OldKingCole - isn't that just a device to give the minority that does very well from the status quo the power to block change? Would you say a political party getting 65.9% of the vote should be allowed to make any changes?
I didn’t write any changes. I referred to major changes. There’s a difference.
But, taking the point would I say that nationalisation of the railways was a major change? No
Would I say that declaring that the next Monarch will be William V, not Charles IV was major? Yes.
Not such a major change if it is simply Charles deciding to call himself William as king (and perhaps hoping nobody will notice).
He’s got quite a lot of names, but William isn’t one of them. He could decide to use Philip as a regnal name!
AFP news agencyVERIFIED ACCOUNT @AFP 3 mins3 minutes ago
#BREAKING Spain PM asks Catalan leader to clarify if he declared independence
Great,so the Spainish PM is turning up the heat again.
Sounds like they are confused, which probably means it was a well done statement from catalonia, at least in terms of them batting the ball back and forth.
While the economic consequences of the vote in terms of corporate relocations grows, they are ramping up the pressure to exploit the fissures amongst the independentistas. Seems like a reasonable strategy to me.
If they want to escalate, sure. It's probably working, the catalans did blink first. But long term?
And I'm unconvinced someone who thinks Caesar was a better general than Hannibal should run around criticising the intellectual capacity of other people.
Glad people enjoyed the piece. I was worried that it was too long (and was terser than I would have liked to be about some points) so I'm cheered that some wanted it to cover other things as well.
I see that the Conservative Remain-supporting politicians are queuing up today to make themselves unelectable as Conservative leader. This should provide betting opportunities.
It's a very good piece. On your second point, here's a convert:
Glad people enjoyed the piece. I was worried that it was too long (and was terser than I would have liked to be about some points) so I'm cheered that some wanted it to cover other things as well.
I see that the Conservative Remain-supporting politicians are queuing up today to make themselves unelectable as Conservative leader. This should provide betting opportunities.
It's a very good piece. On your second point, here's a convert:
OldKingCole - isn't that just a device to give the minority that does very well from the status quo the power to block change? Would you say a political party getting 65.9% of the vote should be allowed to make any changes?
I didn’t write any changes. I referred to major changes. There’s a difference.
But, taking the point would I say that nationalisation of the railways was a major change? No
Would I say that declaring that the next Monarch will be William V, not Charles IV was major? Yes.
Not such a major change if it is simply Charles deciding to call himself William as king (and perhaps hoping nobody will notice).
He’s got quite a lot of names, but William isn’t one of them. He could decide to use Philip as a regnal name!
AFP news agencyVERIFIED ACCOUNT @AFP 3 mins3 minutes ago
#BREAKING Spain PM asks Catalan leader to clarify if he declared independence
Great,so the Spainish PM is turning up the heat again.
Sounds like they are confused, which probably means it was a well done statement from catalonia, at least in terms of them batting the ball back and forth.
Puigdemont blinked first, now treading a fine line between going to prison or getting lynched by his supporters.
Mr. Eagles, I said above, he completed the conquest of Iberia.
The fact is that Hannibal in defeat was more glorious (and alive) than Caesar in victory. To defeat Hannibal took the utter devotion and all the resources of the Roman Republic in its pomp, including numerous very skilled generals. Caesar managed to beat some barbarians in Gaul, and a predictable old man in the Civil War.
What ambush did Caesar achieve to match Cannae? What audacious march to match crossing the Alps in winter, with elephants? What battle can rank alongside Cannae?
Or let us look at vice. Which general committed genocide against people with whom he was supposed to be conducting peace talks?
From what I've read here and elsewhere, I fear that people who liked the original and agreed with its hype, will love the remake - and that's fine. The question is whether it will garner large numbers of new converts.
1) can't be bothered to go to see it; or 2) would prefer to listen to Radiohead on loop while they iron their socks for three hours; or 3) don't see it on principle because the greater the hype the worse the film is likely to be; or 4) have noticed that none of Adeel Akhtar, Kayvan Novak, Jack O'Connell, John Boyega, Luke Treadaway, or the sainted Riz are in it and therefore it can't be that good?
The argument that immigration doesn't affect the jobs market I think is incorrect.
The real effect has been on productivity. Why should I increase my productivity with a piece of machinery, when there is a surplus of cheap labour which can do the job and are easy to get rid of (much easier than a large or specific capital asset). And if that surplus keeps growing, then it's much easier to put off capital investment because wages for manual tasks are depressed. Productivity increases drive wage increases or consumer choice through price competition. We imported our 'competition' through China pricing, but that gain is now over.
