The key driver of the Brexit vote cannot be dismissed as an embittered aide – politicalbetting.com

bigjohnowls said:

Foxy said:

noneoftheabove said:

Foxy said:

Interesting swing of opinion by Labour Members. Blair now more popular than Corbyn...

Kinnock up from net 27 to 56! Not heard from him in years, so assume this is almost wholly a change in membership than a change in opinion of him? Or is Corbyn so toxic relatively everyone else is better now?

Change in membership IMO. I draw two conclusions:

1) The next leader will not be of the hard Left
2) Labour are beginning to be serious about regaining power.

You do not regain power by having SKS as leader and going bankrupt.

And you don't regain power by having an anti-Semite as leader, especially when he causes problems that cost the party heavily in legal fees and payouts.

True, he might attract subs from hard-left nasties in the same way a fox's carcass attracts blow flies, but that doesn't make him a good party leader. Only someone who attracts fellow nasties.

Foxy said:

ping said:

Eh?

Completely bonkers article on the bbc;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-57867125

Key point: Doctors say it’s unrelated to COVID.

I mean, poor kid, but, seriously. Fails the basic journalism test.

The story should be: we have an epidemic of people attributing things to COVID that aren’t COVID.

Covid toes are part of the vasculitic syndrome in young children that occurs after the viral phase of covid. They have been reported worldwide.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7806462/

JCVI need more data 😒 though..

eek said:

alex_ said:

Leon said:

contrarian said:

Judging by the polls, 71% of my fellow citizens are happy to turn me into a second class citizen with vaxx passports. No clubs (as if), pubs, theatres or maybe even work for me come the autumn.

I think my last hope is the economy. Can the Johnson regime get Britain up to anything like full speed under this settlement?

We shall see.

I'm in favour of vaccine passports. Have been all along, and said so on here, throughout. Am I "happy" about this? Of course not. Vaxports are an ugly necessity, in a time of trouble, that is all. Like blackouts during the Blitz.

If we want to save the economy from still further, maybe irreversible damage, we need to give people confidence to go out and shop, drink, eat, watch plays, movies, bands, and so on. Vaxports will do that.

As soon as the Covid crisis is over, we ditch them, the same way we ended the blackout as soon as the war was obviously finished

"on 30 April 1945, the day Hitler committed suicide, Big Ben was lit up: 5 years and 123 days after the Blackout was first imposed"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(wartime)

I continue to have trouble understanding the argument that vaccinated people require vaxports to have confidence to go out and socialise etc. If they don’t understand that their protection comes from the vaccine, not from reduced exposure to unvaccinated people, then I don’t see them going out much anyway.

If anything, pushing for vaxports logically undermines confidence in vaccines.

But the vaccine doesn't stop you getting the virus it just means that the consequences of getting the virus is less severe symptoms and a vastly reduced risk of ending up in hospital. Vaccination also seems to reduce the period of time some is infectious.

So I can see why, if you are risk adverse you would only want to visit venues that insist on a vaxport.

If you are that risk averse I don’t see you going to a club anyway. If vaccines don’t prevent you getting the virus and don’t prevent you transmitting it, then only socialising with vaccinated people won’t keep you totally safe. And you’re probably in greater danger of getting drunk and being run over by a car.

Nigel_Foremain said:

Pagan2 said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

Pagan2 said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

contrarian said:

Judging by the polls, 71% of my fellow citizens are happy to turn me into a second class citizen with vaxx passports. No clubs (as if), pubs, theatres or maybe even work for me come the autumn.

I think my last hope is the economy. Can the Johnson regime get Britain up to anything like full speed under this settlement?

We shall see.

Some would argue you have chosen to be a second class citizen. If one choses not to have internet connectivity and/or a smartphone one denies oneself services. This is not the majority denying the person. It is a simple self-imposed refusal to adapt to the times.

Fuck right off right now....when did having a smart phone suddenly become a requisite for being a full citizen. You have one because it suits you. Why the fuck should I have to have one because it suits the governement. I neither need nor want one.

Calm down! I was simply presenting a point of view that I am not sure I agree with, but it has some rationality to it. I am somewhat amused that anti-vaxxers think they have been injected with monitoring devices but still use social media and smartphones. The tech giants don't need to inject you with a device, you mainly choose to carry one on your person everyday and leave your IP address every time you visit an internet site to read the latest conspiracy theory website, lol.

a) I am not an antivaxxer
b) I have a mobile phone though not a smart phone purely because I recieve less calls on it than I do a landline of the nuisance nature
c) I dont use social media
d) for most sites I use tor
e) I dont carry my phone with me when i go out
f) I dont subscribe to any conspiracy theories. Not wanting the uk to slowly turn into china where we are tracked for everything is not a conspiracy theory. Vaxports are the first step on the road

While I share your concern about the creeping powers of government I think you are indulging in hyperbole. We are a long long way from being anything close to the surveillance society that is China. Showing proof of vaccination does not need to be that onerous. Personally, on balance, I prefer to have the freedom to know I can go to an event where there is limited chance of me catching Covid, even if the odds are I won't be hospitalised.

You having the freedom to refuse the vaccine and still go to the theatre or a rock concert is not a freedom worth literally dying in a ditch/hospital bed for. Sorry, but that is the way it is. If you want to be a conscientious objector in the middle of a national crisis and refuse to play your part you shouldn't bleat about the fact others don't support you.

But you have had two vaccines though. You are protected. Apparently.

And why can't have 'open' and 'closed concerts where the unvaccinated are/are not allowed? Why can't we choose?

The government's proposing a blanket ban. Go to your 'vaxxed only' concert if you want. Why can't we have the option of 'open' mass gatherings.

"On Thursday 22 July, vaccination uptake for the UK, nations and Scottish local authorities will be updated to use the mid-2020 population estimates."

Is that effectively NIMS or a third system?

alex_ said:

eek said:

alex_ said:

Leon said:

contrarian said:

Judging by the polls, 71% of my fellow citizens are happy to turn me into a second class citizen with vaxx passports. No clubs (as if), pubs, theatres or maybe even work for me come the autumn.

I think my last hope is the economy. Can the Johnson regime get Britain up to anything like full speed under this settlement?

We shall see.

I'm in favour of vaccine passports. Have been all along, and said so on here, throughout. Am I "happy" about this? Of course not. Vaxports are an ugly necessity, in a time of trouble, that is all. Like blackouts during the Blitz.

If we want to save the economy from still further, maybe irreversible damage, we need to give people confidence to go out and shop, drink, eat, watch plays, movies, bands, and so on. Vaxports will do that.

