I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him
Trying Tesco's click and collect this weekend. Wanted a delivery but there was no availability for the next 4 weeks or something. Will be interesting to see how it works!
Getting delivery slots is like winning the lottery.
Trying Tesco's click and collect this weekend. Wanted a delivery but there was no availability for the next 4 weeks or something. Will be interesting to see how it works!
Getting delivery slots is like winning the lottery.
I never personally had much of an issue. Had a delivery yesterday, got another one on Saturday.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
Not quite sure that last line says what you think it says! No reason to doubt, maybe?
Anecdata: Sainsnbury's shelves were pretty empty yesterday. Whether due to Brexit or Covid interfering with delivery, I could not say.
It may be a specifically Sainsbury's issue. When we went to the one in Leamington on Saturday the fresh fruit and veg shelves were noticeably empty. There were also shortages of many other things.
More generally, have lamb prices come down yet? They don't seem to have.
What is Sainsbury's for, exactly, now?
They seem a mid-range bleurgh type of shop.
De gustibus, etc. I have Sainsbury, Tesco and Waitrose locally. The first two offer a good choice at reasonable prices. Waitrose offers the same things for about 15% more, as well as a few things that the others don't. So in normal times I shop at Sainsbury for most things and Waitrose for the occasional exotica. I've tried Aldi and Lidl in the past and wouldn't consider them - just not enough predictable choice. Morrisons and Asda are OK.
Essentially this feels like the browser was that used to rage - Firefox vs Chrome etc. The key point was that they are all essentially the same.
Yes, instead of wasting energy arguing about which identikit supermarket is “best”, people could divert their efforts into supporting their local shops. Far better range - and local options - in my local butchers than in any of the multiples. Ditto the bottle shop vs the dull, never-changing options in Sainsbury’s.
We found a local butcher on Instagram and after a few emails we've started buying all of our meat from him. The quality improvement is just out of this world compared to Waitrose, Sainsbury's or Morrisons. It's not even more expensive, I think it's cheaper than Waitrose for chicken and lamb.
We're trialling a fish mongers next week, he's agreed to a click and collect service for us with no contact due to our extended bubble with my parents. It's a bit more expensive than prepackaged but I'm really looking forwards to trying it.
Yes, there are some great fish delivery services out there. Enjoy!
I found mine by talking to a traditional fish man with a van-round, who drives in from Grimsby at 5am.
Whilst I think the government's handling of COVID has been pretty terrible, I do think those opinion polls showing most people favouring lockdowns etc. have been proved to be complete and utter bollocks (not the findings, I mean people were lying).
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
Not quite sure that last line says what you think it says! No reason to doubt, maybe?
I have corrected it - a bit slow this morning !!!!!!
Pussycatgearman is upset. Nothing new, but what got him talking like Leon?
Gorgeous George still has the capacity to cut through doesn't he? Martin Amis described him as "a political entrepreneur" which strikes me as a pretty good description.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
How can you (quite rightly) condemn Drakeford for his woeful performance on deaths per 100,000 and in the next breath give Johnson a free pass?
Sainsbury's has gone downhill in the last 20 years. It used to be an affordable M&S sort of standard, or just beneath it, but it's gone from middle middle-class to lower middle-class as it has ASDA'ed and ARGOS'ed itself.
I think it's barely above Tesco now and Morrisons is better.
I've just made the massive call to defect from Waitrose to Morrisons. 3 reasons - It's more spacious so you can keep right away from other shoppers. It has a big car park so you can really load up with essentials. No reason not to get multipacks of everything. Opened a packet of Waitrose chapattis last week and they were covered in green mould.....
Isn't that just the new pineapple on pizza ?
In that league for sure...
I'm waiting for the PBers who insist that is the only way they will eat chapatis.
Final thought before I start an epic video conference.
I did speak to a couple of pollsters who run focus groups on this, there's a few things the voters associate Boris Johnson and the pandemic with, something he cannot shake off.
1) Dominic Cummings (and he was a good parent because he broke quarantine, whilst everyone else who stayed at home were bad parents) but we've discussed that to tedium in the way we discuss AV and Scottish independence.
2) The outbreak in Number 10 right at the start of the pandemic, the government was telling us to do x to avoid Covid-19, it fitted this meme that the rules were for little people.