Also, the tax take from a minimum wage worker is fairly low. If that minimum wage worker requires housing but cannot afford it, the state will subsidise his low wage to pay his rent, put his children through school, look after his health, and pay his pension. The employer benefits, not the employee - as he no longer has to pay a wage commensurate to the cost of living - he does not have to raise his productivity to afford it.
Minimum wage worker on a 40hr/p/w - £15,600 Tax threshold £11,500 Ni Threshold 8164. Total earnings related taxes = £1710
Then the question has to be, how much do the services that this individual has access to cost? How much is lost to the exchequer because productivity investment has been diverted into low tax yield employment? How many more people are on minimum wage because of the ever increasing labour force?
You should add say £1500 to the above for Vat and excise duties. If it's a single man, the state is ahead. A family with 3 children at school less so. Perhaps this has a bearing on the Government's attitude to family rights.
The underestimation of the costs of immigration on the education sector is huge, IMO.
As an example, we're quite literally employing Romanian/Polish/other language teachers to teach English to those who don't have it as a first language.
Which is crazy. Immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language. Admittedly, that can be hard in classes where ESL kids are the majority.
Indeed. What is also known is the best way to teach a group of eg, Polish children to speak English is via a trained Native Speaker speaking English to them, not a Polish, English as a Second Language, teacher.
From what I've read here and elsewhere, I fear that people who liked the original and agreed with its hype, will love the remake - and that's fine. The question is whether it will garner large numbers of new converts.
I didn't think the original was very good, and found the new one an improvement. It's definitely good, but it has issues. Visual effects are not one of them.
Mr. Eagles, I said above, he completed the conquest of Iberia.
The fact is that Hannibal in defeat was more glorious (and alive) than Caesar in victory. To defeat Hannibal took the utter devotion and all the resources of the Roman Republic in its pomp, including numerous very skilled generals. Caesar managed to beat some barbarians in Gaul, and a predictable old man in the Civil War.
What ambush did Caesar achieve to match Cannae? What audacious march to match crossing the Alps in winter, with elephants? What battle can rank alongside Cannae?
Or let us look at vice. Which general committed genocide against people with whom he was supposed to be conducting peace talks?
Hannibal's defeat in the Second Punic War ultimately led to the wipe out of Carthage, Julius Caesar never inflicted that on his people did he?
Given Macron has already effectively given Trump a state visit to France looks a bit ridiculous on our part now
Wouldn't stop so many complaints about us embarrassing ourselves in front of the world, 'look who we make friends with' and all that. Which would be silly given where's he been and how he's been received already, but we know what the reaction would be.
OldKingCole - isn't that just a device to give the minority that does very well from the status quo the power to block change? Would you say a political party getting 65.9% of the vote should be allowed to make any changes?
I didn’t write any changes. I referred to major changes. There’s a difference.
But, taking the point would I say that nationalisation of the railways was a major change? No
Would I say that declaring that the next Monarch will be William V, not Charles IV was major? Yes.
Not such a major change if it is simply Charles deciding to call himself William as king (and perhaps hoping nobody will notice).
He’s got quite a lot of names, but William isn’t one of them. He could decide to use Philip as a regnal name!
That might stir up trouble, of course.
How about Arthur?
King Arthur II
That’d be good. PB discussions the accuracy or otherwise of that could rival an AV thread!
Mr. Eagles, the end of the Republic in chaotic fashion was not a good thing for the Romans.
Also, you may recall that the Civil War (so entitled because it was a civil war) did involve him making war on his countrymen, not something Hannibal ever did.
Sequels to revered films always provide interesting discussions and insights. I've had discussions with people who have the mindset that the film they are going to see can't possibly be as good as the first one (reminds me of the Alien vs Aliens debates that are still going on all these years later). I think there is an inbuilt culture that sequels are just automatically inferior, because there have been lots and lots of examples of it being actually true.
But there are rare occasions when a sequel can be just as good or almost as good and for me personally this was one of them.
Sequels to revered films always provide interesting discussions and insights. I've had discussions with people who have the mindset that the film they are going to see can't possibly be as good as the first one (reminds me of the Alien vs Aliens debates that are still going on all these years later). I think there is an inbuilt culture that sequels are just automatically inferior, because there have been lots and lots of examples of it being actually true.