As soon as the Covid crisis is over, we ditch them, the same way we ended the blackout as soon as the war was obviously finished

"on 30 April 1945, the day Hitler committed suicide, Big Ben was lit up: 5 years and 123 days after the Blackout was first imposed"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(wartime)

I continue to have trouble understanding the argument that vaccinated people require vaxports to have confidence to go out and socialise etc. If they don’t understand that their protection comes from the vaccine, not from reduced exposure to unvaccinated people, then I don’t see them going out much anyway.

If anything, pushing for vaxports logically undermines confidence in vaccines.

But the vaccine doesn't stop you getting the virus it just means that the consequences of getting the virus is less severe symptoms and a vastly reduced risk of ending up in hospital. Vaccination also seems to reduce the period of time some is infectious.

So I can see why, if you are risk adverse you would only want to visit venues that insist on a vaxport.

If you are that risk averse I don’t see you going to a club anyway. If vaccines don’t prevent you getting the virus and don’t prevent you transmitting it, then only socialising with vaccinated people won’t keep you totally safe. And you’re probably in greater danger of getting drunk and being run over by a car.

Lowers probabilities...
That's all we can do

eek said:

But the vaccine doesn't stop you getting the virus it just means that the consequences of getting the virus is less severe symptoms and a vastly reduced risk of ending up in hospital. Vaccination also seems to reduce the period of time some is infectious.

So I can see why, if you are risk adverse you would only want to visit venues that insist on a vaxport.

Getting a flu jab doesn't stop you catching flu either. Yes, we're comparing apples and nuclear weapons but, and I suspect a little misinformation here, the notion double vaccination = complete immunity did get some traction.

That doesn't make an argument for vaccination passports - indeed, it flies in the face of notions of personal and collective self-responsibility which were being trumpeted by the PM and his allies not so long ago.

Personal risk assessment is all - if you want to go to a nightclub or a crowded pub, there are risks, fewer if you are doubly vaccinated but still risks. It's your choice and your decision - I thought the Conservatives were a party who believed in personal responsibility and choice.

SandyRentool said:

I have just been doing a bit of tidying up in the garden and found £20.

Happy days.

Have you been planting banknotes again?

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

I am now able to report from the Covid Freedom Day Front Line AKA the gastropubs of Highgate

Verdict: a disappointing lack of jubilation, or, indeed, Freedom. You weren't allowed to order at the bar, you had to check in at the door, the staff were mostly wearing masks, it was table service only

Almost nothing has changed

Indeed I've just been out shopping in Camden and if anything there seem to be MORE masks, people look even more nervous. for the first time ever I saw someone wearing the full Covid monty: mask, visor and disposable blue nitrile gloves WHILE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

Have we terrified humanity - or at least the British part of it - into some ridiculous, unnecessary dystopia?

Maybe you could do another report from a working-class area to see if there any differences. Basildon or Harlow for example.

Camden - down by the Tube - really isn't posh in any sense. It is all of humankind, rich, poor, middling, homeless, trustafarian, Muslim, atheist, Goth, emo, Gen X Gen Z Gen Lambda, 50-something flint knappers buying laksa ingredients

This is a big reason I am attached to it, I like the grittiness and the melee (tho I am glad I live at the slightly posher end, we are all human)

So Camden is probably quite representative - at least of London as a whole (and Highgate felt very similar). Dunno about the UK

I used to agree about Camden. Then the Monarch closed down, just the latest "gritty" late night bar to close and be replaced with yet another wanky cocktail bar. It's become as sterile as the places it used to mock. Sadly there aren't many places left in London that capture the essence of what the city used to be, maybe the Queen's Crescent area of Kentish Town and a few bits of Archway still have some of the magic but London is over.

On bad days I agree with you. I wonder if London can recover from Covid (and everything else)

But then you get a sunny day and the parks fill up and the beer gardens sing and there is, still, a distinct and glorious energy, perhaps made bubblier by the toughness of the times. And it is a very contemporary London energy, not like Paris or NYC or LA

When I am not fretting about all the closed restaurants and bars (and they are worrying) I've also noticed that London literally seems younger, after Covid. The average age on the street and in the shops is down about 5 years. The kidz have taken over. I can see why - the old have fled or are hiding, the middle aged are working from home - and hiding - it will be fascinating to see where it goes from here.

Is London Rome in 440AD? Or Paris in 1944?

I think part of the issue is that the next generation coming up is so much more sterile than mine was. I was talking to a guy selling us some mandy pre-lockdown and he said that his walk ups are predominantly over 30 and he struggles to get under 30s to buy any kind of party drugs because they're all too concerned with health and other such inanities. I expect after COVID it will just get worse.

Who in the next generation is going to do a line of charlie and become a complete c*** to their mates and everyone around them? Those experiences just won't happen now but it's part of growing up and the next generation is just completely missing out because they've become conditioned by social media and influencers that being anything than 100% straight up will be a disaster.

Even outside of that stuff I just think London is becoming a shadow of it's former self and I say that as someone who has just spent a 7 figure number buying a house here.

Some truth in that

The Boris-hating waitress in my Highgate pub said she hated Boris because "my Mum does". I put it to her that she should be rebellious, at her age, not just following her Mum's opinions and she looked utterly bewildered at this concept and she said "oh, No, my Mum would kill me"

The under 30s are a notably conformative and censorious bunch, especially by the standards of my generation, which was outrageously misbehaved. And still is, at times. Ahem

But then, my cohort had it so much easier. Student GRANTS, cheaper property, lad magazines, sex everywhere, exciting new drugs, a permissive society, no apocalyptic worries about climate change and all that, and, maybe most importantly, no social media to cancel us (and Jeez, we would have been cancelled a thousand times a year for some of the shit we did)

So I also have sympathies for the young. They are forced to be dull, it's not their choice. But they ARE rather dull

And now I am definitely walking. A bientot

Yeah I definitely get that their dullness is partly because of the situation they're in wrt the future being so much more difficult for them than even my generation who are now all finally getting on the property ladder (at least my friends are).

I was in the final year to only pay £1k per year in fees, my wife went to university in Switzerland and got paid an annual grant and then got a grant here for her master's degree. The freedom of not having £50k in debt the day you graduate is definitely something the current generation are missing. The politicians and old c**** who decided that getting an 8% pension increase was more important than keeping university affordable. Even when I speak to my juniors about it the £45-50k debt they've got definitely figures into their subconscious way of life. It's £35k I didn't have to pay back which helped me get on the housing ladder and these lot are all on relatively decent salaries for their age but the idea of them actually saving any money let alone buying a flat seems completely out of reach.

