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Hopefully, we’ll see some Lineker polling this weekend – politicalbetting.com

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  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    Anyone in need of a chillax, Dusty at the BBC Vol 2 is on BBC2.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,046

    Do they still have photos of Sandra from Largs on cans of Tennants? Fantastic marketing as the contents were undrinkable.

    I follow one of the Tennants girls on Twitter.

    In Pennsylvania, where alcohol is state controlled, you can buy Tennants as a fancy bottled import.
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,173
    edited March 2023

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668
    Scott_xP said:

    I thought this was a BBC/Lineker joke, but apparently not...

    @MetroUK

    Prince Andrew is reportedly considering giving a new tell-all television interview to win back public support.

    Because the last one went so well.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    edited March 2023

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Perhaps, same day as an Old Firm derby, to save on transport costs, given the nature of the support? Very green. Edit: and orange too.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,046
    Hey @TSE, a new image of the final result at Twickenham has emerged...


  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,472
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Slightly surprised it's being taken that seriously by anyone. It's a monastic cesspit lid from local stone as shown by petrological work, not the Lia Fail of mediaeval desciption.
    It is going to be a big big centrepiece of the new Perth City Museum. Not sure how they're going to gussy it up to seem exciting - it is as you say a piece of rock.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,046
    YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons have a favourable view of Gary Lineker by 50% to 30%

    All Britons: 50% favourable / 30% unfavourable
    Con voters: 32% / 56%
    Lab voters: 72% / 11%
  • Options
    Scott_xP said:

    Hey @TSE, a new image of the final result at Twickenham has emerged...


    @rcs1000

    Scott's been slagging off Radiohead again.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,046
    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Slightly surprised it's being taken that seriously by anyone. It's a monastic cesspit lid from local stone as shown by petrological work, not the Lia Fail of mediaeval desciption.
    It is going to be a big big centrepiece of the new Perth City Museum. Not sure how they're going to gussy it up to seem exciting - it is as you say a piece of rock.
    Oh, it is a lot better than the average coronation tat as a reminder of the priorities of any sane government.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 33,046
    The polling might go some way to explaining this...

    @BethRigby

    Listening to Tim Davie on @BBCNews, clearly offering the olive branch to @GaryLineker having taken him off air y’day: “I’m listening hard, this has been a tough time for the BBC…We want the right outcome, I would like to see Gary Lineker return on air on the BBC”
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030
    edited March 2023
    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
    Tough. They are a minority.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236

    @Mexicanpete

    It's your call, but personally I'd be sorry to see you go.

    Peter, I am worried I might have become Leon having made it all about me. I am not planning on going anywhere, although having my family dubbed surrender monkeys by HY and being called a twat by Casino has been novel, but thanks for the wishes. You are always a serious, considered and considerate poster very worthy of a read.
  • Options
    darkagedarkage Posts: 4,797

    HYUFD said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak.
    The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.

    Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate

    Why not address the issues in a mature manner
    The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
    You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
    I welcome all the above.

    I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.

    And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
    Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.

    I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.

    Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.

    I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
    The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.

    But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.

    Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
    They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
    They should be but they don't seem interested.

    The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
    It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.

    Remember how much crap Cameron went through, for keeping Andy Coulson? That was because he was invaluable to the PM, as the voice of the working classes.

    The Tories could actually still win the next election, if they can appeal to that particular demographic. Johnson could do it by himself, Rishi Rich can’t.
    Hence why he made Lee Anderson the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party
    Up to a point.

    Anderson speaks for a certain sort of working-class salt-of-the-Earth patriotic Tory, sure. But he doesn't entirely help with the big split in voting, which is age. He's 56, which puts him on the blue side of all those age divides, like having been able to buy a house when the deposit was four figures. Now of an age where he probably doesn't really need to work any more. The social reforms of the Blair-Cameron era were pushing things quite far enough, thank you.

    Anderson helps shore up one flank of the 2019 coalition. But he does nothing (possibly makes things worse) for the other, which is where more voters are.
    It is odd how Anderson has come to take the role he has, it seems like bad judgement. He may have a role in rallying support amongst one group of voters but he also puts another group of people massively off voting conservative. There are few of these characters in high positions, Braverman is another.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,472
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Slightly surprised it's being taken that seriously by anyone. It's a monastic cesspit lid from local stone as shown by petrological work, not the Lia Fail of mediaeval desciption.
    It is going to be a big big centrepiece of the new Perth City Museum. Not sure how they're going to gussy it up to seem exciting - it is as you say a piece of rock.
    Oh, it is a lot better than the average coronation tat as a reminder of the priorities of any sane government.
    It's not an experience though, like hanging upside down and kissing the Blarney stone. The vault where it will be exhibited is quite modern. It would have been more fitting in Scone Palace in the throne room.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,909
    edited March 2023

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    Thanks. The main issue is that the situation that falls through the cracks, is much more common these days. Work abroad, meet woman and get married.

