Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Let’s face it. There are no Brexit benefits. It’s just a total crock of shite.
Virtually all political power has returned to our ancient democracy in Westminster, meaning we really can elect and eject those who govern us
THAT is the Brexit benefit. And it is the only one required
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
Not as much money at stake in rugby. And yes, more social penalty because rugby union is socially selected in a lot of countries.
Even in lower league football where the money is less, it is rife, the difference with Rugby is, as i remember when i started playing as a teenager, is you are taught right at the start that the referee is to be respected and not to argue with him, if you ever did, your team mates would immediately jump in, not to back you up but to put you back in your place and not affect the team through punishment.
It's a mentality which some sports teach and others don't, tennis is another example the way some player speak to the umpire and get away with it is appalling, and that culture just breeds it.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Can anybody explain how this arrangement is allowed....given the very strict rules about betting in football.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are missing nothing. Like I wrote - if the BBC gave equal coverage to the levels of mens football of quality higher than womenswear international football then absolutely fair enough but it’s not actually about the sport for them and the Guardian. It’s a mission to make equality out of something that is fundamentally unequal.
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
'rammed down peoples throats
ffs - if you don't want to watch it don't.
If you had actually read anything I wrote you would have understood that I don’t watch it but it’s annoying that it’s hyped over higher quality levels of the same sports because of some misguided idea that everything can be equal.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Can anybody explain how this arrangement is allowed....given the very strict rules about betting in football.
Brentwood FC and Brighton & Hove Albion are owned by two of the world's largest professional gamblers.
I presume that - to ensure there are no suggestions of impropriety - neither of them bets on matches involving their own team.
On the topic of superinjunctions can anyone explain to me why Trafigura were granted one over the issue of toxic waste?
As a more serious answer, no records were kept of the court proceeding and the judge has never apparently explained his reasoning. However this rather interesting article by an Australian lawyer posits that the logic was Minton's report was a court document and therefore sub judice until criminal proceedings could take place.
The logic appears very shaky to me, but I wasn't the judge.
Frankly, I think superinjunctions should be granted only for cases of blackmail, and end if there is not a guilty verdict against the blackmailer in a court of law. They strike me as being as dodgy as hell, especially given I don't trust many judges as far as I could throw them.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
Not as much money at stake in rugby. And yes, more social penalty because rugby union is socially selected in a lot of countries.
Though that applies to league too. Which isn't socially selected. Nor is South Wales.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
Although there was some gameswomanship in that Eng Spa game - inc from our side. One of them went down like she'd been shot with virtually no contact.
I'm not hugely sure it makes a big deal either way if the quality in women's football is crap compared to the men: they're not playing the men, they're playing each other. It's their own sport.
Does it match a men's Euros for atmosphere and excitement? No, not yet. But it's clearly growing, it's cheap for the Beeb, it being on the Beeb will grow it more quickly, which will pay off for the Beeb in the short to medium term anyway. It makes more sense to me for it to get the publicity it gets than, say, the totally soulless women's ODI cricket Sky show which take place in front of a crowd of literally tens, or the sub-F3 level W series that C4 (and now Sky) promoted heavily in the pretence that somehow the winner will immediately break the glass ceiling for women in F1.
Having said that although I agree the England Spain game was good, there hasn't been very many other games in the tournament anywhere close to that.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
Although there was some gameswomanship in that Eng Spa game - inc from our side. One of them went down like she'd been shot with virtually no contact.
I should have put *less terrible diving* to be fair. Agreed there was some, just alot less the the constant rolling on the floor as though both your legs have been snapped
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
So my eyes do not deceive me! Ta
A while ago Salford City Academy beat Manchester United Women 9-0.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
Not as much money at stake in rugby. And yes, more social penalty because rugby union is socially selected in a lot of countries.
Even in lower league football where the money is less, it is rife, the difference with Rugby is, as i remember when i started playing as a teenager, is you are taught right at the start that the referee is to be respected and not to argue with him, if you ever did, your team mates would immediately jump in, not to back you up but to put you back in your place and not affect the team through punishment.
It's a mentality which some sports teach and others don't, tennis is another example the way some player speak to the umpire and get away with it is appalling, and that culture just breeds it.
Indeed. I don't buy the class angle. Golf and snooker, which couldn't be more socially different, expect you to call fouls on yourself.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
That's 5.7p a kWH. Can I have some of that?
No, it's 20p a kWH, which isn't too far off the cap.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
That's 5.7p a kWH. Can I have some of that?
No, it's 20p a kWH, which isn't too far off the cap.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
Have you accounted for the standing charge?
They've become obscene. Mine has tripled overnight, and that's what's driving my fuel bills to ridiculous highs (although not that ridiculous).
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
This guy is cooking, heating the house, running a washing machine and a dishwasher and the hot water for baths and showers. Why the fuck try to translate that to cups of fucking tea? I have never seen a less helpful benchmarking exercise.
Even with all those things, does that really equate to using 10 kW all day and all night, 365 days a year?
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
Not as much money at stake in rugby. And yes, more social penalty because rugby union is socially selected in a lot of countries.
Even in lower league football where the money is less, it is rife, the difference with Rugby is, as i remember when i started playing as a teenager, is you are taught right at the start that the referee is to be respected and not to argue with him, if you ever did, your team mates would immediately jump in, not to back you up but to put you back in your place and not affect the team through punishment.
It's a mentality which some sports teach and others don't, tennis is another example the way some player speak to the umpire and get away with it is appalling, and that culture just breeds it.
Indeed. I don't buy the class angle. Golf and snooker, which couldn't be more socially different, expect you to call fouls on yourself.
