On the More In Common polling, it seems we now have a two-party system.
The Anti-Labour bloc and the Anti-Reform bloc - the other three parties don't really figure currently and are as the little fish living near the jaws of the shark.
Reform voters are less unwilling to vote Conservative than Conservative supporters are to vote Reform which suggests in Lab-Ref marginals it's going to be tough to persuade Conservatives to switch to Reform whereas in Lab-Con marginals it might be easier to get Reform supporters to tactically vote Conservative.
In Con-Ref marginals, the unwillingness of Lab, LD and Green supporters to vote Reform might ensure a tactical vote for the Conservatives.
I share the thoughts of those who think there might be an upside to Conservative seat num\bers but more likely to come from gains from Labour than from the LDs on this evidence. Worth mentioning 39 of the top 50 Conservative targets are held by Labour.
How far Lib Dems get squeezed might determine how deep they have to defend. I still thinking somewhere near 50 seats is about right if they come in at around 14%. If the Tories drop far enough to not threaten it means the Reform vote is coming through hard if the duality mentioned holds. Seats like Banbury, Rugby, Peterborough, (possibly Norfolk South locally) look ripe for Lab to Con switching. London is looking increasingly mad the more the Lab vote slides there. Some really strange results possible. Im going to hunt out long shots - Feltham and Heston to Reform looks possible
Yes but look at the most marginal LD seat - Ely & East Cambridgeshire, majority 495. The LDs have plenty of Labour vote and Green vote to share and we know Labour votes will happily vote tactically against a Conservative and even more so (I'd argue) if the Conservatives were seen to be cosying up to Reform.
I could imagine BOTH LD and Conservative vote shares rising but the former to rise more than the latter.
I would imagine the early noughties would be when you would get the most positive response over aspirational, while caring less about soaking the super rich. Its much easier to have that attitude when smaller student debt, easier to get on the housing ladder, easy credit, lots of desirable products had become very affordable e.g. TVs, computers, phones, all against the backdrop of a growing economy.
There is today definitely a subsection of people who are all about the side hustle. But given stagnate economy, stagnate wages, much higher house prices / rent, much bigger student loans etc, people are much more likely to look at the haves and be unhappy with them.
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Of course we are. Its just that intergenerational inequality and housing costs means too large a number of working people don't get to enjoy the prosperity that should come from work. It's not sloth - 85% of working age households have at least one adult in employment.
And that inequality has led to only about 30% of households being net contributors. That means that a majority of those 22 million in-work households depend more on the state than they generate in tax.
So everyone ends up pissed off.
Apart from the bankers/mortgage providers. They are happy.
Or we could say the country has debts approaching 100% of GDP - but the bankers are happy.
@Casino_Royale says we are no longer 'aspirational' but we are. We have the latest and pay for it on credit based on the perceived value of a home. So all we need to do as both consumers and as a country is to give up on credit a.k.a. debt ....
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
I was talking to some Young People(TM) a while back. The thought of buying their own places was just an unimaginable fantasy to them. Young enough that their parents were on the borderline cusp of only just having snuck onto the property ladder themselves later in life. Their main 'aspiration' was simply not getting sacked and not being chucked out by their landlord.
Take it you are down South. Remember up north twin A bought a 3 bedroom house aged 22 and twin B is now looking...
On the More In Common polling, it seems we now have a two-party system.
The Anti-Labour bloc and the Anti-Reform bloc - the other three parties don't really figure currently and are as the little fish living near the jaws of the shark.
Reform voters are less unwilling to vote Conservative than Conservative supporters are to vote Reform which suggests in Lab-Ref marginals it's going to be tough to persuade Conservatives to switch to Reform whereas in Lab-Con marginals it might be easier to get Reform supporters to tactically vote Conservative.
In Con-Ref marginals, the unwillingness of Lab, LD and Green supporters to vote Reform might ensure a tactical vote for the Conservatives.
I share the thoughts of those who think there might be an upside to Conservative seat num\bers but more likely to come from gains from Labour than from the LDs on this evidence. Worth mentioning 39 of the top 50 Conservative targets are held by Labour.
How far Lib Dems get squeezed might determine how deep they have to defend. I still thinking somewhere near 50 seats is about right if they come in at around 14%. If the Tories drop far enough to not threaten it means the Reform vote is coming through hard if the duality mentioned holds. Seats like Banbury, Rugby, Peterborough, (possibly Norfolk South locally) look ripe for Lab to Con switching. London is looking increasingly mad the more the Lab vote slides there. Some really strange results possible. Im going to hunt out long shots - Feltham and Heston to Reform looks possible
Yes but look at the most marginal LD seat - Ely & North Cambridgeshire, majority 495. The LDs have plenty of Labour vote and Green vote to share and we know Labour votes will happily vote tactically against a Conservative and even more so (I'd argue) if the Conservatives were seen to be cosying up to Reform.
I could imagine BOTH LD and Conservative vote shares rising but the former to rise more than the latter.
I get that, yes. I think the imperative to vote tactically to stop Tories/GTTO is much lessened and,as such the Lib Dems need to be doing better nationally to stand still. And if those Greens/Lab didnt lend votes after 14 years of Tory rule why would they now? Time will tell, but i see no reason to assume the LDs maintain their almost perfect efficiency from 2024. That is not to say i expect it to completely vanish either I also anticipate pockets of Tory strength returning from voter strike. Small pockets mind you!
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
I was talking to some Young People(TM) a while back. The thought of buying their own places was just an unimaginable fantasy to them. Young enough that their parents were on the borderline cusp of only just having snuck onto the property ladder themselves later in life. Their main 'aspiration' was simply not getting sacked and not being chucked out by their landlord.
Take it you are down South. Remember up north twin A bought a 3 bedroom house aged 22 and twin B is now looking...
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
Yes, my time in the City (which you're still doing, I believe) taught me this. You need a direction and a good positive culture. Both were often lacking.
It’s the incremental nature of most change that is important.
For example, HMS Dreadnought was actually both evolutionary and revolutionary. The design was really a continuation of the Lord Nelson’s, with 12” guns in their standard turrets replacing the 9,2” guns. Arguably, the Americans did better by going to superfiring turrets straightaway.
The framing, armour layout and compartmentation was all tuned up version of what came before. The turbines were a genuine leap though.
Yep.
Or to turn to something dear to my heart, there's nothing wrong with Britain that a massive and irreversible shift of wealth and opportunity in favour of working people won't fix. But this can't and shouldn't happen overnight. Incremental not big bang applies here just as much as with any other project. You need direction and a good working culture to get there. And time.
