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Starmer & the government’s ratings improve from dire to the merely appalling – politicalbetting.com

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  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 26,932
    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 22,560
    Roger said:

    News Agents latest podcast. Not their best but still listentoable

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8MDQhBckus

    Correction; It is pretty good. I didn't realise that ALL of his European chums had told Trump to f**k off. (Emilies language not mine)
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 70,710
    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar

    Trump: "The prime minster of UK told me 'I'm meeting with my team to make a determination.' I said, 'You don't need to meet with a team. You're the prime minster. You can make your own. Why do you need to meet with your team to find out if you're gonna send some mine sweepers or boats to us?' It's the same thing here."

    https://x.com/atrupar/status/2033592952329523406
  • FPT
    I agree, Yvette Cooper is a decent trading bet, 20/1 best odds currently. Especially if you have backed Rayner, Miliband and Healey at far longer odds than you can get on them now. Like Miliband, Cooper has had ambitions to be Labour leader because she stood in 2015.

    Of the viable candidates for next PM, I wouldn't look beyond Rayner, Miliband, Streeting, Cooper and Healey now. There will be a contest under way by June 2026. Rayner or Miliband will be the candidate of the left, Streeting the candidate of the right, leaving a space for either Cooper or Healey to come through the middle. It's very difficult to see more than 3 candidates making it past the 80 nominations threshold.

    Why are you convinced there will be a contest? It seems to me that any wise candidate will wait until things have settled. Or they're going to walk into a storm.
  • DopermeanDopermean Posts: 2,517
    Pulpstar said:
    That's a very well-written summary.

    So any challenge by HMRC would have to win an argument that there wasn't a genuine attempt to attract additional investors to reduce Tice's ownership from 90% to 10% in the 35 months before it was delisted as a REIT.

    Leading to the question how did HMRC not see that they'd created a tax loophole ripe for abuse that would be very difficult to challenge?
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491

    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar

    Trump: "The prime minster of UK told me 'I'm meeting with my team to make a determination.' I said, 'You don't need to meet with a team. You're the prime minster. You can make your own. Why do you need to meet with your team to find out if you're gonna send some mine sweepers or boats to us?' It's the same thing here."

    https://x.com/atrupar/status/2033592952329523406

    Keep going Donald

    Labour will be up to 40% at this rate, especially with your poodles hanging on your every word.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 58,456

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    Did you hear about the psephologist from Haiti who moved to Warsaw?
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Nigelb said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Gibshite ...
    Is that a nautical term of disapprobation ?
    O not i

    Tjovl gibhetd
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 58,675

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    Did you hear about the psephologist from Haiti who moved to Warsaw?
    No?*

    *(that may well be a lie...)
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 58,675

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    They are a great loss as a lurker...
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 58,675

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
    lol - Algeria overtakes US!

    UK steady as she goes. Just like our Navy. *ahem*
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 80,665
    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
    One of my Uni housemates was a Zulu
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    Roger said:

    Roger said:

    News Agents latest podcast. Not their best but still listentoable

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8MDQhBckus

    Correction; It is pretty good. I didn't realise that ALL of his European chums had told Trump to f**k off. (Emilies language not mine)
    She’s so edgy is old Leatherface.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 58,456
    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
    Relax, I know Birmingham, Coventry, Wolves quite well, it's an OK part of the world.

    Just wondering if the new tram line to Dudley will actual open in August.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 21,868

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    Not sure of the right response to that.

    Is it
    That ain't workin'

    Or
    That's the way you do it?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 58,456

    Trump attacking Starmer is probably the most unifying thing he could do. Unify the entire UK against him.

    With apologies to Churchill:

    "If Trump invaded hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the Devil!"
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    I love my pro wrestling and I’m an AEW mark, but this from Revolution last night really goes too far.

    https://x.com/aew/status/2033394065018925274?s=61
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    They are a great loss as a lurker...
    They are, sadly their contract of employments mean they are forbidden from posting on sites like PB.