    There’s also the complication that we live somewhere where will never be citizens, so it’s not like people moving to the US.

    The underlying problem, as far as the UK is concerned, is that there were a lot of abuses from certain sub-continental communities, involving arranged marriages of very young and not always willing women. It’s difficult to write a law that outlaws that, whilst also not covering my own case.

    There needs to be a clause in immigration law, that covers people returning home with a wife they met whilst working abroad.

    As it happens, Mrs Sandpit could easily make the salary requirement to apply for a visa in her own right. She’s a qualified English teacher and translator of Russian and Ukranian.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    edited March 2023
    Nigelb said:

    In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?

    HYUFD said:

    DougSeal said:

    Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD

    Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.

    If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.

    The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
    They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.

    Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
    The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
    And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
    I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.

    You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
    Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
    I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.

    You?
    I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.

    There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.

    I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.

    Please stick around.
    This "surrender monkeys" "twat" won't be going anywhere, anytime soon (unless the ban hammer falls). Now I see why Leon likes the attention!
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Who cares what Ms Regan thinks, she is polling a poor 3rd even with SNP members!
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    DougSeal said:

    Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD

    Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.

    If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.

    The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
    They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.

    Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
    The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
    And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
    I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.

    You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
    A chield's amang you takin notes,
    And, faith, he'll prent it.
    There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
    And he decides who to free and who to blame
    Everybody won't be treated all the same
    There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down
    When the man comes around
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,748
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Sympathy. The immigration system is miserable and getting ever more so.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
    Ever heard of things called 'trains' and 'buses' and 'cars'? We do have them in Scotland, so people came from all over. Not particularly local.
  • Options
    SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 38,937
    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Westie said:

    ..

    Foxy said:

    Pine Trail IPA from the Big Drop brewery is 0% and very nicely hoppy. Morrisons stock it.

    Big Drop do some good ones

    HYUFD said:

    DougSeal said:

    Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD

    Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.

    If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.

    The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
    They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.

    Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
    The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
    And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
    I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.

    You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
    Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
    I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.

    You?
    Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised.
    I await your visceral response😀
    Hmm. Earlier on you advised me to chill (and that mediation, veganism and being tee-total were key to this) and now you've posted something - in response to a totally different poster - that's deeply personal ending up with saying you approach despising me.

    Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
    Nah, I'm fine, just trying to help you 🙂
    My view is that veganism is religious - as your posts that couple it with that sort of demonstrate - and those I know who are vegan are no happier or calmer than those who are not, and sometimes less so. Most give it up eventually.

    Like the abstinence movement of the early 20th Century, in opposition to very heavy drinking amongst the working population in the late 19th Century and the social ills that was seen to cause, we now have an abstinence movement in the early 21st Century in opposition to overly heavy meat consumption and the social ills that is seen to cause.

    Neither proved to be popular for long. The answer is balance and moderation.

    I don't like religions being pushed on me so tend to react.
    Most vegans see the conditions animals are kept in - the specifics and the fact that they are exploited as objects - as ills in themselves. Veganism grew out of humanitarianism. Flesheaters take the view "I like eating flesh, me".
    I understand they have a dogmatic interpretation of that.

    Another is that hunting, animal husbandry, and fishing has been going on for tens of thousands of years, and that we are a natural part of the food chain which is essential to all life on earth.
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,022
    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    LOL.

    Only from the PB Tories

    Only on PB

    (h/t @tim)

  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    My contact in Deutsche thinks it's no big deal.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    No Oscar thread from @Roger?
  • Options
    solarflaresolarflare Posts: 3,623
    If we leave it out long enough we can instead have a coronation with a Scone of Stone rather than a Stone of Scone.
  • Options
    FairlieredFairliered Posts: 3,997
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
    Conservative voters. Making the wrong decisions since 2019.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Slightly surprised it's being taken that seriously by anyone. It's a monastic cesspit lid from local stone as shown by petrological work, not the Lia Fail of mediaeval desciption.
    It is going to be a big big centrepiece of the new Perth City Museum. Not sure how they're going to gussy it up to seem exciting - it is as you say a piece of rock.
    Oh, it is a lot better than the average coronation tat as a reminder of the priorities of any sane government.
    It's not an experience though, like hanging upside down and kissing the Blarney stone. The vault where it will be exhibited is quite modern. It would have been more fitting in Scone Palace in the throne room.
    Better still on top of a cesspit doing a useful job.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
  • Options
    This is all @Gardenwalker 's fault. He got me started

    Has anyone heard of 70s band Joy Of Cooking?