I went to a golf rules lecture by a European PGA referee earlier this year.
He was saying some of the players were dreadful for how they treated the referees with the big 'don't you know who I am?' being used repeatedly.
Colin Montgomery being singled out for being a notable bad offender.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
There's also a social goal - it's important that girls have active participation in team sports and this is boosted by elite role models.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
That's 5.7p a kWH. Can I have some of that?
No, it's 20p a kWH, which isn't too far off the cap.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
Have you accounted for the standing charge?
They've become obscene. Mine has tripled overnight, and that's what's driving my fuel bills to ridiculous highs (although not that ridiculous).
The standing charge is absolutely minuscule if the bill is £17,400 a year.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
So my eyes do not deceive me! Ta
Are you asking the right question? Some on here do not like women's sport but how many do? Because realistically the commercial value of women's football or tennis is not how they would fare playing men but can they put bums on seats and eyeballs on adverts?
Hibs signing a player accidentally after playing him in a nothing game to then accidentally play him when he’s suspended to put them out the cup is fucking incredible patter https://twitter.com/_rosscoutts/status/1550091064614305793
If we're talking sports quality, I offer horse racing.
There are many more slow horses than fast ones - however, if you go to a bread and butter card on a midweek afternoon, there's a fair chance you'll see one of the world's top jockeys - William Buick, Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand or Hollie Doyle.
They ride fast horses but they also ride slow ones and thanks to the wonders of handicapping you can see all these top riders riding in a Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at a Brighton, Lingfield, Yarmouth or wherever and you can see them perform and conjure that little bit of improvement out of the slow horse. It's still slow but the quickest among the field of slow horses and a 5/1 winner pays the same in a Group 1 or a Class 6 maiden handicap.
There aren't many sports where the best in the business are performing day in, day out up and down the country from the top tracks to the small country tracks - I would also contend jockeys are among the fittest of all professional sportsmen and women.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
That's 5.7p a kWH. Can I have some of that?
No, it's 20p a kWH, which isn't too far off the cap.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
A specially heated room with very bright UV lamps? Though I understand the usual procedure is to bypass the meter or steal from a neighbour.
[Joking in this case, obvs, although there seems to be a plague of such goings on round here]
Out in the Dubai, his kid came back from school and said we got a new sports teacher, he says he used to play proper football or something. He wants to know if any of the dad's want to get a regular kickabout going.
My mate said sounds good, what's your teachers name...Mr Palmer. Doesn't ring any bells, thinks the new sports teacher is probably billy bullshitting to the kids to impress them.
So they get some of themselves, mostly in their 30s, and turn up and there is Mr Palmer, as in Mr Carlton Palmer.....the all legs and widely ridiculed Sheffield Wednesday (and England) midfielder, now in his I think well into his mid 40s.
Well the dad's were like he was shit when he was in your prime, this is going to be a laugh taking the piss out of him. An hour later apparently he just ran rings around them time and time and time again.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
So my eyes do not deceive me! Ta
Are you asking the right question? Some on here do not like women's sport but how many do? Because realistically the commercial value of women's football or tennis is not how they would fare playing men but can they put bums on seats and eyeballs on adverts?
I gave up watching football years ago after seeing every conceivable move and outcome many times over. But the women's game has brought a wholly new dimension to our screens: laugh-out-loud slapstick comedy.
If we're talking sports quality, I offer horse racing.
There are many more slow horses than fast ones - however, if you go to a bread and butter card on a midweek afternoon, there's a fair chance you'll see one of the world's top jockeys - William Buick, Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand or Hollie Doyle.
They ride fast horses but they also ride slow ones and thanks to the wonders of handicapping you can see all these top riders riding in a Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at a Brighton, Lingfield, Yarmouth or wherever and you can see them perform and conjure that little bit of improvement out of the slow horse. It's still slow but the quickest among the field of slow horses and a 5/1 winner pays the same in a Group 1 or a Class 6 maiden handicap.
There aren't many sports where the best in the business are performing day in, day out up and down the country from the top tracks to the small country tracks - I would also contend jockeys are among the fittest of all professional sportsmen and women.
Depends how you define fit. How much can they bench press?
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
So my eyes do not deceive me! Ta
A while ago Salford City Academy beat Manchester United Women 9-0.
The Academy kids were in their young teens.
Sounds right
International women's football reminds me of quite good schoolboy players, aged about 15
Very nice for savers and anyone with a long term fixed rate mortgage.
Not exactly ideal for borrowers on tracker rates or those with lots of credit card debt.
Equally, it's rather sobering to think that 7% would still be low by historic standards.
Currently arranging a 10 year fix on a loan to build an extension.
If they're offering anything under 5% interest for that period they're fools, but you will be quids in.
Just over 3 %. Happy with it tbh.
The massively ageing, property owning, large savings, SE based Tory membership have no problem with 7% interest rates as long as the tons of extra cash they earn doesn't get hit by IHT when they want to pass it on.
Well quite. It seems logical to assume that slashing taxes and plugging the gaps in spending with extra borrowing will be (a) inflationary (result of all the extra money sloshing around) and (b) deeply damaging to the Treasury's reputation with the money markets. The likely remedy to tame inflation and stall a run on the pound is a very large hike in interest rates.
Of course, with high interest rates comes an enormous hike in the debt servicing costs of the state, and business, and individuals - especially mortgage payers. Negative equity, probably a significant house price correction, failing businesses, distressed banks, a great deal of belt tightening, everyone getting poorer. At the end of which we get another wave of austerity: all those tax rises and spending cuts that the demented elderly fantasists who are about to elect Truss believed she could magically wish away, because the tax base has collapsed and the markets will no longer buy gilts at an affordable yield.
