Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
They do fantastic biscuits/cookies.
Fortnum's chocolate biscuits are to die for. I might have to buy a few tins for Christmas when I'm next in town.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
£1.15 for 4 pints in Sainsbury's.
F&M are the dog's dangly bits.
Looked up online for sure. I am very far from a SwankyWankyBank plc executive and even I don't concern myself with the price of cheap foodstuffs.
Fortnums is lovely but not an everyday choice for those of us without gold credit cards.
I'm a Northerner, I always pay attention to prices.
It has gone up recently from £1.09 to £1.15.
I'm sure there's a bad, stereotype heavy joke in all this about the difference between a rich Southerner, a rich Northerner and a rich Scot...
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
I'm not sure if you're being ironic or if you're praising Fortnum's bacon.
Not that I'd get any - who wants bacon when you can have chorizo.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
They do fantastic biscuits/cookies.
Fortnum's chocolate biscuits are to die for. I might have to buy a few tins for Christmas when I'm next in town.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
£1.15 for 4 pints in Sainsbury's.
F&M are the dog's dangly bits.
Looked up online for sure. I am very far from a SwankyWankyBank plc executive and even I don't concern myself with the price of cheap foodstuffs.
Fortnums is lovely but not an everyday choice for those of us without gold credit cards.
I'm a Northerner, I always pay attention to prices.
It has gone up recently from £1.09 to £1.15.
I'm sure there's a bad, stereotype heavy joke in all this about the difference between a rich Southerner, a rich Northerner and a rich Scot...
Rich Southerner - "will it affect house prices"
Rich Northerner - "when I was a lad"
Rich Scot - "will you be having a sale"
Actually are Scots mean/fugal in reality or is that some outdated stereotype ?
There was the old miser in Kidnapped and Gordon Brown postured as the 'Iron Chancellor' but the Scots I've met have never seemed that way.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
It will go on for a few years, probably end in a big legal settlement with the accuser and that will be that.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
They do fantastic biscuits/cookies.
Fortnum's chocolate biscuits are to die for. I might have to buy a few tins for Christmas when I'm next in town.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
£1.15 for 4 pints in Sainsbury's.
F&M are the dog's dangly bits.
Looked up online for sure. I am very far from a SwankyWankyBank plc executive and even I don't concern myself with the price of cheap foodstuffs.
Fortnums is lovely but not an everyday choice for those of us without gold credit cards.
I'm a Northerner, I always pay attention to prices.
It has gone up recently from £1.09 to £1.15.
I'm sure there's a bad, stereotype heavy joke in all this about the difference between a rich Southerner, a rich Northerner and a rich Scot...
A Soft Southern Englishman, a Scotsman and our very own TSE walk into a bar. They each order a drink. The bartender places down the three drinks in front of them just as three flies buzz in through the window. One fly lands in each of the men's drinks. The Soft Southern Englishman, disgusted, slides the drink back across the bar and demands another one. The Scotsman takes the fly out and shrugs, before taking a long gulp. TSE however, picks up the fly and screams at it, "Spit it out you fucking bastard, spit it the fuck out!"
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
What does 'stopping it' mean in this context? Innocent or guilty he has no reason to cooperatively engage with things, he has no incentive to doso, so unless a settlement of some kind occurs it'll just drag on and on.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
It's never going to go away, ever, and it's naive to imagine otherwise.
Setting aside the issue of his culpability of otherwise, the Duke of York is making the best of a bad job. Would any one of us want to have anything to do with the American justice system if we could possibly help it? No. Then why would he?
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
That might be upper middle in London or the Waitrose belt but up north its ASDA and Tesco along with everyone else.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
I'm not so sure. People on very low incomes aren't the Tory target audience and, crucially, Universal Credit isn't paid to pensioners.
As was written elsewhere recently, when is a cost of living crisis actually a cost of living crisis for this Government? When it affects the old. They're far more likely to take action to artificially suppress home heating bills - whether that consists of refusing to allow the cap on bills to be further raised (and then propping up energy firms with loans or grants if the price of fuel becomes unbearable for them,) ramping up the value of the Winter Fuel Payment, or whatever else.
For decent but not OTT hotels I tend to go for Hilton Doubletrees.
I think the only one I have on twice in the last couple of years was the Tower Bridge Doubletree. Pleasant, but spectacularly proves that Green Walls are a sad gimmick.
Next time I plan the Docklands Riverside Doubletree where you cross the river on a private ferry.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
I used to work for a tech firm on Jermyn Street. Our CEO called Fortnums “the corner shop”, because for our office it literally was!
My wife loves their chocolates.
My office was on St James's Street, literally two minutes walk from Fortnum's. We used to rent a private room there and do entertaining and client dinners.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
What does 'stopping it' mean in this context? Innocent or guilty he has no reason to cooperatively engage with things, he has no incentive to doso, so unless a settlement of some kind occurs it'll just drag on and on.
I think I was implying stopping it meant a huge pay off.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Best of luck to them and all that...
