in july when we had cases around 30000 average daily deaths were around 30. Now with same cases average daily deaths around 150 a five fold increase. This means that by November with average cases around 30000 average deaths per day could spike to the 500 to 1000 level. Doesnt mean they will but its a possibility
Pointless extrapolation. Deaths lag admissions, which lag cases. So the correct time to consider the deaths from the July spike is not July, it is at least 2 to 3 weeks later.
the point im making is when cases fell sharply in late july hospitalisations and deaths continued rising. Look at the graphs on the govt website. A big drop in cases late july but hospitalisations and deaths continued upside. You are not taking this into account. 2 weeks after that july spike deaths were much lower than now despite cases never going as high since
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Perhaps relevant to that article but I'm not going to read it (the Graun's).
I'm old enough to remember when the Daily Mash used to be funny.
It's bloody funny still as witness the above.
Interesting to me is that it is making fun of remainers whereas it has in the past (I don't look at it all the time) made fun of Brexiters. Such as this, one of my favourites (a long time ago so you will find it funny).
it is feeble, It makes a decent point, but it is not comical
Look at this:
"What are we going to do next, build affordable housing? Pay a living wage? What if he’s serious about this ghastly plan to stop the North being a ghetto where you’re born poor and die early?"
It's like a middlebrow sixth former's laborious version of satire. It's funny if you're not a particularly funny person, and don't really understand humour, but you try quite hard
It is also like AI generated music, a computer which has been taught the essence of music but just doesn't get "music". Yet. Listen to this for 12 seconds, then the computer takes over the composition
Indeed, it occurs to me that GPT3 could churn out Mash articles by the million, no problem, and has already written things much funnier than any Daily Mash piece
The difficulty I find with all these kinds of sature is that the headline - i.e the punchline - comes first, not last like in a joke. Writing an article which develops the joke further when the punchline has come and gone is pretty hard.
Yes, and written humour is bloody hard. I'm not being particularly mean to the Mash in saying they don't quite hack it, 99% of people don't hack it
The Onion is the best example of funny news satire - along with The Day Today in the UK
The Onion has headlines which alone make you laugh. OK they make me laugh
"Dwarf falls equivalent of 10 storeys"
They've actually deleted this (it seems). Too offensive now?
And I find THIS very funny. The Onion news channel taking the piss out of Apple. Superbly done (to my mind)
Humour can date very rapidly. I don't find Fawlty Towers nearly so funny as I used to, because that middle class angst and obsession with loss of status is just not relevant now, in the way it was in the 1970's.
Satire in particular dates very rapidly, because it is so specific to its time and place. Admittedly, Peter Cook's "Entirely a Matter for You" still cracks me up, but it would be meaningless to anyone unfamiliar with the trial of Jeremy Thorpe.
Gentle satire, like Pride and Prejudice, is probably timeless.
So, too is some black humour. Gibbon can be very funny in places, as can Tacitus. Hence his reaction to Nero marrying his boyfriend Sporus, and then castrating him, in the hope this would make him into a woman:
"Men wished that Nero's father had taken such a wife".
Yeah, comedy dates terribly. Has anyone alive ever genuinely laughed at a Shakespeare "comedy"?
We've debated this before. The few funny movies (say) which don't date are magnificently rare, but they exist.
I think we all agreed that Airplane and Life of Brian remain funny, decades later. And Spinal Tap? Blazing Saddles too perhaps. And early Woody Allen: Love and Death
After that it gets difficult...
I don't think "Stonehenge" from Spinal Tap will ever cease to be funny.
Ruthless People is another film which remains very funny.
I just rewatched the Stonehenge Spinal Tap clip on Youtube. With some anxiety.
Still funny?
YES it is still very funny. However, I doubt it would be allowed now, because it has dwarves dancing around the tiny Stonehenge, in a comical way. Not Woke. So they'd have to get rid of the dancing dwarves, and they are mainly what makes it so hilarious. Even a dwarf is bigger than this pitiful mock-up of a megalith
Comedy is slowly being strangled to death
I wonder if Jimmy Carr or Ricky Gervais would get booked these days if they weren't already too big and profitable not to?
I could certainly see some in the business saying we might not take a risk on them, lets just book the safe option that has been on the telly doing totally forgettable material about their passion for cardigans.
Hence the entire and stellar career of Michael Mcintyre
I'm going to say something controversial here, but I think Michael Mcintyre is funny. I don't really understand the venom that is directed at him. Sorry!
He is the Coldplay of comedy. He is very good at what he does, but it is very safe, very vanilla and I think if every comedian was Mcintrye-esque, it would be a very boring space, in the same way if you went to a 3 day music festival and you got 100 Coldplay clones.
I kind of agree with that, and he's certainly not my favourite comedian. But I think he is better than Coldplay!
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
The good stuff is remembered, the crap forgotten. It creates a bias and the misconception that things were better in the past. Plenty of good comedy and music about today. Just plenty of rubbish too and less filtering.
I agree to some extent, but I posted down thread a link to 3 comedians talking about the business, and they think stand up has gone off, even though they work in it. There are no mega mega new comedians, just to pack out everywhere with ease.