But there are rare occasions when a sequel can be just as good or almost as good and for me personally this was one of them.
Godfather-Godfather2 and Alien-Aliens is a good starting point. Just hope they don't do a third, on those precedents.....
Kind of makes you wonder - how the fuck did we get locked into a system like that in the first place then? Who is standing up to take the credit for that? (No, sit down Mr. Clegg. You really weren't that powerful.)
Taking the simplest, most efficient, and least expensive solution available at the time? If you have a single authority or agreement covering 28 countries to sign, why would you decide to separately set up 28 individual national authorities to regulate exactly the same thing with exactly the same criteria and agreed to have exactly the same output. Or sign 28 individual national agreements.
Indeed. The public has little idea yet of the cuts to working tax and child tax credit that UC involves. There is going to be hell to pay when the cuts hit...
PM Doesn't sound very convincing. UC helpline costs are shocking if true. If it is anything like the old DWP line, 30 mins. on hold was far from unusual.
I was not the one trying to draw unsupported conclusions from the election results. That was the idiotic Anna Soubry. She is the one claiming the loss of the majority was due to people not wanting Brexit. Conveniently ignoring all those UKIP supporters who voted Labour safe in the knowledge they had promised a hard Brexit.
So over the campaign Labour gained 8% from non Tory Remain voters and only 5% from Tory Remain voters. The Tories had already gained most of the UKIP Leave voters who voted for them before the campaign. So it was still likely the dementia tax and not Brexit which cost the Tories in the campaign
The effect of the dementia tax are very clear as have election polls from both the period where May was backing hard Brexit and no dementia tax, and from the period where May was backing hard Brexit and the dementia tax
The crazy thing about May's June Brexit election was that there was nothing to talk about on Brexit when Labour and the Tories had not a fag paper between them. So some bright spark thought they should air their half-thought-through ideas on terminal care costs.
The June election was about everything but Brexit.
Anecdotally I think that's right. Campaigning in a safe WWC seat and a marginal suburban seat (Nottingham N and Broxtowe), I rarely found Brexit coming up as an issue - from memory only about four voters mentioned it spontaneously. My impression is that most people felt it was a settled issue and so the election was about something else, such as care home costs or the NHS or May's stable nature or Corbyn's suitability as PM - opinions on all these things evolved during the campaign, as we've discussed. Clearly there were different swings among Remain and Leave voters, but I'm not sure they were all caused by Brexit - rather, a lot of ABC1 Remain voters went off the Tories for other reasons.
I'd agree as well. In OxWAb, I found talking about non-Brexit policies (eg a penny on tax for the NHS) to be far more useful, and when I did get drawn onto Brexit, I focused on the Single Market aspect.
Not as far as I can see. Reviews from both the critics and the public are overwhelmingly positive, generally ravingly so. That includes amongst those who did not see the original. Box office wise it suffers from being long (committing around 3 1/2 hours to a film including trailers and ads is a lot for many people these days) and also from the claim made before the weekend that it will take $50 million in its opening weekend in the US - which came from a couple of newspapers not from the studio. In the end it has done very well and is number 1 on the charts and made about $35 million in the US which is still good numbers.
OldKingCole - isn't that just a device to give the minority that does very well from the status quo the power to block change? Would you say a political party getting 65.9% of the vote should be allowed to make any changes?
I didn’t write any changes. I referred to major changes. There’s a difference.
But, taking the point would I say that nationalisation of the railways was a major change? No
Would I say that declaring that the next Monarch will be William V, not Charles IV was major? Yes.
Not such a major change if it is simply Charles deciding to call himself William as king (and perhaps hoping nobody will notice).
He’s got quite a lot of names, but William isn’t one of them. He could decide to use Philip as a regnal name!
That might stir up trouble, of course.
How about Arthur?
King Arthur II
That’d be good. PB discussions the accuracy or otherwise of that could rival an AV thread!
I decline to believe that the brainchild of The Quiet Man could be flawed in any repect whatever. The tories may be unsentimental about sacking leaders, but they aren't unsentimental enough afterwards.
PM Doesn't sound very convincing. UC helpline costs are shocking if true. If it is anything like the old DWP line, 30 mins. on hold was far from unusual.
UC is, as I have been occasionally bleating on about for months, a massive unexploded bomb under the Tories.