    I've known them since 2012, they helped crush Scottish Nationalism stone dead in 2014 which as a Scot was a career highlight for them, and once called me a fucking nob.
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
    Relax, I know Birmingham, Coventry, Wolves quite well, it's an OK part of the world.

    Just wondering if the new tram line to Dudley will actual open in August.
    There’s going to be a new tram line running to the new Blues ground when it is built too.
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    Pulpstar said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
    One of my Uni housemates was a Zulu
    Was it Cuddles ?
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173
  • boulayboulay Posts: 8,479
    I’ve just realised that the BeeGees song “I started a joke” is about Trump. The bit in bold will likely be true.

    I started a joke
    Which started the whole world crying
    But I didn't see
    That the joke was on me, oh no
    I started to cry
    Which started the whole world laughing
    Oh, if I'd only seen
    That the joke was on me
    I looked at the skies
    Running my hands over my eyes
    And I fell out of bed
    Hurting my head from things that I'd said
    'Til I finally died
    Which started the whole world living

    Oh, if I'd only seen
    That the joke was on me
    I looked at the skies
    Running my hands over my eyes
    And I fell out of bed
    Hurting my head from things that I'd said
    'Til I finally died
    Which started the whole world living
    Oh, if I'd only seen, oh yeah
    That the joke was on me, oh no
    That the joke was on me
    Oh, no, no, no
  • MattWMattW Posts: 32,618
    edited 6:23PM

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    Rob Key Who?
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    Did you hear about the psephologist from Haiti who moved to Warsaw?
    Yes, many many times.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    MattW said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    Rob Key Who?
    He's the Grand Poobah of English cricket.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 58,456

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    Did you hear about the psephologist from Haiti who moved to Warsaw?
    Yes, many many times.
    CLANG!

    It's actually:

    Did you hear about the psephologist from WARSAW who moved to HAITI? :lol:
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 57,899

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    Arsehole. No doubt the whole squad would have looked at that and learned a lesson. Don’t even dream of turning down a good franchise contract to play for this shower. You’ll get no thanks for it.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 7,736

    Who'd have thunk it. NCP car parks has gone into administration.

    Long, non-variable, leases on sites apparently. Bit like parking without reading all the terms and conditions, no?
    We virtually never pay to.park. we park on double yellows whilst one does what necessary and move if the yellow peril appears. Loads of people are doing it because our council.is fffing greedy.
  • glwglw Posts: 10,827

    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar

    Trump: "The prime minster of UK told me 'I'm meeting with my team to make a determination.' I said, 'You don't need to meet with a team. You're the prime minster. You can make your own. Why do you need to meet with your team to find out if you're gonna send some mine sweepers or boats to us?' It's the same thing here."

    https://x.com/atrupar/status/2033592952329523406

    Starmer should have simply said "I have to consult my Cabinet, and you should have done likewise".
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
  • People say the members will vote. Unless the MPs unite behind a single candidate. Probably more likely than many would think.

    In any case, I still think Sir Keir will quit over being challenged.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 17,058
    edited 6:31PM

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
    Yes, it only goes down to 60 so there's not much further to fall. I'm not sure who is chopped off the bottom but I think Russia and Iran are in the bottom three.
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    DavidL said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    Arsehole. No doubt the whole squad would have looked at that and learned a lesson. Don’t even dream of turning down a good franchise contract to play for this shower. You’ll get no thanks for it.
    Excellent point.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 45,994

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    They are a great loss as a lurker...
    They are, sadly their contract of employments mean they are forbidden from posting on sites like PB.

    I've known them since 2012, they helped crush Scottish Nationalism stone dead in 2014 which as a Scot was a career highlight for them, and once called me a fucking nob.
    Surely not big TUBA who I saw when boarding london city flight this morning
  • MattWMattW Posts: 32,618

    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:
    Whiffy. And note the appeal (by Tice) to forelock tuggers - the plebs should be pleased to vote for a wealthy businessman who is smart enough to figure out ways around tax. We need people like that in charge. Part of Trump's shtick, that was. Lesson there for anybody paying attention.
    Tice s a twat

    If he has broken the law on tax, then the HMRC should pull his socks up over his head.