Along with the fear of social media cancellation I can see why they're so boring. My years as a junior banker and before that a software developer were incredible. I would never have met my wife without them as I would simply have not had the social skills to attract her. One of my juniors is 24 and basically "holy shit, cheat on your wife" worthy (not that I would, of course, though you probably would lol) but she just has no social skills and is incapable of holding even the most basic conversation without looking at her phone or worrying about what people on her social media are saying. I don't see any guy being interested in her for more than two minutes and it's sad because she's really lovely otherwise, super smart, funny in her own way and as I said, very good looking.

Pagan2 said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

Pagan2 said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

Pagan2 said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

contrarian said:

Judging by the polls, 71% of my fellow citizens are happy to turn me into a second class citizen with vaxx passports. No clubs (as if), pubs, theatres or maybe even work for me come the autumn.

I think my last hope is the economy. Can the Johnson regime get Britain up to anything like full speed under this settlement?

We shall see.

Some would argue you have chosen to be a second class citizen. If one choses not to have internet connectivity and/or a smartphone one denies oneself services. This is not the majority denying the person. It is a simple self-imposed refusal to adapt to the times.

Fuck right off right now....when did having a smart phone suddenly become a requisite for being a full citizen. You have one because it suits you. Why the fuck should I have to have one because it suits the governement. I neither need nor want one.

Calm down! I was simply presenting a point of view that I am not sure I agree with, but it has some rationality to it. I am somewhat amused that anti-vaxxers think they have been injected with monitoring devices but still use social media and smartphones. The tech giants don't need to inject you with a device, you mainly choose to carry one on your person everyday and leave your IP address every time you visit an internet site to read the latest conspiracy theory website, lol.

a) I am not an antivaxxer
b) I have a mobile phone though not a smart phone purely because I recieve less calls on it than I do a landline of the nuisance nature
c) I dont use social media
d) for most sites I use tor
e) I dont carry my phone with me when i go out
f) I dont subscribe to any conspiracy theories. Not wanting the uk to slowly turn into china where we are tracked for everything is not a conspiracy theory. Vaxports are the first step on the road

While I share your concern about the creeping powers of government I think you are indulging in hyperbole. We are a long long way from being anything close to the surveillance society that is China. Showing proof of vaccination does not need to be that onerous. Personally, on balance, I prefer to have the freedom to know I can go to an event where there is limited chance of me catching Covid, even if the odds are I won't be hospitalised.

You having the freedom to refuse the vaccine and still go to the theatre or a rock concert is not a freedom worth literally dying in a ditch/hospital bed for. Sorry, but that is the way it is. If you want to be a conscientious objector in the middle of a national crisis and refuse to play your part you shouldn't bleat about the fact others don't support you.

You claim hyperbole but China didnt suddenly become that way, it was a series of baby steps and each time people like you said "don't be so hyperbolic". We know civil servants want us all tracked and ided for everything we do and say. That has been obvious for years its why the id card keeps coming back, its why the original track and trace app had a huge database behind it. It is why every home office minister keeps coming out with the same bull no matter what party

China during the Cultural Revolution = Land of freedom?

"An embittered aide"

AKA My Hero of 2021

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

stodge said:

HYUFD said:

No, the Conservative Party is a conservative party, hence the title. It believes the state has a role in enforcing rules to protect society.

The LDs may oppose Vax passports for nightclubs and crowded venues as would accord with their liberal ideology, the Conservatives rightly do not.

In fact the new more socially conservative but economically centrist white working class base of the Tories means the Tory Party is less libertarian than it was if anything

I must confess I seemed to recall Margaret Thatcher speaking a lot about "personal responsibility". Do you not think individuals have a responsibility to themselves and their families?

Yes, the State has a role to play in providing information, guidance and advice and we used to have a strong public health function to carry out that task but ultimately should not the individual be the one making the choice rather than the State making it for them?

Yes, they also have a responsibility to get jabbed and to protect others

RobD said:

SandyRentool said:

I have just been doing a bit of tidying up in the garden and found £20.

Happy days.

Have you been planting banknotes again?

Magic money arboriculture?

Edit: Foxy got his dig in first, I see.

Fishing said:

HYUFD said:

stodge said:

eek said:

But the vaccine doesn't stop you getting the virus it just means that the consequences of getting the virus is less severe symptoms and a vastly reduced risk of ending up in hospital. Vaccination also seems to reduce the period of time some is infectious.

So I can see why, if you are risk adverse you would only want to visit venues that insist on a vaxport.

Getting a flu jab doesn't stop you catching flu either. Yes, we're comparing apples and nuclear weapons but, and I suspect a little misinformation here, the notion double vaccination = complete immunity did get some traction.

That doesn't make an argument for vaccination passports - indeed, it flies in the face of notions of personal and collective self-responsibility which were being trumpeted by the PM and his allies not so long ago.

Personal risk assessment is all - if you want to go to a nightclub or a crowded pub, there are risks, fewer if you are doubly vaccinated but still risks. It's your choice and your decision - I thought the Conservatives were a party who believed in personal responsibility and choice.

No, the Conservative Party is a conservative party, hence the title. It believes the state has a role in enforcing rules to protect society.

The LDs may oppose Vax passports for nightclubs and crowded venues as would accord with their liberal ideology, the Conservatives rightly do not.

In fact the new more socially conservative but economically centrist white working class base of the Tories means it is less libertarian than it was if anything

There has always been a libertarian strain in the Conservative Party as well as an authoritarian one, and indeed many people who take different stances on different issues. The Party is a broad coalition - as you have to be, to get 40+ per cent of the votes in an increasingly diverse country.

Yes to an extent but many of the upper middle class liberals who backed Cameron are now actually voting Liberal Democrat and many of the white working class social conservatives who voted for Brown and for UKIP are now voting Tory so there has been a clear shift from liberalism to social conservatism in the voting coalition that makes up the Conservative Party in the last 5 years

.

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

No MM, he is still a barsteward. Always was, always will be.

stodge said:

HYUFD said:

No, the Conservative Party is a conservative party, hence the title. It believes the state has a role in enforcing rules to protect society.

The LDs may oppose Vax passports for nightclubs and crowded venues as would accord with their liberal ideology, the Conservatives rightly do not.

In fact the new more socially conservative but economically centrist white working class base of the Tories means the Tory Party is less libertarian than it was if anything

I must confess I seemed to recall Margaret Thatcher speaking a lot about "personal responsibility". Do you not think individuals have a responsibility to themselves and their families?

Yes, the State has a role to play in providing information, guidance and advice and we used to have a strong public health function to carry out that task but ultimately should not the individual be the one making the choice rather than the State making it for them?

Don't bother trying to work out HYUFD's increasingly strained attempts to pretend the conservatives still stand for something.

Think closet socialists and naked opportunists. There is nothing else. Nothing.

IshmaelZ said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Because they hate Johnson too. It's not that paradoxical.