3) The sheer number of Covid-19 related contracts going to Tory donors and friends, the voters could live with that if they were qualified, but awarding them to egregious unqualified companies and people is something the voters do remember.
As I said 1-3 have been consistently raised in the polls and focus groups.
I find 2 very surprising. 1 and 3 I can understand but 2 really was a case of very bad luck.
I agree that it is wrong to blame individuals for catching the virus. Perhaps where they're more culpable is in taking risks that would pass the virus on to others.
However, I think there's a very important political lesson from that. As with the poll finding that blames the public, not the government, for the second wave, the public are clearly focused on individual actions. They do not have a collective mindset.
This suggests that the next few years are more likely to be 1920s individualistic hedonism today, and not late-1940s collective building a better tomorrow.
This means the Left generally have a big, long-term job to shift the centre of political gravity their way. It's unlikely to happen by 2024.
Whilst I think the government's handling of COVID has been pretty terrible, I do think those opinion polls showing most people favouring lockdowns etc. have been proved to be complete and utter bollocks (not the findings, I mean people were lying).
Oh no people favour all these restrictions....for other people....
Trying Tesco's click and collect this weekend. Wanted a delivery but there was no availability for the next 4 weeks or something. Will be interesting to see how it works!
Getting delivery slots is like winning the lottery.
Try tescos at midnight exactly. 00:00:01 to 00:00:10 no later, have it already loaded up in the browser and refresh, look for deliveries in the 3rd week ahead. That still works for me everytime, even when there are no deliveries available generally.
Pussycatgearman is upset. Nothing new, but what got him talking like Leon?
I think Galloway was the first person to block me on Twitter so I only see his tweets when other folk quote them and thus I only have a passing oversight of his ‘journey’. I get the impression that the foetid little pool that he’s paddling in has made him even more mental.
Nevertheless I’m predicting that Unionism will get so desperate that they’ll end up recruiting him in some capacity or other.
I made the mistake of googling for him + 'strapon' ... so am none the wiser as to his reason for talking dirty, even if it makes a change from 'meow'.
This reminds me, the recent headers and posting discussions on PB re indyref2 (the usual tanky/colonialist stuff aside) have been interesting and innovative and yet nobody is addressing who is fronting Better Together 2. Something to bear in mind.
Dream team Gordon and Gover I’m assuming? Don’t call me Baroness Ruth as handmaiden if she can tear herself away from reforming the HoL by becoming a member of it.
Mphm. (Scepticism not aimed at you, but at that combination. I'm just wondering whose credibility would drop quickest as a result of appearing in that threesome, but also who has most to lose, not least in terms of 'my heritage/reputation'.)
I think that's probably right, but I'm sure Gove wouldn't be in the front-line....
As it happens, I think the Broon, would be pretty persuasive on the economics of independence and is probably trusted by the sort of voters who the No team would need to win over. Not to be under-estimated as he still appears to be pretty fired up. Probably sees saving the UK as a legacy issue reputationally.
There would need to be a Tory in the team and Ruth Davidson polls pretty well so far as I am aware. And as a very strong Remainer is well-placed to flag the parallels between Brexit and Sindy.
Compared to the somewhat less than charismatic Lord Darling they would not be such a bad team for the Union.
I
To be fair to Darling he did beat the more charismatic Salmond by a comfortable 10% margin in the 2014 indyref.
Scots tend to like dull but serious, which may also mean SLab could ultimately revive under Starmer there too. Indeed on current polls and with a new leader replacing the hapless Leonard, SLab could even retake second place from the Tories at Holyrood in May, particularly making gains on the list.
Trying Tesco's click and collect this weekend. Wanted a delivery but there was no availability for the next 4 weeks or something. Will be interesting to see how it works!
Getting delivery slots is like winning the lottery.
So far have had no problems in this lockdown with Sainsbury's or Ocado.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
They possibly employed a cilice (since strap-ons were mentioned) to produce a suitably penitent look.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him
I have reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him.
Much discussion here and elsewhere on the figure for Covid deaths in the UK, which is indeed horrendous.
However, I'd be a bit wary of premature international comparisons; our final ranking in the grim league table is not known yet. We can point to what were clearly, at least with hindsight, big errors by the government, but there were also lots of factors outside the control of the government, and none of this is easy.