The productive jobs of the future then. Exactly what we should be concentrating on, instead of stuff that can be offshored for cheaper or minimum wage tat that never had to be done.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
It's never going to go away, ever, and it's naive to imagine otherwise.
Setting aside the issue of his culpability of otherwise, the Duke of York is making the best of a bad job. Would any one of us want to have anything to do with the American justice system if we could possibly help it? No. Then why would he?
Well, Virginia Giuffre does, and that's good enough for me. Let him face his accuser. He ought not be worried about getting a fair hearing.
There are fundamental issues with the whole Andrew business. If he is guilty I want him punished. But I also think everyone, guilty and innocent, should be able to use every legal avenue in their own defence, and that no one should imply that seeking to defend oneself is in some way proof of being guilty, which is implicit when people think he should put himself at a disadvantage by engaging legally before he is required to do so. Sometimes people are completely explicit about that. Yet of course he may never be so compelled, which is a tragedy if he is guilty.
Nevertheless, it just seems plain wrong to me that a lot of people really do presume guilt by his failure to just jet off to 'face his accuser'. As pigeon says, who would voluntarily do such a thing, even if innocent? It's not as though its unherd of for innocent people to come a cropper in courts and before juries, you'd be mad to take a risk unless you had to.
More than mad, it'd be bloody stupid. So many fundamental rights make it harder to see guilty people punished, but that is deemed an acceptable trade off for treating even potentially horrible people fairly. It's just not as simple as 'There is a terrible accusation, possibly a credible one (opinions vary), so the accused should volunteer to face them'.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
That might be upper middle in London or the Waitrose belt but up north its ASDA and Tesco along with everyone else.
Booths say hello!
Not east of the Pennines they don't.
Is Booths posh / expensive / high quality (delete as appropriate) and how big are their shops ?
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Best of luck to them and all that...
The productive jobs of the future then. Exactly what we should be concentrating on, instead of stuff that can be offshored for cheaper or minimum wage tat that never had to be done.
Who in the Hell knows what the productive jobs of the future will be? The uber free market is a reflection of today. It has never claimed to be predictive. I mentioned Geography and Computers as a course which would have been axed first up in the mid 80's the other day as a joke degree which didn't lead to employment. Things change.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
That might be upper middle in London or the Waitrose belt but up north its ASDA and Tesco along with everyone else.
Booths say hello!
Not east of the Pennines they don't.
Is Booths posh / expensive / high quality (delete as appropriate) and how big are their shops ?
I'm from west of the Pennines. Never heard of them except on here.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
Of what is this witchery you speak?
When my wife was pregnant, I used to like to have a glass of wine or two in the evenings. And a whole bottle was too much.
I stayed for a couple of weeks in London last year, in Bayswater, at £220 per week, for a newly opened air-conditioned three star hotel. Now it is £550 per week.
Anecdotally, there are lots of hotels in London which simply closed permanently during covid. I suspect this probably explains the current high prices. They are higher than pre-covid. And anything near an airport is very pricey now, because of covid testing.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Best of luck to them and all that...
The productive jobs of the future then. Exactly what we should be concentrating on, instead of stuff that can be offshored for cheaper or minimum wage tat that never had to be done.
Who in the Hell knows what the productive jobs of the future will be? The uber free market is a reflection of today. It has never claimed to be predictive. I mentioned Geography and Computers as a course which would have been axed first up in the mid 80's the other day as a joke course which didn't lead to employment. Things change.
That seems unlikely.
Computers were huge in the 1980s and could have interacted with geography on anything from town planning to North Sea oil.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
Of what is this witchery you speak?
When my wife was pregnant, I used to like to have a glass of wine or two in the evenings. And a whole bottle was too much.
Great idea. When my wife was pregnant I drank a whole bottle every night. Another half might have helped even more with the moaning.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
Fortnums is great.
I mean, one wouldn't do one's weekly shop, but if you want a treat of some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) bacon, it's just the place.
Also, a fantastic selection of half bottle of wine.
Of what is this witchery you speak?
When my wife was pregnant, I used to like to have a glass of wine or two in the evenings. And a whole bottle was too much.
Getting a head start on the bottle at lunch is always an option, for those wfh.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
It's never going to go away, ever, and it's naive to imagine otherwise.
Setting aside the issue of his culpability of otherwise, the Duke of York is making the best of a bad job. Would any one of us want to have anything to do with the American justice system if we could possibly help it? No. Then why would he?
Well, Virginia Giuffre does, and that's good enough for me. Let him face his accuser. He ought not be worried about getting a fair hearing.
There are fundamental issues with the whole Andrew business. If he is guilty I want him punished. But I also think everyone, guilty and innocent, should be able to use every legal avenue in their own defence, and that no one should imply that seeking to defend oneself is in some way proof of being guilty, which is implicit when people think he should put himself at a disadvantage by engaging legally before he is required to do so. Sometimes people are completely explicit about that. Yet of course he may never be so compelled, which is a tragedy if he is guilty.
