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A problem about enforcement remains Johnson’s failure to do anything about the Cummings lockdown bre

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  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,357
    FF43 said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    What's problematic about it? Are we such snowflakes that we can't understand that attitudes in 1750 were very different from what we regard as acceptable today? No doubt they would find our attitudes and behaviour thoroughly reprehensible, come to that. None of that means that Hume wasn't a really major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

    What's particularly irrational about this whole debate is that, if it wasn't for the Enlightenment, and the progress attributable to people like Hume, the world wouldn't have the notions of equality, human rights, democracy, fair courts, the rule of law, and all those other values by which these people are being measured.
    I don't disagree with any of that. Hume is one of the world's great philosophers and everyone should read him. The question is a twenty first century one of whether rightly multicultural institutions should optionally name buildings after racists. It is different from Melville's Column previously mentioned. The guy's on top of that pillar, you can't pretend it's someone else. David Hume Tower is one of the better 1960's constructions that desecrated the rather elegant 18th C George Square. It would be called Coca Cola Tower if they stumped up enough cash....
    Sounds like a solution.
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    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    Surely that admission is a ban from PB....
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    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
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    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
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    Nigelb said:

    A twenty year term limit would fix that.
    Imposed by an incoming Democratic Congress, it would still allow a 5-4 Republican Court led by Roberts for the entire term of the next Presidency, so would be an entirely even handed reform.
    Ivanka to be a SC judge for twenty years then?
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,357

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I think you've been drinking the wrong Chardonnays!
    There must be an awful lot of the wrong sort, then.
    I think it's more likely something along the lines of the coriander phenomenon (a similarly loathsome taste for me).
    There are a lot of over-blown Chardonnays. Anything cheap from Australia, for example. But a fine steely Chablis...

    I understand your loathing of coriander. It has a very strong taste and smell, which can be disagreeable if over-used.
    It's rather that there's a genetic disposition to find it has a soapy taste:
    https://www.nature.com/news/soapy-taste-of-coriander-linked-to-genetic-variants-1.11398
    I'm wondering if something similar is going on with chardonnays.
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    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Chelsea have spent over £200 million this summer on transfer fees alone, which obviously doesn't take into account the £10 millions each player contract will be worth.

    These days even free can be very expensive e.g. it is believed Bale loan to Spurs is costing about £20 million for the season.
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    Nigelb said:


    It's rather that there's a genetic disposition to find it has a soapy taste:
    https://www.nature.com/news/soapy-taste-of-coriander-linked-to-genetic-variants-1.11398
    I'm wondering if something similar is going on with chardonnays.

    Could be.
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,519
    MikeL said:

    Before every single Presidential election we are always told it may decide Supreme Court for a generation.

    The reality is you never know. Unexpected things can happen.

    Thomas is 72, Alito 70, Roberts 65 - sure they may well all go on another 10+ years but it's far from certain - if the Democrats now get two terms they might replace two of them.

    Plus you have Roberts being more centrist on some issues.

    Finally with religion in steep decline, even from a high base, it's not going to be tenable for the Supreme Court to push things too far.

    Better for the Dems to introduce term limits. It is absurd for an 87 year old to die in harness.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    Yes good point. Plenty on the Goldman floor like nothing better than a glass of red from a Stowell's of Chelsea wine box after a hard day's graft.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,097
    edited September 2020
    MaxPB said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    And? We shouldn't judge what people said in the 18th century by today's standards. It was a different era, I'm sure if they could see how we live they'd find us all to be awful too.
    Fair comment. But coming from such a progressive figure of the time the quote does illustrate how deeply embedded racism was in Britain not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, and thus how hopelessly naive or complacent it is to think that the legacy of this does not persist in us today.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
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    kinabalu said:


    Fair comment. But coming from such a progressive figure of the time the quote does illustrate how deeply embedded racism was in Britain not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, and thus how hopelessly naive or complacent it is to think that the legacy of this does not persist in us today.

    In Britain as opposed to where?
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    Romney's statement is very carefully worded. He is not committing to supporting whoever Trump might nominate; instead, he's committing only to decide on the basis of the merits of the candidate, which is fair enough.

    Not fair enough for Merrick Garland.
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    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,125

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    Surely that admission is a ban from PB....
    I presume he meant per glass. But even so...
  • Options
    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
  • Options
    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,077
    edited September 2020

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    I thought we were all about state aid these days?
  • Options

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Yes, you forget the economic benefits that football clubs give to their cities and regions.

    I suspect they'll end up doing a Spain, where the loans are repaid once the stadiums re-open, also for every transfer fee the club pays, they have to repay the government the equivalent amount.

    The Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan recently.

    Everton were given a £ 300 million pound loan by the council for the new stadium.