Apart from that the next Government will be a fantastic success.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Can anybody explain how this arrangement is allowed....given the very strict rules about betting in football.
Brentwood FC and Brighton & Hove Albion are owned by two of the world's largest professional gamblers.
I presume that - to ensure there are no suggestions of impropriety - neither of them bets on matches involving their own team.
I think you mean Brentford ;-)
I was under the impression that Matthew Benham didn't gamble anymore (at least not the big leagues).
My point being that footballers, managers etc aren't allow to bet full stop, period, on any footballing activities, not just their own team. I am interested how that doesn't apply to an owner, whose isn't just having a cheeky £5 on a game not involving his team, he has billions wagered every season on games.
I've done some numbers on my gym man's energy quote anecdote. Sure, the figure he quoted me looks VERY high. But I don't think he's necessarily mistaken.
A few factors could be in play:
- He's probably running a very energy inefficient home and/or family. - He might be all-electric, I need to ask next time I see him - lots of the villages round here don't have mains gas. - The current capped rates are about 7.4p per kWh for gas and 28.34p per kWh for electricity. (I'm ignoring standing charges). - Martin Lewis thinks these are going up by 65% in October. - Any company offering a 2 or 3 year fix might want to factor in a further similar rise(?) - 2 x 65% rises on the current electricity rate would mean £1,450 pm (£17,400 pa) covers about 23,000 kWh (this assumes the guy's house is electric-only). - 23,000 kWh combined energy use is a lot but not out of kilter with a 'High" energy use home according to UK Power https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/average-household-gas-and-electricity-usage
I suspect the guy has genuinely been quoted that as a fix. He's not taking of course.
Well quite. It seems logical to assume that slashing taxes and plugging the gaps in spending with extra borrowing will be (a) inflationary (result of all the extra money sloshing around) and (b) deeply damaging to the Treasury's reputation with the money markets. The likely remedy to tame inflation and stall a run on the pound is a very large hike in interest rates.
Of course, with high interest rates comes an enormous hike in the debt servicing costs of the state, and business, and individuals - especially mortgage payers. Negative equity, probably a significant house price correction, failing businesses, distressed banks, a great deal of belt tightening, everyone getting poorer. At the end of which we get another wave of austerity: all those tax rises and spending cuts that the demented elderly fantasists who are about to elect Truss believed she could magically wish away, because the tax base has collapsed and the markets will no longer buy gilts at an affordable yield.
Apart from that the next Government will be a fantastic success.
Of course the cynic in me says it is entirely possible that Truss will say whatever is required to get elected by the membership and then just ignore it all and deny she ever said any such thing.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
So my eyes do not deceive me! Ta
A while ago Salford City Academy beat Manchester United Women 9-0.
The Academy kids were in their young teens.
Sounds right
International women's football reminds me of quite good schoolboy players, aged about 15
Yeh, but it does involve young women aged 20-27 though?
If we're talking sports quality, I offer horse racing.
There are many more slow horses than fast ones - however, if you go to a bread and butter card on a midweek afternoon, there's a fair chance you'll see one of the world's top jockeys - William Buick, Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand or Hollie Doyle.
They ride fast horses but they also ride slow ones and thanks to the wonders of handicapping you can see all these top riders riding in a Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at a Brighton, Lingfield, Yarmouth or wherever and you can see them perform and conjure that little bit of improvement out of the slow horse. It's still slow but the quickest among the field of slow horses and a 5/1 winner pays the same in a Group 1 or a Class 6 maiden handicap.
There aren't many sports where the best in the business are performing day in, day out up and down the country from the top tracks to the small country tracks - I would also contend jockeys are among the fittest of all professional sportsmen and women.
Depends how you define fit. How much can they bench press?
As a proportion of their actual body weight, I suspect many of them would do very well.
If we're talking sports quality, I offer horse racing.
There are many more slow horses than fast ones - however, if you go to a bread and butter card on a midweek afternoon, there's a fair chance you'll see one of the world's top jockeys - William Buick, Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand or Hollie Doyle.
They ride fast horses but they also ride slow ones and thanks to the wonders of handicapping you can see all these top riders riding in a Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at a Brighton, Lingfield, Yarmouth or wherever and you can see them perform and conjure that little bit of improvement out of the slow horse. It's still slow but the quickest among the field of slow horses and a 5/1 winner pays the same in a Group 1 or a Class 6 maiden handicap.
There aren't many sports where the best in the business are performing day in, day out up and down the country from the top tracks to the small country tracks - I would also contend jockeys are among the fittest of all professional sportsmen and women.
Also a sport where women - on equal terms - are now making it to the top. Dam broken.
Watching BBC4: didn't know The Eagles were a folk group in 1973.
Eh? I have recorded it so not watched it yet. They were basically Linda Ronstadt's touring band before flying solo. Not sure if that counts as folk or country-folk or rock?
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
That's 5.7p a kWH. Can I have some of that?
No, it's 20p a kWH, which isn't too far off the cap.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
Well quite. It seems logical to assume that slashing taxes and plugging the gaps in spending with extra borrowing will be (a) inflationary (result of all the extra money sloshing around) and (b) deeply damaging to the Treasury's reputation with the money markets. The likely remedy to tame inflation and stall a run on the pound is a very large hike in interest rates.