Nevertheless, it just seems plain wrong to me that a lot of people really do presume guilt by his failure to just jet off to 'face his accuser'. As pigeon says, who would voluntarily do such a thing, even if innocent? It's not as though its unherd of for innocent people to come a cropper in courts and before juries, you'd be mad to take a risk unless you had to.
The conviction and punishment of the innocent is always to be regretted and ought to be minimised. On that we agree. And I think we also agree that when the risk is small enough, as it is in the US courts, the courts should still do their jobs. So far so good?
As for the "all legal avenues", here's why we diverge. Yes the law should be evenly applied, but it seems that the rich too often find ways to defend themselves against the very procedure of justice itself. That is, clever loopholes to delay and avoid even having to defend themselves. This is a problem, because to bring down a rich wrongdoer, you may well have to fight more than battle, but a poorer accused gets thrown straight into the grinder of directly answering the accusations.
Two tier justice is not justice.
And I recognise this is an ancient problem, and no, I don't have a solution (at least, nothing that isn't drastic). But we're talking partially about perceptions here ("no one should imply that seeking to defend oneself is in some way proof of being guilty"). And the perception of, I think, a LOT of people is that no, it doesn't make you guilty, but it makes the justice system itself guilty. That is a trial where there is no burden of proof on the accuser, and there is no reasonable doubt requirement.
Except this is not a criminal trial, this is a civil suit for damages and civil suits for damages are almost all taken against the rich and powerful
Rich people pay for top lawyers when accused of things. Yes its news because of the people involved. But I can imagine what implications people will take from it beyond that regardless. The accusedshouldn't be able to seek to legally defend themselves or receive money to do so, it's disgusting.
He is hardly claiming legal aid is he, his mother is paying his legal bills from her private funds and everyone is entitled to legal representation
I get that. But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
It's never going to go away, ever, and it's naive to imagine otherwise.
Setting aside the issue of his culpability of otherwise, the Duke of York is making the best of a bad job. Would any one of us want to have anything to do with the American justice system if we could possibly help it? No. Then why would he?
Well, Virginia Giuffre does, and that's good enough for me. Let him face his accuser. He ought not be worried about getting a fair hearing.
There are fundamental issues with the whole Andrew business. If he is guilty I want him punished. But I also think everyone, guilty and innocent, should be able to use every legal avenue in their own defence, and that no one should imply that seeking to defend oneself is in some way proof of being guilty, which is implicit when people think he should put himself at a disadvantage by engaging legally before he is required to do so. Sometimes people are completely explicit about that. Yet of course he may never be so compelled, which is a tragedy if he is guilty.
Nevertheless, it just seems plain wrong to me that a lot of people really do presume guilt by his failure to just jet off to 'face his accuser'. As pigeon says, who would voluntarily do such a thing, even if innocent? It's not as though its unherd of for innocent people to come a cropper in courts and before juries, you'd be mad to take a risk unless you had to.
The conviction and punishment of the innocent is always to be regretted and ought to be minimised. On that we agree. And I think we also agree that when the risk is small enough, as it is in the US courts, the courts should still do their jobs. So far so good?
As for the "all legal avenues", here's why we diverge. Yes the law should be evenly applied, but it seems that the rich too often find ways to defend themselves against the very procedure of justice itself. That is, clever loopholes to delay and avoid even having to defend themselves. This is a problem, because to bring down a rich wrongdoer, you may well have to fight more than battle, but a poorer accused gets thrown straight into the grinder of directly answering the accusations.
Two tier justice is not justice.
And I recognise this is an ancient problem, and no, I don't have a solution (at least, nothing that isn't drastic). But we're talking partially about perceptions here ("no one should imply that seeking to defend oneself is in some way proof of being guilty"). And the perception of, I think, a LOT of people is that no, it doesn't make you guilty, but it makes the justice system itself guilty. That is a trial where there is no burden of proof on the accuser, and there is no reasonable doubt requirement.
Except this is not a criminal trial, this is a civil suit for damages and civil suits for damages are almost all taken against the rich and powerful
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
How dare you. I know full well that the price of my artisanal, handcrafted bread is £3.49 a loaf.
Whereas Co-op toastie white has just gone up from 65p to 75p a loaf. There's quite a few sneaky but chunky price rises on basics going through at the moment.
The UC hit is a disaster for 100Ks. Just as these kinds of price hits are happening.
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
And the "transition to a high wage economy" is likely to be limited to a slice of the working population. Roughly- those whose jobs can't be offshored and aren't employed by the government, whether directly or indirectly.
Best of luck to them and all that...
The productive jobs of the future then. Exactly what we should be concentrating on, instead of stuff that can be offshored for cheaper or minimum wage tat that never had to be done.
Who in the Hell knows what the productive jobs of the future will be? The uber free market is a reflection of today. It has never claimed to be predictive. I mentioned Geography and Computers as a course which would have been axed first up in the mid 80's the other day as a joke course which didn't lead to employment. Things change.