    Boris Johnson effectively wasted £323 million quid on giving West Ham their new stadium.
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    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
    The views of hundreds of millions of Muslims, today, are very very far from Woke. Yet, curiously, they go unscrutinized.
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    Even a small club like Everton brings one billion pound boost to the local area, clubs benefit the wider community.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,097
    IanB2 said:

    Scott_xP said:
    He comes across as a man who senses that he is losing, but isn’t quite sure to whom. It isn’t the virus, nor is it the opposition. He is being beaten by his own unfitness to do the job, and there is no campaign to remedy that.
    Yep. This is it. For another GE win he is relying on the British people to either be (i) too dumb to spot this or (ii) too shallow to care about it. I think he's wrong. I think he'll be turfed out if he runs again. Like with Trump there is a limit to how much you can bullshit people. No 2nd term for either of these gentlemen.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,217

    Nigelb said:


    It's rather that there's a genetic disposition to find it has a soapy taste:
    https://www.nature.com/news/soapy-taste-of-coriander-linked-to-genetic-variants-1.11398
    I'm wondering if something similar is going on with chardonnays.

    Could be.
    No, it’s wot I said above. Lees contact.
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    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
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    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    Surely that admission is a ban from PB....
    I presume he meant per glass. But even so...
    Am told by a friend it goes quite well with pineapple-topped pizza, but of course I wouldn't know myself...
  • Options

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,320

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Agree. It's bonkers.
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    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,077

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
    Depends. If the Government through the BOE is positioned to make a significant profit on the loan via interest, why shouldn't we make such an investment?
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    Between 9 March and 6 September, its data shows:

    the UK did more than 16.4m tests
    Germany did 13.3m tests
    Italy did 8.8m tests
    France did 8.3m tests
    On testing relative to the size of a country's population, the UK ranks highly (over the same period): the UK did 246 tests for every 1,000 people compared with Germany which tested 160 per 1,000

    Isn't that slightly misleading as we include the antibody testing in our figures, which in managing a pandemic/exponential growth therein isn't useful.
    It's not a huge number tbh.
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    Between 9 March and 6 September, its data shows:

    the UK did more than 16.4m tests
    Germany did 13.3m tests
    Italy did 8.8m tests
    France did 8.3m tests
    On testing relative to the size of a country's population, the UK ranks highly (over the same period): the UK did 246 tests for every 1,000 people compared with Germany which tested 160 per 1,000

    What's France's excuse for doing so few tests?

    Surely we have no idea if we are comparing like with like. For a start, it's number of tests, not number of people tested; our data is full of repeat tests, maybe other countries aren't. Secondly, we don't know the criteria for getting a test. There's evidence here that children with colds are being tested, and it's very easy to state you have the necessary symptoms on the application of the website. Perhaps some other countries are more stringent and only testing those who have clear Covid symptoms. Didn't I read somewhere that in one country (France?) your GP had to approve a test.

    So we may be doing really well compared to others, we may not be. I politely suggest that we really don't have a clue.
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    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
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    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
    Depends. If the Government through the BOE is positioned to make a significant profit on the loan via interest, why shouldn't we make such an investment?
    It is just wrong and unjustified
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    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?
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    Len McCluskey has obviously joined Kanye West’s campaign team.

    https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1308443797802508290?s=21
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    LadyG said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    That looks extremely grisly and repellent to modern eyes, but the painful fact is that this was received opinion amongst the educated (and maybe uneducated) classes right across Europe, at that time.

    Anyone who didn't think like this was the exception. And they are rare.

    So you either tear down every statue or you put them in context. The latter is surely better.
    But this is a building not a statue. If you're going to have a plaque saying "Hume Tower" and then another pointing out that Hume was a bit of a racist and explaining the context, it might just be easier to rename it.
    This is a difficult one for me, I certainly understand the different standards/different times argument and that Hume was a noteworthy man, but I also understand that a black student or staff member may feel uncomfortable working in a building named after somebody who thought they were an inferior kind of human being, or might wonder about the attitude of the University to these issues. Of course many might be totally fine about it, but I don't think I'm the right person to make that call and I think it is important that elite institutions like universities do their best to remove barriers to underrepresented groups.
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    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
    Depends. If the Government through the BOE is positioned to make a significant profit on the loan via interest, why shouldn't we make such an investment?
    It is just wrong and unjustified
    Do you think Furlouggh should be extended? do you think we have the money?
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,097
    edited September 2020
    A touch hyperbolic. The SC is very important but it does not govern America. Not even close. Plus if a crazily Con judge is rammed through now for a 6/3 bias the Dems will mitigate either with term limits or expansion of the court from 9 to 11.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
  • Options
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
    The views of hundreds of millions of Muslims, today, are very very far from Woke. Yet, curiously, they go unscrutinized.
    Being woke has never had anything to do with logic or facts.
  • Options
    How many unis are going bust without a bail out?
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606
    kinabalu said:

    MaxPB said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    And? We shouldn't judge what people said in the 18th century by today's standards. It was a different era, I'm sure if they could see how we live they'd find us all to be awful too.
    Fair comment. But coming from such a progressive figure of the time the quote does illustrate how deeply embedded racism was in Britain not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, and thus how hopelessly naive or complacent it is to think that the legacy of this does not persist in us today.
    You mean everywhere in the "civilised" world. Britain was hardly alone in this.
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    LadyG said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    That looks extremely grisly and repellent to modern eyes, but the painful fact is that this was received opinion amongst the educated (and maybe uneducated) classes right across Europe, at that time.

    Anyone who didn't think like this was the exception. And they are rare.

    So you either tear down every statue or you put them in context. The latter is surely better.
    But this is a building not a statue. If you're going to have a plaque saying "Hume Tower" and then another pointing out that Hume was a bit of a racist and explaining the context, it might just be easier to rename it.
    This is a difficult one for me, I certainly understand the different standards/different times argument and that Hume was a noteworthy man, but I also understand that a black student or staff member may feel uncomfortable working in a building named after somebody who thought they were an inferior kind of human being, or might wonder about the attitude of the University to these issues. Of course many might be totally fine about it, but I don't think I'm the right person to make that call and I think it is important that elite institutions like universities do their best to remove barriers to underrepresented groups.
    What about a gay student being taught by a devout, conservative Muslim lecturer? The student will know that the Muslim teacher finds him abhorrent and perverse and deserving of severe punishment, just for what he is - gay - the same way a black student would find a far right racist teacher offensive.

    You either police all of history and thought, or you generally have to accept it, warts and all.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,584
    Nigelb said:

    FF43 said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    What's problematic about it? Are we such snowflakes that we can't understand that attitudes in 1750 were very different from what we regard as acceptable today? No doubt they would find our attitudes and behaviour thoroughly reprehensible, come to that. None of that means that Hume wasn't a really major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

    What's particularly irrational about this whole debate is that, if it wasn't for the Enlightenment, and the progress attributable to people like Hume, the world wouldn't have the notions of equality, human rights, democracy, fair courts, the rule of law, and all those other values by which these people are being measured.
    I don't disagree with any of that. Hume is one of the world's great philosophers and everyone should read him. The question is a twenty first century one of whether rightly multicultural institutions should optionally name buildings after racists. It is different from Melville's Column previously mentioned. The guy's on top of that pillar, you can't pretend it's someone else. David Hume Tower is one of the better 1960's constructions that desecrated the rather elegant 18th C George Square. It would be called Coca Cola Tower if they stumped up enough cash....
    Sounds like a solution.
    Irn-Bru surely.
  • Options

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
    Depends. If the Government through the BOE is positioned to make a significant profit on the loan via interest, why shouldn't we make such an investment?
    It is just wrong and unjustified
    Do you think Furlouggh should be extended? do you think we have the money?
    I am not convinced about extending furlough but money is at a premium and must be allocated to those in most need and that does not include the premier league
  • Options
    BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556

    LadyG said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    That looks extremely grisly and repellent to modern eyes, but the painful fact is that this was received opinion amongst the educated (and maybe uneducated) classes right across Europe, at that time.

    Anyone who didn't think like this was the exception. And they are rare.

    So you either tear down every statue or you put them in context. The latter is surely better.
    But this is a building not a statue. If you're going to have a plaque saying "Hume Tower" and then another pointing out that Hume was a bit of a racist and explaining the context, it might just be easier to rename it.
    This is a difficult one for me, I certainly understand the different standards/different times argument and that Hume was a noteworthy man, but I also understand that a black student or staff member may feel uncomfortable working in a building named after somebody who thought they were an inferior kind of human being, or might wonder about the attitude of the University to these issues. Of course many might be totally fine about it, but I don't think I'm the right person to make that call and I think it is important that elite institutions like universities do their best to remove barriers to underrepresented groups.
    If you follow that logic, you'd have to remove almost all the historical names from monuments, buildings, and foundations, because it's a virtual certainty that any given historical figure held some view or another that goes against the 2020 standard of wokeness. It's a destructive Year Zero mentality, nothing more.
  • Options
    MikeL said:

    Before every single Presidential election we are always told it may decide Supreme Court for a generation.

    The reality is you never know. Unexpected things can happen.

    Thomas is 72, Alito 70, Roberts 65 - sure they may well all go on another 10+ years but it's far from certain - if the Democrats now get two terms they might replace two of them.