I'd be happy with 50 years. 50 years of competent, assiduous Labour government, interspersed with the occasional Tory one to keep things honest and avoid the pitfalls of one party state, should be sufficient.
To the extent I have a political vision, this is it.
What a ridiculous pile of warmed-over political puke
It's like an intellectually mangy cat vommed up a furball of pitiful ideas, just behind the philosophical golf shoes
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
I would imagine the early noughties would be when you would get the most positive response over aspirational, while caring less about soaking the super rich. Its much easier to have that attitude when smaller student debt, easier to get on the housing ladder, easy credit, lots of desirable products had become very affordable e.g. TVs, computers, phones, all against the backdrop of a growing economy.
There is today definitely a subsection of people who are all about the side hustle. But given stagnate economy, stagnate wages, much higher house prices / rent, much bigger student loans etc, people are much more likely to look at the haves and be unhappy with them.
Isn't that why we are all supporting Reform? Labour and the Tories having spent all our hard earned taxes for Michelle and Dougie to buy yachts and Asylum Seekers to live in Hilton Hotels and drive Motability Audi A8s.
Interesting..... suggests a very different tactical voting set up this time round
I wonder if the figures and the graphs also show up something else: that the next election really will be Lab v Reform. The two parties that show up, way ahead of the field, to be worth voting against will be the parties to beat. The fact that very few are bothered to vote against the Tories really does look fatal for them. They don't matter.
Yes, i agree with that i think, although it might mean thd blue wall throws up some interesting reruns as a side show. I suppose it might save the odd Tory seat in places like my Norfolk too where there are Tory-Reform match ups if there is anti reform sentiment outweighing anti Tory.
Overall though it suggests tories will not be competitive at largest Party level
Although I like several Conservative people and MPs, I'm not a fan of the Conservative Party per se. But even I must admit to a frisson of sadness at their present state. If they do perform as badly in 2029 as their polls suggest, it will be a big thing. They've been a perfect, efficient, killing machine for centuries, and now they are falling apart, blank eyed, incomprehending their fate. You've got to admit, it'll be the end of an era...
I quite like the "one nation" brand of Conservatism. I am not sure that has necessarily been to the fore since the fall of Heath. Perhaps Major and Hague were the leadership exceptions. I am not sure about Cameron, Osborne and May. Perhaps Mrs May was an old feudal Tory too. Ever since Johnson and Brexit they have gone to the dogs. Mind you what looks to be replacing the Conservatives from within or without looks far, far worse.
Is the Jenrick Tory more offensive than Farage Reform?
I'll put this out there and take the consequences - I prefer Farage to Jenrick.
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Interesting..... suggests a very different tactical voting set up this time round
I wonder if the figures and the graphs also show up something else: that the next election really will be Lab v Reform. The two parties that show up, way ahead of the field, to be worth voting against will be the parties to beat. The fact that very few are bothered to vote against the Tories really does look fatal for them. They don't matter.
Yes, i agree with that i think, although it might mean thd blue wall throws up some interesting reruns as a side show. I suppose it might save the odd Tory seat in places like my Norfolk too where there are Tory-Reform match ups if there is anti reform sentiment outweighing anti Tory.
Overall though it suggests tories will not be competitive at largest Party level
Although I like several Conservative people and MPs, I'm not a fan of the Conservative Party per se. But even I must admit to a frisson of sadness at their present state. If they do perform as badly in 2029 as their polls suggest, it will be a big thing. They've been a perfect, efficient, killing machine for centuries, and now they are falling apart, blank eyed, incomprehending their fate. You've got to admit, it'll be the end of an era...
I quite like the "one nation" brand of Conservatism. I am not sure that has necessarily been to the fore since the fall of Heath. Perhaps Major and Hague were the leadership exceptions. I am not sure about Cameron, Osborne and May. Perhaps Mrs May was an old feudal Tory too. Ever since Johnson and Brexit they have gone to the dogs. Mind you what looks to be replacing the Conservatives from within or without looks far, far worse.
Is the Jenrick Tory more offensive than Farage Reform?
I'll put this out there and take the consequences - I prefer Farage to Jenrick.
It's like preferring vomit to shit.
It made me think of who might be my favourite psychopathic authoritarian autocrat. Stalin or Hitler? I'm going with Stalin.
Strongly agree with his comments on Ukraine, and this gem: 4. Lastly, I cannot find the words to describe the communication chosen by the Secretary General. I feel I might speak for a significant part of Europeans — it’s tasteless. The wording appears to have been stolen from the adult entertainment industry. It reduces Europe to the state of a beggar — pitiful before our Transatlantic friends and Eastern opponents alike. Whatever the goal was — it is disgraceful...
It’s the incremental nature of most change that is important.
For example, HMS Dreadnought was actually both evolutionary and revolutionary. The design was really a continuation of the Lord Nelson’s, with 12” guns in their standard turrets replacing the 9,2” guns. Arguably, the Americans did better by going to superfiring turrets straightaway.
The framing, armour layout and compartmentation was all tuned up version of what came before. The turbines were a genuine leap though.
Incremental change can be very powerful if you do it right. To continue the warship theme, the Queen Elizabeth super-dreadnoughts took the best parts of the ships before them, rolled all that into one package, jumped the guns from 13.5" to 15", and ended up with ships so capable they were still dangerous opponents 30 years later.
3 more Lab Mps have signed today along with some Plaid, SNP and Greens. We will see if anyone has been convinced to unsign at CoB - a couple of Labour toadies on X with super secret sources reckon a few have. I think they are talking utter shit to try and manifest it. Woolie is good, Woolie is wise
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Of course we are. Its just that intergenerational inequality and housing costs means too large a number of working people don't get to enjoy the prosperity that should come from work. It's not sloth - 85% of working age households have at least one adult in employment.
And that inequality has led to only about 30% of households being net contributors. That means that a majority of those 22 million in-work households depend more on the state than they generate in tax.
So everyone ends up pissed off.
Apart from the bankers/mortgage providers. They are happy.
Or we could say the country has debts approaching 100% of GDP - but the bankers are happy.
@Casino_Royale says we are no longer 'aspirational' but we are. We have the latest and pay for it on credit based on the perceived value of a home. So all we need to do as both consumers and as a country is to give up on credit a.k.a. debt ....
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Nice recipe tbf.