    It's two ladies singing (and song writing) with very different voices; one playing guitar, the other piano. And a band of men behind them

    This is a song from their third album, recorded in 1972, called Three Day Loser

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93BXClbUgFE
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
    I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.

    Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.

    How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title

    Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
    Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.

    Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
    I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.

    A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.

    Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.

    The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

    The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.

    However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
    Who cares what Ms Regan thinks, she is polling a poor 3rd even with SNP members!
    But you don't know that. Nobody has the database outside the SNP. So any claim to that data is nonsense, as it would lead to prosecution.
  • Options
    nico679nico679 Posts: 4,862
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
    You seem to inhabit a space where only Tory voters matters. This is troubling it’s as if regardless of policy as long as Tories support it you’ll back it . Do you disagree on any Tory policies which have support of those voters ?
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,502
    edited March 2023
    Foxy said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    No Oscar thread from @Roger?
    Not that I am aware.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    Scott_xP said:

    Do they still have photos of Sandra from Largs on cans of Tennants? Fantastic marketing as the contents were undrinkable.

    I follow one of the Tennants girls on Twitter.

    In Pennsylvania, where alcohol is state controlled, you can buy Tennants as a fancy bottled import.
    I really shouldn't like the whole notion of the Tennant's girls, but I do, and it reflected a simpler, but less enlightened in certain ways, time.
  • Options
    glwglw Posts: 9,549
    ohnotnow said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Jeremy Hunt has been urged to intervene to prevent a wave of bankruptcies in the tech sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank caused chaos.

    Andrew Griffith, the City minister, was locked in talks with officials, regulators and industry figures on Saturday to avert a crisis that could lead to thousands of job losses among SVB’s legion of tech sector customers.

    It comes at a time when the government is talking about turning the UK into a science and tech superpower.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/svb-victims-we-need-a-bailout-w3r3cfzfl

    The SV/Startup forums are in meltdown just now. Slight change from their normal minimal government/libertarian conversation to 'when will the government bail us out?!?!?!'...
    If there was no fall out in the wider economy I'd say let them go under.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    FF43 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Sympathy. The immigration system is miserable and getting ever more so.
    Yes, the continuing ratcheting up of anti immigrant rhetoric makes for lots of misery. I don't understand why @Sandpit supports it.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    I recall Sandpit discussing this some time back, and making similar comments.
    The hoops to jump through for spouses have multiplied under successive governments (though largely of one persuasion).

    I’m very grateful that my wife (who has been resident since the 80s) applied for citizenship just before it became impossibly bureaucratic. For decades it wasn’t even something to worry about.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030
    edited March 2023
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
    Ever heard of things called 'trains' and 'buses' and 'cars'? We do have them in Scotland, so people came from all over. Not particularly local.
    Voters in Lothian want to retain the monarchy by a 9% margin compared to only a 3% margin in Glasgow

    Lothian voters would also keep the monarchy by a 2% margin if Scotland went independent, Glasgow voters would go for a republic by a 12% margin if Scotland went independent however
    https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/hswqd1wxs5/TheTimes_Scot_VI_221004_.pdf (p32)
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
  • Options
    another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,101
    Westie said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak.
    The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.

    Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate

    Why not address the issues in a mature manner
    The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
    You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
    I welcome all the above.

    I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.

    And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
    Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.

    I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.

    Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.

    I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
    The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.

    But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.

    Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
    They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
    They should be but they don't seem interested.

    The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
    It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.
    I'd be amazed if he hasn't got one. If not in No10 isn't there a Tory deputy chair who knows his Bermondsey from his bubble and squeak?

    Edit: as HYUFD points out, there's Lee Anderson.
    Isn't bubble and squeak seen only in posho restaurants serving retro food to tourists ?

    I've never seen it in any working class cafe or pub menu.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030
    nico679 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
    You seem to inhabit a space where only Tory voters matters. This is troubling it’s as if regardless of policy as long as Tories support it you’ll back it . Do you disagree on any Tory policies which have support of those voters ?
    No Tory leader should ever back policies which most of the party's voters disagree with.

    You win elections by securing your core vote and then reaching out to swing voters
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668
    Scott_xP said:

    Hey @TSE, a new image of the final result at Twickenham has emerged...


    That’s an unusual looking kipper.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    edited March 2023

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Tempted to sell my financials when they open. They could drop sharply when the USA opens.
  • Options
    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,472
    Nigelb said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Hey @TSE, a new image of the final result at Twickenham has emerged...