To make one obvious point, the awful UK figures of the past few weeks are no doubt partly due to the 'British' variant being so infectious. That effect happens to have hit us first, but this virus doesn't respect borders and it may simply be a timing difference, with other countries lagging behind us on the increased fatalities caused by the variant.
I expect that this pandemic will last several more years, by the time this is over the league table could look very different. It is entirely possible that there are worse waves to come, and also quite likely that we will need to revaccinate regularly.
With a vaccine rollout and hotel quarantines then this could and should be the final wave for the UK, even if the rest of the world has future waves. And we can get back to work, close our budget deficit and use our aid budget to help the rest of the world catch up with us.
Were that to happen then the initial league tables would be irrelevant by the end of the day.
News this morning that Denmark was diverting some of its vaccine supplies to somewhere else - Africa perhaps - right now.
ahahaha, I doubt that if Mette F wants to keep her job - we got a total of 73,000 doses this week and 38,000 last week - that's not daily delivery that's for the whole week - despite a typically excellent programme for managing the jabs the doses aren't coming - then we get this sort of thing in my daily paper
"Eksperter i både Danmark og udlandet stiller seriøse spørgsmål ved vaccinens virkning" for the few people on this board who don't read Danish - "Experts in both Denmark and other countries are seriously questioning the vaccines effectiveness"
It's all about the government here not wanting to blame the EU because we decided not to follow the original plan and organise our own. So now AZ for some reason becomes the whipping boy and no criticism of the EU is coming from government.
No, they're all in it together (the governments, that is). United they stand.
Whilst I think the government's handling of COVID has been pretty terrible, I do think those opinion polls showing most people favouring lockdowns etc. have been proved to be complete and utter bollocks (not the findings, I mean people were lying).
Oh no people favour all these restrictions....for other people....
I think it is more lying to themselves...
"I am in favour of welding people in their homes, shooting down any airliners that cross the 12 mile limit etc etc. Excuse me, but I need to go to my coffee morning, followed by my boxing class. Then I am flying to Ibiza for a rave. Incidentally did you see that Tok Tok about X taking his dog for a walk? Doesn't he know there is an epidemic?"
Pussycatgearman is upset. Nothing new, but what got him talking like Leon?
I think Galloway was the first person to block me on Twitter so I only see his tweets when other folk quote them and thus I only have a passing oversight of his ‘journey’. I get the impression that the foetid little pool that he’s paddling in has made him even more mental.
Nevertheless I’m predicting that Unionism will get so desperate that they’ll end up recruiting him in some capacity or other.
I made the mistake of googling for him + 'strapon' ... so am none the wiser as to his reason for talking dirty, even if it makes a change from 'meow'.
This reminds me, the recent headers and posting discussions on PB re indyref2 (the usual tanky/colonialist stuff aside) have been interesting and innovative and yet nobody is addressing who is fronting Better Together 2. Something to bear in mind.
Dream team Gordon and Gover I’m assuming? Don’t call me Baroness Ruth as handmaiden if she can tear herself away from reforming the HoL by becoming a member of it.
Mphm. (Scepticism not aimed at you, but at that combination. I'm just wondering whose credibility would drop quickest as a result of appearing in that threesome, but also who has most to lose, not least in terms of 'my heritage/reputation'.)
I think that's probably right, but I'm sure Gove wouldn't be in the front-line....
As it happens, I think the Broon, would be pretty persuasive on the economics of independence and is probably trusted by the sort of voters who the No team would need to win over. Not to be under-estimated as he still appears to be pretty fired up. Probably sees saving the UK as a legacy issue reputationally.
There would need to be a Tory in the team and Ruth Davidson polls pretty well so far as I am aware. And as a very strong Remainer is well-placed to flag the parallels between Brexit and Sindy.
Compared to the somewhat less than charismatic Lord Darling they would not be such a bad team for the Union.
I
All losers, unionists only have a C team , they will need to do better than those has beens, ne'er do wells and comic singers.
Trying Tesco's click and collect this weekend. Wanted a delivery but there was no availability for the next 4 weeks or something. Will be interesting to see how it works!
Getting delivery slots is like winning the lottery.