Of course, with high interest rates comes an enormous hike in the debt servicing costs of the state, and business, and individuals - especially mortgage payers. Negative equity, probably a significant house price correction, failing businesses, distressed banks, a great deal of belt tightening, everyone getting poorer. At the end of which we get another wave of austerity: all those tax rises and spending cuts that the demented elderly fantasists who are about to elect Truss believed she could magically wish away, because the tax base has collapsed and the markets will no longer buy gilts at an affordable yield.
Apart from that the next Government will be a fantastic success.
Of course the cynic in me says it is entirely possible that Truss will say whatever is required to get elected by the membership and then just ignore it all and deny she ever said any such thing.
This is the age we live in.
That is a reasonable point. I'm making the basic mistake of assuming that anything that any politician ever says can be trusted. Up until they back the talk up with action, the default response should be to assume that their remarks are all flat lies told for effect.
Now, does Truss mean what she says, or is she going to pursue current policy with cosmetic changes, or is she going to fund her tax cuts with equally large spending cuts?
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
Out in the Dubai, his kid came back from school and said we got a new sports teacher, he says he used to play proper football or something. He wants to know if any of the dad's want to get a regular kickabout going.
My mate said sounds good, what's your teachers name...Mr Palmer. Doesn't ring any bells, thinks the new sports teacher is probably billy bullshitting to the kids to impress them.
So they get some of themselves, mostly in their 30s, and turn up and there is Mr Palmer, as in Mr Carlton Palmer.....the all legs and widely ridiculed Sheffield Wednesday (and England) midfielder, now in his I think well into his mid 40s.
Well the dad's were like he was shit when he was in your prime, this is going to be a laugh taking the piss out of him. An hour later apparently he just ran rings around them time and time and time again.
Yeah. Used to watch the Ken Gee Cup. An amateur charity RL tournament in Wigan. Each side could have 2 guest pros (often retired). Saw former GB scrum half Andy Gregory play. Mid 40's with a serious alcohol problem. And a belly to match. He agreed not to break into a trot just to make it fair. Head and shoulders the best on the field. By a country mile. And these were some of the best amateur teams in the country.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are missing nothing. Like I wrote - if the BBC gave equal coverage to the levels of mens football of quality higher than womenswear international football then absolutely fair enough but it’s not actually about the sport for them and the Guardian. It’s a mission to make equality out of something that is fundamentally unequal.
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
There's more sport than any one person can watch, so I don't think it's a big deal to watch what you enjoy and leave the rest.
I've come to appreciate that the sport I like most is first-class cricket. So I'd rather watch a County Championship match, or a Women's Test Match, than to watch T20, or an ODI, or soccer or rugby. I know the standard in the women's Tests isn't as good as the Men's, and the County Championship isn't as good as Test cricket either, but I still find it more interesting than almost all other sport.
Of course, I will still enjoy watching an Ireland v England rugby union match with my mother-in-law, or a soccer World Cup, European Championships, and I saw some of the Champions League final this year. I even watched my first hurling match last summer. But first-class cricket, including the women, is the sport for me.
I'd imagine that if someone only really enjoyed golf, to the exclusion of most other sports, then they'd probably be more interested in women's golf than other male sports, even if they didn't think female golfers were as good as male golfers. But if you are roughly evenly interested in nearly a dozen sports then it makes sense you'd almost only be interested in the male versions. You'd not have much time for anything else.
Tennis and Athletics are interesting, because they're probably the sports that have been contested by men and women with a similar level of prominence for the longest. Give women's soccer a couple of decades of increased intensity of competition, and I'd expect it to close the gap in quality. But you probably won't watch it that much unless soccer is your main sport.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
39 days?!
In 40 days Mrs P and I supposed to be driving down to Italy for a week at Lake Como. I'll be very pissed off if that gets disrupted by an alien annihilation event.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Can anybody explain how this arrangement is allowed....given the very strict rules about betting in football.
Brentwood FC and Brighton & Hove Albion are owned by two of the world's largest professional gamblers.
I presume that - to ensure there are no suggestions of impropriety - neither of them bets on matches involving their own team.
I think you mean Brentford ;-)
I was under the impression that Matthew Benham didn't gamble anymore (at least not the big leagues).
My point being that footballers, managers etc aren't allow to bet full stop, period, on any footballing activities, not just their own team. I am interested how that doesn't apply to an owner, whose isn't just having a cheeky £5 on a game not involving his team, he has billions wagered every season on games.
The FA have no ability to sanction owners betting.
I've done some numbers on my gym man's energy quote anecdote. Sure, the figure he quoted me looks VERY high. But I don't think he's necessarily mistaken.
A few factors could be in play:
- He's probably running a very energy inefficient home and/or family. - He might be all-electric, I need to ask next time I see him - lots of the villages round here don't have mains gas. - The current capped rates are about 7.4p per kWh for gas and 28.34p per kWh for electricity. (I'm ignoring standing charges). - Martin Lewis thinks these are going up by 65% in October. - Any company offering a 2 or 3 year fix might want to factor in a further similar rise(?) - 2 x 65% rises on the current electricity rate would mean £1,450 pm (£17,400 pa) covers about 23,000 kWh (this assumes the guy's house is electric-only). - 23,000 kWh combined energy use is a lot but not out of kilter with a 'High" energy use home according to UK Power https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/average-household-gas-and-electricity-usage
I suspect the guy has genuinely been quoted that as a fix. He's not taking of course.
That's 30 mins of my life I'm not getting back.
£17,400 pa for 23,000 kWh suggests a rate of 75p/kWh. About 3-4 times the cap. Whoever gave him the quote was having a laugh.
I've done some numbers on my gym man's energy quote anecdote. Sure, the figure he quoted me looks VERY high. But I don't think he's necessarily mistaken.