    That’s an unusual looking kipper.
    Surely we are classier than posting cock pictures.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    Thanks. The main issue is that the situation that falls through the cracks, is much more common these days. Work abroad, meet woman and get married.

    There’s also the complication that we live somewhere where will never be citizens, so it’s not like people moving to the US.

    The underlying problem, as far as the UK is concerned, is that there were a lot of abuses from certain sub-continental communities, involving arranged marriages of very young and not always willing women. It’s difficult to write a law that outlaws that, whilst also not covering my own case.

    There needs to be a clause in immigration law, that covers people returning home with a wife they met whilst working abroad.

    As it happens, Mrs Sandpit could easily make the salary requirement to apply for a visa in her own right. She’s a qualified English teacher and translator of Russian and Ukranian.
    The irony is that post Brexit the abuses you suggest are probably more prevalent now than they used to be. I hope sanity prevails. Good wishes.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,909
    Foxy said:

    FF43 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Sympathy. The immigration system is miserable and getting ever more so.
    Yes, the continuing ratcheting up of anti immigrant rhetoric makes for lots of misery. I don't understand why @Sandpit supports it.
    Not anti-immigrant rhetoric. Anti people-arriving-on-small-boats-jumping-the-queue-and-getting-free-lawyers rhetoric.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    I recall Sandpit discussing this some time back, and making similar comments.
    The hoops to jump through for spouses have multiplied under successive governments (though largely of one persuasion).

    I’m very grateful that my wife (who has been resident since the 80s) applied for citizenship just before it became impossibly bureaucratic. For decades it wasn’t even something to worry about.
    B
    R
    E
    X
    I
    T
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,996

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    For a large number of technical startups - it’s a bankruptcy event - on Thursday they may have had £xm in accounts, now they will have £85,000 and a long wait to get the rest.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
    Ever heard of things called 'trains' and 'buses' and 'cars'? We do have them in Scotland, so people came from all over. Not particularly local.
    Voters in Lothians want to retain the monarchy by a 9% margin compared to only a 3% margin in Glasgow

    Lothian voters would also keep the monarchy by a 2% margin if Scotland went independent, Glasgow voters would go for a republic by a 12% margin if Scotland went independent however
    https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/hswqd1wxs5/TheTimes_Scot_VI_221004_.pdf (p32)
    As usual, you are carefuilly omitting the very large DK and "neither good nor bad" values there. I;d be shitting bricks if I were a Royal advisor with those values.
  • Options
    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,315
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Sadly the purpose of immigration policy is to prevent immigration, in keeping with the apparent policy of many government departments - Health to prevent good health, Business to impede business, Education to prevent education, Justice to deny justice, etc, etc.
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,828
    nico679 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @YouGov

    SNAP POLL: Britons say BBC was wrong to suspend Gary Lineker

    All Britons: 27% right / 53% wrong
    Con voters: 51% / 36%
    Lab voters: 10% / 75%

    Most Conservative voters though don't
    You seem to inhabit a space where only Tory voters matters. This is troubling it’s as if regardless of policy as long as Tories support it you’ll back it . Do you disagree on any Tory policies which have support of those voters ?
    Just to point out, support for Linkers right to have an opinion and thinking the BBC wrong to suspend him doesn't necessarily equate to disapproval of the governments asylum policy.

    As far I know there is very little polling on the actual policy itself?
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,236
    eek said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    For a large number of technical startups - it’s a bankruptcy event - on Thursday they may have had £xm in accounts, now they will have £85,000 and a long wait to get the rest.
    Thanks.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    Unlikely.
    But it could have a disproportionate effect on the tech sector, through no real fault of their own.

    The reasons for the bank run look pretty clear with the benefit of hindsight, but it was rated as one of the more financially sound banks, and there’s little reason for a small company to have had much insight into its hitherto hidden weaknesses.
  • Options
    another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,101
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Perhaps the problem for the Conservatives, apart from the general hubris which tends to overcome parties after long periods in office, is they haven't realised or come to terms with the post-pandemic world and its culture.

    Talking about "aspiration" and "wealth creation" (nothing new, it was the same in the 1980s) makes a lot of assumptions about the value people place on those things. I'd argue (and the public reaction to the Truss/Kwarteng proposals seemed to support this) there has been a shift away from Guizot-style individualism back to notions of collective responsibility and community.

    It's not quite "the individual is dead, long live the community" but notions of fairness and making sure the poorest are adequately fed and housed over and above individualistic wealth accumulation seem to be back in vogue.

