa Valley.

    And brand is absolutely important. One only has to look at the pricing of the trendy "natural wine" category to see this. Decidedly bog standard wines a lot of them, but no sulphur and no filtration and you're suddenly opening up a different market. And the opposite is true: see the gross under-valuation of say Beaujolais or Vouvray.
    The good thing is that it's almost impossible to buy truly bad wine now. The whites that left you feeling jittery, but able to stroll around naked in the snow, and the reds that hopelessly ruined any wine glass.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,333
    My first night in India was spent on Delhi station waiting room floor in the absence of the 16 hour delayed Jhelum "Express".
    Speaking of which. Has anyone stayed in a Wetherspoon's hotel?
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,690

    Those programmes with Monica and Giles, well it used to be Giles but now I think it's Rob, where they go and work in the world's poshest hotels, and fawn over how beautifully integrated they are into the local culture and how sustainable everything is and blah blah blah. And how discerning the guests are and how special and how no request is too much. God, they make me want to vomit.

    Different things for different people I guess. I prefer a nice pub or nice b&b to stay in than a posh hotel. Similarly I know nothing about wine, even though I like it and never pay much. Although I have had expensive bottles I rarely appreciate it, but I do enjoy a Michelin star meal and have one regularly. Similarly I think I know my beer, although cost does not tend to be an issue here as the good stuff isn't much more, if at all, more expensive.

    I don't wear jewellery of any sort, not even a wedding ring or watch and when I did have a watch I liked a nice looking one but wouldn't spend more than a £100 or so. I wear cheap clothes.

    I fly economy as I can't see that it is worth paying more. I do enjoy both our houses and a large garden and large patio. For day to day driving I can't see the point in an expensive car, but would buy a classic car, although I wouldn't spend a fortune on it. I am happy to pay for experiences.

    So like most people I can't see the point on spending money on some things and do on other stuff.
  • Scott_xP said:

    @fleetstreetfox

    Kemi's shadow cabinet so far:

    Chancellor - man who wants to abolish the pensions triple lock
    Education - woman who doesn't understand percentages
    Foreign - woman fired for freelancing policy on Israel

    It's all going really well so far.

    https://x.com/fleetstreetfox/status/1853483280412135538

    Upsetting labour supporters seems to be working

    Is Dawn Butler still a Labour mp ?
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,054

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
    She's also only got 120 MPs to play with, so she can't afford to be that picky.

    It makes quite a bit of a difference being in opposition, but Chancellor and Foreign are your go-tos for heirs apparent. Whatever their virtues (and they both have them), I'm not sure that Stride and Patel are the tallest available bluebells.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112

    Any PBer who is actually interested in actual election activities (a dwindling minority?) is welcome to check out real-time web-cams posted by King County Elections in the great Evergreen State of Washington:

    https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/about-us/security-and-accountability/watch-us-in-action

    Thanks for the link. Looks like a bank.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,044

    viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Why on earth does Patel need to be given a big job? She got all of 14 votes from MPs.
    She's doing a Boris: promoting people who are not a threat to her, instead of talent.
    That's the fear. We'll see how it ends up.
    I don't think anyone who is a threat to her wants to work for her...
  • DumbosaurusDumbosaurus Posts: 773

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
    I would offer him something like Secretary of State for Scotland. Either he takes it and he's out of my way, or more likely he flounces about it and makes himself hated by all right thinking unionists who inexplicably don't already hate him.

    Re: hotel discussion - one of the disadvantages of having a Vispring at home is that pretty much any hotel you miss your own bed, nothing comes close. Still, it's one of the best purchases I ever made.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,044

    Phillipson coming across as totally unaware how dire the situation in uni sector is.

    I don't think the DoE understand the scale of the problem in the Uni sector...
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,738

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
    She's also only got 120 MPs to play with, so she can't afford to be that picky.

    It makes quite a bit of a difference being in opposition, but Chancellor and Foreign are your go-tos for heirs apparent. Whatever their virtues (and they both have them), I'm not sure that Stride and Patel are the tallest available bluebells.
    Doesn’t matter in opposition as you say. The idea is that there won’t be a vacancy for some time (yes, I know that’s far from clear as far as Badenoch is concerned). At the moment I suspect the calculation is it’s more important to show party unity than really worry about who your successor is.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,279
    https://x.com/ppollingnumbers/status/1853484698481443206

    General election poll

    🔵 Harris 51% (+4)
    🔴 Trump 47%

    Marist #A - LV - 11/2
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,098

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
    I suspect Tugendhat will get a job but not Jenrick.
  • Jenrick been offered half the Cabinet jobs it seems..and turned them all down it seems..🤨🥴
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,593
    The Stride and Patel appointments make absolutely no sense to me except as statements of lack of Tory talent. Neither of them would have been trouble on the back benches. Both are the past. What do they bring to the front bench?
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,738

    https://x.com/ppollingnumbers/status/1853484698481443206

    General election poll

    🔵 Harris 51% (+4)
    🔴 Trump 47%

    Marist #A - LV - 11/2

    Oh thank goodness someone has broken the drudgery of +/-1s….
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,098
    Disappointing to see Trump strengthen in betting over last 24 hours, from 1.80 to 1.69.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    viewcode said:

    Andy_JS said:

    The Iowa/Kansas thing re. Harris is interesting, if it's happening.