It's a genuinely fabulous summer dish. Tastes so healthy yet full of flavour and umami. Glorious
I confess I cheated and bought M&S microwave new potatoes (and just added dill and lemon)
MMMM
Sounds complex, actually takes about 20 minutes total
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
Not exactly sure that is true.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting. By 1971 that had reached about 50:50 Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70% It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
lol. No. It does not taste like that
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
Today I experienced the greatest temperature gradient I have ever experienced within England in one day
I went from partly sunny Cornwall at 11am and a mild 17C to a very muggy sunny London and 27C at 5pm
It was like going from Paris to the Cote d'Azur. And it wasn't latitude, it was longitude
Out of the frying pan into the fire, imho.
As I draw curtains against the encroaching darkness the tree tops at the end of my cottage garden are still aflame with reflected sunset. After two weeks in the north of Scotland I'm both relieved and disappointed in equal measure to be back in the 20s. I realise it's latitude rather than longitude, but last week it was 30° down here and 15° up there.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
Not exactly sure that is true.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting. By 1971 that had reached about 50:50 Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70% It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
"Rentier economy" does not mean everyone rents their housing. It means a larger than normal proportion of income going to those who control or own assets. Dredging up some Economics 1A here...
Having said that, these are some interesting stats. Other economic and welfare indicators do not correlate with housing tenure, most obviously Germany. I think we focus on tenure a little too much - renting does not have to be a problem, it's just that our system has led to a equilibrium where it is, and people get stuck there.
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
Not exactly sure that is true.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting. By 1971 that had reached about 50:50 Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70% It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
"Rentier economy" does not mean everyone rents their housing. It means a larger than normal proportion of income going to those who control or own assets. Dredging up some Economics 1A here...
Having said that, these are some interesting stats. Other economic and welfare indicators do not correlate with housing tenure, most obviously Germany. I think we focus on tenure a little too much and overall housing costs too little - renting does not have to be a problem, it's just that our system has led to a equilibrium where it is, and people get stuck there.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
lol. No. It does not taste like that
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
One of my all time favourite meals is a regular made by my wife. Linguini or spaghetti with a 'sauce' made of albacore tuna, capers, basil and vast amounts of lemon juice. Incredibly simple and stunningly good.
The owner of one of Britain’s biggest chemical plants has confirmed it will close, dealing a blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s new Industrial Strategy just days after it was launched.
Saudi Aramco-owned Sabic said on Wednesday that it had decided to shut the Olefins 6 “cracker” facility in Teesside permanently following a review of “competitiveness”.
Teesside-based Ensus and Hull-based Vivergo have also warned their plants risked closure without government support for the UK bioethanol sector. Vivergo gave a deadline of June 25 for support.
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
Not exactly sure that is true.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting. By 1971 that had reached about 50:50 Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70% It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
"Rentier economy" does not mean everyone rents their housing. It means a larger than normal proportion of income going to those who control or own assets. Dredging up some Economics 1A here...
Having said that, these are some interesting stats. Other economic and welfare indicators do not correlate with housing tenure, most obviously Germany. I think we focus on tenure a little too much and overall housing costs too little - renting does not have to be a problem, it's just that our system has led to a equilibrium where it is, and people get stuck there.
100% agree.
Just to add - there has been a relative drop in owning with a mortgage in the UK. Increases in renting and owning outright has squeezed that cohort, which was usually the political battlefield.
And the number of housing transactions per year is roughly half what is was in 2006 - that's by far the most obvious change in the housing market since the crash.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
On topic, we are no longer an aspirational country.
It doesn't bode well for our future success.
Too many people have had their normal aspirations blocked because Britain has become a rentier economy where the majority are unable to get on.
Not exactly sure that is true.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting. By 1971 that had reached about 50:50 Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70% It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
In the UK iirc it reversed in ~2015 (Osborne hit on rentals) and started going back up.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
A naughty secret in the UK, chilled is often frozen that has been defrosted before delivery to the supermarket. And frozen is commonly the shitty shit.
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
First mangetout from the allotment tonight. The glut starts…
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
So, so jealous. The thrill of making my own raised beds (lol) was enough for me. I can't imagine what's it's like watching all that going on.
Well, it's only 4 miles away so I can pop over every day but that pic was from a Reolink 4G solar-powered CCTV, which is an absolute bloody marvel for £150. Unbelievably good. Recommended.
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
So, so jealous. The thrill of making my own raised beds (lol) was enough for me. I can't imagine what's it's like watching all that going on.
We were pretty excited during our extension project for the first four months… Then everything kind of slowed down! But it will be great.
Oh yes, I'm doing a weekly blog at the moment but suspect that will slip to monthly as progress slows. If it ends up as an annual blog, I'm in big doo-doos.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has joined forces with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to try to thwart a new global Twenty20 league backed by Saudi Arabia.
Under plans that emerged in Australia this year, Saudi’s SRJ Sports Investments has pledged to inject £400m to set up the new league, which would have eight teams playing four tournaments in different locations each year in a set-up likened to tennis’s grand slams.
On the More In Common polling, it seems we now have a two-party system.
The Anti-Labour bloc and the Anti-Reform bloc - the other three parties don't really figure currently and are as the little fish living near the jaws of the shark.
Reform voters are less unwilling to vote Conservative than Conservative supporters are to vote Reform which suggests in Lab-Ref marginals it's going to be tough to persuade Conservatives to switch to Reform whereas in Lab-Con marginals it might be easier to get Reform supporters to tactically vote Conservative.
In Con-Ref marginals, the unwillingness of Lab, LD and Green supporters to vote Reform might ensure a tactical vote for the Conservatives.
I share the thoughts of those who think there might be an upside to Conservative seat num\bers but more likely to come from gains from Labour than from the LDs on this evidence. Worth mentioning 39 of the top 50 Conservative targets are held by Labour.
How far Lib Dems get squeezed might determine how deep they have to defend. I still thinking somewhere near 50 seats is about right if they come in at around 14%. If the Tories drop far enough to not threaten it means the Reform vote is coming through hard if the duality mentioned holds. Seats like Banbury, Rugby, Peterborough, (possibly Norfolk South locally) look ripe for Lab to Con switching. London is looking increasingly mad the more the Lab vote slides there. Some really strange results possible. Im going to hunt out long shots - Feltham and Heston to Reform looks possible
You’re consistent in your predictions of a Lib Dem squeeze in LD-Tory marginals. I don’t see it - that would require 1. Labour tactical voters to move back home, 2. No Tory leakage to Reform.
It’s a bit far out from the next election but once we’re a year out I’m up for a private bet on this.