    I'd contend it would be fertile ground for One Nation Conservatism but that ground has been forfeited by the Conservatives and is being occupied by Labour who often do well masquerading as One Nation Tories.

    Wealth accumulation comes from working.

    Stop that and workers become wage slaves.

    Not perhaps what the young, especially the more talented young, want to hear.

    Especially given the eagerness the young of my acquaintance have to spend money.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,909

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    Thanks. The main issue is that the situation that falls through the cracks, is much more common these days. Work abroad, meet woman and get married.

    There’s also the complication that we live somewhere where will never be citizens, so it’s not like people moving to the US.

    The underlying problem, as far as the UK is concerned, is that there were a lot of abuses from certain sub-continental communities, involving arranged marriages of very young and not always willing women. It’s difficult to write a law that outlaws that, whilst also not covering my own case.

    There needs to be a clause in immigration law, that covers people returning home with a wife they met whilst working abroad.

    As it happens, Mrs Sandpit could easily make the salary requirement to apply for a visa in her own right. She’s a qualified English teacher and translator of Russian and Ukranian.
    The irony is that post Brexit the abuses you suggest are probably more prevalent now than they used to be. I hope sanity prevails. Good wishes.
    I was in favour of the UK leaving the EU, in part because of the immigration system that made it almost impossible for a non-EU immigrant who wasn’t making a fortune to get a visa.

    Now if Ukraine joins the EU, which I think might take quite a while, I may be proven wrong on this.

    The current system, as expected, makes it easier for a non-EU immigrant to apply for a visa in their own right.

    None of the above changes my view, that I should be able to live in my own country of citizenship with my wife, without a load of expensive and time-consuming bureaucracy.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030
    edited March 2023
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
    Ever heard of things called 'trains' and 'buses' and 'cars'? We do have them in Scotland, so people came from all over. Not particularly local.
    Voters in Lothians want to retain the monarchy by a 9% margin compared to only a 3% margin in Glasgow

    Lothian voters would also keep the monarchy by a 2% margin if Scotland went independent, Glasgow voters would go for a republic by a 12% margin if Scotland went independent however
    https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/hswqd1wxs5/TheTimes_Scot_VI_221004_.pdf (p32)
    As usual, you are carefuilly omitting the very large DK and "neither good nor bad" values there. I;d be shitting bricks if I were a Royal advisor with those values.
    What utter rubbish. Given 45% of Scots voted for independence in 2014, for monarchists in Scotland to still have a 16% lead across the country is a terrible result for Scottish republicans
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Foxy said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Tempted to sell my financials when they open. They could drop sharply when the USA opens.
    I wouldn't. I've heard no panic at all amongst my contacts.

    If there is one I will be buying on Monday.
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,171
    Looking forward to MoTD soon. It's even made the Helsingin Sanomat.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,656
    edited March 2023
    SVB story is gathering the expected steam over this evening. The thing with stories like this is they take a while for people to process: much easier to get your head around Gary Lineker slagging off asylum policy. So they start slow and gain momentum gradually. But come Monday the markets are going to panic. Probably unnecessarily - I think Tuesday or Wed will be a good buying opportunity for tech stocks.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,909
    Is this going to be the most watched regular Match of the Day ever?
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,803
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    RobD said:

    New @Survation poll of Scottish voters:

    SNP: 40% (-3)
    Labour: 32% (+2)
    Conservatives: 18% (+1)
    Lib Dems: 6% (-)
    Greens: 2%
    Alba: 1%
    Others: 2%

    8-10 March, changes with 15-17

    Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
    A thread tomorrow does discuss that.

    It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
    Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
    I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.

    In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.

    Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
    I think it’s time for a ceremony to invest the new Duke of Edinburgh.
    Possibly in Glasgow.
    Edinburgh is very royalist, see the queues to see the Queen lying in state there.

    There has not been and I doubt ever will be a Duke of Glasgow however, albeit there is an Earl of Glasgow who is a LD peer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Boyle,_10th_Earl_of_Glasgow
    Ever heard of things called 'trains' and 'buses' and 'cars'? We do have them in Scotland, so people came from all over. Not particularly local.
    Voters in Lothians want to retain the monarchy by a 9% margin compared to only a 3% margin in Glasgow

    Lothian voters would also keep the monarchy by a 2% margin if Scotland went independent, Glasgow voters would go for a republic by a 12% margin if Scotland went independent however
    https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/hswqd1wxs5/TheTimes_Scot_VI_221004_.pdf (p32)
    As usual, you are carefuilly omitting the very large DK and "neither good nor bad" values there. I;d be shitting bricks if I were a Royal advisor with those values.
    What utter rubbish. Given 45% of Scots voted for independence in 2014, for monarchists in Scotland to still have a 16% lead is a terrible result for Scottish republicans
    Typical ignorance from you. Republicanism is a different question from independence. The two are only linked because Torty politicians like you keep dragging the Royals into politics.