    Plus you have Roberts being more centrist on some issues.

    Finally with religion in steep decline, even from a high base, it's not going to be tenable for the Supreme Court to push things too far.

    That's a good point. If a largely secular country is hamstrung by an ultra-conservative SC, the voters will let their feelings be known.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    Oh god we've had this conversation before and you embarrassed yourself then.

    You are saying that there is no difference between a £40 JK Carriere Dolores Estate Pinot Noir and, say, a Charmes Chambertin from Domaine Rousseau?

    You're of course right about the tax calcs, though.
  • Options
    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    Are the government going to bailout and possibly nationalise the premier league? Curious prospect.

    Those billionaire club owners must be short of a few Bob.
  • Options

    How many unis are going bust without a bail out?
    Plenty, probably all of the former polys, and even a few of the ones that weren't.

    The tragedy for them was successive governments encouraged them to target foreign students, especially ones from China.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,940

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Am more worried about lower leagues.
    Full-time and semi-pro non-league looks unsaveable.
    For them loans are no use. Most are already heavily in debt. They have no prospect of ever paying it back.
    Only season tickets service the debt.
    Most rely on a wealthy bloke to write them off.
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    Oh god we've had this conversation before and you embarrassed yourself then.

    You are saying that there is no difference between a £40 JK Carriere Dolores Estate Pinot Noir and, say, a Charmes Chambertin from Domaine Rousseau?

    You're of course right about the tax calcs, though.
    lol. You always wheel out these long French names, like it proves something. Weird.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
  • Options
    Jonathan said:

    Are the government going to bailout and possibly nationalise the premier league? Curious prospect.

    Those billionaire club owners must be short of a few Bob.

    Wasn't nationalising the EPL a Jezza policy ?
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    tlg86 said:

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
    The lower league clubs do not have TV money or parachute payments or overseas kit sales etc.

    gate receipts are very important.

    The Standard reckons many are going to the wall. Its hard to disagree.

    Cue Rishi. Can he afford it?
  • Options
    Jonathan said:

    Are the government going to bailout and possibly nationalise the premier league? Curious prospect.

    Those billionaire club owners must be short of a few Bob.

    Nope, they will offer support to various sports, take the RFU, today's announcement means the RFU will lose £120 million instead of the projected £107 million.

    All the home nations are going to be fecked if the Six Nations are going to be held behind closed doors.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    LadyG said:

    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    Oh god we've had this conversation before and you embarrassed yourself then.

    You are saying that there is no difference between a £40 JK Carriere Dolores Estate Pinot Noir and, say, a Charmes Chambertin from Domaine Rousseau?

    You're of course right about the tax calcs, though.
    lol. You always wheel out these long French names, like it proves something. Weird.
    How about something from Harlan Estate?
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187

    tlg86 said:

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
    The lower league clubs do not have TV money or parachute payments or overseas kit sales etc.

    gate receipts are very important.

    The Standard reckons many are going to the wall. Its hard to disagree.

    Cue Rishi. Can he afford it?
    Surely they're just mothballed until the time comes when they can come back? But the PL is viable, but three teams will be relegated at the end of the season. A further 13 won't make it into the Champions League. The urge to spend hasn't gone away.
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    dixiedean said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Am more worried about lower leagues.
    Full-time and semi-pro non-league looks unsaveable.
    For them loans are no use. Most are already heavily in debt. They have no prospect of ever paying it back.
    Only season tickets service the debt.
    Most rely on a wealthy bloke to write them off.
    Cue Rishi then. Or an important slice of English life goes, probably never to return.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Yes, you forget the economic benefits that football clubs give to their cities and regions.

    I suspect they'll end up doing a Spain, where the loans are repaid once the stadiums re-open, also for every transfer fee the club pays, they have to repay the government the equivalent amount.

    The Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan recently.

    Everton were given a £ 300 million pound loan by the council for the new stadium.

    Boris Johnson effectively wasted £323 million quid on giving West Ham their new stadium.
    BiB - I'm not sure that last bit does your argument much good.
  • Options
    Biden is taking the left wing vote for granted.

    https://twitter.com/jthverhovek/status/1308420202728689669?s=21
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,932
    dixiedean said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Am more worried about lower leagues.
    Full-time and semi-pro non-league looks unsaveable.
    For them loans are no use. Most are already heavily in debt. They have no prospect of ever paying it back.
    Only season tickets service the debt.
    Most rely on a wealthy bloke to write them off.
    Once you get beyond the championship the money levels start to reach areas which aren't that bad.