That seems unlikely.
Computers were huge in the 1980s and could have interacted with geography on anything from town planning to North Sea oil.
It came hugely and rather swiftly. Town planning, traffic management, logistics, cartography, water distribution, meteorology, government demographic allocations. Even the military and GCHQ. Most of this was done on paper in 1980, not in 1990. And, at the middle, you'd take a Computer Scientist. Or a first in Geography. Not both. The cohort I came through with went from being regarded as none too bright geeks who did a bit of colouring in of maps on the side, to hugely in demand. They earn much more than the highly sought after economists and lawyers of the time even now.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
No.
Gas production is now rising again (albeit slowly) and that will accelerate as drilling increases in the US.
US electricity demand is also now falling as temperatures drop.
And there are three or four big LNG projects that are coming on stream in the next four to six months.
OTOH are the Americans going to export to us? No. Are these amazing new projects going to magically bail us out before the Winter rolls up? No.
But as I just replied to @Leon, my previous remarks were a mere passing moment of catastrophism, and I imagine that everything will probably turn out fine in the end...
Always look on the bright side of life
Actually, on balance, I think that I am. So long as the Government can actually keep the lights on this Winter, which I think likely, then I at least ought to be OK. Can manage without domestic gas if it has to be kept for the power stations. The treats that one particularly enjoys at Christmas - wine, biscuits and decent quality chocolate - are, if the experience of March 2020 is anything to go by, amongst the few categories of goods unlikely to be cleared out in a fresh wave of panic buying. And if there's a lack of festive food in the shops then I can certainly live with that: as far as I'm concerned, if there aren't the supplies available to cook complicated Christmas dinners then hurrah! It removes all the expectation that one should do so.
Besides, in the final analysis, there is precious little point in worrying about problems that one cannot influence.
Don't be sure the government can keep the lights on.
On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. A shortage of pigs in blankets was forecast this morning.
On winter, the Met Office has warned there may be heavy snow within weeks.
“ On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. ” only by a million. Surely a poultry number?
If you need a turkey just dial Poland, they’ll help just like they helped with the plumbing.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
No.
Gas production is now rising again (albeit slowly) and that will accelerate as drilling increases in the US.
US electricity demand is also now falling as temperatures drop.
And there are three or four big LNG projects that are coming on stream in the next four to six months.
OTOH are the Americans going to export to us? No. Are these amazing new projects going to magically bail us out before the Winter rolls up? No.
But as I just replied to @Leon, my previous remarks were a mere passing moment of catastrophism, and I imagine that everything will probably turn out fine in the end...
Always look on the bright side of life
Actually, on balance, I think that I am. So long as the Government can actually keep the lights on this Winter, which I think likely, then I at least ought to be OK. Can manage without domestic gas if it has to be kept for the power stations. The treats that one particularly enjoys at Christmas - wine, biscuits and decent quality chocolate - are, if the experience of March 2020 is anything to go by, amongst the few categories of goods unlikely to be cleared out in a fresh wave of panic buying. And if there's a lack of festive food in the shops then I can certainly live with that: as far as I'm concerned, if there aren't the supplies available to cook complicated Christmas dinners then hurrah! It removes all the expectation that one should do so.
Besides, in the final analysis, there is precious little point in worrying about problems that one cannot influence.
Don't be sure the government can keep the lights on.
On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. A shortage of pigs in blankets was forecast this morning.
On winter, the Met Office has warned there may be heavy snow within weeks.
“ On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. ” only by a million. Surely a poultry number?
If you need a turkey just dial Poland, they’ll help just like they helped with the plumbing.
Turkey's joining the EU any time soon. 70 million are coming over. Pity we left.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
No.
Gas production is now rising again (albeit slowly) and that will accelerate as drilling increases in the US.
US electricity demand is also now falling as temperatures drop.
And there are three or four big LNG projects that are coming on stream in the next four to six months.
OTOH are the Americans going to export to us? No. Are these amazing new projects going to magically bail us out before the Winter rolls up? No.
But as I just replied to @Leon, my previous remarks were a mere passing moment of catastrophism, and I imagine that everything will probably turn out fine in the end...
Always look on the bright side of life
Actually, on balance, I think that I am. So long as the Government can actually keep the lights on this Winter, which I think likely, then I at least ought to be OK. Can manage without domestic gas if it has to be kept for the power stations. The treats that one particularly enjoys at Christmas - wine, biscuits and decent quality chocolate - are, if the experience of March 2020 is anything to go by, amongst the few categories of goods unlikely to be cleared out in a fresh wave of panic buying. And if there's a lack of festive food in the shops then I can certainly live with that: as far as I'm concerned, if there aren't the supplies available to cook complicated Christmas dinners then hurrah! It removes all the expectation that one should do so.
Besides, in the final analysis, there is precious little point in worrying about problems that one cannot influence.