    If he hasn't broken the law, then the party of government shouldn't complain about it. They have the ability to change the law. Even make new ones.
    Doesn't Tice spend part (at least) of the year in the Gulf?

    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:
    Whiffy. And note the appeal (by Tice) to forelock tuggers - the plebs should be pleased to vote for a wealthy businessman who is smart enough to figure out ways around tax. We need people like that in charge. Part of Trump's shtick, that was. Lesson there for anybody paying attention.
    Tice s a twat

    If he has broken the law on tax, then the HMRC should pull his socks up over his head.

    If he hasn't broken the law, then the party of government shouldn't complain about it. They have the ability to change the law. Even make new ones.
    Doesn't Tice spend part (at least) of the year in the Gulf?
    I thought his property company had been offshore for decades, but I have never bothered to check.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 38,106

    Who'd have thunk it. NCP car parks has gone into administration.

    How can a free hit protection racket go out of business? I tell you what, I'll phone a friend. Donald, "how can a free hit protection racket go out of business?".
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    Talking of Rugby Portugal beat Georgia to win the Championship below the six nations.

    https://x.com/rugby_europe/status/2033274737355313391?s=61
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,804
    So we've told Trump to Go Fuck Himself. And we're not alone.

    Good.

    He can't threaten us with the future of a NATO he has already withdrawn from.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 22,560
    edited 6:42PM
    Sammy Obeid. Good stand up. No shortage of material!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdJwzSsLWZM&t=6s
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    DavidL said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    Arsehole. No doubt the whole squad would have looked at that and learned a lesson. Don’t even dream of turning down a good franchise contract to play for this shower. You’ll get no thanks for it.
    Here's the full interview/article.

    I've upgraded Rob Key from being an utter Mark Reckless to an utter Max Verstappen.

    https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/liam-livingstone-interview-i-asked-england-for-help-i-was-told-i-care-too-much-1528115
  • eekeek Posts: 32,890
    edited 6:42PM

    Who'd have thunk it. NCP car parks has gone into administration.

    How can a free hit protection racket go out of business? I tell you what, I'll phone a friend. Donald, "how can a free hit protection racket go out of business?".
    By leasing sites at rates that don't make any sense on contracts they can't extract themselves from.

    At some time in the past an idiot made a number of expensive decisions that have finally come back and bitten them.

    Personally I would also blame an app which you could only register a single car on - which for a muli-car family made parking them blooming painful.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 34,402
    ...

    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar

    Trump: "The prime minster of UK told me 'I'm meeting with my team to make a determination.' I said, 'You don't need to meet with a team. You're the prime minster. You can make your own. Why do you need to meet with your team to find out if you're gonna send some mine sweepers or boats to us?' It's the same thing here."

    https://x.com/atrupar/status/2033592952329523406

    Personally I think SKS should just have gone back with "your call is important to us, please hold the line", and then some Greensleeves on a loop.
    Sadly I don't think Keir has the charisma to carry off being an automated message.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    MattW said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:
    Whiffy. And note the appeal (by Tice) to forelock tuggers - the plebs should be pleased to vote for a wealthy businessman who is smart enough to figure out ways around tax. We need people like that in charge. Part of Trump's shtick, that was. Lesson there for anybody paying attention.
    Tice s a twat

    If he has broken the law on tax, then the HMRC should pull his socks up over his head.

    If he hasn't broken the law, then the party of government shouldn't complain about it. They have the ability to change the law. Even make new ones.
    Doesn't Tice spend part (at least) of the year in the Gulf?

    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:
    Whiffy. And note the appeal (by Tice) to forelock tuggers - the plebs should be pleased to vote for a wealthy businessman who is smart enough to figure out ways around tax. We need people like that in charge. Part of Trump's shtick, that was. Lesson there for anybody paying attention.
    Tice s a twat

    If he has broken the law on tax, then the HMRC should pull his socks up over his head.