    Even so supporting league 1 and below would still cost £100m or so for the season unless the FA decides that footballers can be made redundant without penalties.
  • Options
    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    The reason Liverpool did their transfer dealings last week was not on fans returning but the fact that new kit sales were 30% higher than normal, added other products, and the new Nike deal terms, that translated as nearly a 50% increase on the New Balance deal.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    Say what?!

    The clubs are at fault because, for the first time in football history (correct me if I'm wrong), the government are forbidding any fans to attend games?
  • Options
    tlg86 said:

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
    Without support I would expect 15-25 football league clubs to go out of existence by the end of the season. Without support no Premier League clubs will go out of existence.

    Partly due to TV money, and secondly they have a clear asset value that ensures others will buy them for prestige and guaranteed future revenue.

    Despite the furore on here, AIUI the Premier League is working with the Football League on providing a rescue package. It will probably be on a very long term loan basis with Football League income for this year borrowed against the Premier Leagues future long term TV rights.
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    edited September 2020
    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    But TSE and Topping have a point, it does look absurd to bail out the EPL, but it is a highly valuable industry, great for national branding, followed around the world, and brings in squillions to various cities, lots of them northern with not much else to sell.

    London could survive the loss of Fulham or West Ham without much of a worry, but Liverpool without Liverpool and Everton would be severely harmed, economically.

    It's a strange dilemma.
  • Options
    tlg86 said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Yes, you forget the economic benefits that football clubs give to their cities and regions.

    I suspect they'll end up doing a Spain, where the loans are repaid once the stadiums re-open, also for every transfer fee the club pays, they have to repay the government the equivalent amount.

    The Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan recently.

    Everton were given a £ 300 million pound loan by the council for the new stadium.

    Boris Johnson effectively wasted £323 million quid on giving West Ham their new stadium.
    BiB - I'm not sure that last bit does your argument much good.
    Oh I know, I'm just pointing out that Big G's pearl clutching is selective.

    Mind you wait out until he finds out his club's huge debts are only being serviced by match day income.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    LadyG said:

    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    But TSE and Topping have a point, it does look absurd to bail out the EPL, but it is a highly valuable industry, great for national branding, followed around the world, and brings in squillions to various cities, lots of them northern with not much else to sell.

    London could survive the loss of Fulham or West Ham without much of a worry, but Liverpool without Liverpool and Everton would be severely harmed, economically.

    It's a strange dilemma.
    Surely Fulham would be worth zillions for land/development value? Not that I know anything about them but the owners might be dreaming of an opportunity to turn Craven Cottage into luxury apartments.
  • Options
    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,077

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The Government via the Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan in the summer, did you object then?
    I did not know that but on the wider issue of giving 100 million a month to the Premier league in this pandemic would be just wrong with so much need elsewhere
    Depends. If the Government through the BOE is positioned to make a significant profit on the loan via interest, why shouldn't we make such an investment?
    It is just wrong and unjustified
    Unjustified for the government to leverage their position to make money for the exchequer? What?
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
    The lower league clubs do not have TV money or parachute payments or overseas kit sales etc.

    gate receipts are very important.

    The Standard reckons many are going to the wall. Its hard to disagree.

    Cue Rishi. Can he afford it?
    Surely they're just mothballed until the time comes when they can come back? But the PL is viable, but three teams will be relegated at the end of the season. A further 13 won't make it into the Champions League. The urge to spend hasn't gone away.
    ''Mothballed'' being a euphemism for 'mass redundancies of support staff and the destruction of a vital local community place....'
  • Options
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    In most blind testing people can't tell the difference. When they see the price they prefer the more expensive one. Its a very effective snob tax.
  • Options
    BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556

    Biden is taking the left wing vote for granted.

    https://twitter.com/jthverhovek/status/1308420202728689669?s=21

    I think I love this guy! :love:
  • Options
    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    Well I think it is more that the clubs signed players on expensive contracts before any of the COVID situation was known about.
  • Options
    TOPPING said:

    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    Say what?!

    The clubs are at fault because, for the first time in football history (correct me if I'm wrong), the government are forbidding any fans to attend games?
    Clubs haven't spent much this transfer window as they've been cautious, those that have spent money have been bankrolled by nations and oligarchs, but some have spent, yes I'm looking at you Arsenal and Everton, on the assumption fans would return from October, that was a mistake.
  • Options
    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221
    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    Oh god we've had this conversation before and you embarrassed yourself then.

    You are saying that there is no difference between a £40 JK Carriere Dolores Estate Pinot Noir and, say, a Charmes Chambertin from Domaine Rousseau?