And music wise, I wonder is there any artist who is going to be this generations Beatles, Stones, ACDC, Metallica, U2? That fill out 100k stadiums with ease, for year after year after year after year. Last generation, in the UK, it was Oasis, who were a poor mans Beatles.
Maybe Ed Sheeran? Are adults still going to be listening to him in 30 years, let alone the kids? I don't know.
in july when we had cases around 30000 average daily deaths were around 30. Now with same cases average daily deaths around 150 a five fold increase. This means that by November with average cases around 30000 average deaths per day could spike to the 500 to 1000 level. Doesnt mean they will but its a possibility
Pointless extrapolation. Deaths lag admissions, which lag cases. So the correct time to consider the deaths from the July spike is not July, it is at least 2 to 3 weeks later.
the point im making is when cases fell sharply in late july hospitalisations and deaths continued rising. Look at the graphs on the govt website. A big drop in cases late july but hospitalisations and deaths continued upside. You are not taking this into account. 2 weeks after that july spike deaths were much lower than now despite cases never going as high since
I think its very likely that most of the cases in July related to the Euros and were amongst the younger generations, who congregated to watch the football. Sadly some taka while to die of covid, and yes the deaths has crept up. But as @Max uses his funnel, the supply is declining again. Don't forget that the majority of those in ICU are unvaccinated. Delta is busily infecting them, and for most, giving them pretty good immunity going forward. There is no reason for deaths to keep increasing as you project.
Cases down again, and the last 2 days of admissions data for England are both lower than any other day in the last month.
cases hovering around 30000. Hospitalisations and deaths are crucial over the next few weeks i think. What we dont want to see is deaths continuing to rise relative to cases
Keep trying. Cases down across the UK, and definitely in England, despite brexit schools going back. Admissions falling too now.
yes but its not about cases its about hospitalisations and deaths last 7 days cases down 8.4% but hospitalisations up 4.7% and deaths up 25.1%
As I'm sure you are aware both are lagging indicators. Expect them both to turn negative in the coming few weeks. Why wouldn't they?
Equally I seem to remember that vaccination rates in some parts of Scotland are lower than almost everywhere else in the UK. I wonder if that explains why the recent spike in Scotland isn't being repeated in England.
Not really now. It used to be the case that Edinburgh was badly lagging but not anymore, it is a few percentage points behind the UK average and it will have a "transient student population" issue when it comes to estimating.
Overall its hard to tell given vax rates are based on population estimates but scotland as a whole is above the uk vax rates and the lowest Scottish local athoroty area is Aberdeenshire on 83% qst vaxxes which is wayyyyyyy above the worst performing areas in the rest of the UK.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have been told by Formula One’s managing director, Ross Brawn, to keep it clean on the track, or risk another accident with more serious consequences.
The two rivals collided at yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix, their second coming together of the season, with Verstappen’s Red Bull ending up on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes in the gravel at the side of the track. The seven-times world champion said his halo head protection device, which took the brunt of the impact, had saved his life.
Brawn described the title rivals as “two cockerels in the farmyard” and said he did not expect either man to back down in the fight for the drivers’ title, but he urged them to make sure the championship is won on the track through fair racing and not “in the barriers or the stewards room”.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
in july when we had cases around 30000 average daily deaths were around 30. Now with same cases average daily deaths around 150 a five fold increase. This means that by November with average cases around 30000 average deaths per day could spike to the 500 to 1000 level. Doesnt mean they will but its a possibility
Pointless extrapolation. Deaths lag admissions, which lag cases. So the correct time to consider the deaths from the July spike is not July, it is at least 2 to 3 weeks later.
the point im making is when cases fell sharply in late july hospitalisations and deaths continued rising. Look at the graphs on the govt website. A big drop in cases late july but hospitalisations and deaths continued upside. You are not taking this into account. 2 weeks after that july spike deaths were much lower than now despite cases never going as high since
I think its very likely that most of the cases in July related to the Euros and were amongst the younger generations, who congregated to watch the football. Sadly some taka while to die of covid, and yes the deaths has crept up. But as @Max uses his funnel, the supply is declining again. Don't forget that the majority of those in ICU are unvaccinated. Delta is busily infecting them, and for most, giving them pretty good immunity going forward. There is no reason for deaths to keep increasing as you project.
Cases down again, and the last 2 days of admissions data for England are both lower than any other day in the last month.
cases hovering around 30000. Hospitalisations and deaths are crucial over the next few weeks i think. What we dont want to see is deaths continuing to rise relative to cases
Keep trying. Cases down across the UK, and definitely in England, despite brexit schools going back. Admissions falling too now.
yes but its not about cases its about hospitalisations and deaths last 7 days cases down 8.4% but hospitalisations up 4.7% and deaths up 25.1%
As I'm sure you are aware both are lagging indicators. Expect them both to turn negative in the coming few weeks. Why wouldn't they?
Equally I seem to remember that vaccination rates in some parts of Scotland are lower than almost everywhere else in the UK. I wonder if that explains why the recent spike in Scotland isn't being repeated in England.
Not really now. It used to be the case that Edinburgh was badly lagging but not anymore, it is a few percentage points behind the UK average and it will have a "transient student population" issue when it comes to estimating.