A few factors could be in play:
- He's probably running a very energy inefficient home and/or family. - He might be all-electric, I need to ask next time I see him - lots of the villages round here don't have mains gas. - The current capped rates are about 7.4p per kWh for gas and 28.34p per kWh for electricity. (I'm ignoring standing charges). - Martin Lewis thinks these are going up by 65% in October. - Any company offering a 2 or 3 year fix might want to factor in a further similar rise(?) - 2 x 65% rises on the current electricity rate would mean £1,450 pm (£17,400 pa) covers about 23,000 kWh (this assumes the guy's house is electric-only). - 23,000 kWh combined energy use is a lot but not out of kilter with a 'High" energy use home according to UK Power https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/average-household-gas-and-electricity-usage
I suspect the guy has genuinely been quoted that as a fix. He's not taking of course.
That's 30 mins of my life I'm not getting back.
£17,400 pa for 23,000 kWh suggests a rate of 75p/kWh. About 3-4 times the cap. Whoever gave him the quote was having a laugh.
It's less than 3 times the electricity cap but yeah they are taking the piss.
It's still going to hurt just about everybody VERY badly this year though unless the government intervenes. Which they might as well do because they'll have to pick up the pieces anyway.
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
I love the fact that you are jesting but the amount of fun or relationships I’ve had and also known with others that have started with a joke, it is funny because we are so different it would never happen, nobody would ever put them together…..
It gives me hope that PB’s greatest legal mind (take that TSE) and PB’s greatest legal reprobate are seriously going to get married.
It’s like those detective programmes where the serious female detective, Lucifer, The Mentalist, Castle ends with them getting together with the louche douche (with love calling you a douche, Leon).
You are a flirt Cyclefree but you are playing a great game - hope you two make it work.
Watching BBC4: didn't know The Eagles were a folk group in 1973.
Eh? I have recorded it so not watched it yet. They were basically Linda Ronstadt's touring band before flying solo. Not sure if that counts as folk or country-folk or rock?
Didn't sound like rock to me but I'm not an expert.
To be honest I've never been too keen on the 'we can never raise interest rates because then the economy will crash due to debt servicing. With the assumption that rates will stay low people stay on the debt treadmill meaning we can never dare to raise interest rates.
My own amateurish theory is that if we needed loose monetary policy maybe we should have tried more QE combined with interest rate rises perhaps targeted at debt levels. I'm sure RCS or someone else will tell me that wasn't feasible.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are missing nothing. Like I wrote - if the BBC gave equal coverage to the levels of mens football of quality higher than womenswear international football then absolutely fair enough but it’s not actually about the sport for them and the Guardian. It’s a mission to make equality out of something that is fundamentally unequal.
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
There's more sport than any one person can watch, so I don't think it's a big deal to watch what you enjoy and leave the rest.
I've come to appreciate that the sport I like most is first-class cricket. So I'd rather watch a County Championship match, or a Women's Test Match, than to watch T20, or an ODI, or soccer or rugby. I know the standard in the women's Tests isn't as good as the Men's, and the County Championship isn't as good as Test cricket either, but I still find it more interesting than almost all other sport.
Of course, I will still enjoy watching an Ireland v England rugby union match with my mother-in-law, or a soccer World Cup, European Championships, and I saw some of the Champions League final this year. I even watched my first hurling match last summer. But first-class cricket, including the women, is the sport for me.
I'd imagine that if someone only really enjoyed golf, to the exclusion of most other sports, then they'd probably be more interested in women's golf than other male sports, even if they didn't think female golfers were as good as male golfers. But if you are roughly evenly interested in nearly a dozen sports then it makes sense you'd almost only be interested in the male versions. You'd not have much time for anything else.
Tennis and Athletics are interesting, because they're probably the sports that have been contested by men and women with a similar level of prominence for the longest. Give women's soccer a couple of decades of increased intensity of competition, and I'd expect it to close the gap in quality. But you probably won't watch it that much unless soccer is your main sport.
This is a really good analysis. I'm certainly in the "follows lots of sports" category and about the only time I prioritise watching women's sport over men's is at the Olympics - when I'm usually watching sports I don't usually watch anyway - and at the tennis grand slams if there's a player I care about.
And the ironic thing is, in my university days I was a massive supporter and promoter of the women's sports teams. But perhaps that was organic and without any pressure of "you should care about this" from the Great and Good.
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
39 days?!
In 40 days Mrs P and I supposed to be driving down to Italy for a week at Lake Como. I'll be very pissed off if that gets disrupted by an alien annihilation event.
The way things are going, it might save you from a few days in Kent
Sunak is right to claim credit here. He demanded the open Cabinet meeting - where ministers were then able to discover paucity of Whitty’s evidence. Frost’s resignation meant Johnson too weak to ram anything through.
Yes, Truss spoke up over tax rises. But she was silent over lockdown, which imposed far greater damage. Only Sunak went against the grain.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
So, just like cricket, then .....
** ... waits for inevitable harrumphing from all corners of PB World ....**
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Can anybody explain how this arrangement is allowed....given the very strict rules about betting in football.
Brentwood FC and Brighton & Hove Albion are owned by two of the world's largest professional gamblers.
I presume that - to ensure there are no suggestions of impropriety - neither of them bets on matches involving their own team.
I think you mean Brentford ;-)
I was under the impression that Matthew Benham didn't gamble anymore (at least not the big leagues).
My point being that footballers, managers etc aren't allow to bet full stop, period, on any footballing activities, not just their own team. I am interested how that doesn't apply to an owner, whose isn't just having a cheeky £5 on a game not involving his team, he has billions wagered every season on games.