We are booking them 4 weeks ahead now, just stick in a pint of milk or bag of spuds. If you wait there is no hope.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
How can you (quite rightly) condemn Drakeford for his woeful performance on deaths per 100,000 and in the next breath give Johnson a free pass?
I am not giving him a free pass and he did say mistakes have been made
My point is that It is unfair to suggest he was not genuinely upset yesterday.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him
I have reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him.
Even if he does it does not condone for a second his uselessness overall or the bunch of cretins he has as a team. Their only quick actions were filling their pals pockets with public money , everything else was a shambles. These guys are culpable 100%
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
It sounds the sort of anecdote that migrates. Len Deighton?
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
It was in one of the books. Then again, in a chunk of the world, avocado is used in deserts...
EDIT quick google - it was the book of Casino Royale
If GOP senators don't bar him from office he will be running in 2024.
I'm not sure I agree for several reasons, although accept it's a serious possibility.
Obstacles include:
1. He has serious legal and possibly financial problems separate from impeachment.
2. He is deeply personal hurt by defeat and won't run if he doesn't think he'll win.
3. Many of his biggest defenders don't want him to stand due either to personal ambition or a belief he won't win - they will stand by him but remind him of 2.
4. He will be 78. Whilst he seems in surprisingly robust form for a man with his risk factors, and it didn't stop Biden, quite a lot can happen medically in four years in your late 70s if you're obese and so on.
Honestly, the EU is really proving why we were right to leave in a very short space of time after brexit. This vaccine kerfuffle, the disgraceful China deal really shows what the EU is about.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him
I have reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him.
Even if he does it does not condone for a second his uselessness overall or the bunch of cretins he has as a team. Their only quick actions were filling their pals pockets with public money , everything else was a shambles. These guys are culpable 100%
Sturgeon, Drakeford and Foster are equally and jointly responsible with Boris for mistakes made
Pussycatgearman is upset. Nothing new, but what got him talking like Leon?
I think Galloway was the first person to block me on Twitter so I only see his tweets when other folk quote them and thus I only have a passing oversight of his ‘journey’. I get the impression that the foetid little pool that he’s paddling in has made him even more mental.
Nevertheless I’m predicting that Unionism will get so desperate that they’ll end up recruiting him in some capacity or other.
I made the mistake of googling for him + 'strapon' ... so am none the wiser as to his reason for talking dirty, even if it makes a change from 'meow'.
This reminds me, the recent headers and posting discussions on PB re indyref2 (the usual tanky/colonialist stuff aside) have been interesting and innovative and yet nobody is addressing who is fronting Better Together 2. Something to bear in mind.
Dream team Gordon and Gover I’m assuming? Don’t call me Baroness Ruth as handmaiden if she can tear herself away from reforming the HoL by becoming a member of it.
Mphm. (Scepticism not aimed at you, but at that combination. I'm just wondering whose credibility would drop quickest as a result of appearing in that threesome, but also who has most to lose, not least in terms of 'my heritage/reputation'.)
I think that's probably right, but I'm sure Gove wouldn't be in the front-line....
As it happens, I think the Broon, would be pretty persuasive on the economics of independence and is probably trusted by the sort of voters who the No team would need to win over. Not to be under-estimated as he still appears to be pretty fired up. Probably sees saving the UK as a legacy issue reputationally.
There would need to be a Tory in the team and Ruth Davidson polls pretty well so far as I am aware. And as a very strong Remainer is well-placed to flag the parallels between Brexit and Sindy.
Compared to the somewhat less than charismatic Lord Darling they would not be such a bad team for the Union.
I
To be fair to Darling he did beat the more charismatic Salmond by a comfortable 10% margin in the 2014 indyref.
Scots tend to like dull but serious, which may also mean SLab could ultimately revive under Starmer there too. Indeed on current polls and with a new leader replacing the hapless Leonard, SLab could even retake second place from the Tories at Holyrood in May, particularly making gains on the list.
Agree with that. It's why I think Brown could be a significant asset to No campaign. Another example: no-one is duller or more serious than Theresa May who managed to bomb in England while doing surprisingly well in Scotland in 2017. Horses for courses.
So the EU can speak to the world's media castigating a company for breaching the contract but the CEO is not allowed to respond? 🤔
It is quite common is certain kinds of commercial disputes, for the larger entity to assume that the smaller one will allow itself to absorb the blame quietly. So that the bosses at the big entity can save face.