Overall its hard to tell given vax rates are based on population estimates but scotland as a whole is above the uk vax rates and the lowest Scottish local athoroty area is Aberdeenshire on 83% qst vaxxes which is wayyyyyyy above the worst performing areas in the rest of the UK.
Scotland and England local vaccination rates aren't comparable because Scotland data uses ONS mid-2020 numbers as the denominator while England data uses NIMS as the denominator, the latter is a known overestimate, especially in cities with large transient populations.
God bless Britain, I'm so fortunate to call it home.
Britain may no longer have a powerful aristocracy, but it remains a country where what your parents do and earn matters more than your effort and ability
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Eric Sykes was better writing for others. I never ever found Norman Wisdom funny. That they did is something which makes me suspicious of Albanians.
Barring the first one a PM will always get higher scores by dint of being in power .
And yet Labour is making progress, 4 point swing even in Redfield Wilton which as I pointed out, shows the Tories consistently higher than other pollsters.
Labour should absolutely work on those numbers - but it doesn't really need to do much to take the lead and bear in mind it would match Blair 1997 if it got 43% and it isn't far off that now
It made me sick to watch a once-male special forces combat veteran beat up a woman on TV - it’s time to stop this trans sport insanity before women start being killed
Piers Morgan has a number of good points he makes in that piece.
In the end they may well end up with a third category for transgendered males - whether you want to call them Trans Women or TIMs.
I think that has been suggested on PB previously.
I can see a scenario happening when each successive female opponent pulls out of a tournament saying "I'm not fighting someone with a man's body", and the athlete such as Alana MacLauthlin ends up winning the tournament with no fights at all.
Morgan: I once asked a UK government minister who supports trans women competing in women’s sport if she would be OK if Floyd Mayweather announced he was transitioning and got in the ring to fight women born with female bodies.
She refused to say it would be unfair because she was too terrified of upsetting the very vocal and aggressive trans activist lobby.
That’s how crazy this debate has got.
There's anecdata and there's Piers anecdata. Some of the lads on here would give him a run for his money, mind..
I asked an EU apologist if he would be ok if the entire population of Bulgaria came and lived in his conservatory. He refused to answer because he was terrified of upsetting the 'open borders' nutters who make so much noise every time anybody says something even vaguely sensible about immigration.
Despite having no tangible policies, Labour is tying some polls and drawing closer in others
I think this is a classic case where no-one is actively looking at the opposition and thinking 'Oh yes, they are much better, they have the answers'. They are just looking at a shit show of a government and now that for most people the pandemic is over (I'm not saying its over, but for a lot of people they think it is) and normal politics is reasserting itself. Midterm opinion polls are all very well, but I have no doubt most of these polls will have asked about the NI changes too, and its been in the news.
When all is said and done, only one poll really matters. Cliche, but true.
in july when we had cases around 30000 average daily deaths were around 30. Now with same cases average daily deaths around 150 a five fold increase. This means that by November with average cases around 30000 average deaths per day could spike to the 500 to 1000 level. Doesnt mean they will but its a possibility
Pointless extrapolation. Deaths lag admissions, which lag cases. So the correct time to consider the deaths from the July spike is not July, it is at least 2 to 3 weeks later.
the point im making is when cases fell sharply in late july hospitalisations and deaths continued rising. Look at the graphs on the govt website. A big drop in cases late july but hospitalisations and deaths continued upside. You are not taking this into account. 2 weeks after that july spike deaths were much lower than now despite cases never going as high since
I think its very likely that most of the cases in July related to the Euros and were amongst the younger generations, who congregated to watch the football. Sadly some taka while to die of covid, and yes the deaths has crept up. But as @Max uses his funnel, the supply is declining again. Don't forget that the majority of those in ICU are unvaccinated. Delta is busily infecting them, and for most, giving them pretty good immunity going forward. There is no reason for deaths to keep increasing as you project.
The funnel method for hospitalisation is something my university friend first used and he's in a field adjacent to viral epidemiology. It's actually the best way to think about it which is why I adopted it for my data model.
Barring the first one a PM will always get higher scores by dint of being in power .
And yet Labour is making progress, 4 point swing even in Redfield Wilton which as I pointed out, shows the Tories consistently higher than other pollsters.
Labour should absolutely work on those numbers - but it doesn't really need to do much to take the lead and bear in mind it would match Blair 1997 if it got 43% and it isn't far off that now
Labour are not subject to any scrutiny at the moment, we will see how that affects their ratings. At this stage in the 92-97 Major govt labour were well,ahead.
Cases down again, and the last 2 days of admissions data for England are both lower than any other day in the last month.
cases hovering around 30000. Hospitalisations and deaths are crucial over the next few weeks i think. What we dont want to see is deaths continuing to rise relative to cases
Keep trying. Cases down across the UK, and definitely in England, despite brexit schools going back. Admissions falling too now.
yes but its not about cases its about hospitalisations and deaths last 7 days cases down 8.4% but hospitalisations up 4.7% and deaths up 25.1%
As I'm sure you are aware both are lagging indicators. Expect them both to turn negative in the coming few weeks. Why wouldn't they?
Equally I seem to remember that vaccination rates in some parts of Scotland are lower than almost everywhere else in the UK. I wonder if that explains why the recent spike in Scotland isn't being repeated in England.