Ah, "Dr" Walter Mitty (Oxon) I assume? How are ya?

ping said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Nobody is hanging on his every word.

I suspect he knows this and is reacting to the collective shrug of the shoulders by saying more and more outrageous things.

Quite... the thread has largely been about vaccines. Noone gives a fuck about a lying shit like Cummings. They will fpthive Boris most things.he got the nation out of Europe as he promised.⁷

Remember Phil didn't catch covid from his covid+ double vaxxed wife.
This is in a nutshell the argument for covid passports.
Lower chance of catching the virus, lower chance of transmission. Not zero but it is either this, closed clubs or superspreader clubs.

northern_monkey said:

Leon said:

So I also have sympathies for the young. They are forced to be dull, it's not their choice. But they ARE rather dull

And now I am definitely walking. A bientot

My nephew’s 16 next week and he’s a great lad but will he fuck have a beer. Not like in my day…

There's a bit of generation gap in all this - kids aren't like we used to be, etc. - but there's also a cultural shift. Young people today seem pretty much like the Danish kids I knew at uni in the 70s - sexually relaxed, happy to have some drinks and pot, politically correct before it was fashionable, but basically down-to-earth types who wanted to get good degrees and settle down. Uni was free so no money worries, and on the whole a much less angsty society than Britain seemed to be then.

About a third were (like me) very left-wing and deeply engaged, the rest were mostly vaguely leftish but didn't give it much thought, a few were hippies. We heard about British and American kids being a lot wilder, and basically felt not for us, but why not if that's what they like - that low-key tolerance was a defining national trait.

Foreigners found us a baffling mixture of sexy and boring. People would visit and demand to see Deep Throat as it was showing there when it was banned everywhere else, but then they'd visit a cafe and see kids sitting around chatting, and wonder why they looked so quiet.

It's not better or worse, it's just different.

squareroot2 said:

ping said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Nobody is hanging on his every word.

I suspect he knows this and is reacting to the collective shrug of the shoulders by saying more and more outrageous things.

Quite... the thread has largely been about vaccines. Noone gives a fuck about a lying shit like Cummings. They will fpthive Boris most things.he got the nation out of Europe as he promised.⁷

I won't fpthive Boris anything because he got the nation out of Europe as he promised. Neither will I forgive Cummings for selling the Brexit pup in the first place.

The Leave campaign couldn’t win without Johnson so as a Remainer I will always utterly loathe Johnson . I have no time for Cummings who is a horrible creature . The long term leavers in parliament I dislike but do not loathe because even though I hate Brexit they had a position on the EU which didn’t change according to what would help their career enhancement .

ping said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Nobody is hanging on his every word.

I suspect he knows this and is reacting to the collective shrug of the shoulders by saying more and more outrageous things.

If that isn't what he is doing then he might want to reconsider his strategy of stringing things out like this. And adding in juicy but irrelevant details like how he considered ousting the PM.

IshmaelZ said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

IshmaelZ said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Because they hate Johnson too. It's not that paradoxical.

Ah, "Dr" Walter Mitty (Oxon) I assume? How are ya?

Ah! Captain nanopenis, as I live and breathe.

I have an Oxford degree, a PhD from Exeter. You think I am lying about that, and I have bet you £10k that I am telling the truth. And ooh, it turns out that you "don't bet", just as I assume that people who go to the pub with you soon learn that you don't buy rounds.

Take the bet, or admit that your penis is converging on the Planck length. I mean why wouldn't you? Free money, surely?

Took a while to respond Walter! I couldn't give a shit about your very small minded life and your qualifications you pompous little creep or where you got them from.

By the way, why are you ashamed you didn't get your PhD from Oxford? Was mummy disappointed? I have spent a good part of my recent career using a methodology to spot charlatans and bullshitters, for which I have been paid sums that would disturb your sense of entitlement. The corporations that paid for them would be no doubt unconcerned that a pathetic and unpleasant little weasel with a penis size fixation from PB who wanted to pretend he had a PhD from an Oxford college though I was "not very bright" Lol.

You are a pathetic specimen. Whatever your PhD is in from Exeter it clearly wasn't studying anything that has made you a decent human being. Keep taking the tablets Walter!

williamglenn said:

Andy_JS said:

"Dominic Cummings: I discussed ousting PM after 2019 election landslide"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57880118

I didn't realise Cummings was an elected politician in a position to discuss deposing someone who had just won a big election victory.

Delusions of grandeur:

Mr Cummings said he and his allies began to fear for their positions by January 2020 and started discussing Mr Johnson's future.

"[People] were already saying, 'By the summer, either we'll all have gone from here or we'll be in the process of trying to get rid of [Mr Johnson] and get someone else in as prime minister'," he said.

As somebody else has said, Johnson (whatever you think of him, which in my case is not much) was elected. Cummings was not. The way to get rid of Johnson is via the ballot box. Cummings, on the other hand, could be fired any time.

SPADs discussing removing elected politicians is undemocratic. Cummings should have been put in his place, especially when he tried to dictate who ministers should be able to use as *their* advisers (congratulations to Javid for not kowtowing to him). Castle Barnard was just the icing on the cake for the arrogant bastard. Should have been fired long before and certainly then.

It must be sweatier than a sumo wrestler's mawashi down south. People seem to have been a lot grumpier on PB this last few days.

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

I am now able to report from the Covid Freedom Day Front Line AKA the gastropubs of Highgate

Verdict: a disappointing lack of jubilation, or, indeed, Freedom. You weren't allowed to order at the bar, you had to check in at the door, the staff were mostly wearing masks, it was table service only

Almost nothing has changed

Indeed I've just been out shopping in Camden and if anything there seem to be MORE masks, people look even more nervous. for the first time ever I saw someone wearing the full Covid monty: mask, visor and disposable blue nitrile gloves WHILE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

Have we terrified humanity - or at least the British part of it - into some ridiculous, unnecessary dystopia?

Maybe you could do another report from a working-class area to see if there any differences. Basildon or Harlow for example.

Camden - down by the Tube - really isn't posh in any sense. It is all of humankind, rich, poor, middling, homeless, trustafarian, Muslim, atheist, Goth, emo, Gen X Gen Z Gen Lambda, 50-something flint knappers buying laksa ingredients

This is a big reason I am attached to it, I like the grittiness and the melee (tho I am glad I live at the slightly posher end, we are all human)

So Camden is probably quite representative - at least of London as a whole (and Highgate felt very similar). Dunno about the UK

I used to agree about Camden. Then the Monarch closed down, just the latest "gritty" late night bar to close and be replaced with yet another wanky cocktail bar. It's become as sterile as the places it used to mock. Sadly there aren't many places left in London that capture the essence of what the city used to be, maybe the Queen's Crescent area of Kentish Town and a few bits of Archway still have some of the magic but London is over.