Don't be sure the government can keep the lights on.
On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. A shortage of pigs in blankets was forecast this morning.
On winter, the Met Office has warned there may be heavy snow within weeks.
“ On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. ” only by a million. Surely a poultry number?
If you need a turkey just dial Poland, they’ll help just like they helped with the plumbing.
Turkey's joining the EU any time soon. 70 million are coming over. Pity we left.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
No.
Gas production is now rising again (albeit slowly) and that will accelerate as drilling increases in the US.
US electricity demand is also now falling as temperatures drop.
And there are three or four big LNG projects that are coming on stream in the next four to six months.
OTOH are the Americans going to export to us? No. Are these amazing new projects going to magically bail us out before the Winter rolls up? No.
But as I just replied to @Leon, my previous remarks were a mere passing moment of catastrophism, and I imagine that everything will probably turn out fine in the end...
Always look on the bright side of life
Actually, on balance, I think that I am. So long as the Government can actually keep the lights on this Winter, which I think likely, then I at least ought to be OK. Can manage without domestic gas if it has to be kept for the power stations. The treats that one particularly enjoys at Christmas - wine, biscuits and decent quality chocolate - are, if the experience of March 2020 is anything to go by, amongst the few categories of goods unlikely to be cleared out in a fresh wave of panic buying. And if there's a lack of festive food in the shops then I can certainly live with that: as far as I'm concerned, if there aren't the supplies available to cook complicated Christmas dinners then hurrah! It removes all the expectation that one should do so.
Besides, in the final analysis, there is precious little point in worrying about problems that one cannot influence.
Don't be sure the government can keep the lights on.
On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. A shortage of pigs in blankets was forecast this morning.
On winter, the Met Office has warned there may be heavy snow within weeks.
I can't find any mention of snow in the Met Office 30-day forecast. There is a suggestion that the La Nina and QBO phase favour colder weather in early winter, but set against that the sea surface temperatures are high - so the average prediction is for warmer temperatures than normal.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
No.
Gas production is now rising again (albeit slowly) and that will accelerate as drilling increases in the US.
US electricity demand is also now falling as temperatures drop.
And there are three or four big LNG projects that are coming on stream in the next four to six months.
OTOH are the Americans going to export to us? No. Are these amazing new projects going to magically bail us out before the Winter rolls up? No.
But as I just replied to @Leon, my previous remarks were a mere passing moment of catastrophism, and I imagine that everything will probably turn out fine in the end...
Always look on the bright side of life
Actually, on balance, I think that I am. So long as the Government can actually keep the lights on this Winter, which I think likely, then I at least ought to be OK. Can manage without domestic gas if it has to be kept for the power stations. The treats that one particularly enjoys at Christmas - wine, biscuits and decent quality chocolate - are, if the experience of March 2020 is anything to go by, amongst the few categories of goods unlikely to be cleared out in a fresh wave of panic buying. And if there's a lack of festive food in the shops then I can certainly live with that: as far as I'm concerned, if there aren't the supplies available to cook complicated Christmas dinners then hurrah! It removes all the expectation that one should do so.
Besides, in the final analysis, there is precious little point in worrying about problems that one cannot influence.
Don't be sure the government can keep the lights on.
On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. A shortage of pigs in blankets was forecast this morning.
On winter, the Met Office has warned there may be heavy snow within weeks.
“ On Christmas food, we already know there turkey production is down. ” only by a million. Surely a poultry number?
If you need a turkey just dial Poland, they’ll help just like they helped with the plumbing.
There’s a big difference between turkeys and pigs in blankets. The average person can buy cocktail sausages, wrap them in half a rasher of streaky bacon and stick a cocktail stick through them. Coming up with a Turkey from scratch is somewhat harder..
I would love to know what year pre-prepared pigs-in-blankets came in. Bet it was M&S circa 1990…
The Uni of Washington has updated its Covid model, with handy tabs enabling you to toggle between Reported and Excess deaths
The UK seems to be one of the few countries where these totals are similar, which I guess is to our credit, tho our totals are still pretty high. However if you look at actual excess deaths, nor reported deaths, in the rest of Europe, plenty of countries are close to us, and certainly higher per capita
Some of the data is quite startling (IF it is accurate). Russia has a reported death total of 208,000 on Worldometer. The UoW thinks the reported Russian C19 death total is closer to 450,000
And the UoW thinks the excess death rate, in Russia, is right now 1.2 MILLION
In a country with a fertility rate in 2018 estimated to be 1.6 born per woman, that level of death must be a worry. The latest numbers since then show the problem to have got worse:
In 2021 the birthrate is 11.905 births per 1000 people, a 2.37% decline from 2020.
In 2020 the birthrate was 12.194 births per 1000 people, a 2.31% decline from 2019.
In 2019 the birthrate was 12.482 births per 1000 people, a 2.26% decline from 2018.
Those spaces in Russia keep getting bigger.