Not really now. It used to be the case that Edinburgh was badly lagging but not anymore, it is a few percentage points behind the UK average and it will have a "transient student population" issue when it comes to estimating.
Overall its hard to tell given vax rates are based on population estimates but scotland as a whole is above the uk vax rates and the lowest Scottish local athoroty area is Aberdeenshire on 83% qst vaxxes which is wayyyyyyy above the worst performing areas in the rest of the UK.
Scotland and England local vaccination rates aren't comparable because Scotland data uses ONS mid-2020 numbers as the denominator while England data uses NIMS as the denominator, the latter is a known overestimate, especially in cities with large transient populations.
Despite having no tangible policies, Labour is tying some polls and drawing closer in others
He is crap, a better leader would have smashed a government that has raised taxes on nurses so that higher rate earners that are over 65 don't see any tax rises to pay for their care.
It's genuinely such a huge misstep and it speaks to Labour's core values to stand up to this but he's absolutely nowhere other than talking about a tax on landlords and a 14,000 word blank sheet of paper.
Tellytubby Taliban, just some country bumpkins....
The Taliban ARE executing former Afghan army and government officials, says UN human rights chief as video shows 'Panjshiri men being bundled into car trunks in Kabul'
Is there a sitcom at the moment that is all the talk of the water cooler (or rather zoom call?
90s was Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, Father Ted, 2000s Phoenix's Nights / the Office, then Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Inbetweeners ...
pretty much everybody knew the catchphrases, what is there at the moment that everybody watches?
Ted Lasso seems to be quite popular, but seems very very lame. I can't think of a British one.
I think that the idea of a nation watching together has gone, certainly among younger viewers. Even if its not streaming Netflix or Amazon Prime, a lot of people have Sky+ or Freeview+.
One comedy I forgot - Ghosts. Been really good, and seems to be getting better as it goes on. No nastiness in it really. Even the ghost of the Tory mp, doomed to be forever with no trousers, is a fairly sympathetic character.
Just fed the data into my model and it's saying we're about 7-10 days away from the hospitalisation funnel turning negative again (as in more people leaving hospital than entering) which would be a huge win in the run up to autumn and winter to clear COVID patients out of hospitals.
Medium term prediction of the inpatient number is 3.5k at the end of October for England.
Despite having no tangible policies, Labour is tying some polls and drawing closer in others
He is crap, a better leader would have smashed a government that has raised taxes on nurses so that higher rate earners that are over 65 don't see any tax rises to pay for their care.
It's genuinely such a huge misstep and it speaks to Labour's core values to stand up to this but he's absolutely nowhere other than talking about a tax on landlords and a 14,000 word blank sheet of paper.
I hope the Labour conference results in things improving and their front bench actually starting to talk about things otherwise it's going to be too late to fix things before the next election.
That poll also shows the Tories losing their majority but with 319 seats they could stay in power if they could persuade the 8 DUP MPs and their leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to back them.
So at the moment polls are consistently showing a hung parliament, only question being whether it is the SNP or the DUP again who are kingmakers, Boris and Starmer would both be reliant on Sturgeon and Blackford or Donaldson to get any legislation through
Just fed the data into my model and it's saying we're about 7-10 days away from the hospitalisation funnel turning negative again (as in more people leaving hospital than entering) which would be a huge win in the run up to autumn and winter to clear COVID patients out of hospitals.
Medium term prediction of the inpatient number is 3.5k at the end of October for England.
Remember Sir Keir’s warning #johnsonvariant
Just cut and past Winter into where as he says Summer....and that will be his reaction tomorrow.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
You will need a pick and shovel. I liked Norman Wisdom when I was a young boy , fond memories of my mother taking me to see his films as she was a fan.
Just fed the data into my model and it's saying we're about 7-10 days away from the hospitalisation funnel turning negative again (as in more people leaving hospital than entering) which would be a huge win in the run up to autumn and winter to clear COVID patients out of hospitals.
Medium term prediction of the inpatient number is 3.5k at the end of October for England.
Remember Sir Keir’s warning #johnsonvariant
How does that old saying go? 'Red faces in the Autumn, at Keir's warning?'
(And of course, if Labour were to win, somehow, 'Red faces on the right, at Keir's delight')
Until Labour can impact those ratings they are not going to make much progress
And these are after the terrible week Boris and HMG has just had
Who on earth thinks Boris Johnson can work with foreign leaders. AIUI he’s regarded as untrustworthy.
Edit Weird predictive text!
I was about to post the same thing.
Maybe falsely a post Brexit effect? Though I wouldn't say Boris shined then during that period of diplomatic negotiations or was like a Bismarckian like statesman on the world stage.
That poll also shows the Tories losing their majority but with 319 seats they could stay in power if they could persuade the 8 DUP MPs and their leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to back them.
So at the moment polls are consistently showing a hung parliament, only question being whether it is the SNP or the DUP again who are kingmakers, Boris and Starmer would both be reliant on Sturgeon and Blackford or Donaldson to get any legislation through
Pre-boundary changes, though.
Rough guess is adding a number between 5 and 10 to the Tory seats score and taking it off (mainly) Labour.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Eric Sykes was better writing for others. I never ever found Norman Wisdom funny. That they did is something which makes me suspicious of Albanians.