The FA have no ability to sanction owners betting.
Otherwise Tony Bloom would never have been allowed to own Brighton &HA.
The Express has a new Comres showing 44 Lab 33 Con and Truss ahead of Starmer 38 37 as preferred PM, Sunak is 4 points behind Starmer. Thats all it says in the text but its +3 Tory +1 Lab from the poll earlier this week
"Boris Johnson privately believes he will be back in office next year, despite announcing his resignation after MPs rose up against his leadership two weeks ago.
Tim Montgomerie, a former aide to Mr Johnson who has since been critical of him, said he had been told by sources close to the Prime Minister that he was convinced he would be back."
Telegraph
Now we see why he is pushing Truss campaign so much and Dacre and co are lining up.
It is 4-d chess stuff to get him back to Chequers by end of next summer.
Bonkers? Who knows. This is the 2020s. To be back the MPs would have to dump Truss and then put Johnson through to the membership and also he would still have to be an MP i.e not lost a recall election.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
So, just like cricket, then .....
** ... waits for inevitable harrumphing from all corners of PB World ....**
I like your flowers not because you feel that I should, but because I do. I would like to be able to explain to you why I like cricket so much, but if I can't I'm sure the failure is mine rather than yours.
I thank you for your indulgence in scrolling past my comments on the subject.
The Express has a new Comres showing 44 Lab 33 Con and Truss ahead 38 37 as preferred PM, Sunak is 4 points behind Starmer. Thats all it says in the text but its +3 Tory +1 Lab from the poll earlier this week
'Figures in the polls showed Ms Truss was preferred by 38 percent of voters compared with 37 percent for Sir Keir Starmer as a potential prime minister. The wafer-thin gap is so narrow it means the pair are effectively level pegging as candidates for Downing Street.
Mr Sunak was only preferred by 36 percent of voters in the survey compared with 40 percent for the Labour leader.'
The Express has a new Comres showing 44 Lab 33 Con and Truss ahead 38 37 as preferred PM, Sunak is 4 points behind Starmer. Thats all it says in the text but its +3 Tory +1 Lab from the poll earlier this week
The Express has a new Comres showing 44 Lab 33 Con and Truss ahead 38 37 as preferred PM, Sunak is 4 points behind Starmer. Thats all it says in the text but its +3 Tory +1 Lab from the poll earlier this week
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Let’s face it. There are no Brexit benefits. It’s just a total crock of shite.
Virtually all political power has returned to our ancient democracy in Westminster, meaning we really can elect and eject those who govern us
THAT is the Brexit benefit. And it is the only one required
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
So, just like cricket, then .....
** ... waits for inevitable harrumphing from all corners of PB World ....**
I like your flowers not because you feel that I should, but because I do. I would like to be able to explain to you why I like cricket so much, but if I can't I'm sure the failure is mine rather than yours.
I thank you for your indulgence in scrolling past my comments on the subject.
I tried to get into it once, believe me. I did try. It was 1981. I was in hospital all summer, bedridden and very very ill. A small black and white TV had been wheeled in so that I could watch something other than the flies on the window blinds. There was some famous cricket going on with Ian Botham doing wonderful things and, even, after weeks of watching and explaining by commentators, I still could not make head or tails of it. Every other sport I can sense the excitement & can on occasion enjoy - but cricket just leaves me .... meh. Still it was better than endless reruns of the Royal bloody Wedding and watching Diana get married in a crumpled dress and with a haircut normally seen on someone behind the cheese counter in a provincial supermarket.
That’s a high percentage for Labour, 45 is the highest I’ve seen?
45 with Survation recently, redfield had 44 yesterday. ComRes has had Labour solidly in the low 40s throughout, LDs getting squeezed at the moment in VI
That’s a high percentage for Labour, 45 is the highest I’ve seen?
45 with Survation recently, redfield had 44 yesterday. ComRes has had Labour solidly in the low 40s throughout, LDs getting squeezed at the moment in VI
So Truss has a chance of closing the gap although no evidence yet she will produce a Tory lead.
That’s a high percentage for Labour, 45 is the highest I’ve seen?
45 with Survation recently, redfield had 44 yesterday. ComRes has had Labour solidly in the low 40s throughout, LDs getting squeezed at the moment in VI
So Truss has a chance of closing the gap although no evidence yet she will produce a Tory lead.
No evidence yet but 'pre evidence' of a new leader bounce is emerging, all the pollsters have had the Tory figure recovering to pre chaos levels (yougov still to come, their last one still had a sub 30 score). Labour have also ticked up a little in reaction to that. The interesting thing in the short term whilst we await new PM is does this recovery continue and take the Tory figure to the mid 30s with the odd 36 or 37 or stall out at the 32, 33 level........ and does Truss or Sunak get a more solid lead as best PM or is this a flash in the pan
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
So, just like cricket, then .....
** ... waits for inevitable harrumphing from all corners of PB World ....**
The Express has a new Comres showing 44 Lab 33 Con and Truss ahead of Starmer 38 37 as preferred PM, Sunak is 4 points behind Starmer. Thats all it says in the text but its +3 Tory +1 Lab from the poll earlier this week
David Aaronovitch @DAaronovitch · 1h At a purely personal level I could never vote for any party or individual that endorsed the shameful Rwanda deportation policy. Or even have any respect for anyone who did.
The ability to swap a postal vote for your more recent online vote in leader vote could be absolutely crucial if some black swan at a hustings changes the whole dynamic in mid- August?