I've personally seen this happen between companies. I understand that it has happened a number of time in UK politics - where politicians and civil servants have blamed a company, the company is supposed to swallow the blame and they are supposed to get rewarded later.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
How can you (quite rightly) condemn Drakeford for his woeful performance on deaths per 100,000 and in the next breath give Johnson a free pass?
I am not giving him a free pass and he did say mistakes have been made
My point is that It is unfair to suggest he was not genuinely upset yesterday.
I don't know the man, however, from what I have read about him, he appears to have little empathy or compassion for those close to him. It thus takes some imagination to paint him in the light you suggest. Although,as I say, I don't know the guy, so you may be correct.
Honestly, the EU is really proving why we were right to leave in a very short space of time after brexit. This vaccine kerfuffle, the disgraceful China deal really shows what the EU is about.
Hence the Biden administration is now talking of a 3 pronged alliance dealing with the UK as a core pillar on the same level as the EU.
It clearly no longer sees the EU as reliable in containing Russia and China unlike us, indeed even India is more China sceptic at the moment than the EU is. The EU is also more of an economic challenge to the US than us and wants to replace the dollar with the euro as the main global reserve currency.
They signed the contracts three months late. Absolutely no justification for fulfilling the EUs quota from someone else's that signed their contracts and three months sooner.
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
It was in one of the books. Then again, in a chunk of the world, avocado is used in deserts...
...but grown in rain forests.
Researching this is a sign of having too little to do, but it seems avocado ice cream is a trad thing in Jamaica. So it is more likely a case of Fleming being so wrong, he is right after all.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
And our job - nay our duty - is to make sure he does not get away with it.
Final thought before I start an epic video conference.
I did speak to a couple of pollsters who run focus groups on this, there's a few things the voters associate Boris Johnson and the pandemic with, something he cannot shake off.
1) Dominic Cummings (and he was a good parent because he broke quarantine, whilst everyone else who stayed at home were bad parents) but we've discussed that to tedium in the way we discuss AV and Scottish independence.
2) The outbreak in Number 10 right at the start of the pandemic, the government was telling us to do x to avoid Covid-19, it fitted this meme that the rules were for little people.
3) The sheer number of Covid-19 related contracts going to Tory donors and friends, the voters could live with that if they were qualified, but awarding them to egregious unqualified companies and people is something the voters do remember.
As I said 1-3 have been consistently raised in the polls and focus groups.
Do they have any insights why that is not feeding into polling numbers? Too many politically engaged Brexit supporting Tory voters in the sample?
Pussycatgearman is upset. Nothing new, but what got him talking like Leon?
I think Galloway was the first person to block me on Twitter so I only see his tweets when other folk quote them and thus I only have a passing oversight of his ‘journey’. I get the impression that the foetid little pool that he’s paddling in has made him even more mental.
Nevertheless I’m predicting that Unionism will get so desperate that they’ll end up recruiting him in some capacity or other.
I made the mistake of googling for him + 'strapon' ... so am none the wiser as to his reason for talking dirty, even if it makes a change from 'meow'.
This reminds me, the recent headers and posting discussions on PB re indyref2 (the usual tanky/colonialist stuff aside) have been interesting and innovative and yet nobody is addressing who is fronting Better Together 2. Something to bear in mind.
Dream team Gordon and Gover I’m assuming? Don’t call me Baroness Ruth as handmaiden if she can tear herself away from reforming the HoL by becoming a member of it.
Mphm. (Scepticism not aimed at you, but at that combination. I'm just wondering whose credibility would drop quickest as a result of appearing in that threesome, but also who has most to lose, not least in terms of 'my heritage/reputation'.)
I think that's probably right, but I'm sure Gove wouldn't be in the front-line....
As it happens, I think the Broon, would be pretty persuasive on the economics of independence and is probably trusted by the sort of voters who the No team would need to win over. Not to be under-estimated as he still appears to be pretty fired up. Probably sees saving the UK as a legacy issue reputationally.
There would need to be a Tory in the team and Ruth Davidson polls pretty well so far as I am aware. And as a very strong Remainer is well-placed to flag the parallels between Brexit and Sindy.
Compared to the somewhat less than charismatic Lord Darling they would not be such a bad team for the Union.