That poll also shows the Tories losing their majority but with 319 seats they could stay in power if they could persuade the 8 DUP MPs and their leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to back them.
So at the moment polls are consistently showing a hung parliament, only question being whether it is the SNP or the DUP again who are kingmakers, Boris and Starmer would both be reliant on Sturgeon and Blackford or Donaldson to get any legislation through
if the economy turns south from here i think the conservatives could drop below 30%
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
You will need a pick and shovel. I liked Norman Wisdom when I was a young boy , fond memories of my mother taking me to see his films as she was a fan.
NY Federal Reserve now sees inflation at 5.2% in one year, 4% in three years; a series high with "large expected price rises" in food, rent, and medical costs.
But but but, Biden economic advisors said the west had solved inflation....
“But but..he’s not Trump!”
Ì suspect inflation is going to be an issue across the developed world for the next few years.
All professional lawyers have a soft spot for it as illustrating what you can in theory get away with and not get struck off. I particularly like the bit where he takes out a hunting knife in the elevator.
NY Federal Reserve now sees inflation at 5.2% in one year, 4% in three years; a series high with "large expected price rises" in food, rent, and medical costs.
But but but, Biden economic advisors said the west had solved inflation....
“But but..he’s not Trump!”
Ì suspect inflation is going to be an issue across the developed world for the next few years.
I think there is going to be a lot of people who get a very nasty shock.
Just fed the data into my model and it's saying we're about 7-10 days away from the hospitalisation funnel turning negative again (as in more people leaving hospital than entering) which would be a huge win in the run up to autumn and winter to clear COVID patients out of hospitals.
Medium term prediction of the inpatient number is 3.5k at the end of October for England.
Remember Sir Keir’s warning #johnsonvariant
Those are one set of unflattering photographs. Blimey. I think it was Len Deighton who described one of his characters as having an out of focus face. I now know what it means.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
You will need a pick and shovel. I liked Norman Wisdom when I was a young boy , fond memories of my mother taking me to see his films as she was a fan.
I used to love his films. I watched the boxset. 1 film a day, when first on work from home and it was a very mixed experience
Tellytubby Taliban, just some country bumpkins....
The Taliban ARE executing former Afghan army and government officials, says UN human rights chief as video shows 'Panjshiri men being bundled into car trunks in Kabul'
Is there anything more pointless than people debating whether something is funny or not? Humour is so subjective – if you find something funny, great, if you don't, fine. That's it really.
Actually, it is quite revealing of the person. Humour is subjective but a person who finds slapstick clowning funny, or fart jokes, is interestingly different to a person who likes early Woody Allen. That might sounds like snobbery, but it is also true
I'd say the public here are more likely to be into slapstick clowning than early Woody Allen. Hence Brexit. And of course "Boris".
I prefer early Boris.
“Routemaster 2.0” - even if it was a sequel - was much better than “Killing 130,000”.
I know you are making a funny, but I really do hate this idea that somehow, uniquely among the European nations, Britain has somehow killed way more of its population. It didn't. Covid did. Johnson didn't kill the French, Spanish, Italians. Governments made hard decisions and made mistakes. Some of them were made many many years ago - such as running the NHS 'efficiently' for bed occupancy, so there was no surge capacity when needed. That's not just on the current government, its on all of them, and on the NHS leadership too.
You’re right, I was being sarcastic.
But Boris was late into lockdown three times.
His negligence does seem to have led to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.
March 2020 may be forgivable (although many on here, including me, were calling for a lockdown up to two weeks earlier than we eventually did), but the mistakes in late 2020 were not.
"Late into lockdown" trips easily off the tongue. But you are talking about curtailing a nation's economic and social activity in a way unprecedented in a century.
And whether he was or wasn't will not be known for years.
I am fiercely against unnecessary lockdowns and infringements of civil liberty.
But it was/is not a matter of tripping off the tongue but of preservation of life.
Boris utterly failed that test (compare with Jacinda Ardern) not once but several times.
No we don’t need “years” to make that judgment. Only apologists say that.
Nah. I wouldn't categorise myself as a Boris apologist.
And if you are seriously holding up Jacinda "prison island" Ardern as a role model in how to handle the pandemic then that sadly loses you a lot of credibility.
Boris errs on the side of liberty (or "it'll be fine" to be less charitable) which is a side that plenty of the country errs on also. To simply cut off a nation's normal activities would give most people, and especially most Brits pause for thought.
Without wanting to go all contrarian, I wouldn't describe the last 18 months as Boris erring on the side of liberty.
I'd say he has erred on the side of not getting his head around what was happening.
Is there a sitcom at the moment that is all the talk of the water cooler (or rather zoom call?
90s was Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, Father Ted, 2000s Phoenix's Nights / the Office, then Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Inbetweeners ...
pretty much everybody knew the catchphrases, what is there at the moment that everybody watches?
Ted Lasso seems to be quite popular, but seems very very lame. I can't think of a British one.
Not a sitcom but a sketch show: has anyone watched "I thin you should leave"? Not everybody's cup of tea. But I laughed until it hurt at some bits of it.