    Look at those tables again. They are full of 30 and 40 in favour - not the 80 and 90 which your cringing royalism requires.,
  • Options
    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,668
    eek said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    For a large number of technical startups - it’s a bankruptcy event - on Thursday they may have had £xm in accounts, now they will have £85,000 and a long wait to get the rest.
    Unless government decides differently, which it should.
    It’s essentially a liquidity crisis for these companies.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,656
    Sandpit said:

    Is this going to be the most watched regular Match of the Day ever?

    I’m tempted. Surreal experience.
  • Options
    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,315
    Nigelb said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    Unlikely.
    But it could have a disproportionate effect on the tech sector, through no real fault of their own.

    The reasons for the bank run look pretty clear with the benefit of hindsight, but it was rated as one of the more financially sound banks, and there’s little reason for a small company to have had much insight into its hitherto hidden weaknesses.
    There has already been a round of job cuts from the big tech firms. If a lot of startups now go bust, there will be a lot of tech workers looking for new jobs - perhaps considering retraining as ballet dancers.
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,828
    edited March 2023

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    edited March 2023

    Foxy said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Tempted to sell my financials when they open. They could drop sharply when the USA opens.
    I wouldn't. I've heard no panic at all amongst my contacts.

    If there is one I will be buying on Monday.
    I think the market quite toppy at the moment. A lot of companies will be squeezed by the cost of borrowing. I moved last week to a more defensive position with more in cash. I am inclined to make that more defensive still on Monday.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,155
    edited March 2023
    Sandpit said:

    Foxy said:

    FF43 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Sympathy. The immigration system is miserable and getting ever more so.
    Yes, the continuing ratcheting up of anti immigrant rhetoric makes for lots of misery. I don't understand why @Sandpit supports it.
    Not anti-immigrant rhetoric. Anti people-arriving-on-small-boats-jumping-the-queue-and-getting-free-lawyers rhetoric.
    Erm, no -

    David Cameron famously said tens of thousands, no ifs no buts. So that would be my ultimate aspiration

    Braverman, a few days after her initial appointment, revives the Conservatives’ earlier failed promise to cut net migration to “tens of thousands”, from the current level of 239,000. That’s saying fewer immigrants, ergo anti-immigrant rhetoric.

    I wouldn’t have been able to marry my wife and move her to the U.K. under this government either. Thank fuck we managed to do it before the barbarians took over.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,980
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    After 24 years you’d have thought there would be someone waiting in the wings to take over at a moments notice.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,987

    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?

    Yeah.
    As an Evertonian I can barely recall tuning in.
  • Options
    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,155
    dixiedean said:

    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?

    Yeah.
    As an Evertonian I can barely recall tuning in.
    Ipswich won today, increasing our chances of playing you next season. Although Plymouth’s run in is a piece of cake next to ours.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    First rule of show business is that you don't piss off "the talent".
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,987
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    But they've had that platform for years.
    It's just that they were pro-government.
    And that is the issue
  • Options
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Tempted to sell my financials when they open. They could drop sharply when the USA opens.
    I wouldn't. I've heard no panic at all amongst my contacts.

    If there is one I will be buying on Monday.
    I think the market quite toppy at the moment. A lot of companies will be squeezed by the cost of borrowing. I moved last week to a more defensive position with more in cash. I am inclined to make that more defensive still on Monday.
    I refer the honourable gentleman to the comments I made yesterday about SVB.

    Don't panic, I'm working on it [The SVB fallout]

    https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4330951/#Comment_4330951

    Honestly if it wasn't for insider trading rules the fact Caesar's wife must be above suspicion I'd be buying lots of bank shares right now.

    https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4330959/#Comment_4330959

  • Options
    SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 38,937
    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,987

    Nigelb said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    Unlikely.
    But it could have a disproportionate effect on the tech sector, through no real fault of their own.

    The reasons for the bank run look pretty clear with the benefit of hindsight, but it was rated as one of the more financially sound banks, and there’s little reason for a small company to have had much insight into its hitherto hidden weaknesses.
    There has already been a round of job cuts from the big tech firms. If a lot of startups now go bust, there will be a lot of tech workers looking for new jobs - perhaps considering retraining as ballet dancers.
    A TV show has vacancies.
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,828
    Foxy said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    First rule of show business is that you don't piss off "the talent".
    Hitchcock had it right - Treat them like cattle :D
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,712
    dixiedean said:

    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?