On bad days I agree with you. I wonder if London can recover from Covid (and everything else)

But then you get a sunny day and the parks fill up and the beer gardens sing and there is, still, a distinct and glorious energy, perhaps made bubblier by the toughness of the times. And it is a very contemporary London energy, not like Paris or NYC or LA

When I am not fretting about all the closed restaurants and bars (and they are worrying) I've also noticed that London literally seems younger, after Covid. The average age on the street and in the shops is down about 5 years. The kidz have taken over. I can see why - the old have fled or are hiding, the middle aged are working from home - and hiding - it will be fascinating to see where it goes from here.

Is London Rome in 440AD? Or Paris in 1944?

I think part of the issue is that the next generation coming up is so much more sterile than mine was. I was talking to a guy selling us some mandy pre-lockdown and he said that his walk ups are predominantly over 30 and he struggles to get under 30s to buy any kind of party drugs because they're all too concerned with health and other such inanities. I expect after COVID it will just get worse.

Who in the next generation is going to do a line of charlie and become a complete c*** to their mates and everyone around them? Those experiences just won't happen now but it's part of growing up and the next generation is just completely missing out because they've become conditioned by social media and influencers that being anything than 100% straight up will be a disaster.

Even outside of that stuff I just think London is becoming a shadow of it's former self and I say that as someone who has just spent a 7 figure number buying a house here.

Some truth in that

The Boris-hating waitress in my Highgate pub said she hated Boris because "my Mum does". I put it to her that she should be rebellious, at her age, not just following her Mum's opinions and she looked utterly bewildered at this concept and she said "oh, No, my Mum would kill me"

The under 30s are a notably conformative and censorious bunch, especially by the standards of my generation, which was outrageously misbehaved. And still is, at times. Ahem

But then, my cohort had it so much easier. Student GRANTS, cheaper property, lad magazines, sex everywhere, exciting new drugs, a permissive society, no apocalyptic worries about climate change and all that, and, maybe most importantly, no social media to cancel us (and Jeez, we would have been cancelled a thousand times a year for some of the shit we did)

So I also have sympathies for the young. They are forced to be dull, it's not their choice. But they ARE rather dull

And now I am definitely walking. A bientot

Yeah I definitely get that their dullness is partly because of the situation they're in wrt the future being so much more difficult for them than even my generation who are now all finally getting on the property ladder (at least my friends are).

I was in the final year to only pay £1k per year in fees, my wife went to university in Switzerland and got paid an annual grant and then got a grant here for her master's degree. The freedom of not having £50k in debt the day you graduate is definitely something the current generation are missing. The politicians and old c**** who decided that getting an 8% pension increase was more important than keeping university affordable. Even when I speak to my juniors about it the £45-50k debt they've got definitely figures into their subconscious way of life. It's £35k I didn't have to pay back which helped me get on the housing ladder and these lot are all on relatively decent salaries for their age but the idea of them actually saving any money let alone buying a flat seems completely out of reach.

Along with the fear of social media cancellation I can see why they're so boring. My years as a junior banker and before that a software developer were incredible. I would never have met my wife without them as I would simply have not had the social skills to attract her. One of my juniors is 24 and basically "holy shit, cheat on your wife" worthy (not that I would, of course, though you probably would lol) but she just has no social skills and is incapable of holding even the most basic conversation without looking at her phone or worrying about what people on her social media are saying. I don't see any guy being interested in her for more than two minutes and it's sad because she's really lovely otherwise, super smart, funny in her own way and as I said, very good looking.

Very good looking people are frequently boring, for obvious reasons. Also, she may be getting creepy older guy vibes off you and looking at her phone to make you go away!

HYUFD said:

57% support increasing NI to pay for social care, including 82% of over 65s and 63% of 50-65s

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417517568257101824

82% of over-65s support a tax increase that is only paid by under-65s, in order to provide more funding to over 65s?

Well blow me down with a feather!

There is no greater love than this: that a person would rob his grandchildren for the sake of himself.

On topic, I am not terribly fussed by anything Cummings says, because (a) none of it is surprising and (b) he is not a conspicuously truthful person. I appreciate its popcorn value but I don't think it will shift the dial much.

CorrectHorseBattery said:

In a decade we will see this as a turning point, when Labour was brought back from the brink and began to be relevant once again.

I keep asking you, but I'm not sure if you've answered or not . . . if this is a serious move by Starmer then which MPs do you expect to see expelled from the party?

John "lynch her" McDonnell? Burgon? Sultana?

Who is it that you're expecting to see gone?

OnlyLivingBoy said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

I am now able to report from the Covid Freedom Day Front Line AKA the gastropubs of Highgate

Verdict: a disappointing lack of jubilation, or, indeed, Freedom. You weren't allowed to order at the bar, you had to check in at the door, the staff were mostly wearing masks, it was table service only

Almost nothing has changed

Indeed I've just been out shopping in Camden and if anything there seem to be MORE masks, people look even more nervous. for the first time ever I saw someone wearing the full Covid monty: mask, visor and disposable blue nitrile gloves WHILE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

Have we terrified humanity - or at least the British part of it - into some ridiculous, unnecessary dystopia?

Maybe you could do another report from a working-class area to see if there any differences. Basildon or Harlow for example.

Camden - down by the Tube - really isn't posh in any sense. It is all of humankind, rich, poor, middling, homeless, trustafarian, Muslim, atheist, Goth, emo, Gen X Gen Z Gen Lambda, 50-something flint knappers buying laksa ingredients

This is a big reason I am attached to it, I like the grittiness and the melee (tho I am glad I live at the slightly posher end, we are all human)

So Camden is probably quite representative - at least of London as a whole (and Highgate felt very similar). Dunno about the UK

I used to agree about Camden. Then the Monarch closed down, just the latest "gritty" late night bar to close and be replaced with yet another wanky cocktail bar. It's become as sterile as the places it used to mock. Sadly there aren't many places left in London that capture the essence of what the city used to be, maybe the Queen's Crescent area of Kentish Town and a few bits of Archway still have some of the magic but London is over.

On bad days I agree with you. I wonder if London can recover from Covid (and everything else)

But then you get a sunny day and the parks fill up and the beer gardens sing and there is, still, a distinct and glorious energy, perhaps made bubblier by the toughness of the times. And it is a very contemporary London energy, not like Paris or NYC or LA

When I am not fretting about all the closed restaurants and bars (and they are worrying) I've also noticed that London literally seems younger, after Covid. The average age on the street and in the shops is down about 5 years. The kidz have taken over. I can see why - the old have fled or are hiding, the middle aged are working from home - and hiding - it will be fascinating to see where it goes from here.