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To be fair to Darling he did beat the more charismatic Salmond by a comfortable 10% margin in the 2014 indyref.
Scots tend to like dull but serious, which may also mean SLab could ultimately revive under Starmer there too. Indeed on current polls and with a new leader replacing the hapless Leonard, SLab could even retake second place from the Tories at Holyrood in May, particularly making gains on the list.
Agree with that. It's why I think Brown could be a significant asset to No campaign. Another example: no-one is duller or more serious than Theresa May who managed to bomb in England while doing surprisingly well in Scotland in 2017. Horses for courses.
Yes, plus Brown got a higher voteshare in 2010 in Scotland than Blair had in 2005, the reverse of what happened in England
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
How can you (quite rightly) condemn Drakeford for his woeful performance on deaths per 100,000 and in the next breath give Johnson a free pass?
I am not giving him a free pass and he did say mistakes have been made
My point is that It is unfair to suggest he was not genuinely upset yesterday.
I don't know the man, however, from what I have read about him, he appears to have little empathy or compassion for those close to him. It thus takes some imagination to paint him in the light you suggest. Although,as I say, I don't know the guy, so you may be correct.
I actually would like to think on something as upsetting as this we could agree that the moment was highly charged and emotional for him
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi says it will start mass production later this year of the coronavirus vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer/BioNTech.
Sanofi says it's struck a deal to manufacture about 125 million doses by the end of this year, starting in July, using a converted factory in Germany.
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
If GOP senators don't bar him from office he will be running in 2024.
And he'll win.
The nomination or the Presidency? I'd say the former is a LOT more likely than the latter.
I agree he'll be very tough to beat in the primaries if he goes for it (although a lot of his biggest public supporters will be trying to dissuade him).
But the general election is a real problem for him. When you get past the whining, he lost pretty decisively in November. He'll probably be facing either an incumbent (Biden) or quasi-incumbent (Harris) in 2024. His conduct since November hands the Democrats a stick to beat him with and make it less likely he'll get a swing back. Democrats won't unleash rampant socialism on America (if anything, Biden will bitterly disappoint radicals), killing an important Trump line in 2020.
Japan's prime minister has been forced to apologise after several of his ministers visited nightclubs, despite the government asking the public to avoid unnecessary outings.
I cannot believe Boris achieved that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" look in the Mail photograph without hours of practise and coaching. This is all orchestrated to take a hit, get it out of the way, preempt an attack from Sir Abstainalot at pmq and clear the decks for a sunlit uplands narrative as the vaccine kicks in.
I actually do not accept that
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences genuinely upset him
How can you (quite rightly) condemn Drakeford for his woeful performance on deaths per 100,000 and in the next breath give Johnson a free pass?
I am not giving him a free pass and he did say mistakes have been made
My point is that It is unfair to suggest he was not genuinely upset yesterday.
I don't know the man, however, from what I have read about him, he appears to have little empathy or compassion for those close to him. It thus takes some imagination to paint him in the light you suggest. Although,as I say, I don't know the guy, so you may be correct.
I actually would like to think on something a upsetting as this we could agree that the moment was highly charged and emotional for him
To suggest he faked it is just playing politics
In general, it is standard in oppositional politics to believe that your opponents are uncaring, heartless etc. If you don't do that, you might accidentally like them. And so become a heretic.
For some, it is a substitute for policies and ideas - the opposition is evil, so the fact they pretty much do what we would have done is irrelevant. THEY ARE EVUL!!!!
Having our weekly delivery from Sainsbury's later on today, only have a few substitutions (Cod fillets instead of cod loins, different type of yoghurt from what was ordered,)
The issue is not being able to order things in the first place, no courgettes, avocado, and aubergines, that sort of thing.
Prices have gone up quite a few things.
You need to shop at a more competent supermarket, avocados are in plentiful supply at Waitrose and I am sure courgettes and aubergines were on the shelves. The avocado I'm having for lunch comes from Colombia so presumably unaffected by Brexit
We ordered a supplementary shop from Waitrose a fortnight ago, no courgettes, aubergines, or avocados arrived.
I've never been that fortunate. One person in our house enjoys all three of these. It isn't me!
Didn't James Bond once eat an avocado pear as a dessert because Ian Fleming had only heard about these exotic fruit second hand?