I've recently been reading about the plunging birth rates in East Asia. They are extraordinary
Japan has a birth rate of 1.36
Taiwan has a birth rate of 1.07
South Korea, incredibly, has a birth rate of 0.84
This must be the lowest birth rate of any developed nation in modern history
Of course the west has a problem with low birth rates, too, but we tend to have higher immigration, which offsets this to an extent
In 2020 South Korea's population began to decline and unless they can reverse this plummeting birth rate their population will halve in 30-40 years, and of course become much older. It's a massive crisis waiting to happen. China is also in the same boat, just further behind in terms of disaster
The human race can't keep on multiplying forever or the planet will burn. Importing people who bang out more kids to try to deal with the ageing population problem is just can kicking, and besides the existing population in the affected countries doesn't want mass immigration. The same people who whinge about Britain not taking in enough refugees should try seeing how far they get trying to get Japan, let alone China, to embrace their open borders demands.
The process we have to go through to stabilise populations in the developed world is as follows:
1. Concentrate on efforts to keep the population healthy for as long as possible, so people will be forced to keep working for as long as possible. 2. Keep ramping the retirement age up and up and up, so that the burden of pension provision is kept sustainable. 3. Let the population drop until we have a substantial excess of vacant properties, which should make housing affordable again, completely transforming household finances. When the surviving cohort of youngsters in 30 or 40 years' time can move out into cheap houses and flats in their early 20s, then they'll be able to afford to form households and start dropping sprogs much more easily, and the population will stop falling. Sorted.
Let significant areas go back to the wild too.
Ever been to Stoke on a night out?
Some areas already have.
Has anybody ever been to Stoke on a night out?!!!!
Last time I did, I woke up in Royal Stoke University Hospital from an unprovoked attack, so I've never been back since.
Well, I’m not bloody surprised. Sensible people go to Lichfield.
Even Burton at least has decent beer.
Good god no! Litchfield [sic] is the dullest place that I have ever been.
Woe to the bloody city of Litchfield!
An impossible and ridiculous comment. FFS you actually *work* in Leicester.
While Leicester does revel in the motto "semper eadem" (always the same) it is not dull. Edgy and scary at times, but not dull.
I remember a particularly dull night in Bergerac in the Dordogne, but Litchfield matches it.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
There's always the Edwina Currie solution to cold weather: wear more jumpers.
London hotels are even more expensive post pandemic.
£300 a night for a Travelodge!
It's not cheap outside of London either! My sister came to a family wedding in August and paid £180+ for one night in the Sedgefield Travelodge.
Jesus wept!
It would take a lot to reduce me to the point where I stay in Sedgefield a Travelodge.
Travelodge isn't so bad. I stayed in a hotel in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria where Mrs Foxy had to barricade the door because of a gang fight in the corridor.
It was cheap though.
On one hand I used to stay in youth hostels when up here in Scotland until we moved here. On the other hand there is something awful and scabby about Travelodge as a brand even though they are trying very hard to look like a downmarket Premier Inn with their new properties.
Need to go back to Rochdale for the last time on Sunday. Have booked the Premier Inn. Could be worse. Could be the Travelodge. Would stay in town but for whatever reason Manchester Hilton options are £stupid.
I'm a big fan of the Ibis chain. They offer precisely what they say - a comfortable bed, decent wfi and a (usually) continental breakfast - and no more, but they do it well and inexpensively, and their Scandinavian-style clean lines don't attract drunken gangs. The Ibis in Salford is a good tip for anyone going to a Manchester conference (hello Tories), as the tram into the city stops outside and gets you in 15-20 minutes later.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
There's always the Edwina Currie solution to cold weather: wear more jumpers.
As the Spectator point out this week, Johnson's repeated calling on the Army for all sorts of problems is beginning to look a bit desperate.
The military have another role, not a civil support service to cover the f*ck ups of ten years of Tory administration.
In this particular instance it's a PR exercise. The wider haulage industry may be in some trouble but AFAIK there was no particular threat to petrol supplies, until reports of small numbers of petrol stations briefly selling out took on a life of their own and we ended up with a panic buying situation.
In those circumstances it is very difficult, verging on the impossible, for the Government to resolve the panic solely by the persuasive powers of ministers. If ministers say nothing and matters continue to get worse then they're accused of failing to reassure the public. If ministers say there's no problem and appeal to drivers not to panic buy, then the public assumes that there is indeed a problem and you end up with the same result.
People don't trust politicians but if they see the Army being deployed they (or a large enough percentage of them) will probably stop panicking for long enough to allow the distribution system to recover - even if the soldiers are delivering not a single drop more petrol than civilian drivers would if left to their own devices. Given the circumstances, sending out a few corporals to drive tankers and making sure that TV cameras are there to film them at work is a good use of resources.
Wouldn't it be easier to tell London and the waitrose belt that they're being laughed at by the rest of the country ?
Actually I think its moved on from laughing to baffled contempt.
A post steeped in baseless prejudice.