Is London Rome in 440AD? Or Paris in 1944?

I think part of the issue is that the next generation coming up is so much more sterile than mine was. I was talking to a guy selling us some mandy pre-lockdown and he said that his walk ups are predominantly over 30 and he struggles to get under 30s to buy any kind of party drugs because they're all too concerned with health and other such inanities. I expect after COVID it will just get worse.

Who in the next generation is going to do a line of charlie and become a complete c*** to their mates and everyone around them? Those experiences just won't happen now but it's part of growing up and the next generation is just completely missing out because they've become conditioned by social media and influencers that being anything than 100% straight up will be a disaster.

Even outside of that stuff I just think London is becoming a shadow of it's former self and I say that as someone who has just spent a 7 figure number buying a house here.

Some truth in that

The Boris-hating waitress in my Highgate pub said she hated Boris because "my Mum does". I put it to her that she should be rebellious, at her age, not just following her Mum's opinions and she looked utterly bewildered at this concept and she said "oh, No, my Mum would kill me"

The under 30s are a notably conformative and censorious bunch, especially by the standards of my generation, which was outrageously misbehaved. And still is, at times. Ahem

But then, my cohort had it so much easier. Student GRANTS, cheaper property, lad magazines, sex everywhere, exciting new drugs, a permissive society, no apocalyptic worries about climate change and all that, and, maybe most importantly, no social media to cancel us (and Jeez, we would have been cancelled a thousand times a year for some of the shit we did)

So I also have sympathies for the young. They are forced to be dull, it's not their choice. But they ARE rather dull

And now I am definitely walking. A bientot

Yeah I definitely get that their dullness is partly because of the situation they're in wrt the future being so much more difficult for them than even my generation who are now all finally getting on the property ladder (at least my friends are).

I was in the final year to only pay £1k per year in fees, my wife went to university in Switzerland and got paid an annual grant and then got a grant here for her master's degree. The freedom of not having £50k in debt the day you graduate is definitely something the current generation are missing. The politicians and old c**** who decided that getting an 8% pension increase was more important than keeping university affordable. Even when I speak to my juniors about it the £45-50k debt they've got definitely figures into their subconscious way of life. It's £35k I didn't have to pay back which helped me get on the housing ladder and these lot are all on relatively decent salaries for their age but the idea of them actually saving any money let alone buying a flat seems completely out of reach.

Along with the fear of social media cancellation I can see why they're so boring. My years as a junior banker and before that a software developer were incredible. I would never have met my wife without them as I would simply have not had the social skills to attract her. One of my juniors is 24 and basically "holy shit, cheat on your wife" worthy (not that I would, of course, though you probably would lol) but she just has no social skills and is incapable of holding even the most basic conversation without looking at her phone or worrying about what people on her social media are saying. I don't see any guy being interested in her for more than two minutes and it's sad because she's really lovely otherwise, super smart, funny in her own way and as I said, very good looking.

Very good looking people are frequently boring, for obvious reasons. Also, she may be getting creepy older guy vibes off you and looking at her phone to make you go away!

She's very interesting once she's put her phone away. On the latter I can only give you a virtual eyeroll, but would do it in person if I could.

Nigel_Foremain said:

IshmaelZ said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

IshmaelZ said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Because they hate Johnson too. It's not that paradoxical.

Ah, "Dr" Walter Mitty (Oxon) I assume? How are ya?

Ah! Captain nanopenis, as I live and breathe.

I have an Oxford degree, a PhD from Exeter. You think I am lying about that, and I have bet you £10k that I am telling the truth. And ooh, it turns out that you "don't bet", just as I assume that people who go to the pub with you soon learn that you don't buy rounds.

Take the bet, or admit that your penis is converging on the Planck length. I mean why wouldn't you? Free money, surely?

Took a while to respond Walter! I couldn't give a shit about your very small minded life and your qualifications you pompous little creep or where you got them from.

By the way, why are you ashamed you didn't get your PhD from Oxford? Was mummy disappointed? I have spent a good part of my recent career using a methodology to spot charlatans and bullshitters, for which I have been paid sums that would disturb your sense of entitlement. The corporations that paid for them would be no doubt unconcerned that a pathetic and unpleasant little weasel with a penis size fixation from PB who wanted to pretend he had a PhD from an Oxford college though I was "not very bright" Lol.

You are a pathetic specimen. Whatever your PhD is in from Exeter it clearly wasn't studying anything that has made you a decent human being. Keep taking the tablets Walter!

You can’t get a PhD at Oxford. Only a DPhil.

SandyRentool said:

Thinking back over the years, a summary of my finds:

10p in a phone box when I was about 9 or 10.
£5 on the floor of a cinema in Richmond on Thames.
£10 in a gutter in Darlington.
£20 in my own garden.

When I was a student I also found a record down the side of a seat in the student union bar. The The. (Sold for £5)

And one earring in the safe in a hotel room when on holiday. (Handed in to reception)

And two wallets on different occasions, both in Loughborough. (Handed in to the police)

I lost my wallet in a national park in California, it was posted back to me in the UK, probably using my driving licence to get the address, and with everything still it, (except the coins, which at a push may have been enough to pay the postage.)

Made me very happy, but there was no note in it so I have to this day been unable to thank the individual who did that.

Instead I thank anybody who retunes a wallet they find anywhere to its owner.

Thank you SandyRentool

Carnyx said:

It must be sweatier than a sumo wrestler's mawashi down south. People seem to have been a lot grumpier on PB this last few days.

Demob happy and itching for a fight now Boris has vanquished Covid?

HYUFD said:

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

57% support increasing NI to pay for social care, including 82% of over 65s and 63% of 50-65s

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417517568257101824

82% of over-65s support a tax increase that is only paid by under-65s, in order to provide more funding to over 65s?

Well blow me down with a feather!

There is no greater love than this: that a person would rob his grandchildren for the sake of himself.

The grandchildren will still inherit the house ultimately if no dementia tax

So the grandchildren should be facing even more taxes while struggling to raise a deposit to pay for their own home, or to pay to put food on the table for their own children, in the hopes that in a few decades their own parents die and can have an inheritance? 🤔

You're perverted if you think that's right.

stodge said:

HYUFD said:

stodge said:

HYUFD said:

71% of Britons support people being required to show proof of double vaccination to get into nightclubs as the government proposes.

Those in favour include 90% of over 65s and even 57% of 18 to 24s as well as 78% of Tories.

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417512312378990602?s=20

If it were simply and exclusively about nightclubs, I wouldn't mind as it's an issue of no personal interest.

If the plan were to extend vaccination passports to pubs, restaurants, racecourses and the like, I would be opposed.