It made me sick to watch a once-male special forces combat veteran beat up a woman on TV - it’s time to stop this trans sport insanity before women start being killed
Piers Morgan has a number of good points he makes in that piece.
In the end they may well end up with a third category for transgendered males - whether you want to call them Trans Women or TIMs.
I think that has been suggested on PB previously.
I can see a scenario happening when each successive female opponent pulls out of a tournament saying "I'm not fighting someone with a man's body", and the athlete such as Alana MacLauthlin ends up winning the tournament with no fights at all.
Morgan: I once asked a UK government minister who supports trans women competing in women’s sport if she would be OK if Floyd Mayweather announced he was transitioning and got in the ring to fight women born with female bodies.
She refused to say it would be unfair because she was too terrified of upsetting the very vocal and aggressive trans activist lobby.
That’s how crazy this debate has got.
There's anecdata and there's Piers anecdata. Some of the lads on here would give him a run for his money, mind..
I asked an EU apologist if he would be ok if the entire population of Bulgaria came and lived in his conservatory. He refused to answer because he was terrified of upsetting the 'open borders' nutters who make so much noise every time anybody says something even vaguely sensible about immigration.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Eric Sykes was better writing for others. I never ever found Norman Wisdom funny. That they did is something which makes me suspicious of Albanians.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Eric Sykes was better writing for others. I never ever found Norman Wisdom funny. That they did is something which makes me suspicious of Albanians.
Is there a sitcom at the moment that is all the talk of the water cooler (or rather zoom call?
90s was Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, Father Ted, 2000s Phoenix's Nights / the Office, then Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Inbetweeners ...
pretty much everybody knew the catchphrases, what is there at the moment that everybody watches?
Ted Lasso seems to be quite popular, but seems very very lame. I can't think of a British one.
Not a sitcom but a sketch show: has anyone watched "I thin you should leave"? Not everybody's cup of tea. But I laughed until it hurt at some bits of it.
Insanely peurile. Hit and miss, but shriekingly hilarious in parts.
That poll also shows the Tories losing their majority but with 319 seats they could stay in power if they could persuade the 8 DUP MPs and their leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to back them.
So at the moment polls are consistently showing a hung parliament, only question being whether it is the SNP or the DUP again who are kingmakers, Boris and Starmer would both be reliant on Sturgeon and Blackford or Donaldson to get any legislation through
Bit silly to talk about ramifications of hung parliament HY. These are disastrous polls for Labour. In mid term, in the week of the biggest tax take budget in peace time, Labour can only by a fraction drag Tories below 40%?
Ignore the gap between parties. Ignore what the seat engines saying - there’s a huge polling story here based around the Tories comfortably in or barely out the forties and the reason why.
Let’s deal in facts. No matter what is thrown at this government, greatest military surrender in peacetime, greatest tax take in peacetime, running away from Covid enquiry etc, this government has an iron floor in its polling numbers and Labour a glass ceiling.
I propose the reason for this is disaster for Labour is Red brexiteers, swallowed whole by Boris as he swallowed all UKIP vote, are just not unwinding back to Labour. Whether it’s politics, or political betting that Red Brex bloc happy to tell the world they are Tory voters now is a huge thing, they are not even saying don’t no at this stage.
Just fed the data into my model and it's saying we're about 7-10 days away from the hospitalisation funnel turning negative again (as in more people leaving hospital than entering) which would be a huge win in the run up to autumn and winter to clear COVID patients out of hospitals.
Medium term prediction of the inpatient number is 3.5k at the end of October for England.
Remember Sir Keir’s warning #johnsonvariant
Those are one set of unflattering photographs. Blimey. I think it was Len Deighton who described one of his characters as having an out of focus face. I now know what it means.
And the words are worse!
He’d still have us under restrictions, and be claiming the dip in cases now was a result of his actions
‘Harvey Elliott has absolved Pascal Struijk of any blame for the challenge that left him with a dislocated ankle, describing it as a “freak accident” that did not warrant a red card.
Andrew Neil: It’s official: I have resigned as Chairman and Lead Presenter of GB News.
Exciting times. Free of this epitome of conformist deadwood at the top, could the channel now become the boisterous, freewheeling space for provincial populism that we have thus far lacked?
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
You will need a pick and shovel. I liked Norman Wisdom when I was a young boy , fond memories of my mother taking me to see his films as she was a fan.
I loved Norman Wisdom and his films
Loved "The Early Bird" where he was working as a milkman
Is there anything more pointless than people debating whether something is funny or not? Humour is so subjective – if you find something funny, great, if you don't, fine. That's it really.
Actually, it is quite revealing of the person. Humour is subjective but a person who finds slapstick clowning funny, or fart jokes, is interestingly different to a person who likes early Woody Allen. That might sounds like snobbery, but it is also true
I'd say the public here are more likely to be into slapstick clowning than early Woody Allen. Hence Brexit. And of course "Boris".
Boris can be genuinely funny, tho. He has an actual comic gift: with real comic timing
He knows exactly how and when to pause, and then deliver the line. Even if it is not particularly witty, he does it in a way which makes you smile
Of course people that hate him won't ever smile, but that's just political loathing, and not a judgement of his humour. He is funny - in a way that appeals to many, highbrow and lowbrow. It's a significant reason he is where he is
He does have a comic gift, I find him funny at times, but it's all rather mundane and it drips with condescension and entitlement. I'd worry about anybody who regularly creases up at his output. I'd assess such a person to be a complete wanker.