    If he hasn't broken the law, then the party of government shouldn't complain about it. They have the ability to change the law. Even make new ones.
    Doesn't Tice spend part (at least) of the year in the Gulf?
    I thought his property company had been offshore for decades, but I have never bothered to check.
    His floosie spends most of her time there as uk is not safe. Tice spends weekends there.

    She's moved back to UK apparently
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 2,694
    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Taz said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
    I mean Key was a great player wasn't he??
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,954

    FPT
    I agree, Yvette Cooper is a decent trading bet, 20/1 best odds currently. Especially if you have backed Rayner, Miliband and Healey at far longer odds than you can get on them now. Like Miliband, Cooper has had ambitions to be Labour leader because she stood in 2015.

    Of the viable candidates for next PM, I wouldn't look beyond Rayner, Miliband, Streeting, Cooper and Healey now. There will be a contest under way by June 2026. Rayner or Miliband will be the candidate of the left, Streeting the candidate of the right, leaving a space for either Cooper or Healey to come through the middle. It's very difficult to see more than 3 candidates making it past the 80 nominations threshold.

    Why are you convinced there will be a contest? It seems to me that any wise candidate will wait until things have settled. Or they're going to walk into a storm.
    No, the optimum position for a challenge is when Starmer is reeling from an absolute shellacking at the May elections, immediately after which there will be an absolute clamour for him to go as MPs realise that it will happen to them in 3 years time unless they throw the dice. Whoever rises to the occasion will get credit for forcing a contest if Starmer doesn't fall on his sword. It takes only one to initiate a contest and once one jumps the others will follow.
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
    I mean Key was a great player wasn't he??
    Oh yeah, up there with Viv, Bradman and Dennis Amiss !!

    Apart from a double century against a poor Windies side I cannot recall him doing anything at the top level.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Taz said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Omnium said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Tice pitches that people should pay the minimum possible Tax, to cover up his own nefarious activities.

    Whether they break the Law or not, Tax avoidance is as bad as Tax evasion in my eyes and always has been.

    Tice may need to explain to his core vote the C and D categories who will rely more on public services than most, that by choice he will be destroying any concept of public services

    That in part defines a reason why well off and wealthy do lean left and vote left. It is because we believe in equality of opportunity irrespective of what we were born in to, the polar opposite of the silver spoon brigade, but that wealth earned should be distributed via tax to the less well off, and inherited wealth should certainly be more equally distributed.

    That does not allow the NEET state Boris, Truss and Sunak created however.

    I will take to my grave my time spent in Sweden when Olaf Palme was in power, a high tax, world class public service system that rewarded enterprise and deliver hope and prosperity. A generation who glady contributed to the wonderful services provided by the State for the benefit of everyone.

    One assumes you don't have an ISA then.
    No never had one, never will have one.

    Some of us have ethics
    (FPT) OK, I now believe this is a wind up account.
    Of course it is! The account has done nothing else but trash talk Kemi Badenoch for weeks on end. No-one can be that single minded, (our dear Hyufd excluded of course).
    I say what I think aboutvBadenoch

    I praise other Tories, current and past.

    Badenoch is a gibshite with an aggression issue who is not fit to lead any Party.
    Well you're not a real person, and if I'm wrong and you are then that's pretty horrible for you really.
    If Brixian isn’t a real person he/she has a fantastic knowledge of Birmingham and BCFC that no bot could just conjure up.

    He/she is real. I have no doubt about that.
    :lol
    A real twat?
    You insult my football club and you cross the line.
    Relax, I know Birmingham, Coventry, Wolves quite well, it's an OK part of the world.

    Just wondering if the new tram line to Dudley will actual open in August.
    There’s going to be a new tram line running to the new Blues ground when it is built too.
    Been a while since I was up there I assume Dudley also goes to Merry Hill.

    As Taz says will also link to The Powerhouse and Airport and NEC

    Just in time for the Knicks to play The reborn Bullets at the Powerhouse Indoor Arena.

  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 7,736
    edited 6:54PM

    So we've told Trump to Go Fuck Himself. And we're not alone.

    Good.

    He can't threaten us with the future of a NATO he has already withdrawn from.