    Yeah.
    As an Evertonian I can barely recall tuning in.
    Better for thee than me today.

    4/1 on Leicester relegation is great value. Should be evens or odds on.
  • Options
    TresTres Posts: 2,230

    I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak.
    The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.

    Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate

    Why not address the issues in a mature manner
    The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
    You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
    I welcome all the above.

    I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.

    And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
    Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.

    I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.

    Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.

    I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
    The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.

    But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.

    Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
    What the Conservatives need to address is the corrosion in aspiration and the inability of those between 25-45 to accumulate wealth.

    It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.

    Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
    Serious thinkers know that Brexit has set this country back decades.
    Nigelb said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    I recall Sandpit discussing this some time back, and making similar comments.
    The hoops to jump through for spouses have multiplied under successive governments (though largely of one persuasion).

    I’m very grateful that my wife (who has been resident since the 80s) applied for citizenship just before it became impossibly bureaucratic. For decades it wasn’t even something to worry about.
    It's not new news. My wife is pretty lefty on most things but still refuses to vote Labour as Jacqui Smith was the home secretary when she was going through the indefinite leave to remain process.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,748
    edited March 2023
    Nigelb said:

    eek said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Are we looking at Lehman Brothers style ramifications?
    For a large number of technical startups - it’s a bankruptcy event - on Thursday they may have had £xm in accounts, now they will have £85,000 and a long wait to get the rest.
    Unless government decides differently, which it should.
    It’s essentially a liquidity crisis for these companies.
    It is but the definition of bankruptcy is running out of cash. Also by definition startup companies don't have enough cash unless investors including in this case banks provide it.

    Should add in normal circumstances banks can be brutal to small but viable companies they lend money to. What's happening here is everyone's loans are being called in at the same time.
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,190

    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.

    What’s the deal with this bank? Surely a bank is a bank is a bank? Why are these particular companies with this bank?
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,996
    tlg86 said:

    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.

    What’s the deal with this bank? Surely a bank is a bank is a bank? Why are these particular companies with this bank?
    Because many venture capitalists required the money to be held in this bank.

  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    https://twitter.com/TLDRNewsUK/status/1634636143177129985

    🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.

    The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.

    Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?

    The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
    A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.

    Seems to apply from top to bottom.
    I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?

    The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.

    She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.

    Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
    Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.

    Have you tried contacting your MP?

    This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
    Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.

    Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.

    If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.

    But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
    Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
    Thanks. The main issue is that the situation that falls through the cracks, is much more common these days. Work abroad, meet woman and get married.

    There’s also the complication that we live somewhere where will never be citizens, so it’s not like people moving to the US.

    The underlying problem, as far as the UK is concerned, is that there were a lot of abuses from certain sub-continental communities, involving arranged marriages of very young and not always willing women. It’s difficult to write a law that outlaws that, whilst also not covering my own case.

    There needs to be a clause in immigration law, that covers people returning home with a wife they met whilst working abroad.

    As it happens, Mrs Sandpit could easily make the salary requirement to apply for a visa in her own right. She’s a qualified English teacher and translator of Russian and Ukranian.
    The irony is that post Brexit the abuses you suggest are probably more prevalent now than they used to be. I hope sanity prevails. Good wishes.
    I was in favour of the UK leaving the EU, in part because of the immigration system that made it almost impossible for a non-EU immigrant who wasn’t making a fortune to get a visa.

    Now if Ukraine joins the EU, which I think might take quite a while, I may be proven wrong on this.

    The current system, as expected, makes it easier for a non-EU immigrant to apply for a visa in their own right.

    None of the above changes my view, that I should be able to live in my own country of citizenship with my wife, without a load of expensive and time-consuming bureaucracy.
    Hope you get it all sorted.
  • Options
    BlancheLivermoreBlancheLivermore Posts: 5,261
    edited March 2023
    dixiedean said:

    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?

    Yeah.
    As an Evertonian I can barely recall tuning in.
    I support Southampton!

    I don't have a TV licence because I don't have a TV and I never watch anything live (except occasional streams of foreign broadcasts of Saints games on my laptop)

    And I can watch not live highlights on my laptop from my Dad's Sky account before MOTD and Lineker's £100,000 an hour job

    If there are games on Beeb/Sky/BT, I cross the road and watch them with my folks on one of their big TVs

    I'm looking forward to my visit from the TV Licence Detector Van
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,030

    I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak.
    The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.

    Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate

    Why not address the issues in a mature manner
    The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
    You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
    I welcome all the above.

    I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.

    And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
    Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.

    I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.

    Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.

    I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
    The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.

    But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.

    Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
    What the Conservatives need to address is the corrosion in aspiration and the inability of those between 25-45 to accumulate wealth.

    It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.

    Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
    Ideally yes, especially those between 30-40.

    Then again the Conservatives won a landslide in 2019 despite losing most voters under 39
  • Options
    BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 7,996
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    I don't think the DG, Tim Davie, agrees with you. He's backpeddling like mad.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-64928582
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,909
    tlg86 said:

    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.

    What’s the deal with this bank? Surely a bank is a bank is a bank? Why are these particular companies with this bank?
    They were a very specialist bank, working with VC and tech startups. They have very few normal retail customers.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Just looked in my old work email account. I’ve had invites to five law firm briefings about the SVB collapse sent today. That’s not a great sign!

    Tempted to sell my financials when they open. They could drop sharply when the USA opens.
    I wouldn't. I've heard no panic at all amongst my contacts.

    If there is one I will be buying on Monday.
    I think the market quite toppy at the moment. A lot of companies will be squeezed by the cost of borrowing. I moved last week to a more defensive position with more in cash. I am inclined to make that more defensive still on Monday.
    Fair enough. I will be on the other side of that.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,987
    Foxy said:

    dixiedean said:

    Surely MOTD viewership depends solely on which teams have won?

    Yeah.
    As an Evertonian I can barely recall tuning in.
    Better for thee than me today.

    4/1 on Leicester relegation is great value. Should be evens or odds on.
    There's a fair way to go and it's three from eight.
    No one is marooned, and a single win jumps you heavily.
    Could be the most fascinating relegation battle in years. Wouldn't put money on anyone right now. Particularly as none of the eight seem able to score much.
  • Options
    squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,360
    Foxy said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    First rule of show business is that you don't piss off "the talent".
    Unless you want to get rid of them...
  • Options
    StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,503
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    In low-profile jobs, this is where the lawyers get involved, the ex-employee gets a payoff and an NDA and the over-enthusiastic manager has a meeting without biscuits with their manager.

    That's not going to work here, since the dirty washing is already out there and it will be blooming obvious if Lineker is there or not each Saturday. And the problem with the understandable fear that every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable is that some of them probably are. It's not 1970 any more, there are many alternative broadcasters and many ways of bypassing broadcasters altogether.

    As with other examples of negotiation, be honest about the cards you hold and think what cards the other player may have before you go all-in on your hand.
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    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,412
    GIN1138 said:

    Foxy said:

    50% favourable vs 30% unfavourable for GL on Yougov Daily.

    53% vs 27% think BBC wrong to suspend GL

    51% to 28% support other presenters in their solidarity.

    Hmm. On those numbers there will be something of a reverse ferret.
    What the BBC should have done is... nothing. Until summer... Then they should have quietly "revamped" MOTD and announced the new look version would be without the Sainted Gary. They should have thanked him so much for his contribution, wished him all the best etc etc. And quietly shoved him out of the back door.

    But they are where they are. At this point I can't see how they can take him back. The moment the producers start allowing the "talent" to call the shots their finished... As literally every loudmouth at the BBC will think they have carte blanche to say whatever they want and they will be untouchable.

    For better or worse they've taken a stand against Lineker and they have to stick by that now and wait for the media storm to roll on to the next "crisis"
    Yes, I think that's right.
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    TimSTimS Posts: 9,656

    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.

    That’s the worry.

    But, fundamentals are quite strong. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that.

    Commodity prices are declining and a Chinese steel-buying boom looks unlikely in the immediate future. So companies will have more money to spend soon.

    Wage inflation is taking off in the developed world thanks to continuing labour market tightness and cost of living, and that will continue. But the cost of living will fall due to commodities. So people will also have more money to spend soon. Plus they all saved during Covid and haven’t spent it all yet.

    And large language model AI is going to transform the white collar sector imminently.

    So this looks like a 1987 or 1997. Buying opportunity.
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    tlg86 said:

    I think it’s really hard to say what the reaction to the SVB news right now, but it looks like a lot of tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic are badly exposed, and a number are basically insolvent now. I worry the markets have been waiting for a reason to go into meltdown. This could be it.

    What’s the deal with this bank? Surely a bank is a bank is a bank? Why are these particular companies with this bank?
    It isn't a retail bank per se.

    Its focus was on tech and medical companies.

    Companies who deposited so much with them that is well above the deposit protection limits.
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    nico679nico679 Posts: 4,862
    edited March 2023
    Who knew that the country needs immigration ? Sadly not enough given the Brexit vote .

    Amazing how quiet the Daily Mail and the rest of the right wing trash papers are on the fact that the government is having to loosen its work visa requirements.

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