In any case we’ll know soon who’ll be the next PM. If, by the second week of August, Truss still has a clear lead in member polling then I think she is likely to end up winning. But if Sunak has caught up or is within a few points by then I think he will. And that’s where my money is at the moment, his odds seem significantly more attractive than hers.
Comments
It's a mentality which some sports teach and others don't, tennis is another example the way some player speak to the umpire and get away with it is appalling, and that culture just breeds it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62266982
Beverley Town sign former Serie A star.
ffs
tres stupid
I presume that - to ensure there are no suggestions of impropriety - neither of them bets on matches involving their own team.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CommsLawB/2009/30.pdf
The logic appears very shaky to me, but I wasn't the judge.
Frankly, I think superinjunctions should be granted only for cases of blackmail, and end if there is not a guilty verdict against the blackmailer in a court of law. They strike me as being as dodgy as hell, especially given I don't trust many judges as far as I could throw them.
https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1550581411744288772
Not exactly ideal for borrowers on tracker rates or those with lots of credit card debt.
Equally, it's rather sobering to think that 7% would still be low by historic standards.
Does it match a men's Euros for atmosphere and excitement? No, not yet. But it's clearly growing, it's cheap for the Beeb, it being on the Beeb will grow it more quickly, which will pay off for the Beeb in the short to medium term anyway. It makes more sense to me for it to get the publicity it gets than, say, the totally soulless women's ODI cricket Sky show which take place in front of a crowd of literally tens, or the sub-F3 level W series that C4 (and now Sky) promoted heavily in the pretence that somehow the winner will immediately break the glass ceiling for women in F1.
Having said that although I agree the England Spain game was good, there hasn't been very many other games in the tournament anywhere close to that.
The Academy kids were in their young teens.
Golf and snooker, which couldn't be more socially different, expect you to call fouls on yourself.
The question remains. What on earth is he doing to justify a bill or estimate that large.
They've become obscene. Mine has tripled overnight, and that's what's driving my fuel bills to ridiculous highs (although not that ridiculous).
He was saying some of the players were dreadful for how they treated the referees with the big 'don't you know who I am?' being used repeatedly.
Colin Montgomery being singled out for being a notable bad offender.
In this case, the key words are "up to".
Hibs signing a player accidentally after playing him in a nothing game to then accidentally play him when he’s suspended to put them out the cup is fucking incredible patter
https://twitter.com/_rosscoutts/status/1550091064614305793
If we're talking sports quality, I offer horse racing.
There are many more slow horses than fast ones - however, if you go to a bread and butter card on a midweek afternoon, there's a fair chance you'll see one of the world's top jockeys - William Buick, Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand or Hollie Doyle.
They ride fast horses but they also ride slow ones and thanks to the wonders of handicapping you can see all these top riders riding in a Class 5 or Class 6 handicap at a Brighton, Lingfield, Yarmouth or wherever and you can see them perform and conjure that little bit of improvement out of the slow horse. It's still slow but the quickest among the field of slow horses and a 5/1 winner pays the same in a Group 1 or a Class 6 maiden handicap.
There aren't many sports where the best in the business are performing day in, day out up and down the country from the top tracks to the small country tracks - I would also contend jockeys are among the fittest of all professional sportsmen and women.
[Joking in this case, obvs, although there seems to be a plague of such goings on round here]
Out in the Dubai, his kid came back from school and said we got a new sports teacher, he says he used to play proper football or something. He wants to know if any of the dad's want to get a regular kickabout going.
My mate said sounds good, what's your teachers name...Mr Palmer. Doesn't ring any bells, thinks the new sports teacher is probably billy bullshitting to the kids to impress them.
So they get some of themselves, mostly in their 30s, and turn up and there is Mr Palmer, as in Mr Carlton Palmer.....the all legs and widely ridiculed Sheffield Wednesday (and England) midfielder, now in his I think well into his mid 40s.
Well the dad's were like he was shit when he was in your prime, this is going to be a laugh taking the piss out of him. An hour later apparently he just ran rings around them time and time and time again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXNghJSedDc
How much can they bench press?
International women's football reminds me of quite good schoolboy players, aged about 15
Of course, with high interest rates comes an enormous hike in the debt servicing costs of the state, and business, and individuals - especially mortgage payers. Negative equity, probably a significant house price correction, failing businesses, distressed banks, a great deal of belt tightening, everyone getting poorer. At the end of which we get another wave of austerity: all those tax rises and spending cuts that the demented elderly fantasists who are about to elect Truss believed she could magically wish away, because the tax base has collapsed and the markets will no longer buy gilts at an affordable yield.
Apart from that the next Government will be a fantastic success.
I was under the impression that Matthew Benham didn't gamble anymore (at least not the big leagues).
My point being that footballers, managers etc aren't allow to bet full stop, period, on any footballing activities, not just their own team. I am interested how that doesn't apply to an owner, whose isn't just having a cheeky £5 on a game not involving his team, he has billions wagered every season on games.
A few factors could be in play:
- He's probably running a very energy inefficient home and/or family.
- He might be all-electric, I need to ask next time I see him - lots of the villages round here don't have mains gas.
- The current capped rates are about 7.4p per kWh for gas and 28.34p per kWh for electricity. (I'm ignoring standing charges).
- Martin Lewis thinks these are going up by 65% in October.
- Any company offering a 2 or 3 year fix might want to factor in a further similar rise(?)
- 2 x 65% rises on the current electricity rate would mean £1,450 pm (£17,400 pa) covers about 23,000 kWh (this assumes the guy's house is electric-only).