1) can't be bothered to go to see it; or 2) would prefer to listen to Radiohead on loop while they iron their socks for three hours; or 3) don't see it on principle because the greater the hype the worse the film is likely to be; or 4) have noticed that none of Adeel Akhtar, Kayvan Novak, Jack O'Connell, John Boyega, Luke Treadaway, or the sainted Riz are in it and therefore it can't be that good?
As far as point 3 goes I would suggest that whilst that rule is generally right this is indeed the exception.
Coming through passport control at Schipol this morning, the burly officer saw I had a British passport and said in a rather menacing tone "where's your EU visa?". Any other regular travellers getting this kind of treatment in the EU27? I'm noticing it more and more.
Not in Spain 1 visit, Holland (Schipol) x4 visits, Germany 3 visits, France 2 visits or Italy 1 visit.
PM Doesn't sound very convincing. UC helpline costs are shocking if true. If it is anything like the old DWP line, 30 mins. on hold was far from unusual.
UC is, as I have been occasionally bleating on about for months, a massive unexploded bomb under the Tories.
No it isn't, once the teething problems are ended it will end the current scandal where you can lose all your benefits from just a few hours work
And I'm unconvinced someone who thinks Caesar was a better general than Hannibal should run around criticising the intellectual capacity of other people.
How many wars did Hannibal win?
He lived 16 years after his major defeat whereas Caesar lived only 5 years after victory over his opponents....
Coming through passport control at Schipol this morning, the burly officer saw I had a British passport and said in a rather menacing tone "where's your EU visa?". Any other regular travellers getting this kind of treatment in the EU27? I'm noticing it more and more.
Not in Spain 1 visit, Holland (Schipol) x4 visits, Germany 3 visits, France 2 visits or Italy 1 visit.
Maybe he was a joker
Probably just getting some practice in for March 2019 onwards.
Not as far as I can see. Reviews from both the critics and the public are overwhelmingly positive, generally ravingly so. That includes amongst those who did not see the original. Box office wise it suffers from being long (committing around 3 1/2 hours to a film including trailers and ads is a lot for many people these days) and also from the claim made before the weekend that it will take $50 million in its opening weekend in the US - which came from a couple of newspapers not from the studio. In the end it has done very well and is number 1 on the charts and made about $35 million in the US which is still good numbers.
Not for a movie which cost as much as it did. It's not a flop like valerian, lone ranger or John Carter, but it was still below modest predictions.
Though I've seen an argument that's good. It will probably break even with international markets giving it a profit even with what must be a large marketing budget, but if it made oodles of money there'd probably be quick sequels, loads planned, which is rarely good for quality.
As it is it is good, it will be well received, and they'll not rush sequels.
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
PM Doesn't sound very convincing. UC helpline costs are shocking if true. If it is anything like the old DWP line, 30 mins. on hold was far from unusual.
UC is, as I have been occasionally bleating on about for months, a massive unexploded bomb under the Tories.
No it isn't, once the teething problems are ended it will end the current scandal where you can lose all your benefits from just a few hours work
Kind of makes you wonder - how the fuck did we get locked into a system like that in the first place then? Who is standing up to take the credit for that? (No, sit down Mr. Clegg. You really weren't that powerful.)
Taking the simplest, most efficient, and least expensive solution available at the time? If you have a single authority or agreement covering 28 countries to sign, why would you decide to separately set up 28 individual national authorities to regulate exactly the same thing with exactly the same criteria and agreed to have exactly the same output. Or sign 28 individual national agreements.
I know, let's leave the WTO. Oh shit, other nations can trade with us how they see fit without having to apply WTO rules. Hell, those tariffs are well steep. The economy has tanked. Just goes to prove how much of our sovereignty we'd given to the WTO. Shows we were right to get out all along. (Contentedly pulls piece of stale untoasted bread from the dying embers of his fire).
I fear the stage of virtuous masochism is rapidly taking grip on Leaverland.
And I'm unconvinced someone who thinks Caesar was a better general than Hannibal should run around criticising the intellectual capacity of other people.
How many wars did Hannibal win?
He lived 16 years after his major defeat whereas Caesar lived only 5 years after victory over his opponents....
But he set the stage for an empire to last 1000 years. Yes, his immediate successor forged the new system, but off the back of what he did.
Mr. Eagles, there was a report on the news about that.
Why is there a six week delay when going onto UC?
It is supposed to mimic the 6 weeks before payday when you get a job. It is supposed, therefore to be good for you. Course there used to be "run-on" benefits, to tide people over when taking full time work.