    But he can make NATO countries cough up a lot of wonga instead of the Americans
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Taz said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
    I mean Key was a great player wasn't he??
    Oh yeah, up there with Viv, Bradman and Dennis Amiss !!

    Apart from a double century against a poor Windies side I cannot recall him doing anything at the top level.
    Oh christ you're not a Bear.

  • Sack Rob Key.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 26,932

    Sack Rob Key.

    I doubt that alone would unlock our potential.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 87,194
    edited 6:58PM
    Taz said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
    I mean Key was a great player wasn't he??
    Oh yeah, up there with Viv, Bradman and Dennis Amiss !!

    Apart from a double century against a poor Windies side I cannot recall him doing anything at the top level.
    Bradman ?

    That would be the Don against the DonKey.

    And there's something amiss with the Amiss comparison.
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,954

    Who'd have thunk it. NCP car parks has gone into administration.

    I hope they were 2 minutes late with their paperwork and get clobbered.
    Their creditors say they will limit NCP's liability to 1 billion if they pay within 30 days, after which it rises to 2 billion.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Minesweepers are defensive applications.

    Problem is when one gets blown up.

    Best to sbstsin

    Let them sort their own mess out.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 67,141

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
    Muslim countries conspicuous by their global unpopularity
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 58,257
    Brixian59 said:

    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Minesweepers are defensive applications.

    Problem is when one gets blown up.

    Best to sbstsin

    Let them sort their own mess out.
    This will end up with people calling to reopen the gas pipelines with Russia in order to stick two fingers up at Trump.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    malcolmg said:

    A long term lurker has messaged me this regarding a recent thread.

    Went to a Dire Straits themed restaurant, got charged for the cakes but got sides for nothing, yes it was..

    Money for muffins but the chips were free.

    They are a great loss as a lurker...
    They are, sadly their contract of employments mean they are forbidden from posting on sites like PB.

    I've known them since 2012, they helped crush Scottish Nationalism stone dead in 2014 which as a Scot was a career highlight for them, and once called me a fucking nob.
    Surely not big TUBA who I saw when boarding london city flight this morning
    Nah, they aren't a politicians, more a strategist type.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 4,944
    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 39,537
    National Car Parks has collapsed.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e48zl4j7ko
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 16,625
    Rob Key had a first class average of 40.5, a test average of 31, ODI avg of 19.
    He's the most tragically ordinary cricketer in the history of cricket
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 26,932
    Leon said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
    Muslim countries conspicuous by their global unpopularity
    Indeed, it is the woke, modern, liberal, democratic countries that are globally popular, not the reactionary, misogynistic, religious, fundamentalist dictatorships. Might tell us something.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 87,194
    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 61,637

    Brixian59 said:

    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Battlebus said:

    Not sure if SKS can duck Trump's request for help with Iran. Trump wrote it in a book a few years ago. He helpfully writes a lot down in a book (called Project 2025)


    Increase allied conventional defense burden-sharing. U.S. allies must take far greater responsibility for their conventional defense. U.S. allies
    must play their part not only in dealing with China, but also in dealing with threats from Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

    1. Make burden-sharing a central part of U.S. defense strategy with the United States not just helping allies to step up, but strongly encouraging them to do so.

    2. Support greater spending and collaboration by Taiwan and allies in the Asia–Pacific like Japan and Australia to create a collective
    defense model.

    3. Transform NATO so that U.S. allies are capable of fielding the great majority of the conventional forces required to deter Russia while
    relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent, and select other capabilities while reducing the U.S. force posture in Europe.

    4. Sustain support for Israel even as America empowers Gulf partners to take responsibility for their own coastal, air, and missile defenses both individually and working collectively.

    5. Enable South Korea to take the lead in its conventional defense against North Korea
    Minesweepers are defensive applications.

    Problem is when one gets blown up.

    Best to sbstsin

    Let them sort their own mess out.
    This will end up with people calling to reopen the gas pipelines with Russia in order to stick two fingers up at Trump.
    Which is why a lot of the infrastructure got "put beyond use"
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890
    edited 7:06PM
    Nigelb said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
    Especially when the Belgian PM is a Russian asset.