- 23,000 kWh combined energy use is a lot but not out of kilter with a 'High" energy use home according to UK Power https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/average-household-gas-and-electricity-usage
I suspect the guy has genuinely been quoted that as a fix. He's not taking of course.
That's 30 mins of my life I'm not getting back.
This is the age we live in.
Now, does Truss mean what she says, or is she going to pursue current policy with cosmetic changes, or is she going to fund her tax cuts with equally large spending cuts?
I must say that Omnium's post to @Leon "Have you ever considered calming down." and @Leon's response "NEVER!" is a classic I will treasure.
I see that alien life was being discussed yesterday evening and by 2:38 pm today @Leon was, bless him, speculating on what sex with them would be like. Then shortly after he announced that we would all be annihilated by our new overlords in 39 days.
So my question is: will I ever get the chance of some fun and games in the love nest he keeps promising me before those 39 days are up? Because, you know, going out with a bang, well, what a way to go.
Saw former GB scrum half Andy Gregory play. Mid 40's with a serious alcohol problem. And a belly to match. He agreed not to break into a trot just to make it fair.
Head and shoulders the best on the field. By a country mile.
And these were some of the best amateur teams in the country.
I've come to appreciate that the sport I like most is first-class cricket. So I'd rather watch a County Championship match, or a Women's Test Match, than to watch T20, or an ODI, or soccer or rugby. I know the standard in the women's Tests isn't as good as the Men's, and the County Championship isn't as good as Test cricket either, but I still find it more interesting than almost all other sport.
Of course, I will still enjoy watching an Ireland v England rugby union match with my mother-in-law, or a soccer World Cup, European Championships, and I saw some of the Champions League final this year. I even watched my first hurling match last summer. But first-class cricket, including the women, is the sport for me.
I'd imagine that if someone only really enjoyed golf, to the exclusion of most other sports, then they'd probably be more interested in women's golf than other male sports, even if they didn't think female golfers were as good as male golfers. But if you are roughly evenly interested in nearly a dozen sports then it makes sense you'd almost only be interested in the male versions. You'd not have much time for anything else.
Tennis and Athletics are interesting, because they're probably the sports that have been contested by men and women with a similar level of prominence for the longest. Give women's soccer a couple of decades of increased intensity of competition, and I'd expect it to close the gap in quality. But you probably won't watch it that much unless soccer is your main sport.
In 40 days Mrs P and I supposed to be driving down to Italy for a week at Lake Como. I'll be very pissed off if that gets disrupted by an alien annihilation event.
It's still going to hurt just about everybody VERY badly this year though unless the government intervenes. Which they might as well do because they'll have to pick up the pieces anyway.
I love the fact that you are jesting but the amount of fun or relationships I’ve had and also known with others that have started with a joke, it is funny because we are so different it would never happen, nobody would ever put them together…..
It gives me hope that PB’s greatest legal mind (take that TSE) and PB’s greatest legal reprobate are seriously going to get married.
It’s like those detective programmes where the serious female detective, Lucifer, The Mentalist, Castle ends with them getting together with the louche douche (with love calling you a douche, Leon).
You are a flirt Cyclefree but you are playing a great game - hope you two make it work.
My own amateurish theory is that if we needed loose monetary policy maybe we should have tried more QE combined with interest rate rises perhaps targeted at debt levels. I'm sure RCS or someone else will tell me that wasn't feasible.
And the ironic thing is, in my university days I was a massive supporter and promoter of the women's sports teams. But perhaps that was organic and without any pressure of "you should care about this" from the Great and Good.
Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson
Sunak is right to claim credit here. He demanded the open Cabinet meeting - where ministers were then able to discover paucity of Whitty’s evidence. Frost’s resignation meant Johnson too weak to ram anything through.
Yes, Truss spoke up over tax rises. But she was silent over lockdown, which imposed far greater damage. Only Sunak went against the grain.
** ... waits for inevitable harrumphing from all corners of PB World ....**
Tim Montgomerie, a former aide to Mr Johnson who has since been critical of him, said he had been told by sources close to the Prime Minister that he was convinced he would be back."
Telegraph
Now we see why he is pushing Truss campaign so much and Dacre and co are lining up.
It is 4-d chess stuff to get him back to Chequers by end of next summer.
Bonkers? Who knows. This is the 2020s. To be back the MPs would have to dump Truss and then put Johnson through to the membership and also he would still have to be an MP i.e not lost a recall election.
I thank you for your indulgence in scrolling past my comments on the subject.
'Figures in the polls showed Ms Truss was preferred by 38 percent of voters compared with 37 percent for Sir Keir Starmer as a potential prime minister. The wafer-thin gap is so narrow it means the pair are effectively level pegging as candidates for Downing Street.
Mr Sunak was only preferred by 36 percent of voters in the survey compared with 40 percent for the Labour leader.'
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1644629/liz-truss-rishi-sunak-poll-tory-leadership-labour-keir-starmer
https://twitter.com/SavantaComRes/status/1550601581426446336
Cooling night-time rain now.
Though Truss leads by 43% to 42% amongst 2019 Conservative voters and by 46% to 44% amongst current Conservative supporters
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1550581164766797826?s=20&t=jFjwJdxkN5LuVAdeVbgrSA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
Last time they were on 46% was 5–6 Jul 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election#2017
@DAaronovitch
·
1h
At a purely personal level I could never vote for any party or individual that endorsed the shameful Rwanda deportation policy. Or even have any respect for anyone who did.
https://samf.substack.com/p/sunak-vs-truss?r=72szy&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=direct
===
I topped up earlier. Sunak is the value bet at moment.