    You're of course right about the tax calcs, though.
    lol. You always wheel out these long French names, like it proves something. Weird.
    How about something from Harlan Estate?
    Have you ever tried Georgian orange wine? I had a few bottles recently. It's quite unique, and sometimes absolutely delicious.

    https://www.qvevriwines.co.uk/product/meskhuri-tetri-white_2015/

    I think this is an interesting case where a price over £40 is justified by rarity.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187
    edited September 2020
    LadyG said:

    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    But TSE and Topping have a point, it does look absurd to bail out the EPL, but it is a highly valuable industry, great for national branding, followed around the world, and brings in squillions to various cities, lots of them northern with not much else to sell.

    London could survive the loss of Fulham or West Ham without much of a worry, but Liverpool without Liverpool and Everton would be severely harmed, economically.

    It's a strange dilemma.
    But they aren't going to go under. Some clubs will suffer more than others. Three will go down at the end of the season.
    TOPPING said:

    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    Say what?!

    The clubs are at fault because, for the first time in football history (correct me if I'm wrong), the government are forbidding any fans to attend games?
    Oh come on, it was obvious that this was always a possibility. Arsenal got in early and got their fans to cough upwards of £250 to have a chance of getting tickets in the ballot. They knew what they were doing. There's no chance that the club will be refunding the fans that money any time soon.

    The PL clubs get a fortune from TV rights. The gate receipts are just a nice bonus these days.
  • Options

    Biden is taking the left wing vote for granted.

    https://twitter.com/jthverhovek/status/1308420202728689669?s=21

    Well he is not a socialist! I know lying was effective for the current President, but it should not be encouraged.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,357
    kinabalu said:

    A touch hyperbolic. The SC is very important but it does not govern America. Not even close. Plus if a crazily Con judge is rammed through now for a 6/3 bias the Dems will mitigate either with term limits or expansion of the court from 9 to 11.
    Term limits would be the best response.
    A 20 year limit would retire Thomas and Breyer - and leave a 5-4 Republican court, which would be a restoration of the status quo before the Garland affair.
    A non partisan reform which would justify no retaliation - particularly as it retires a liberal and a conservative.

    Then move in the direction of restoring balance to the Senate with statehood for Puerto Rico and North Virginia.

    Stir in an exercise of Article III power, and that ought to be more than sufficient payback. In an entirely principled and non partisan manner.
  • Options
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    That's assuming the drinker can tell the difference between one wine and another theoretically 22 times better.

    If they cannot - and plenty of the people buying the £20 wine will not be able to - then they're wasting their money.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,097

    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
    It seems odd to try to contextualize our historical racist crimes against black people by reference to the historical crimes of black people against other black people. It sounds rather like the more topical and oft heard (almost undoubtedly racist) sentiment, "Yeah, sure, Black Lives Matter, yada yada. But how about they start by not killing each other so much." That's what it sounds like to me anyway.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    In most blind testing people can't tell the difference. When they see the price they prefer the more expensive one. Its a very effective snob tax.
    Absolutely. Most people can't tell the difference. As I said earlier, at room temperature most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a red and white wine.

    But there is a significant difference between a £40 bottle of wine and a £200 bottle of wine for those that do know the difference.
  • Options
    Have Vallance and Whitty redrawn their graph yet ?
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Len McCluskey has obviously joined Kanye West’s campaign team.

    https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1308443797802508290?s=21

    The major labels contracts are robbery.

    They are truly vile documents.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,357
    A Notorious COVID Troll Actually Works for Dr. Fauci’s Agency
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/redstate-covid-troll-streiff-is-actually-bill-crews-and-he-actually-works-for-dr-anthony-fauci
    Bill Crews is a PR official at the National Institutes of Health. But he also has another job: an anonymous RedState editor who rails against the agency for which he works.
  • Options

    Biden is taking the left wing vote for granted.

    https://twitter.com/jthverhovek/status/1308420202728689669?s=21

    Depends, I suppose. Maybe the Socialists in the US would figure that another four years of Trump might make American voters think that even Socialism might not be such a bad thing.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187

    tlg86 said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    Absolutely. Let's destroy the Premier League which is not at all the envy of the world.
    Do you support tax payers money being given to the premier league or not
    The government is preventing the clubs from functioning. There is therefore an argument that they should receive financial aid from the government. Just like your local pub did when it was told it couldn't open.
    I'm sorry, but the government is not preventing the PL from functioning. If some clubs have banked on fans being allowed back this season, then they are complete ******* morons and deserve everything they get.
    Well I think it is more that the clubs signed players on expensive contracts before any of the COVID situation was known about.
    Willian says hello.
  • Options
    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
    The views of hundreds of millions of Muslims, today, are very very far from Woke. Yet, curiously, they go unscrutinized.
    But they don't go unscrutinised, do they? In fact, you scrutinise them downthread, and criticism of the beliefs of some Muslims on sexuality, women and so forth has been endlessly scrutinised for many years now - including by Muslims themselves. I've read all about it.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    That's assuming the drinker can tell the difference between one wine and another theoretically 22 times better.