Yeah we can talk closer to the election. Obviously I'm going with what I expect to happen from here. If things go differently then I'm wrong and I'll reassess! My thought on point 1 you make is that YouGov aside the LD score is close to the 2024 percentage which means if they are retaining the Labour tacticals from 2024 they are both adding nothing nationally and the tacticals that went to Labour are not coming home either - why? The battle is no longer stop the Tories/GTTO. But as you say we are a way out, let's talk nearer to the GE (if I disappear for a few months as I have before because of health etc ill be back at some point). Id be happy to look at a bet framed around how many LD seats go Tory or something like that Edit - note I am not a wealthy guy so it would be a small monetary value bet
The more parties there are in play, the more that "it don't mean a thing/if it's uniform swing" applies. It's all about getting enough votes in the seats you are aiming to win.
For all that the Lib Dems have a decent Parliamentary group, it's still only about ten percent of the country. They can easily shore up their base, march on in the next batch of possibles and still not have it show in the national voting.
Besides, imagine you are a fairly loyal Labour voter in Ely. You have just discovered (to your surprise, perhaps) that Lib Dems can kick the Tories out in your patch. And Starmer isn't exactly setting the world alight, is he? Why wouldn't you be a bit more liberal with your favours? A similar thing probably goes in the seats that are now obviously yellow-blue two horse races.
But the number of seats involved is still pretty small, not enough to disturb the national scorer.
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
Yes, my time in the City (which you're still doing, I believe) taught me this. You need a direction and a good positive culture. Both were often lacking.
It’s the incremental nature of most change that is important.
For example, HMS Dreadnought was actually both evolutionary and revolutionary. The design was really a continuation of the Lord Nelson’s, with 12” guns in their standard turrets replacing the 9,2” guns. Arguably, the Americans did better by going to superfiring turrets straightaway.
The framing, armour layout and compartmentation was all tuned up version of what came before. The turbines were a genuine leap though.
USS Nevada introduced the "all or nothing" armor layout.
Indeed - and the “why” for that is a book by itself. Includes the classic British disease of a bodged solution to a problem and a process for quality control that was bullshit.
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
Brilliant. I will follow your blog. This REALLY interests me
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
So, so jealous. The thrill of making my own raised beds (lol) was enough for me. I can't imagine what's it's like watching all that going on.
We were pretty excited during our extension project for the first four months… Then everything kind of slowed down! But it will be great.
Oh yes, I'm doing a weekly blog at the moment but suspect that will slip to monthly as progress slows. If it ends up as an annual blog, I'm in big doo-doos.
We ended up waiting a month for about 20 joining clips for our plastic cladding (supplier kept sending white, the cladding is light oak). Started in March, site cleared and last skip went just before Christmas…
But it’s great to have what we dreamed of doing for years.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Nice recipe tbf.
It's a genuinely fabulous summer dish. Tastes so healthy yet full of flavour and umami. Glorious
I confess I cheated and bought M&S microwave new potatoes (and just added dill and lemon)
MMMM
Sounds complex, actually takes about 20 minutes total
Unless you have taken it out of the fridge two hours ago and then fried it for 20 seconds on each side you have wasted your tuna steak.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
I am currently working North Sea abandonment Ops in Aberdeen and one of the guys working alongside me is my old friend Marcus Bowden, one of the pioneers of UK BBQ who runs the UK BBQ school down in Devon. You can pick up his books in Waitrose and elsewhere.
So last night, in spite of it being less sunny than hoped, we got the team together for a BBQ and of course Marcus had to be doing the honours. The use of bone marrow instead of butter on grilled bread is a particular revelation.
The owner of the house is a South African ex-Royal Marine so a lot of the conversation was around the South African BBQ tradition of Braai. Less of a meal and more of a lifestyle.
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
Two diggers and a dump truck? Can you look after my two year old? He’ll just watch the diggers ALL day!
It's two diggers, two dump-trucks and a telehandler but they don't all fit in the screen.
Just don't tell him we have a crane coming to put the frame up in two weeks time!
I would never get him away. The water works in Warminster town centre have been keeping him going. He will watch for hours if allowed. A digger driver even did some digging just for him today (nothing needed digging but he did some anyway). Sad times soon - the A36 works AND the water works in town will both be over, so I’ll have to send him to,Dorset for his kicks!
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
So, so jealous. The thrill of making my own raised beds (lol) was enough for me. I can't imagine what's it's like watching all that going on.
We were pretty excited during our extension project for the first four months… Then everything kind of slowed down! But it will be great.
Oh yes, I'm doing a weekly blog at the moment but suspect that will slip to monthly as progress slows. If it ends up as an annual blog, I'm in big doo-doos.
Good luck with it. Forgive me for a very small smile at: "major eco- refurb and extension of a 1960s bungalow".
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
What about Los Alamos ?
Ha!
Los Alamos was actual incremental on 50 years of radio-chemistry.
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
So, so jealous. The thrill of making my own raised beds (lol) was enough for me. I can't imagine what's it's like watching all that going on.
We were pretty excited during our extension project for the first four months… Then everything kind of slowed down! But it will be great.
Oh yes, I'm doing a weekly blog at the moment but suspect that will slip to monthly as progress slows. If it ends up as an annual blog, I'm in big doo-doos.
Good luck with it. Forgive me for a very small smile at: "major eco- refurb and extension of a 1960s bungalow".
I'm sure you made it lovely.
It's a fair cop, guv. I never had any journalistic ambitions, and now you know why.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
First mangetout from the allotment tonight. The glut starts…
Literally the best meal I had last year - and I ate at many many famous Michelin restaurants and 5 star hotels, as well as many other places - was a bowl of borscht in impoverished Transnistria, served with ice cold beer on a hot day, and a hunk of bread, in a "Stalin-themed" restaurant
The owner (slightly ashamedly, which was ridic!) admitted it was all made from ingredients in his own garden and assembled by his wife. It cost £2.50. I can still remember the glorious flavour now
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
Brilliant. I will follow your blog. This REALLY interests me
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Mrs Eek was talking about Cornwall last week - but the journey to and from there is a mare and it's not going to get easier as we get older.
I'm very much in heading towards Guadeloupe but I think convincing Mrs Eek would be an impossible task...
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
I am currently working North Sea abandonment Ops in Aberdeen and one of the guys working alongside me is my old friend Marcus Bowden, one of the pioneers of UK BBQ who runs the UK BBQ school down in Devon. You can pick up his books in Waitrose and elsewhere.
So last night, in spite of it being less sunny than hoped, we got the team together for a BBQ and of course Marcus had to be doing the honours. The use of bone marrow instead of butter on grilled bread is a particular revelation.