    From the EU leader who recently blocked the use of frozen Russian billions:

    Belgium’s PM Bart de Wever: “We must normalise relations with Russia and regain access to cheap energy. That is common sense. [...] We must end the conflict in the interest of Europe, without being naïve towards Putin.”

    https://x.com/AliBunkallSKY/status/2033603619841286369
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 87,194
    The half a million strong anti-Orban march that took place yesterday in Hungary
    https://x.com/Daractenus/status/2033475863354736927

    Damn.
    That's bigger than Trump's inauguration.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 26,932
    Nigelb said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
    Its all a load of waffle anyway.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 58,456

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    I would have thought TSE gets his butler to do his shopping for him!
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 55,558

    So we've told Trump to Go Fuck Himself. And we're not alone.

    Good.

    He can't threaten us with the future of a NATO he has already withdrawn from.

    Is that this weeks policy Kemi?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 67,141

    Leon said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Another year like that and they will fall into Trumps shithole category.
    Muslim countries conspicuous by their global unpopularity
    Indeed, it is the woke, modern, liberal, democratic countries that are globally popular, not the reactionary, misogynistic, religious, fundamentalist dictatorships. Might tell us something.
    The key seems to be white, and be European - or European-ancestry; and it helps to be quite neutral and inoffensive. Being east Asian is also good, esp if you have nice food and you're not China
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,890

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    I would have thought TSE gets his butler to do his shopping for him!
    Last time I used a butler was in August 2023 when I stayed at Claridge's and a butler was provided for free with the suite.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 61,637

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 2,694
    Nigelb said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
    Nothing to frite about.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 55,558
    Battlebus said:

    Nigelb said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
    Nothing to frite about.
    We should keep it quiet and not waffle on about it.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 16,625

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    I need extra eyes to roll
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 87,194
    Trump and minions having a good chuckle over the terminal diagnosis of one of their Congressmen.

    https://x.com/MikeNellis/status/2033589528611487816
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 58,257

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
    Surely both are becoming antiquated now when you can get an AI to look at the item and tell you what it is without any codes.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Andy_JS said:

    National Car Parks has collapsed.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e48zl4j7ko

    Not another one?

    The one in Pipers Row Wolverhampton was a shocker
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 61,637
    a

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
    Surely both are becoming antiquated now when you can get an AI to look at the item and tell you what it is without any codes.
    Much less accurate so far.

    The attempts at checkoutless stores - working out what you picked up - have not been very successful. Yet.
  • Brixian59Brixian59 Posts: 1,491
    Foxy said:

    So we've told Trump to Go Fuck Himself. And we're not alone.

    Good.

    He can't threaten us with the future of a NATO he has already withdrawn from.

    Is that this weeks policy Kemi?
    No point asking Kemi

    Pritti writes Tory Defence Policy, gets daily instructions from Bibi
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 80,665

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
    Yeah QR codes are basically barcodes in matrix form tbh
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 134,718
    A slight increase in net approval ratings for SKS but they still remain below the other party leaders. All leaders net negative but Farage on +29% positive correlates with the Reform voteshare and via FPTP is still enough to get him to No 10 while Reform lead the other parties unless significant anti Reform tactical voting
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 24,732

    Who'd have thunk it. NCP car parks has gone into administration.

    Long, non-variable, leases on sites apparently. Bit like parking without reading all the terms and conditions, no?
    We virtually never pay to.park. we park on double yellows whilst one does what necessary and move if the yellow peril appears. Loads of people are doing it because our council.is fffing greedy.
    That's not parking. That's waiting.

    Or open the boot, and it's loading.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 4,944
    Nigelb said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Roger said:

    Andrew Neil becoming more out of touch by the day.

    "Just because of Trump doesn't make people in the UK think less of America"

    Try asking the airlines.......