    If they cannot - and plenty of the people buying the £20 wine will not be able to - then they're wasting their money.
    Absolutely.
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    BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:


    It's interesting to ponder what the unenlightened believed about race back then.

    You don't need to ponder, it's all well documented in the history books. You might need to ponder a bit more about what the slave-owning and slave-trading Ashanti and Benin peoples believed in the 18th century, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been entirely Woke.
    It seems odd to try to contextualize our historical racist crimes against black people by reference to the historical crimes of black people against other black people. It sounds rather like the more topical and oft heard (almost undoubtedly racist) sentiment, "Yeah, sure, Black Lives Matter, yada yada. But how about they start by not killing each other so much." That's what it sounds like to me anyway.
    Surely the road to enlightenment is more historical context, not less. That's what we keep being told, anyway...
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    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    In most blind testing people can't tell the difference. When they see the price they prefer the more expensive one. Its a very effective snob tax.
    Absolutely. Most people can't tell the difference. As I said earlier, at room temperature most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a red and white wine.

    But there is a significant difference between a £40 bottle of wine and a £200 bottle of wine for those that do know the difference.
    Pretty sure it is £160?
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,238
    LadyG said:

    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    TOPPING said:

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    Oh god we've had this conversation before and you embarrassed yourself then.

    You are saying that there is no difference between a £40 JK Carriere Dolores Estate Pinot Noir and, say, a Charmes Chambertin from Domaine Rousseau?

    You're of course right about the tax calcs, though.
    lol. You always wheel out these long French names, like it proves something. Weird.
    How about something from Harlan Estate?
    Have you ever tried Georgian orange wine? I had a few bottles recently. It's quite unique, and sometimes absolutely delicious.

    https://www.qvevriwines.co.uk/product/meskhuri-tetri-white_2015/

    I think this is an interesting case where a price over £40 is justified by rarity.
    Looks intriguing.

    But it's precisely because there are all these hidden gems that many people prefer to stick to the ones they know and, for UK wine drinkers, that is mainly France and then Italy.
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    LadyG said:

    LadyG said:

    FF43 said:


    As far as I know the NT isn't proposing to rename any of their properties, they simply want to provide more information to visitors, which seems about as far from "rewriting history" as it's possible to be. I'm not qualified to talk about the example you give since the only thing I know about Hume is his role in developing the quantity theory of money. Mind you, I think there is a difference between naming a building after somebody and simply having the building go by its street address, since the name of the street is outwith their control, and in any case who knows which George is being referred to? Could be George Clooney.

    Given that David Hume was one of the greatest figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, I'd have thought Scottish institutions should be naming new buildings after him, not removing his name from existing ones, given the astonishing degree of ignorance there seems to be about him.
    That's what I thought. But this is problematic:

    I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturer amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient German, the present Tartars, still have something eminent about them, in their valor, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction betwixt these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.
    That looks extremely grisly and repellent to modern eyes, but the painful fact is that this was received opinion amongst the educated (and maybe uneducated) classes right across Europe, at that time.

    Anyone who didn't think like this was the exception. And they are rare.

    So you either tear down every statue or you put them in context. The latter is surely better.
    But this is a building not a statue. If you're going to have a plaque saying "Hume Tower" and then another pointing out that Hume was a bit of a racist and explaining the context, it might just be easier to rename it.
    This is a difficult one for me, I certainly understand the different standards/different times argument and that Hume was a noteworthy man, but I also understand that a black student or staff member may feel uncomfortable working in a building named after somebody who thought they were an inferior kind of human being, or might wonder about the attitude of the University to these issues. Of course many might be totally fine about it, but I don't think I'm the right person to make that call and I think it is important that elite institutions like universities do their best to remove barriers to underrepresented groups.
    What about a gay student being taught by a devout, conservative Muslim lecturer? The student will know that the Muslim teacher finds him abhorrent and perverse and deserving of severe punishment, just for what he is - gay - the same way a black student would find a far right racist teacher offensive.