The owner of the house is a South African ex-Royal Marine so a lot of the conversation was around the South African BBQ tradition of Braai. Less of a meal and more of a lifestyle.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
£15 in Waitrose, just saying. And in fact those 'posh meal deals' tend to be riddled with ultra-processed foods, whereas Leon's recipe is made from ingredients everyone can recognise.
Yes, that's absolutely it, These days you simply cannot trust the junk in ready meals - or, sadly, in many restaurants. In recent years I've noticed that the best food comes from quite poor countries. eg Cambodia, and Moldova were both brilliant; France and many other rich countries have sorely disappointed
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
I am currently working North Sea abandonment Ops in Aberdeen and one of the guys working alongside me is my old friend Marcus Bowden, one of the pioneers of UK BBQ who runs the UK BBQ school down in Devon. You can pick up his books in Waitrose and elsewhere.
So last night, in spite of it being less sunny than hoped, we got the team together for a BBQ and of course Marcus had to be doing the honours. The use of bone marrow instead of butter on grilled bread is a particular revelation.
The owner of the house is a South African ex-Royal Marine so a lot of the conversation was around the South African BBQ tradition of Braai. Less of a meal and more of a lifestyle.
Why do I have the feeling North Sea abandonment will see you through to retirement (and beyond)...
Totally off-topic, we are now 'out of the ground' with our self-build:
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
Two diggers and a dump truck? Can you look after my two year old? He’ll just watch the diggers ALL day!
It's two diggers, two dump-trucks and a telehandler but they don't all fit in the screen.
Just don't tell him we have a crane coming to put the frame up in two weeks time!
I don't understand the small breeze-block off areas? Too small to be beginnings of rooms?
Edit: I now read the blog and they are not rooms but staging for the floor beams
I'm glad you asked that... (though you may regret it)
Most of those walls are to support the block and beam floor and won't appear above floor level.
We could have gone for fewer supporting walls and 6m long beams but there's a danger of the floor becoming noticeably springy, and even of the screed cracking. So we went for 3m long beams and intermediate supporting walls.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
lol. No. It does not taste like that
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
One of my all time favourite meals is a regular made by my wife. Linguini or spaghetti with a 'sauce' made of albacore tuna, capers, basil and vast amounts of lemon juice. Incredibly simple and stunningly good.
Tuna spaghetti was a staple when our kids were young. Many variations; all delicious.
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
lol. No. It does not taste like that
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
One of my all time favourite meals is a regular made by my wife. Linguini or spaghetti with a 'sauce' made of albacore tuna, capers, basil and vast amounts of lemon juice. Incredibly simple and stunningly good.
Tuna spaghetti was a staple when our kids were young. Many variations; all delicious.
Yours sounds pretty good.
or as my wife called it Tuna slop.
Which she did even when she went to visit her best friend from uni whose mum did a rather fancy dish with fresh tuna as the main ingredient.
She's never lived it down to the extent it was mentioned at her best friend's mum funeral (was just about the only laugh as the rest of it was the recent hubby justifying his successful attempt to grab the 3 family homes)....
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
Brilliant. I will follow your blog. This REALLY interests me
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Mrs Eek was talking about Cornwall last week - but the journey to and from there is a mare and it's not going to get easier as we get older.
I'm very much in heading towards Guadeloupe but I think convincing Mrs Eek would be an impossible task...
I hated Guadeloupe. Like many of these French pseudo-colonies you have the sense the locals deeply resent their inferior half-French status yet they are enamoured of the French state and its generosity. They suckle at the teat then rage that they are not weaned
I could never live in one. Ugh! The British Caribbean always seems happier, but maybe as a Brit I am biased
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. The best approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
And a hat tip to you for pointing me at BuildHub several years ago - it's been a brilliant source of inspiration and help.
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Interesting, and thankyou
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
Brilliant. I will follow your blog. This REALLY interests me
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Mrs Eek was talking about Cornwall last week - but the journey to and from there is a mare and it's not going to get easier as we get older.
I'm very much in heading towards Guadeloupe but I think convincing Mrs Eek would be an impossible task...
I hated Guadeloupe. Like many of these French pseudo-colonies you have the sense the locals deeply resent their inferior half-French status yet they are enamoured of the French state and its generosity. They suckle at the teat then rage that they are not weaned
I could never live in one. Ugh! The British Caribbean always seems happier, but maybe as a Brit I am biased
I've done Guadeloupe (a few times), Barbados (a few times) and a few islands while doing work in St Vincent 30 years ago.
I actually prefer Guadeloupe partly because it's far richer per capita (thanks to France) than the other countries but equally because it's not as French as it might be.
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Interesting, and thankyou
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
I'm not sure it's courage - more a believe in your ability to run a project and the willingness to take a (slight) risk...
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
What about Los Alamos ?
Ha!
Los Alamos was actual incremental on 50 years of radio-chemistry.
Has Angie R. got an ankle tattoo? Must be the first time someone answering the questions for the government at PMQs has such a thing (unless Margaret had one hidden). Hope it’s death metal or football related.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has joined forces with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to try to thwart a new global Twenty20 league backed by Saudi Arabia.
Under plans that emerged in Australia this year, Saudi’s SRJ Sports Investments has pledged to inject £400m to set up the new league, which would have eight teams playing four tournaments in different locations each year in a set-up likened to tennis’s grand slams.
The Rest is Entertainment yesterday included a section on DAZN buying broadcast rights to Saudi sportsfests and selling them on cheaply to terrestrial broadcasters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCt5SRXFC4&t=2539s
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Interesting, and thankyou
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
I'm not sure it's courage - more a believe in your ability to run a project and the willingness to take a (slight) risk...
Well yes, but it's the same courage as moving to an entirely new country for retirement. It's a big gamble, a bet on your instincts (and I have seen it go wrong)
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
The latter doesn't matter. This is one term Labour and they now know it. No one is going to turn down a year or three of high office in exchange for the extra time to spend leafletting to try and save their seat from Reformica.
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
Reeves was quoted the other day saying she'd love EdSec, so whether that was foreshadowing...
Yvette I want to like but she just doesn't seem very good, although the Home Office is a notoriously hard brief. Pre-2010 she gave us HIPs which were not well-received iirc.
Pat McFadden? A big step up from Minister for Number 10's Paperclips but I guess that shows he has Starmer's trust.
It's a beautifully boring evening, the midsummer sun folds its cards, over the Primrose Hill frontier lands
I eat tuna steak with anchonvy, caper, lemon, sourdough breadcrumb; and I sip Albarino de Fefinanes; and the moments pass
VIBE
Yeah, I can see why they binned the first draft of Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
It's incredible. Found the recipe online
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
Sounds like one of those posh £10 meal deals at any supermarket.
lol. No. It does not taste like that
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
One of my all time favourite meals is a regular made by my wife. Linguini or spaghetti with a 'sauce' made of albacore tuna, capers, basil and vast amounts of lemon juice. Incredibly simple and stunningly good.