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pWZqoRnWRA

    I can perhaps guess at what Andrew Neil sort of means here, perhaps - we still massively consume American culture (and swim in a culturally mainly American sea), and American products, many people like the idea of America, of holidays there, there are American people we like, etc - but I'd be very surprised if he isn't measurably wrong. (Maybe @HYUFD has some polling). The vast majority of people, I suspect, have nudged a little further in the anti direction from wherever they were three years ago on the pro/anti American spectrum. There is a graphic I have been hunting for and cannot find of how well-regarded every country is in the world*, showing America dropping 15 places from 30th to 45th in a year - and this data merely reflects Trump becoming president and not any of the mental shite he has donein the past 6 months. I will post it later if I can find it but I am mid-commute.
    You don't have to be as firmly on one side in the Middle East conflict as Roger is to think America has made a right bollocks of this.

    On a happier note, my tram ride has just been interrupted by the arrival of a panicked pigeon erroneously boarding at Piccadilly Gardens: impressed to report that a gifted passenger was able to calmy usher the pigeon off without any harm being done.

    *FWIW, the UK was about 18th, about equal with France and Germany. As you'd expect, Nordics came top.
    Found it!

    Interesting graphic.
    We are still less well regarded than Belgium.
    That is a disgrace.
    Venezuela and Cuba seem to have disappeared into the darkness.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 87,194

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
    Surely both are becoming antiquated now when you can get an AI to look at the item and tell you what it is without any codes.
    What happens when it hallucinates a jar of caviar in place of the Branston pickle ?
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 4,944

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
    Surely both are becoming antiquated now when you can get an AI to look at the item and tell you what it is without any codes.
    But it might not tell the truth.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 58,257
    Signs of seriousness from Pahlavi about forming a new government:

    https://x.com/PahlaviReza/status/2033584117657272658
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 16,625
    edited 7:19PM
    HYUFD said:

    A slight increase in net approval ratings for SKS but they still remain below the other party leaders. All leaders net negative but Farage on +29% positive correlates with the Reform voteshare and via FPTP is still enough to get him to No 10 while Reform lead the other parties unless significant anti Reform tactical voting

    It only gets him to no 10 via FPTP if you apply proportionate swing to both Reforms rise and Lab/Cons decline.
    The GE will throw out a different result to the modelling and then, 2 years in to the next parliament we will be talking about what Baxter says like its going to definitely be right this time
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 49,463
    Nigelb said:

    The half a million strong anti-Orban march that took place yesterday in Hungary
    https://x.com/Daractenus/status/2033475863354736927

    Damn.
    That's bigger than Trump's inauguration.

    Hoping it's goodbye to him next month.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 16,625

    HYUFD said:

    A slight increase in net approval ratings for SKS but they still remain below the other party leaders. All leaders net negative but Farage on +29% positive correlates with the Reform voteshare and via FPTP is still enough to get him to No 10 while Reform lead the other parties unless significant anti Reform tactical voting

    It only gets him to no 10 via FPTP if you apply proportionate swing to both Reforms rise and Lab/Cons decline.
    The GE will throw out a different result to the modelling and then, 2 years in to the next parliament we will be talking about what Baxter says like its going to definitely be right this time
    We haveny yet tested out an election with the top dog being on mid to high 20s to know if the modelling remotely holds up
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 4,944
    Andy_JS said:

    National Car Parks has collapsed.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e48zl4j7ko

    Does this mean no-one can park in their car parks, or do they get to park for free?
  • TazTaz Posts: 26,008
    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Brixian59 said:

    Taz said:

    Rob Key is such an utter Mark Reckless



    https://x.com/stokaljona/status/2033528011480265173

    What !!!!
    I mean Key was a great player wasn't he??
    Oh yeah, up there with Viv, Bradman and Dennis Amiss !!

    Apart from a double century against a poor Windies side I cannot recall him doing anything at the top level.
    Oh christ you're not a Bear.

    Only in the cricketing sense !
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 31,804

    Huzzah.

    End of the line for supermarket barcodes

    Tesco and other retailers are trialling new system letting shoppers use QR codes


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/15/supermarkets-could-replace-barcodes-for-qr-codes/

    Why is this news? Trial started last spring...
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