He had been living partly in Jamaica for 7 years before writing the first novel, so it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hmm. Maybe it was someone else. I might need to spend the rest of the week leafing through old books.
Golly, never knew M&S did food in 1959, I thought it was something they branched into in the 80s.
The T in my BLT yesterday hailed from Belgium. If the poor little Belgians can produce fresh tomatoes in January why not farmer Giles? I assume the vital ingredient is LPG, though it isn't mentioned on the packet.
I'm being worse than complacent. I'm straight in laying him both for the 24 GOP nomination and for next POTUS. I have a chunky 4 digit liability already.
Sainsbury's has gone downhill in the last 20 years. It used to be an affordable M&S sort of standard, or just beneath it, but it's gone from middle middle-class to lower middle-class as it has ASDA'ed and ARGOS'ed itself.
I think it's barely above Tesco now and Morrisons is better.
I've just made the massive call to defect from Waitrose to Morrisons. 3 reasons - It's more spacious so you can keep right away from other shoppers. It has a big car park so you can really load up with essentials. No reason not to get multipacks of everything. Opened a packet of Waitrose chapattis last week and they were covered in green mould.....
Isn't that just the new pineapple on pizza ?
In that league for sure...
I'm waiting for the PBers who insist that is the only way they will eat chapatis.
Final thought before I start an epic video conference.
I did speak to a couple of pollsters who run focus groups on this, there's a few things the voters associate Boris Johnson and the pandemic with, something he cannot shake off.
1) Dominic Cummings (and he was a good parent because he broke quarantine, whilst everyone else who stayed at home were bad parents) but we've discussed that to tedium in the way we discuss AV and Scottish independence.
2) The outbreak in Number 10 right at the start of the pandemic, the government was telling us to do x to avoid Covid-19, it fitted this meme that the rules were for little people.
3) The sheer number of Covid-19 related contracts going to Tory donors and friends, the voters could live with that if they were qualified, but awarding them to egregious unqualified companies and people is something the voters do remember.
As I said 1-3 have been consistently raised in the polls and focus groups.
Do they have any insights why that is not feeding into polling numbers? Too many politically engaged Brexit supporting Tory voters in the sample?
Brexit loyalty and the fact Covid-19 feels like a war and there’s a rally round the leader effect.
It has fed into the leadership ratings for Boris Johnson and the wider supplementaries for both the PM and the Tory party.
Neither are as popular as they were at their 2019GE and COVID-19 peaks.
Also Labour are still dealing with the toxic legacy of Corbyn.
You really have to wonder just when they will realise that 'when you are in a hole you stop digging'
This is fast becoming a PR disaster for the EU and time for Ursula von der Leyen and others to consider their position
We've left remember? Feck all to do with you or me. Stick to moaning impotently about Drakeford, at least he's in your manor.
It has everything to do with you and me and Big G. It is a classic example of the EU failing as a large and moribund organisation and then trying to use its weight and influence to overcome its own failings by bullying others into correcting its own mistakes.
If there is a limited supply of the vaccine available and the EU has failed to properly ensure its delivery then any actions it takes to correct that impacts other countries.
The EU has made a whole series of mistakes in their handling of the vaccines issue from trying to enforce a single supply policy for all countries, to failing to purchase enough supplies soon enough, to failing to certify the vaccines soon enough and then finally insisting on a uniform start date for vaccination which meant some countries were waiting an additional week after they were ready before they could start. It has been a complete shambles.
If GOP senators don't bar him from office he will be running in 2024.
And he'll win.
There's a long time before 2024. I suspect the GOP might split.
One or two defecting to the Dems/running as Independents is not impossible, but it looks like there aren't enough anti-Trumpists with the courage to create a split.
Comments
He is featured in all todays papers and each photo is different but shows him deeply affected
I have no reason to think that the enormity of this pandemic and consequences does not genuinely upset him
It appears to be like talking to a child trying to explain why it was very hard to get a PS5 at Christmas after not pre-ordering...
However, I think there's a very important political lesson from that. As with the poll finding that blames the public, not the government, for the second wave, the public are clearly focused on individual actions. They do not have a collective mindset.
This suggests that the next few years are more likely to be 1920s individualistic hedonism today, and not late-1940s collective building a better tomorrow.