Tuna spaghetti was a staple when our kids were young. Many variations; all delicious.
Yours sounds pretty good.
or as my wife called it Tuna slop.
Which she did even when she went to visit her best friend from uni whose mum did a rather fancy dish with fresh tuna as the main ingredient.
She's never lived it down to the extent it was mentioned at her best friend's mum funeral (was just about the only laugh as the rest of it was the recent hubby justifying his successful attempt to grab the 3 family homes)....
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Interesting, and thankyou
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
If I were looking in London I would sort the plot, and have the build done by a third party company to their / my design with the shell finished in 2-3 weeks. I would not want to have to deal with all the daily aggro of a build in London.
In terms of saving / making money, it is 90% in the plot not the build (unless exceptionally), and I think the game in London is now in pleasant and simple and quick, unless it is a gin palace for the moneyed - since there are not reliable and regular silly price boosts.
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
The latter doesn't matter. This is one term Labour and they now know it. No one is going to turn down a year or three of high office in exchange for the extra time to spend leafletting to try and save their seat from Reformica.
That sounds like throwing in the towel. Winning another majority, looks unlikely but Lab could still get largest party if they can get back to the high 20s and some of the Reform voters get the jitters.
Obviously, they have to navigate the choppy waters of keeping the markets happy and managing the MPs who don't want cuts to anything.
Wow. Cost of living and NHS nearly twice as important to Labour --> Reform switchers as immigration.
Has anyone told them about Nigel's plans for a contributory insurance based NHS? Moving on...
We will have no real idea what Reform's manifesto will say about the NHS until about 2029. My guess is that on the major planks of the social welfare state (ie every one of the expensive bits of discretionary state expenditure) it will play it straight down the centre and promise no significant front line cuts, and no change to how things are funded.
Why not a contributory insurance based NHS? We might not have millions on an operating waiting list..and be just like every other modern European nation..🧐
If we were starting from scratch we might not invent the NHS exactly as it is, but it doesn't follow from this that it ought to be radically changed. Re-engineering something as complex and central to our society as healthcare is a massive undertaking fraught with risk and unintended consequences. It would take time (longer than electoral time), serious money, and great skill, integrity, diligence. Not the way to go imo. Better to keep the core model and seek continual incremental improvement in outcomes and value-for-money.
No Big Bang project has ever worked.
The founding of the NHS was, in many ways, incremental on what went before.
When the Great NHS IT Contract comedy was at its height, I was an attending a project management methodology course.
The chap giving the course, a well respected Canadian expert, asked me at lunch if I knew why the projects were being done like this. Since nothing this scale had ever worked using waterfall methods.
The biggest problem is the refusal, on many areas, to contemplate incremental change. And try experimental change in limited areas.
See the repeated rejection of trials of decreasing class sizes in state schools.
What about Los Alamos ?
Ha!
Los Alamos was actual incremental on 50 years of radio-chemistry.
It was a pretty damn big increment.
Pre war, some French guys were working on playing with cubes of uranium metal with heavy water as a moderator. They got some measurements that pointed to how much you’d need to get to a chain reaction.
Isotopic separation was proven long before the war. Cyclotrons and diffusion
The Manhattan project was mostly about scaling up - metric tons of uranium and graphite for a reactor, instead of playing with a pound or two.
For isotope separation, they melted down all the silver in the US Treasury (15 thousand tons) to build cyclotrons. But the basic design was there before the war. Similarly, the various gas separation methods were scaling up lab equipment to square miles.
The chemistry to separate plutonium from reactor fuel was simple chemistry, but done on a vast scale - and completely by remote methods.
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
Reeves was quoted the other day saying she'd love EdSec, so whether that was foreshadowing...
Yvette I want to like but she just doesn't seem very good, although the Home Office is a notoriously hard brief. Pre-2010 she gave us HIPs which were not well-received iirc.
Pat McFadden? A big step up from Minister for Number 10's Paperclips but I guess that shows he has Starmer's trust.
The problem is how will the markets react. Getting rid of Reeves sends the message that Lab aren't even going to pretend to be disciplined. it then emboldens the backbenchers to rebel again and the unions to go on strike
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
Brilliant. I will follow your blog. This REALLY interests me
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Mrs Eek was talking about Cornwall last week - but the journey to and from there is a mare and it's not going to get easier as we get older.
I'm very much in heading towards Guadeloupe but I think convincing Mrs Eek would be an impossible task...
I hated Guadeloupe. Like many of these French pseudo-colonies you have the sense the locals deeply resent their inferior half-French status yet they are enamoured of the French state and its generosity. They suckle at the teat then rage that they are not weaned
I could never live in one. Ugh! The British Caribbean always seems happier, but maybe as a Brit I am biased
From a tax point of view, Greece is looking good. 7% income tax for anyone drawing a UK pension. Lots of other low tax places out there, but I think I could actually spend 6 months of the year in Greece, unlike Dubai or the channel Islands or Singapore or some ex Soviet republic.
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
Reeves was quoted the other day saying she'd love EdSec, so whether that was foreshadowing...
Yvette I want to like but she just doesn't seem very good, although the Home Office is a notoriously hard brief. Pre-2010 she gave us HIPs which were not well-received iirc.
Pat McFadden? A big step up from Minister for Number 10's Paperclips but I guess that shows he has Starmer's trust.
Bring back Dodds, she was such a raging success as Shadow CoE. She will at least hold her seat
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both. https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Interesting, and thankyou
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
I'm not sure it's courage - more a believe in your ability to run a project and the willingness to take a (slight) risk...
Well yes, but it's the same courage as moving to an entirely new country for retirement. It's a big gamble, a bet on your instincts (and I have seen it go wrong)
My brother in law - a man with no obvious specific skills but remarkable faith in himself - built his own house. Took him about four years It's really nice, and he learned a lot on the way. His general approach to life is that most things can't be that hard and he can learn anything he needs to.
My prediction is there will be a reshuffle after whatever mess next week's welfare/PIP bill becomes. Reeves will be the one who takes the fall.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Having a reshuffle after only a year is a bad omen. Losing your Chancellor is also a bad omen (see Thatcher and Truss)..
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
The latter doesn't matter. This is one term Labour and they now know it. No one is going to turn down a year or three of high office in exchange for the extra time to spend leafletting to try and save their seat from Reformica.