No, reality.
A few days ago Londoners filling plastic bags with petrol and fighting in forecourts was being laughed out.
Now its a weary 'why cannot they get their act together'.
Pretty sure it is nothing to do with 1 million non residents coming into London by car each day, or traffic jams making it less effective for tankers to get into central London. I suspect it is because we eat too much avocado.
Or perhaps there are proportionally fewer filling stations in London or perhaps there are proportionally more people likely to panic or perhaps problems in London are proportionally more likely to get media attention.
But whatever the causes its not doing London's image much good.
For all I know there isn't any real problem and the government are just posturing and the media frothing.
In fact I'm pretty sure both of those last two are happening.
I'd hazard a guess that the SE has more cars per filling station than elsewhere, but many of those cars do lower annual mileages than elsewhere. This means that if everyone suddenly rushes out and fills up it produces a bigger spike in demand than the same thing happening in the North. Hence the system pretty much collapsed in the SE, and merely wobbled a little in the North (especially the rural bits).
I stayed for a couple of weeks in London last year, in Bayswater, at £220 per week, for a newly opened air-conditioned three star hotel. Now it is £550 per week.
Anecdotally, there are lots of hotels in London which simply closed permanently during covid. I suspect this probably explains the current high prices. They are higher than pre-covid. And anything near an airport is very pricey now, because of covid testing.
Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 is still pretty cheap, and it's a fairly new hotel. Although Terminal 4 is closed, it's still relatively easy to get to the hotel. It's close to Hatton Cross tube station.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
There's always the Edwina Currie solution to cold weather: wear more jumpers.
So long as isn't snuggling with John Major.
Don't forget that, working in tandem, Edwina & John managed to generate sufficient voltage to heat up a bath tub.
Though doubt either was wearing a sweater at the time. Maybe a dickey?
I stayed for a couple of weeks in London last year, in Bayswater, at £220 per week, for a newly opened air-conditioned three star hotel. Now it is £550 per week.
Anecdotally, there are lots of hotels in London which simply closed permanently during covid. I suspect this probably explains the current high prices. They are higher than pre-covid. And anything near an airport is very pricey now, because of covid testing.
Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 is still pretty cheap, and it's a fairly new hotel. Although Terminal 4 is closed, it's still relatively easy to get to the hotel. It's close to Hatton Cross tube station.
Reading the hotel discussion, one is struck (and hardly for the first time) by how over-represented upper middle income earners are on PB.
Most of you lot would fall victim to the classic politician banana skin questions about the price of bread or milk if you didn't have time to Google them. You just chuck everything into the Ocado basket and click to buy without thinking.
Unless you're buying from Fortnum & Mason. And/or getting your housekeeper or your PA to do the donkey work for you.
That might be upper middle in London or the Waitrose belt but up north its ASDA and Tesco along with everyone else.
Booths say hello!
Not east of the Pennines they don't.
Is Booths posh / expensive / high quality (delete as appropriate) and how big are their shops ?
Booths is a supermarket sized chain, medium sized rather than superstores. Targets the Waitrose demographic in Cumbria/Lancashire.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
There's always the Edwina Currie solution to cold weather: wear more jumpers.
So long as isn't snuggling with John Major.
Don't forget that, working in tandem, Edwina & John managed to generate sufficient voltage to heat up a bath tub.
Though doubt either was wearing a sweater at the time. Maybe a dickey?
Could be worse. Gentleman John coulda been cruising Cherbourg or Victoria Station. I'm a liberal guy. Coulda been in the House of Lords by now.
Watching reports of massive gas shortages and price spikes this Winter with some concern.
Is it possible that, the Government having smashed the economy and racked up vast debts in its desperate efforts to save old people from Covid, the country will find itself unable to obtain (or afford) enough fuel this Winter and everyone who has been rescued from disease at colossal expense will simply be killed off by the cold instead?
Alas, the Plague disaster may not truly be over, it may simply be about to metastasise into something different but even more lethal. Aren't we lucky?
There's always the Edwina Currie solution to cold weather: wear more jumpers.
So long as isn't snuggling with John Major.
Don't forget that, working in tandem, Edwina & John managed to generate sufficient voltage to heat up a bath tub.
Though doubt either was wearing a sweater at the time. Maybe a dickey?
Could be worse. Gentleman John coulda been cruising Cherbourg or Victoria Station. I'm a liberal guy. Coulda been in the House of Lords by now.
Have only seen two ex-Prime Ministers in the flesh, both times in the Nancy Astor memorial gallery at the House of Commons. Where I could look down and see Ted Heath on the green (back) benches, generally looking as though he'd just swallowed a rather sour pickle.
And during the Feb 2023 debate in the HoC re: invading Iraq, was sitting in the gallery, when John Major came in with small entourage to listen to the debate. A rather startling sight, but he gave a bit of a smile then sat down in the front row. And started listening closely to the debate, like the rest of us up in the cheap seats.