Given Macron has already effectively given Trump a state visit to France looks a bit ridiculous on our part now
Wouldn't stop so many complaints about us embarrassing ourselves in front of the world, 'look who we make friends with' and all that. Which would be silly given where's he been and how he's been received already, but we know what the reaction would be.
At the moment the EU is annoyed with us, if we snub Trump that is the US administration annoyed with us so we end up Britain no mates with our 2 largest trading partners
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
No. It effects people on working class tax credit and child tax credit. How many people is that?
Indeed. The public has little idea yet of the cuts to working tax and child tax credit that UC involves. There is going to be hell to pay when the cuts hit...
Very true existing claimants with no change in circumstances are due to be migrated between July 19 and march 22.This is like a slow multiple car crash on the motorway.
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
You don't understand that UC is impacting people in employment, including people who vote Tory.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
Sone people having problems with a system, and trick rollouts, don't mean a policy or system is without merit, and the public have been supportive of a lot tougher approaches on benefits. I'm reserving judgement for now. That it will be hated is itself irrelevant, if it works in the end.
Indeed. The public has little idea yet of the cuts to working tax and child tax credit that UC involves. There is going to be hell to pay when the cuts hit...
Very true existing claimants with no change in circumstances are due to be migrated between July 19 and march 22.This is like a slow multiple car crash on the motorway.
Timed beautifully for the run-in to GE 2021/22.
Although they will pause/change it. We just have to endure the months of "there will be no change" until there is one.
Indeed. The public has little idea yet of the cuts to working tax and child tax credit that UC involves. There is going to be hell to pay when the cuts hit...
Very true existing claimants with no change in circumstances are due to be migrated between July 19 and march 22.This is like a slow multiple car crash on the motorway.
Timed beautifully for the run-in to GE 2021/22.
Although they will pause/change it. We just have to endure the months of "there will be no change" until there is one.
Quite probably. They don't have numbers to upset their own MPs and a lot will not hold firm.
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
You don't understand that UC is impacting people in employment, including people who vote Tory.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
Honestly, the way the Tories are running things at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if half the Cabinet are in fact deep sleepers for Jezza's Marxism party.
Not as far as I can see. Reviews from both the critics and the public are overwhelmingly positive, generally ravingly so. That includes amongst those who did not see the original. Box office wise it suffers from being long (committing around 3 1/2 hours to a film including trailers and ads is a lot for many people these days) and also from the claim made before the weekend that it will take $50 million in its opening weekend in the US - which came from a couple of newspapers not from the studio. In the end it has done very well and is number 1 on the charts and made about $35 million in the US which is still good numbers.
Some of those $50m claims will be from people who didn't realise it was so long - and therefore would have fewer screenings over the weekend.
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
You don't understand that UC is impacting people in employment, including people who vote Tory.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
The people most affected by UC are DE voters who voted for Corbyn and who longer term UC will help to enter the workplace rather than be solely reliant on benefits thus making them more likely to vote Tory than they were previously.
I don't disagree in the short term the delays in benefit payments under UC need to be tackled, which Gauke already is making progress on as he told the Tory conference but longer term UC will be a net positive
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
You don't understand that UC is impacting people in employment, including people who vote Tory.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
Honestly, the way the Tories are running things at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if half the Cabinet are in fact deep sleepers for Jezza's Marxism party.
They seem determined to ensure he wins.
That stands all the "Agent Corbyn" jokes from before the election on their heads.
The poll tax not everyone and especially annoyed the middle class unless they were very wealthy hence the Tory poll rating nosedive as a result, UC only affects the poor and unemployed who tend to vote Labour and longer term it will benefit them by getting more of them into employment as is already starting to occur
You don't understand that UC is impacting people in employment, including people who vote Tory.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
Honestly, the way the Tories are running things at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if half the Cabinet are in fact deep sleepers for Jezza's Marxism party.
They seem determined to ensure he wins.
The tories are fecked, the country is fecked, we are all fecked. We really are.
PM Doesn't sound very convincing. UC helpline costs are shocking if true. If it is anything like the old DWP line, 30 mins. on hold was far from unusual.
UC is, as I have been occasionally bleating on about for months, a massive unexploded bomb under the Tories.
No it isn't, once the teething problems are ended it will end the current scandal where you can lose all your benefits from just a few hours work
Sone people having problems with a system, and trick rollouts, don't mean a policy or system is without merit, and the public have been supportive of a lot tougher approaches on benefits. I'm reserving judgement for now. That it will be hated is itself irrelevant, if it works in the end.