That sounds like throwing in the towel. Winning another majority, looks unlikely but Lab could still get largest party if they can get back to the high 20s and some of the Reform voters get the jitters.
Obviously, they have to navigate the choppy waters of keeping the markets happy and managing the MPs who don't want cuts to anything.
Labour will be lucky if they see out their term without serious civil strife and bloodshed. It is so obviously coming unless there is a dramatic change of course
Comments
I could imagine BOTH LD and Conservative vote shares rising but the former to rise more than the latter.
There is today definitely a subsection of people who are all about the side hustle. But given stagnate economy, stagnate wages, much higher house prices / rent, much bigger student loans etc, people are much more likely to look at the haves and be unhappy with them.
Or we could say the country has debts approaching 100% of GDP - but the bankers are happy.
@Casino_Royale says we are no longer 'aspirational' but we are. We have the latest and pay for it on credit based on the perceived value of a home. So all we need to do as both consumers and as a country is to give up on credit a.k.a. debt ....
Nah ... we love it too much. We're all hooked.
Time will tell, but i see no reason to assume the LDs maintain their almost perfect efficiency from 2024. That is not to say i expect it to completely vanish either
I also anticipate pockets of Tory strength returning from voter strike. Small pockets mind you!
"Crusted Tuna Steak with Anchovy, Capers, Tomatoes & Herby Crumbs
(Serves 1 or 2 if you simply double amounts)
Ingredients:
1 thick tuna steak (180–200g, about 2–3cm thick)
1 anchovy fillet (oil-packed)
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
75g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Zest of ½ lemon
3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley & basil)
1½ tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
Salt & black pepper
Optional: pinch of chilli flakes or crushed fennel seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Line a small baking dish or tray with foil or parchment.
Make the herby crumb crust:
In a small bowl, mash the anchovy into a paste.
Add garlic, lemon zest, chopped capers, breadcrumbs (or biscuit crumbs), herbs, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and optional chilli/fennel.
Mix until it’s clumpy and damp but crumbly
Make the tomato bed:
Toss the halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and salt.
Spread them on the tray in a rough little pillow where your tuna will sit.
Prepare the tuna:
Pat it dry, season lightly with salt and pepper, and place it on top of the tomatoes.
Press the breadcrumb mixture firmly onto the top of the tuna in a thick, luscious layer.
Roast in the oven for 8–10 minutes, depending on thickness and how pink you like it. Aim for just-blushed in the centre - not cooked to death. The crumb should be golden and just toasty at the edges
Rest for 1 minute, then spoon a few tomatoes and their juices over the top, scatter with a little more herb
Serve with cold Albarino de Fefinanes"
https://x.com/GLandsbergis/status/1937880543858696430
Strongly agree with his comments on Ukraine, and this gem:
4. Lastly, I cannot find the words to describe the communication chosen by the Secretary General. I feel I might speak for a significant part of Europeans — it’s tasteless. The wording appears to have been stolen from the adult entertainment industry.
It reduces Europe to the state of a beggar — pitiful before our Transatlantic friends and Eastern opponents alike.
Whatever the goal was — it is disgraceful...
Woolie is good, Woolie is wise
I went from partly sunny Cornwall at 11am and a mild 17C to a very muggy sunny London and 27C at 5pm
It was like going from Paris to the Cote d'Azur. And it wasn't latitude, it was longitude
I confess I cheated and bought M&S microwave new potatoes (and just added dill and lemon)
MMMM
Sounds complex, actually takes about 20 minutes total
(Digger for scale)
Quite absorbed with the build now, hence not on PB so much.
I went looking at the stats.
Prior to WW2 Home ownership was about 25% with 75% if people renting.
By 1971 that had reached about 50:50
Home ownership peaked in 1991 at about 70%
It is now about 65%.
So the majority of people still own their own homes (with or without a mortgage) and although it has dropped back - starting under Blair - we are still way above where we were only a couple of generations ago.
By comparison with our European neighbours we are just a little below the EU average. France is slightly below us at around 61%, Italy considerabley higher at 75% and Germany massively lower at around 47%.
It is mostly the former Eastern bloc countries that have the highest home ownership with Poland on 87%, Hungary on 91% and Romania on 94%
You could not buy this chilled as a ready meal. But it only takes 20 minutes to do. It tastes like a dish created by a properly talented gastropub chef, for a lush, light summer evening
The simple but primary flavours make it. Dill, tuna, capers, lemon, garlic, anchovy, hit of chili flakes....
As I draw curtains against the encroaching darkness the tree tops at the end of my cottage garden are still aflame with reflected sunset. After two weeks in the north of Scotland I'm both relieved and disappointed in equal measure to be back in the 20s. I realise it's latitude rather than longitude, but last week it was 30° down here and 15° up there.
Good time girls
I am genuinely and sincerely interested. I am thinking of changing my entire life within the next 4-5 years. Trying to work out where and when
I am happy in London as is, but I can now see myself moving....
This is in Dorset with your wife, yes? Are you literally building your own design? Tell us more! If you can be bothered..
Having said that, these are some interesting stats. Other economic and welfare indicators do not correlate with housing tenure, most obviously Germany. I think we focus on tenure a little too much - renting does not have to be a problem, it's just that our system has led to a equilibrium where it is, and people get stuck there.
Saudi Aramco-owned Sabic said on Wednesday that it had decided to shut the Olefins 6 “cracker” facility in Teesside permanently following a review of “competitiveness”.
Teesside-based Ensus and Hull-based Vivergo have also warned their plants risked closure without government support for the UK bioethanol sector. Vivergo gave a deadline of June 25 for support.
And the number of housing transactions per year is roughly half what is was in 2006 - that's by far the most obvious change in the housing market since the crash.
I think I've worked out why. Places like Cambodia and Moldova ARE poor so they literally dig the food out of the ground - or quickly butcher the meat - and serve it fast. No weird processing is involved, they simply don't do that. At the same time they are just rich enough they can grow and serve good basic ingredients. The food is often naturally organic. This makes for fantastic meals with honest and clever recipes: healthy and yum
The idea is to replicate that at home, if you can. And you can
Whereas in other countries neither is often true.
I'm doing a regular short blog here if you're interested: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/blog/87-contemporary-build-in-north-dorset/
TLDR: Mrs P. and I sold our house, bought a plot, and we're building a modern sustainable, single-storey, timber-frame house. I'm managing sub-contractors to build it. We've used an architect to turn our tight brief into a deliverable design. Early days but so far, so good.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has joined forces with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to try to thwart a new global Twenty20 league backed by Saudi Arabia.