Has there been polling on whether, for example, there should be vaccination passports for going to pubs and restaurants?

Yes, 45% overall and 55% of Tories would even make vaccination passports compulsory to go to pubs.

55% overall back making them compulsory to go to the theatre, 59% to attend a sporting event and 61% to attend a concert and 71% for foreign travel as now

https://twitter.com/JoeTwyman/status/1417174405277442052?s=20

The field work is over a month old so these numbers might have changed considerably.

Hardly a convincing basis on which to build an argument.

Yougov today suggests they wouldn't

FPT: bird located in a box containing a Lego police plane. Perhaps it was trying to assemble it to fly away.

It was a wren, and it is now ?safely? outside in a thunderstorm.

Unfortunately it left a couple of little deposits in the box as well. They will have to be removed before the little 'un thinks they're a new flexible Lego piece ...

SandyRentool said:

Thinking back over the years, a summary of my finds:

10p in a phone box when I was about 9 or 10.
£5 on the floor of a cinema in Richmond on Thames.
£10 in a gutter in Darlington.
£20 in my own garden.

When I was a student I also found a record down the side of a seat in the student union bar. The The. (Sold for £5)

And one earring in the safe in a hotel room when on holiday. (Handed in to reception)

And two wallets on different occasions, both in Loughborough. (Handed in to the police)

I once found a wallet stuffed to the gunnels with notes in a hotel. At the time I was visiting a manufacturer to see their kit as we were about to spend £400,000. My colleague still thinks I turned down the bribe... In reality I think it belonged to one of the very rich looking middle eastern chaps also at the hotel. I handed it in to reception.

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

57% support increasing NI to pay for social care, including 82% of over 65s and 63% of 50-65s

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417517568257101824

82% of over-65s support a tax increase that is only paid by under-65s, in order to provide more funding to over 65s?

Well blow me down with a feather!

There is no greater love than this: that a person would rob his grandchildren for the sake of himself.

The grandchildren will still inherit the house ultimately if no dementia tax

So the grandchildren should be facing even more taxes while struggling to raise a deposit to pay for their own home, or to pay to put food on the table for their own children, in the hopes that in a few decades their own parents die and can have an inheritance? 🤔

You're perverted if you think that's right.

I couldn't possibly comment on the last point. But in recent years the Conservative governments have made changes to IHT which suggest that they are indeed highly focussed on that very scenario, albeit for approved families only (no nephews or nieces need apply). It is after all where their core voters are at.

It's an interesting point you imply, however, whether those 2.4 adult children outweigh 2 - or increasingly just 1- of their parents voting wise.

Of course, maybe those elderly voters might leave some dosh to the kind benevolent Party while they are at it - this time relieved at 100% of IHT liability.

HYUFD said:

Gallowgate said:

HYUFD said:

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

57% support increasing NI to pay for social care, including 82% of over 65s and 63% of 50-65s

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417517568257101824

82% of over-65s support a tax increase that is only paid by under-65s, in order to provide more funding to over 65s?

Well blow me down with a feather!

There is no greater love than this: that a person would rob his grandchildren for the sake of himself.

The grandchildren will still inherit the house ultimately if no dementia tax

Not if they get put into a care home, dementia tax or no dementia tax.

Yes but the dementia tax extended the government taking your house to at home care too

Point of order: it did no such thing. It never existed. 'Would have' is the operative wording.

JosiasJessop said:

FPT: bird located in a box containing a Lego police plane. Perhaps it was trying to assemble it to fly away.

It was a wren, and it is now ?safely? outside in a thunderstorm.

Unfortunately it left a couple of little deposits in the box as well. They will have to be removed before the little 'un thinks they're a new flexible Lego piece ...

Could have been worse, it could have been a Dragon in there.

MaxPB said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Leon said:

Andy_JS said:

Leon said:

I am now able to report from the Covid Freedom Day Front Line AKA the gastropubs of Highgate

Verdict: a disappointing lack of jubilation, or, indeed, Freedom. You weren't allowed to order at the bar, you had to check in at the door, the staff were mostly wearing masks, it was table service only

Almost nothing has changed

Indeed I've just been out shopping in Camden and if anything there seem to be MORE masks, people look even more nervous. for the first time ever I saw someone wearing the full Covid monty: mask, visor and disposable blue nitrile gloves WHILE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

Have we terrified humanity - or at least the British part of it - into some ridiculous, unnecessary dystopia?

Maybe you could do another report from a working-class area to see if there any differences. Basildon or Harlow for example.

Camden - down by the Tube - really isn't posh in any sense. It is all of humankind, rich, poor, middling, homeless, trustafarian, Muslim, atheist, Goth, emo, Gen X Gen Z Gen Lambda, 50-something flint knappers buying laksa ingredients

This is a big reason I am attached to it, I like the grittiness and the melee (tho I am glad I live at the slightly posher end, we are all human)

So Camden is probably quite representative - at least of London as a whole (and Highgate felt very similar). Dunno about the UK

I used to agree about Camden. Then the Monarch closed down, just the latest "gritty" late night bar to close and be replaced with yet another wanky cocktail bar. It's become as sterile as the places it used to mock. Sadly there aren't many places left in London that capture the essence of what the city used to be, maybe the Queen's Crescent area of Kentish Town and a few bits of Archway still have some of the magic but London is over.

On bad days I agree with you. I wonder if London can recover from Covid (and everything else)

But then you get a sunny day and the parks fill up and the beer gardens sing and there is, still, a distinct and glorious energy, perhaps made bubblier by the toughness of the times. And it is a very contemporary London energy, not like Paris or NYC or LA

When I am not fretting about all the closed restaurants and bars (and they are worrying) I've also noticed that London literally seems younger, after Covid. The average age on the street and in the shops is down about 5 years. The kidz have taken over. I can see why - the old have fled or are hiding, the middle aged are working from home - and hiding - it will be fascinating to see where it goes from here.

Is London Rome in 440AD? Or Paris in 1944?

I think part of the issue is that the next generation coming up is so much more sterile than mine was. I was talking to a guy selling us some mandy pre-lockdown and he said that his walk ups are predominantly over 30 and he struggles to get under 30s to buy any kind of party drugs because they're all too concerned with health and other such inanities. I expect after COVID it will just get worse.

Who in the next generation is going to do a line of charlie and become a complete c*** to their mates and everyone around them? Those experiences just won't happen now but it's part of growing up and the next generation is just completely missing out because they've become conditioned by social media and influencers that being anything than 100% straight up will be a disaster.

Even outside of that stuff I just think London is becoming a shadow of it's former self and I say that as someone who has just spent a 7 figure number buying a house here.