    You either police all of history and thought, or you generally have to accept it, warts and all.
    I know you are an all or nothing kind of guy, frequently all and nothing in the same evening, but I disagree with your assertion that you have to adopt an extreme position on this.
    On the first case you mention, I would ask has this lecturer said publicly that gay people should be punished? If so then I don't think he can really teach in a university for the reason you give, since no gay student could be sure they would be treated fairly. Simply being an observant Muslim does not mean he holds those views. I don't work in HR but I would have thought that publicly calling for gay people to be beaten or beheaded would fall foul of something in a standard employment contract.
    The Hume example is different because Hume no longer works at Edinburgh university so it's not a question of balancing Hume's rights against anyone else's. Hume is dead and has no rights. I think there is a strong but not unarguable case for renaming the building. I don't think I am the correct person to make that call, since as a white heterosexual middle class male there are few historical figures who called for me to have no rights, or said it was OK for me to be someone else's property, or that I shouldn't be allowed to love who I wanted to, or that I was an inferior human being. Perhaps Edinburgh should have had a consultation with BAME staff and students to see how they felt about it. Maybe they were OK with the name, I don't know.
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    LadyGLadyG Posts: 2,221

    LadyG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Wine experts of PB, I had a deliciously sweet and crisp Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant a while back and I think it was this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colombella-Bianco-Salento-Puglia-2011/dp/B00CJEDZKM#ace-g3536363283

    It doesn't seem to be widely available. What do I need to look for if I want to buy something similar? I know nothing about wine apart from that specific one being delicious.

    That's not a Chardonnay, it's a Trebbiano, so it won't be the wine you had (or else you were mistaken on the grape).

    There are lots of good white wines from Puglia, and indeed all over Italy, nowadays.
    For some reason, Chardonnay has always tasted of soap to me.
    I find it cloying. But I'm a budget wine drinker. Perhaps if I was prepared to go above £4.95.
    If you pay £4.95 for wine, £2.30 of that will be tax, and another £2 will be the cost of packaging, shipping, marketing. You are actually buying a bottle of wine worth about 27 pence.

    Unsurprisingly, this wine will not be very good. It will be plonk. Better plonk that you got 30 years ago, thanks to the industralised wineries of the New World, but still plonk.

    The sweet spot for value is about £15-£20. A bottle that costs £20 will be four times as expensive as yours, but the value of the wine itself will be 22 times higher. This is reflected in the taste.

    Go above £40 and you are paying mostly for rarity and prestige, which is fairly pointless, tho appealing to some.
    In most blind testing people can't tell the difference. When they see the price they prefer the more expensive one. Its a very effective snob tax.
    There was a famous tasting where a load of young French wine "experts" were given whites that had been secretly coloured red (without affecting the taste). The experts were unable to tell red from white. The colours fooled them into finding "red" flavours in white wines

    I always find it hard to believe, but it is apparently true.

    https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html

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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,902
    The NFL won't ask for or need a bailout. Instead teams over the 2021 salary cap *Saints & Eagles* are going to sign less new contracts/trade/restructure/release to teams who have managed their finances well like the Patriots.
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    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,109

    tlg86 said:

    If the Prem have got their hands out for money, goodness knows what state the clubs down the pyramid are in.

    How much more money does Sunak have left to give? Why isn;t he giving it?

    To a certain extent the lower league clubs are in a better position as they're all in it together and don't have players on three-year contracts. In the PL and Championship, the differences between those in a good position and those who have gambled will be larger.
    Without support I would expect 15-25 football league clubs to go out of existence by the end of the season. Without support no Premier League clubs will go out of existence.

    Partly due to TV money, and secondly they have a clear asset value that ensures others will buy them for prestige and guaranteed future revenue.

    Despite the furore on here, AIUI the Premier League is working with the Football League on providing a rescue package. It will probably be on a very long term loan basis with Football League income for this year borrowed against the Premier Leagues future long term TV rights.
    How much money did cricket get?
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    tlg86 said:

    It seems the Premier League are pleading for financial aid following the delay in allowing fans into grounds

    You do have to wonder what planet they are on.

    Apparently 100 million a month is suggested , just the amount Manchester United are considering paying for one player

    Not one penny should be given to these clubs who pay millions for players and millions a week for wages

    Time to take an axe to the number of players on their books and their salaries if they are so hard up

    As for your latter point, that would be a breach of contract.
    Can anyone seriously support financial aid to the Premier league
    Yes, you forget the economic benefits that football clubs give to their cities and regions.

    I suspect they'll end up doing a Spain, where the loans are repaid once the stadiums re-open, also for every transfer fee the club pays, they have to repay the government the equivalent amount.

    The Bank of England gave Spurs a £175 million loan recently.

    Everton were given a £ 300 million pound loan by the council for the new stadium.

    Boris Johnson effectively wasted £323 million quid on giving West Ham their new stadium.
    BiB - I'm not sure that last bit does your argument much good.
    Oh I know, I'm just pointing out that Big G's pearl clutching is selective.

    Mind you wait out until he finds out his club's huge debts are only being serviced by match day income.
    I know they are and maybe that is why Manchester United have not yet agreed a 100 million deal
This discussion has been closed.