Under plans that emerged in Australia this year, Saudi’s SRJ Sports Investments has pledged to inject £400m to set up the new league, which would have eight teams playing four tournaments in different locations each year in a set-up likened to tennis’s grand slams.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/25/ecb-joins-forces-with-bcci-to-thwart-new-saudi-arabia-backed-t20-competition
For all that the Lib Dems have a decent Parliamentary group, it's still only about ten percent of the country. They can easily shore up their base, march on in the next batch of possibles and still not have it show in the national voting.
Besides, imagine you are a fairly loyal Labour voter in Ely. You have just discovered (to your surprise, perhaps) that Lib Dems can kick the Tories out in your patch. And Starmer isn't exactly setting the world alight, is he? Why wouldn't you be a bit more liberal with your favours? A similar thing probably goes in the seats that are now obviously yellow-blue two horse races.
But the number of seats involved is still pretty small, not enough to disturb the national scorer.
TBH I have accepted I am now in the final Act of my life, over 60, and I want it to be fun, and also a bit different. I am blessed with good health (ins'allah) and a bunch of good friends, and a job I love which might go on for a while, but no fixed partner. I am not poor. My kids are both grown and kind of fledged (and they seem to be happy) so I am sort of newly free - in a weird new way
Where do I go? i genuinely dunno. Could stay here, and maybe I will. But maybe not
This week I've been thinking about Cornwall. But the bloody weather. I like sun, But maybe I could go south every winter?
ANYWAY do keep us posted on your own design build. What a project! I am jealous
Just don't tell him we have a crane coming to put the frame up in two weeks time!
But it’s great to have what we dreamed of doing for years.
Cooper to CoE.
McFadden to Home.
Recommendations:
Mushrooms on brown toast as an entree
Grilled chicken with lemon for the main.
Bitter orange tart for dessert.
So last night, in spite of it being less sunny than hoped, we got the team together for a BBQ and of course Marcus had to be doing the honours. The use of bone marrow instead of butter on grilled bread is a particular revelation.
The owner of the house is a South African ex-Royal Marine so a lot of the conversation was around the South African BBQ tradition of Braai. Less of a meal and more of a lifestyle.
Edit: I now read the blog and they are not rooms but staging for the floor beams
I'm sure you made it lovely.
Los Alamos was actual incremental on 50 years of radio-chemistry.
The owner (slightly ashamedly, which was ridic!) admitted it was all made from ingredients in his own garden and assembled by his wife. It cost £2.50. I can still remember the glorious flavour now
I even took a photo, it was so good
I'm very much in heading towards Guadeloupe but I think convincing Mrs Eek would be an impossible task...
Most of those walls are to support the block and beam floor and won't appear above floor level.
We could have gone for fewer supporting walls and 6m long beams but there's a danger of the floor becoming noticeably springy, and even of the screed cracking. So we went for 3m long beams and intermediate supporting walls.
Yours sounds pretty good.
Ben's been blogging his bungalow over on Buildhub. Here, and the "let the fun begin" entry has floor plans:
https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/blog/87-contemporary-build-in-north-dorset/
For your interest, there are probably 500+ self-builds in London each year; windfall plots are everywhere, but they need a fair amount of money, or luck, to secure. Now may be a good time with prices etc. One approach is to find somewhere with a bit of extra land, then buy the house, resell and keep the land. The trick is to have your eye in and cash on the nail, and have done enough homework to manage the risk, and with luck no one will have noticed the windfall plot. Or gobble a bungalow a bit further out.
Here's one just at the South Side of Hampstead Heath, near where I used to live. It is built in the back garden of a corner end-terrace.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cbSqXbyWamipk5c67
If you look at the corresponding plot at the corner of the next road (Savernake Road / Roderick Road) the corresponding plot is still there, waiting for someone. Here you could keep the plot and sell the house on for maybe 85% of the purchase price for both.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fZiZn4bsBJ2Abg3H9
If you seriously want to look at some, wait for the London Open House weekend in the autumn, and go and visit 7-10 self builds / new builds. It's a fantastic experience. I once spent a day visiting innovative 1960s / 1970s Council flats in Camden, which was fascinating.
Which she did even when she went to visit her best friend from uni whose mum did a rather fancy dish with fresh tuna as the main ingredient.
She's never lived it down to the extent it was mentioned at her best friend's mum funeral (was just about the only laugh as the rest of it was the recent hubby justifying his successful attempt to grab the 3 family homes)....
I could never live in one. Ugh! The British Caribbean always seems happier, but maybe as a Brit I am biased
For clarity I should say I am not intersted in a self-build like @Benpointer
I deeply admire those that do it, but I don't have the time or passion. I am more fascinated by the psychology - the courage to change your life so dramatically - building your own home??!! Wow!
I actually prefer Guadeloupe partly because it's far richer per capita (thanks to France) than the other countries but equally because it's not as French as it might be.
McFadden is another one like Cooper who is seriously underwater in his own seat on the MRP (Ref 48%-Lab 27%)
Hope it’s death metal or football related.
The Rest is Entertainment yesterday included a section on DAZN buying broadcast rights to Saudi sportsfests and selling them on cheaply to terrestrial broadcasters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCt5SRXFC4&t=2539s
Yvette I want to like but she just doesn't seem very good, although the Home Office is a notoriously hard brief. Pre-2010 she gave us HIPs which were not well-received iirc.
Pat McFadden? A big step up from Minister for Number 10's Paperclips but I guess that shows he has Starmer's trust.
@AlfieTobutt
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THE GUARDIAN: Starmer 'in denial' over scale of Labour MPs welfare rebellion #TomorrowsPapersToday
In terms of saving / making money, it is 90% in the plot not the build (unless exceptionally), and I think the game in London is now in pleasant and simple and quick, unless it is a gin palace for the moneyed - since there are not reliable and regular silly price boosts.
Obviously, they have to navigate the choppy waters of keeping the markets happy and managing the MPs who don't want cuts to anything.
Isotopic separation was proven long before the war. Cyclotrons and diffusion
The Manhattan project was mostly about scaling up - metric tons of uranium and graphite for a reactor, instead of playing with a pound or two.
For isotope separation, they melted down all the silver in the US Treasury (15 thousand tons) to build cyclotrons. But the basic design was there before the war. Similarly, the various gas separation methods were scaling up lab equipment to square miles.
The chemistry to separate plutonium from reactor fuel was simple chemistry, but done on a vast scale - and completely by remote methods.
I wish I was joking