My main impression was that John Major is a very handsome man, better looking in person than on TV which is (or at least was back then) saying something. He also came across as pretty ordinary guy, serious, polite and NOT too full of himself.
Leastways for an international celebrity and former First Lord of the Treasury.
I stayed for a couple of weeks in London last year, in Bayswater, at £220 per week, for a newly opened air-conditioned three star hotel. Now it is £550 per week.
Anecdotally, there are lots of hotels in London which simply closed permanently during covid. I suspect this probably explains the current high prices. They are higher than pre-covid. And anything near an airport is very pricey now, because of covid testing.
Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 is still pretty cheap, and it's a fairly new hotel. Although Terminal 4 is closed, it's still relatively easy to get to the hotel. It's close to Hatton Cross tube station.
Thanks. Looks like £297 for a week. Pretty good.
A family member stayed there for 2 nights recently. They said it was a very nice place, mainly because it's only been open for a short time.
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Not that I'd get any - who wants bacon when you can have chorizo.
But this story isn't going away. Bit of a drip, drip just now. But unless you stop it, eventually the bucket overflows.
Rich Northerner - "when I was a lad"
Rich Scot - "will you be having a sale"
Actually are Scots mean/fugal in reality or is that some outdated stereotype ?
There was the old miser in Kidnapped and Gordon Brown postured as the 'Iron Chancellor' but the Scots I've met have never seemed that way.
He is no longer a frontline royal anyway
The Soft Southern Englishman, disgusted, slides the drink back across the bar and demands another one. The Scotsman takes the fly out and shrugs, before taking a long gulp.
TSE however, picks up the fly and screams at it, "Spit it out you fucking bastard, spit it the fuck out!"
Johnson will dearly regret allowing his CoE to reverse the UC.
Setting aside the issue of his culpability of otherwise, the Duke of York is making the best of a bad job. Would any one of us want to have anything to do with the American justice system if we could possibly help it? No. Then why would he?
Best of luck to them and all that...
As was written elsewhere recently, when is a cost of living crisis actually a cost of living crisis for this Government? When it affects the old. They're far more likely to take action to artificially suppress home heating bills - whether that consists of refusing to allow the cap on bills to be further raised (and then propping up energy firms with loans or grants if the price of fuel becomes unbearable for them,) ramping up the value of the Winter Fuel Payment, or whatever else.
I think the only one I have on twice in the last couple of years was the Tower Bridge Doubletree. Pleasant, but spectacularly proves that Green Walls are a sad gimmick.
Next time I plan the Docklands Riverside Doubletree where you cross the river on a private ferry.
Nevertheless, it just seems plain wrong to me that a lot of people really do presume guilt by his failure to just jet off to 'face his accuser'. As pigeon says, who would voluntarily do such a thing, even if innocent? It's not as though its unherd of for innocent people to come a cropper in courts and before juries, you'd be mad to take a risk unless you had to.
More than mad, it'd be bloody stupid. So many fundamental rights make it harder to see guilty people punished, but that is deemed an acceptable trade off for treating even potentially horrible people fairly. It's just not as simple as 'There is a terrible accusation, possibly a credible one (opinions vary), so the accused should volunteer to face them'.
Is Booths posh / expensive / high quality (delete as appropriate) and how big are their shops ?
I mentioned Geography and Computers as a course which would have been axed first up in the mid 80's the other day as a joke degree which didn't lead to employment. Things change.
Anecdotally, there are lots of hotels in London which simply closed permanently during covid. I suspect this probably explains the current high prices. They are higher than pre-covid. And anything near an airport is very pricey now, because of covid testing.
Computers were huge in the 1980s and could have interacted with geography on anything from town planning to North Sea oil.
WFHEast European cyber cafe denizens say hi!Most of this was done on paper in 1980, not in 1990. And, at the middle, you'd take a Computer Scientist. Or a first in Geography. Not both.
The cohort I came through with went from being regarded as none too bright geeks who did a bit of colouring in of maps on the side, to hugely in demand. They earn much more than the highly sought after economists and lawyers of the time even now.
If you need a turkey just dial Poland, they’ll help just like they helped with the plumbing.
At least I got the poultry joke in
I would love to know what year pre-prepared pigs-in-blankets came in. Bet it was M&S circa 1990…
Though doubt either was wearing a sweater at the time. Maybe a dickey?
I'm a liberal guy. Coulda been in the House of Lords by now.
And during the Feb 2023 debate in the HoC re: invading Iraq, was sitting in the gallery, when John Major came in with small entourage to listen to the debate. A rather startling sight, but he gave a bit of a smile then sat down in the front row. And started listening closely to the debate, like the rest of us up in the cheap seats.
My main impression was that John Major is a very handsome man, better looking in person than on TV which is (or at least was back then) saying something. He also came across as pretty ordinary guy, serious, polite and NOT too full of himself.
Leastways for an international celebrity and former First Lord of the Treasury.
I’m getting 3 nights in the Grand at less €300 a night