It isn't a particularly sophisticated comic gift.
Crashing through a polystyrene wall of bricks in a JCB might float some boats. At infant school age my youngest son found Dick and Dom shouting "bogies" at the top of their voices was hilarious. That is the sophistication level of Johnson's comedy.
It really isn't. Humour is about the confounding of expectations. If the way you confound expectations also confounds expectations, you're onto a winner. This is a rare insight into Boris's humour: https://reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/
If you instinctively loathe him, you're going to struggle to find him funny. But I don't.
David Nobbs' character Henry Pratt mused thus on the most successful comedians: it's those who present a false picture of themselves, but one which is close enough to be believable. This Boris does. Though how he does it so constantly, I don't know.
Doesn't mean to say I want him as Prime Minister, though he's firmly on the long, long list of people who would have made a far better prime minister than Jeremy Corbyn.
You are probably right in your implication about Johnson sceptics having no sense of humour.
I see the Vine story as typical of Johnson's laziness.
I find the HIGNFY performance cringe inducing.
As to your David Nobbs narrative that "those who present a false picture of themselves, but one which is close enough to be believable" doesn't sum up Johnson at all for me, unless you mean the Boris character he has created is some bizarre caricature of himself. To me, for comic effect Johnson has plagiarised Benny Hill's Fred Scuttle character, even down to the stupid salute. It is not original, and Hill was of a different era, and as far as I am concerned Hill was not even that funny in his heyday, so why would Johnson bother? Quoting Kipling in Malaysia was not funny it was crass ignorance. Neither was his letter boxes and crash helmets satire, it was xenophobic dog whistling.
Comedic genius ( which is an eye of the beholder thing) is not what I require of a Prime Minister. At least Mrs May and Mr Cameron displayed an appropriate decorum and respect for the office.
Does anyone remember Charlie Drake? He was the Michael McIntyre of the 1950s and early sixties. Without the wokeness of course. So he could have been the worst of all - had he known about it.
His son regularly posts on twitter and engages with people who are fans of vintage TV. Same with Chris Beeneys son and Sam Kydds son (who was also a good actor)
Eric Sykes, Norman Wisdom
Thanks Malcolm, I will have to keep an eye out for them.
You will need a pick and shovel. I liked Norman Wisdom when I was a young boy , fond memories of my mother taking me to see his films as she was a fan.
I loved Norman Wisdom and his films
Loved "The Early Bird" where he was working as a milkman
Norman Wisdom funny? Are you SeanT' 's Albanian cabbie?
Comments
Opinium is who got 2019 closest
How can Starmer's ratings fall when he has such an open goal
An interesting one, will be interesting to see if they are on the money at any GE
And music wise, I wonder is there any artist who is going to be this generations Beatles, Stones, ACDC, Metallica, U2? That fill out 100k stadiums with ease, for year after year after year after year. Last generation, in the UK, it was Oasis, who were a poor mans Beatles.
Maybe Ed Sheeran? Are adults still going to be listening to him in 30 years, let alone the kids? I don't know.
Don't forget that the majority of those in ICU are unvaccinated. Delta is busily infecting them, and for most, giving them pretty good immunity going forward. There is no reason for deaths to keep increasing as you project.
Overall its hard to tell given vax rates are based on population estimates but scotland as a whole is above the uk vax rates and the lowest Scottish local athoroty area is Aberdeenshire on 83% qst vaxxes which is wayyyyyyy above the worst performing areas in the rest of the UK.
The economy 44 - 29
Stands up for the UK 42 - 31
Works with foreign leaders 42 - 32
Knows how to get things done 41 - 27
Until Labour can impact those ratings they are not going to make much progress
And these are after the terrible week Boris and HMG has just had
That's how I read it.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have been told by Formula One’s managing director, Ross Brawn, to keep it clean on the track, or risk another accident with more serious consequences.
The two rivals collided at yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix, their second coming together of the season, with Verstappen’s Red Bull ending up on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes in the gravel at the side of the track. The seven-times world champion said his halo head protection device, which took the brunt of the impact, had saved his life.
Brawn described the title rivals as “two cockerels in the farmyard” and said he did not expect either man to back down in the fight for the drivers’ title, but he urged them to make sure the championship is won on the track through fair racing and not “in the barriers or the stewards room”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f1-boss-warns-fighting-cockerels-lewis-hamilton-and-max-verstappen-w6qxbn0pr
Despite having no tangible policies, Labour is tying some polls and drawing closer in others
90s was Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, Father Ted,
2000s Phoenix's Nights / the Office, then Gavin and Stacey, Peep Show, Inbetweeners ...
pretty much everybody knew the catchphrases, what is there at the moment that everybody watches?
Ted Lasso seems to be quite popular, but seems very very lame. I can't think of a British one.
Hahahahahaha
Britain may no longer have a powerful aristocracy, but it remains a country where what your parents do and earn matters more than your effort and ability
https://unherd.com/2021/09/of-course-posh-people-get-posh-jobs/
Labour should absolutely work on those numbers - but it doesn't really need to do much to take the lead and bear in mind it would match Blair 1997 if it got 43% and it isn't far off that now
That's how crazy this debate has got.