Yes but that is why in the main you support the government of the day , your antenna to see a problem coming down the track is not been received properly.They need to make sure the implementation works before further rollout to millions of people.
Indeed. The public has little idea yet of the cuts to working tax and child tax credit that UC involves. There is going to be hell to pay when the cuts hit...
Change ? Change ? We can't have change ? I don't like change....
If Brexit is betrayed, a Corbyn landslide is guaranteed. Leave voters will sit on their hands in their millions.
If Brexit happens then Tories out of power for generations.
If you genuinely believed that then you should be cheering Brexit on.
However I will grant you that for some Tories Brexit is more important than a having a Tory government so once the objective has been achieved keeping them on board may be not that straightforward.
Comments
That might stir up trouble, of course.
https://order-order.com/2017/10/11/truss-now-vote-leave/
He was also still fighting battles decades after the Second Punic War. Caesar was not, I believe, doing the same decades after the Civil War.
Take your time.
King Arthur II
I win, 'twas ever thus.
The fact is that Hannibal in defeat was more glorious (and alive) than Caesar in victory. To defeat Hannibal took the utter devotion and all the resources of the Roman Republic in its pomp, including numerous very skilled generals. Caesar managed to beat some barbarians in Gaul, and a predictable old man in the Civil War.
What ambush did Caesar achieve to match Cannae? What audacious march to match crossing the Alps in winter, with elephants? What battle can rank alongside Cannae?
Or let us look at vice. Which general committed genocide against people with whom he was supposed to be conducting peace talks?
1) can't be bothered to go to see it; or
2) would prefer to listen to Radiohead on loop while they iron their socks for three hours; or
3) don't see it on principle because the greater the hype the worse the film is likely to be; or
4) have noticed that none of Adeel Akhtar, Kayvan Novak, Jack O'Connell, John Boyega, Luke Treadaway, or the sainted Riz are in it and therefore it can't be that good?
If its this year I'm going to 'fall through the middle' of my Hills and Ladbrokes bets on the matter.
The BBC have now started asking me to log in to use iPlayer, and I have to give them my date of birth and postcode.
B'stards.
Also, you may recall that the Civil War (so entitled because it was a civil war) did involve him making war on his countrymen, not something Hannibal ever did.
Sequels to revered films always provide interesting discussions and insights. I've had discussions with people who have the mindset that the film they are going to see can't possibly be as good as the first one (reminds me of the Alien vs Aliens debates that are still going on all these years later). I think there is an inbuilt culture that sequels are just automatically inferior, because there have been lots and lots of examples of it being actually true.
But there are rare occasions when a sequel can be just as good or almost as good and for me personally this was one of them.
If you have a single authority or agreement covering 28 countries to sign, why would you decide to separately set up 28 individual national authorities to regulate exactly the same thing with exactly the same criteria and agreed to have exactly the same output. Or sign 28 individual national agreements.
On this topic.
@JenWilliamsMEN: Emailed a contact at a homeless charity today about Universal Credit. Probably the bluntest assessment yet
55p a minute helpline almost unbelievable.
"welcome 3 m more employed" just embarrassing.
We cannot go on like this.
Maybe he was a joker
that'll be those capitalist running dogs blair and brown?
Why is there a six week delay when going onto UC?
Though I've seen an argument that's good. It will probably break even with international markets giving it a profit even with what must be a large marketing budget, but if it made oodles of money there'd probably be quick sequels, loads planned, which is rarely good for quality.
As it is it is good, it will be well received, and they'll not rush sequels.
King Mohammed I sounds pretty good.
Quite brilliant. Keep whistling...
I fear the stage of virtuous masochism is rapidly taking grip on Leaverland.
You have stood for elected office for the Tories (and may do so again) how do think your comments would go down with the voters if you keep on bleating that UC affects people people who generally vote Labour.
Could say he was honouring James Cromwell who played Prince Philip in The Queen.
Although they will pause/change it. We just have to endure the months of "there will be no change" until there is one.
They seem determined to ensure he wins.
I don't disagree in the short term the delays in benefit payments under UC need to be tackled, which Gauke already is making progress on as he told the Tory conference but longer term UC will be a net positive
Change ? Change ? We can't have change ? I don't like change....
However I will grant you that for some Tories Brexit is more important than a having a Tory government so once the objective has been achieved keeping them on board may be not that straightforward.