    More detail plz?
    Polling showing a much closer race in those two states than expected.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,098

    The Stride and Patel appointments make absolutely no sense to me except as statements of lack of Tory talent. Neither of them would have been trouble on the back benches. Both are the past. What do they bring to the front bench?

    Experience
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,741
    edited November 4
    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    You don't half get worked up about the fine details of people's opinions on things. It's an S curve, as is the case with almost all consumer goods. There is a bigger difference in quality between the average £5 and £15 bottle than there is between a £50 and £60 bottle.

    Because I have some involvement in the wine world I know what drives price point and a significant chunk of that is cost. Cost is partly to do with the amount of care and attention lavished on a wine - which is reflected in quality of the product - but it's also partly to do with rarity, which in turn is down to yields and economies of scale. Put simply, it's a hell of a lot more expensive to make a bottle of decent wine in South East England, or on the sheer slopes of the Northern Rhone, than it is in the Marne Valley or the Napa Valley.

    And brand is absolutely important. One only has to look at the pricing of the trendy "natural wine" category to see this. Decidedly bog standard wines a lot of them, but no sulphur and no filtration and you're suddenly opening up a different market. And the opposite is true: see the gross under-valuation of say Beaujolais or Vouvray.
    I'm not getting worked up, I'm discussing. I simply don't believe that Leon's MW said, or meant, it's all bollocks over £50.

    And I'm not disagreeing with anything you say. Scarcity is of course important as there are more Blue Nun hectares than Le Montrachet and even there the selection process, as I have no doubt you are aware, is rigorous for the grand vin.

    But I think you and I are talking about brand in a different way. Brand is important for eg British customers (think Jacob's Creek or all those ghastly-named aussie wines like "The Guv'nor"). That is different from an eg Comte Lafon or Drouhin or some other well-known negoce wine or indeed the various chateaux or houses where the brand success follows the quality, rather than being designed to catch peoples' attention on the shelves at Waitrose.

    And as for English wine yes you absolutely are operating at a disadvantage vs other climates and hence I think that's why it has struggled. There's a reason why there are more wine-producing regions that aren't in or near the UK so the care and attention you provide to make your wines can often not be worth the premium vs wines from a more benign (for wine) climate. Them's just the breaks.

    All of which comes down to my central proposition that more expensive wines aren't just some marketing gimmick to fool the wine-drinking public.
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,487
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    I was once given DRC at a Berry Brother's lunch. It was fine, maybe even good, but it was not a style of wine I particularly appreciate.
    I have had a tiny taste of their spirit:

    https://hedonism.co.uk/product/marc-de-bourgogne-drc-1991

    Doubt I will ever taste their wine.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,814


    Lol
  • Not Priti Patel. Goodness me, why Badenoch.
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,738

    The Stride and Patel appointments make absolutely no sense to me except as statements of lack of Tory talent. Neither of them would have been trouble on the back benches. Both are the past. What do they bring to the front bench?

    Unity.

    Together they bring 30 MPs who were willing to back them. Believe it or not that’s almost a quarter of the parliamentary party.

    I think appointing fellow leadership contenders isn’t a terrible move at this time. If Badenoch tried to make a power play purely with her allies, it doesn’t shore up her position in parliament.

    There’s much I will be criticising Badenoch and the Tories for I’m sure, but actually I think this is quite a good bit of tactical realpolitik.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,707

    Scott_xP said:

    Oh

    @hzeffman

    Breaking: Mel Stride shadow chancellor, Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary

    Two biggest jobs given by Kemi Badenoch to former leadership rivals and — having been elected in 2010 — two of the most experienced Conservative MPs

    First two eliminated?

    What prime jobs does that leave for Tom T and Robert J?
    Tom T defence?

    Jenrick - North Ireland.
    Decent idea for Tom, and Defence is a Big Job in the Conservative mindset.

    For Jenrick... If you offer him something too insulting, does he stomp off immediately, and is this desirable or not? The ballsy option would be shadow Home Secretary, but I'm not sure that would be wise.
    Painter and decorator?
    I would offer Jenrick Defence or Trade. Both biggish jobs but hard to cause trouble.