This means the Left generally have a big, long-term job to shift the centre of political gravity their way. It's unlikely to happen by 2024.
Scots tend to like dull but serious, which may also mean SLab could ultimately revive under Starmer there too. Indeed on current polls and with a new leader replacing the hapless Leonard, SLab could even retake second place from the Tories at Holyrood in May, particularly making gains on the list.
"I am in favour of welding people in their homes, shooting down any airliners that cross the 12 mile limit etc etc. Excuse me, but I need to go to my coffee morning, followed by my boxing class. Then I am flying to Ibiza for a rave. Incidentally did you see that Tok Tok about X taking his dog for a walk? Doesn't he know there is an epidemic?"
My point is that It is unfair to suggest he was not genuinely upset yesterday.
https://twitter.com/Berlaymonster/status/1354382997290672128?s=20
https://youtu.be/zAoZ_rRoEuQ
https://twitter.com/NeilPlevey9/status/1354392116114448385
EDIT quick google - it was the book of Casino Royale
Obstacles include:
1. He has serious legal and possibly financial problems separate from impeachment.
2. He is deeply personal hurt by defeat and won't run if he doesn't think he'll win.
3. Many of his biggest defenders don't want him to stand due either to personal ambition or a belief he won't win - they will stand by him but remind him of 2.
4. He will be 78. Whilst he seems in surprisingly robust form for a man with his risk factors, and it didn't stop Biden, quite a lot can happen medically in four years in your late 70s if you're obese and so on.
So the EU can speak to the world's media castigating a company for breaching the contract but the CEO is not allowed to respond? 🤔
This is fast becoming a PR disaster for the EU and time for Ursula von der Leyen and others to consider their position
https://twitter.com/adamparsons/status/1354394620734689281?s=20
However I think Biden would still beat Trump if he runs for re election in 2024, though I could see Trump narrowly beating Harris
I've personally seen this happen between companies. I understand that it has happened a number of time in UK politics - where politicians and civil servants have blamed a company, the company is supposed to swallow the blame and they are supposed to get rewarded later.
Stick to moaning impotently about Drakeford, at least he's in your manor.
It clearly no longer sees the EU as reliable in containing Russia and China unlike us, indeed even India is more China sceptic at the moment than the EU is. The EU is also more of an economic challenge to the US than us and wants to replace the dollar with the euro as the main global reserve currency.
Their tardiness. Their responsibility.
Researching this is a sign of having too little to do, but it seems avocado ice cream is a trad thing in Jamaica. So it is more likely a case of Fleming being so wrong, he is right after all.
To suggest he faked it is just playing politics
Sanofi says it's struck a deal to manufacture about 125 million doses by the end of this year, starting in July, using a converted factory in Germany.
I agree he'll be very tough to beat in the primaries if he goes for it (although a lot of his biggest public supporters will be trying to dissuade him).
But the general election is a real problem for him. When you get past the whining, he lost pretty decisively in November. He'll probably be facing either an incumbent (Biden) or quasi-incumbent (Harris) in 2024. His conduct since November hands the Democrats a stick to beat him with and make it less likely he'll get a swing back. Democrats won't unleash rampant socialism on America (if anything, Biden will bitterly disappoint radicals), killing an important Trump line in 2020.
For some, it is a substitute for policies and ideas - the opposition is evil, so the fact they pretty much do what we would have done is irrelevant. THEY ARE EVUL!!!!
This is to create a siege mentality in its viewers.
It has fed into the leadership ratings for Boris Johnson and the wider supplementaries for both the PM and the Tory party.
Neither are as popular as they were at their 2019GE and COVID-19 peaks.
Also Labour are still dealing with the toxic legacy of Corbyn.
https://twitter.com/andywightman/status/1354136960936386565?s=20
Doesn't that mean they've lost the argument?
If there is a limited supply of the vaccine available and the EU has failed to properly ensure its delivery then any actions it takes to correct that impacts other countries.
The EU has made a whole series of mistakes in their handling of the vaccines issue from trying to enforce a single supply policy for all countries, to failing to purchase enough supplies soon enough, to failing to certify the vaccines soon enough and then finally insisting on a uniform start date for vaccination which meant some countries were waiting an additional week after they were ready before they could start. It has been a complete shambles.