Some truth in that

The Boris-hating waitress in my Highgate pub said she hated Boris because "my Mum does". I put it to her that she should be rebellious, at her age, not just following her Mum's opinions and she looked utterly bewildered at this concept and she said "oh, No, my Mum would kill me"

The under 30s are a notably conformative and censorious bunch, especially by the standards of my generation, which was outrageously misbehaved. And still is, at times. Ahem

But then, my cohort had it so much easier. Student GRANTS, cheaper property, lad magazines, sex everywhere, exciting new drugs, a permissive society, no apocalyptic worries about climate change and all that, and, maybe most importantly, no social media to cancel us (and Jeez, we would have been cancelled a thousand times a year for some of the shit we did)

So I also have sympathies for the young. They are forced to be dull, it's not their choice. But they ARE rather dull

And now I am definitely walking. A bientot

Yeah I definitely get that their dullness is partly because of the situation they're in wrt the future being so much more difficult for them than even my generation who are now all finally getting on the property ladder (at least my friends are).

I was in the final year to only pay £1k per year in fees, my wife went to university in Switzerland and got paid an annual grant and then got a grant here for her master's degree. The freedom of not having £50k in debt the day you graduate is definitely something the current generation are missing. The politicians and old c**** who decided that getting an 8% pension increase was more important than keeping university affordable. Even when I speak to my juniors about it the £45-50k debt they've got definitely figures into their subconscious way of life. It's £35k I didn't have to pay back which helped me get on the housing ladder and these lot are all on relatively decent salaries for their age but the idea of them actually saving any money let alone buying a flat seems completely out of reach.

Along with the fear of social media cancellation I can see why they're so boring. My years as a junior banker and before that a software developer were incredible. I would never have met my wife without them as I would simply have not had the social skills to attract her. One of my juniors is 24 and basically "holy shit, cheat on your wife" worthy (not that I would, of course, though you probably would lol) but she just has no social skills and is incapable of holding even the most basic conversation without looking at her phone or worrying about what people on her social media are saying. I don't see any guy being interested in her for more than two minutes and it's sad because she's really lovely otherwise, super smart, funny in her own way and as I said, very good looking.

Very good looking people are frequently boring, for obvious reasons. Also, she may be getting creepy older guy vibes off you and looking at her phone to make you go away!

She's very interesting once she's put her phone away. On the latter I can only give you a virtual eyeroll, but would do it in person if I could.

Why is misbehaviour so funny?

It's an odd thing, but certainly true. At lunch yesterday I was swapping stories with a friend, and the one that really cracked him up was the one, a couple of weeks ago in Spain, where I was at an official wine tasting and I got so drunk I decided to take a "short cut" back to the hotel THROUGH the vineyard as it seemed the quickest way, and when I woke up I only realised what I'd done when I saw my car was covered with crushed grapes

We told lots of stories but that one got the biggest laugh, despite it being really quite juvenile and wanky

So, why do we laugh so hard at bad behaviour? And how will young people make each other laugh, in that hard, satisfying way, if they have no outrageous stories?

ydoethur said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

IshmaelZ said:

Nigel_Foremain said:

IshmaelZ said:

MarqueeMark said:

squareroot2 said:

Huge attention in the media does not equate to the nation paying attention to a venal embittered man.

The largely Remain-voting media hated Dom with a passion. Witness his road trip to Barnard Castle and their collective glee at putting the boot in.

And NOW they hang on his every word.

Funny old world, Greavsie.....

Because they hate Johnson too. It's not that paradoxical.

Ah, "Dr" Walter Mitty (Oxon) I assume? How are ya?

Ah! Captain nanopenis, as I live and breathe.

I have an Oxford degree, a PhD from Exeter. You think I am lying about that, and I have bet you £10k that I am telling the truth. And ooh, it turns out that you "don't bet", just as I assume that people who go to the pub with you soon learn that you don't buy rounds.

Take the bet, or admit that your penis is converging on the Planck length. I mean why wouldn't you? Free money, surely?

Took a while to respond Walter! I couldn't give a shit about your very small minded life and your qualifications you pompous little creep or where you got them from.

By the way, why are you ashamed you didn't get your PhD from Oxford? Was mummy disappointed? I have spent a good part of my recent career using a methodology to spot charlatans and bullshitters, for which I have been paid sums that would disturb your sense of entitlement. The corporations that paid for them would be no doubt unconcerned that a pathetic and unpleasant little weasel with a penis size fixation from PB who wanted to pretend he had a PhD from an Oxford college though I was "not very bright" Lol.

You are a pathetic specimen. Whatever your PhD is in from Exeter it clearly wasn't studying anything that has made you a decent human being. Keep taking the tablets Walter!

You can’t get a PhD at Oxford. Only a DPhil.

Indeed! Walter Mitty aka IshmaelZ attempted to suggest he was "Dr. IshmaelZ PhD (Oxon)", which was a bit of a give away that he is a bullshitter. Sad little creep wanted people to believe he had a doctorate from Oxford, which is extremely sad because who cares? Now he wants us to all know his actual qualifications (if we can believe him) and again; who cares? I suppose we should feel sorry for him really. When I pointed it out to him (after he inferred I was "not very bright") he got a bit upset and then said he was joking, but I don't recall him making the correction.

SandyRentool said:

Andy_Cooke said:

Surprisingly good news for restaurants and pubs in June 2021 (not so good for bars alone).
In comparison with June 2019, overall sales were UP for restaurants, and down only a couple of percent for pubs. Bars down 10%.

What's the difference between a pub and a bar?

If you don't know by now then you never will.

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Lib Dems on the up


https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1417533983089479684?s=19

Indeed: LD +4

Could this be Libertarians moving/returning to the LD because of there opposition to COVID Passports?

or just noise?

Probably just noise,

Nigel_Foremain said:

HYUFD said:

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

Philip_Thompson said:

HYUFD said:

57% support increasing NI to pay for social care, including 82% of over 65s and 63% of 50-65s

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1417517568257101824

82% of over-65s support a tax increase that is only paid by under-65s, in order to provide more funding to over 65s?

Well blow me down with a feather!

There is no greater love than this: that a person would rob his grandchildren for the sake of himself.

The grandchildren will still inherit the house ultimately if no dementia tax

So the grandchildren should be facing even more taxes while struggling to raise a deposit to pay for their own home, or to pay to put food on the table for their own children, in the hopes that in a few decades their own parents die and can have an inheritance? 🤔

You're perverted if you think that's right.

Grandparents and parents can help with a deposit too and of course the NI the young and middle aged pay will fund the social care many of them will get when they get to old age.

I am a Tory and a conservative and not a liberal like you as I believe in family and preserving assets in the family

Philip is lots of things but he is not a liberal or a Liberal.

In what way do you think I am illiberal?