    Looks like Kemi is going for a big tent approach, which is sensible given her weakish mandate
    I would offer him something like Secretary of State for Scotland. Either he takes it and he's out of my way, or more likely he flounces about it and makes himself hated by all right thinking unionists who inexplicably don't already hate him.

    Re: hotel discussion - one of the disadvantages of having a Vispring at home is that pretty much any hotel you miss your own bed, nothing comes close. Still, it's one of the best purchases I ever made.
    @Kemi if you're reading: offer him shadow Scotland. Or Wales, like Redwood got back in the day. Get him to sing the national anthem.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,814
    edited November 4
    Stocky said:

    Disappointing to see Trump strengthen in betting over last 24 hours, from 1.80 to 1.69.

    It certainly is after I put a ton back on Harris lol
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,112
    Stocky said:

    Disappointing to see Trump strengthen in betting over last 24 hours, from 1.80 to 1.69.

    The whale theory could be true.
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,593

    The Stride and Patel appointments make absolutely no sense to me except as statements of lack of Tory talent. Neither of them would have been trouble on the back benches. Both are the past. What do they bring to the front bench?

    Unity.

    Together they bring 30 MPs who were willing to back them. Believe it or not that’s almost a quarter of the parliamentary party.

    I think appointing fellow leadership contenders isn’t a terrible move at this time. If Badenoch tried to make a power play purely with her allies, it doesn’t shore up her position in parliament.

    There’s much I will be criticising Badenoch and the Tories for I’m sure, but actually I think this is quite a good bit of tactical realpolitik.

    But would unity have been affected if Patel and Stride had not been given those jobs? I don't know much about either but they don't strike me as trouble. Stride as Shadow Chancellor is particularly peculiar to my eyes.

  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,704
    Neil O'Brien as shadow education minister. Feels a bit random.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,098
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TimS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    TOPPING said:

    Leon said:

    Premier Inns are what the good US chain motels USED to be, before they suddenly tripled in price

    We should be thankful for them, even if they are pig ugly on the outside

    wrt the relative merits of hotels and luxury hotels I'm delighted that you seem to have left behind your previously held absurd view that a £10 bottle of wine is no different to a £500 bottle of wine.
    No, my view was and is that wine stops discernibly improving over £50 a bottle

    Above that - unless you have a prodigiously refined palate (and even then I doubt it) - wine does not get “better” - it gets rarer and snobbier and older and more prestigious - but not actually better

    Hotels are much more complex. A £2000 a night hotel will be significantly better than a £500 a night hotel

    I believe the most expensive hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (I wasn’t paying) was a £10,000 a night Chinese Ming Dynasty moated mini-castle near Shanghai - authentic but transplanted, and surrounded by a transplanted sacred forest. Plus butler

    It was fucking incredible and notably better than the £1200 a night exquisite ryokan in gion Kyoto where I stayed last week (and spilt red wine on their tatami mats)
    I'm very surprised that you, a noted restaurant critic, should hold such a frankly bizarre view

    I mean you may not understand the difference ofc I get that but there is a difference. If you really think that , say, a 1982 Mouton should cost the same as a 2016 Ch. Batailley then you really have no business reviewing restaurants or food & drink.
    My conclusion with wine is that it's generally an S curve, if you have price on the x-axis and quality on the y-axis. At the cheap end of the market there's not, in my experience, much difference between the occasional £4 bottle and a £7 or £8 bottle. From then until around £25-30 there is a steep though not entirely linear increase in quality with price. Upwards from there and there's still a quality increment, but the relationship is not so linear and the relative importance of brand and rarity (and the wine's "story") goes up.
    You're in the wine trade and think that things get tricky after £30? Are you serious? Wowser. What a stupendously strange comment from someone who actually makes the stuff. What's the "story" of a DRC or a Mouton. Good wine is what.
    I was once given DRC at a Berry Brother's lunch. It was fine, maybe even good, but it was not a style of wine I particularly appreciate.
    (Red) Burgundies are some of the most "difficult" or complex of wines imo, and DRC are at the top of the tree. They can be quite demanding. We Brits are much more at home with a claret prob 55% Merlot (sad to say) is where people are happy. Try finding a supermarket cab sauv-based claret. It's a challenge.

    I spent quite some time tasting burgundies for the new vintage at one point in my life and by 5pm you needed nothing so much as a beer and some crisps.
    I'm very confident that I couldn't tell the difference between a £10 bottle of wine and a £50 bottle.

    I'm very confident that most others couldn't either in a blind taste test.

    I accept that genuinely talented wine lovers do exist - but for others it's mainly a snobbery thing IMO.

    Spending more than £50 on one bottle strikes me as obscene but I'm tight as well as wine-skeptic so maybe that's it.
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