When all is said and done, only one poll really matters. Cliche, but true.
Edit grammar fail...
https://www.reddit.com/r/firstpage/comments/gcgw8/fear_and_loathing_in_las_vegas_hunter_s_thompson/
Edit Weird predictive text!
It's genuinely such a huge misstep and it speaks to Labour's core values to stand up to this but he's absolutely nowhere other than talking about a tax on landlords and a 14,000 word blank sheet of paper.
Where they should be 5-10 points ahead...
The Taliban ARE executing former Afghan army and government officials, says UN human rights chief as video shows 'Panjshiri men being bundled into car trunks in Kabul'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9985969/The-Taliban-carrying-reprisal-attacks-Afghanistan-told.html
The Tories would win most seats but Starmer would be a puppet PM, wholly dependent on the SNP to get anything through the Commons
One comedy I forgot - Ghosts. Been really good, and seems to be getting better as it goes on. No nastiness in it really. Even the ghost of the Tory mp, doomed to be forever with no trousers, is a fairly sympathetic character.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=Y&CON=39&LAB=35&LIB=9&Reform=5&Green=6&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVReform=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=23.6&SCOTLAB=19.2&SCOTLIB=6&SCOTReform=0.3&SCOTGreen=1.5&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=47.5&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2019base
So at the moment polls are consistently showing a hung parliament, only question being whether it is the SNP or the DUP again who are kingmakers, Boris and Starmer would both be reliant on Sturgeon and Blackford or Donaldson to get any legislation through
'Red faces in the Autumn, at Keir's warning?'
(And of course, if Labour were to win, somehow,
'Red faces on the right, at Keir's delight')
Maybe falsely a post Brexit effect? Though I wouldn't say Boris shined then during that period of diplomatic negotiations or was like a Bismarckian like statesman on the world stage.
Rough guess is adding a number between 5 and 10 to the Tory seats score and taking it off (mainly) Labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkhurst_Gang
https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1437455760628371460?s=20
Approve: 41% (–)
Disapprove: 28% (+3)
Net: +13% (-3)
Lowest net approval rating we have recorded for Sunak.
Changes +/- 6 Sept
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1437456259867979779?s=20
Yeah, life was pretty desperate in those days.
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1437456247415054340?s=20
Hit and miss, but shriekingly hilarious in parts.
We need a British equivalent.
Ignore the gap between parties. Ignore what the seat engines saying - there’s a huge polling story here based around the Tories comfortably in or barely out the forties and the reason why.
Let’s deal in facts. No matter what is thrown at this government, greatest military surrender in peacetime, greatest tax take in peacetime, running away from Covid enquiry etc, this government has an iron floor in its polling numbers and Labour a glass ceiling.
I propose the reason for this is disaster for Labour is Red brexiteers, swallowed whole by Boris as he swallowed all UKIP vote, are just not unwinding back to Labour. Whether it’s politics, or political betting that Red Brex bloc happy to tell the world they are Tory voters now is a huge thing, they are not even saying don’t no at this stage.
He’d still have us under restrictions, and be claiming the dip in cases now was a result of his actions
‘Harvey Elliott has absolved Pascal Struijk of any blame for the challenge that left him with a dislocated ankle, describing it as a “freak accident” that did not warrant a red card.
✍️@_pauljoyce’
https://twitter.com/timessport/status/1437449616916680713?s=21
NEW THREAD
i) the approval rating has held, and
ii) the disapprove increase is so modest.
One to watch no doubt - but so far it appears Boris may be bearing more of the blame (though flat in this poll) than Rishi.
However 34% of Labour voters prefer Sunak to 18% who prefer Boris and 57% of LDs also prefer Sunak.
So he seems to have turned off the Tory base
https://redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com/latest-gb-voting-intention-13-september-2021/
All Net Approval Ratings (13 Sept):
Rishi Sunak: +13% (-3)
Boris Johnson: -4% (–)
Keir Starmer: -18% (-8)
Changes +/- 6 Sept
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1437458704140488706?s=20
I'm going to a GIG
At Ronnie Scott's
I feel like a teen going to her first dance
i haven't been to a GIG for at least a year, maybe since 2019
*nervous*
I am only able to run every second day really, for fear of muscle strain. Feel free to pm me.
I see the Vine story as typical of Johnson's laziness.
I find the HIGNFY performance cringe inducing.
As to your David Nobbs narrative that "those who present a false picture of themselves, but one which is close enough to be believable" doesn't sum up Johnson at all for me, unless you mean the Boris character he has created is some bizarre caricature of himself. To me, for comic effect Johnson has plagiarised Benny Hill's Fred Scuttle character, even down to the stupid salute. It is not original, and Hill was of a different era, and as far as I am concerned Hill was not even that funny in his heyday, so why would Johnson bother? Quoting Kipling in Malaysia was not funny it was crass ignorance. Neither was his letter boxes and crash helmets satire, it was xenophobic dog whistling.
Comedic genius ( which is an eye of the beholder thing) is not what I require of a Prime Minister. At least Mrs May and Mr Cameron displayed an appropriate decorum and respect for the office.