Well looking at the viewing figures for the latest season, they are becoming a lot rarer. "not exist any more", not very tolerant and open to differing opinions from Tennant.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Try the flatlands around Orlean.
Bleak, empty, farmland stretching to horizon. And very very very flat.
Some might like it though. Bit noomy in the right light.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
I am really hating this 3rd placed in group can still qualify for knockouts nonsense in Euros. No jeopardy. We want to be thinking, shit if England screw this up tonight, they could be out. Not well if they screw it up, they will probably play Germany.
Why? The reason there is no jeopardy for us is that we have already accrued enough points to qualify. Croatia finished third. Ask them about 'no jeopardy'.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
I am really hating this 3rd placed in group can still qualify for knockouts nonsense in Euros. No jeopardy. We want to be thinking, shit if England screw this up tonight, they could be out. Not well if they screw it up, they will probably play Germany.
Why? The reason there is no jeopardy for us is that we have already accrued enough points to qualify. Croatia finished third. Ask them about 'no jeopardy'.
No I really love it when nearly all the games the result matters. With this 3rd place from most groups goes through means lots of games without that edge. Love my sport, but its got to matter for me to get excited.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
Well looking at the viewing figures for the latest season, they are becoming a lot rarer. "not exist any more", not very tolerant and open to differing opinions from Tennant.
I think it is personal for the 10th and 14th Doctor, rumour has it that his stepkid is trans.
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I think that was just pipped by his claim that he made models of buses out of wine boxes to relax. That was beyond weird.
Oh god yes, I'd forgotten that. Just so cringily entitled, assuming all the little people would be amused or 'charmed' by that load of facetious shit.
BoJo definitely wins the most unfunny PM ever award.
I thought that was intentional. There was a story highly damaging to the Tory campaign, So Johnson pulled that stunt of his. Anybody who looked for the key word in the serious story was taken immediately to the same word in the cardboard bus story.
Really? Didn't hear that story. Well I wouldn't put it past him. "Peppa" certainly wasn't some devious ploy though. That was a man who thought he was funny embarrassing himself and his audience. It was one the key "moments" in his exposure and downfall imo.
To step back a moment from which politicians we fail to find funny, let me tell you a story about Peppa Pig - specifically about Peppa's creator, Mark Baker - that a friend of a friend told me. FOAF - let's call him Steve because I honestly can't remember his name - used to work with Mark Baker in an office job. Now Mark had studied animation at Middlesex poly, and had done bits and bobs for various projects for a couple of decades, so clearly knew a bit about the industry, but it wasn't paying the bills and he needed a regular job. Mark was always doodling these funny little animal characters with both eyes on the same side of their heads. "What do you think of these Steve?" he would ask. Steve was polite but could summon little enthusiasm. Nobody could. Unfortunately, some time around the late 90s/early noughties, he was made redundant, and the pressure was on (I think he had a family to support) to try to earn some money out of animation again. He had these little animal characters, but no-one seemed interested. Finally, he got some interest from Channel 4: they offered him what Steve thought an astonishing £40,000 for the rights to Peppa. With no money, and no ready source of income, Mark took the incomprehensible decision of turning them down. "I just think they're worth more than that." A year later, Steve met Mark in the pub. "My daughter watches your Peppa on Channel 5 - did you manage to sell them in the end then?" "No, I kept hold of the rights. Does she want some merchandise?" Three days later, a truck turned up at Steve's house with more Peppa merchandise than any sane family could want or need. Fifteen years later, Mark Baker and his co-animators sold most of their stake in Astley Baker Davies for £47m each.
Fair play to them. I wonder how many people would have turned down the £40,000? I don't think I would have done.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
Herefordshire is boring in a good, pleasant, quintessentially English way. Bedfordshire is just boring.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Fuck dont start me.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
Not through towns it shouldn't.
Through arteries in towns it bloody well should be.
I drive at 40-50 most of the distance I travel through town, on the A-roads.
The local residential roads shouldn't be the arteries.
Labour has suspended parliamentary candidate Kevin Craig after being told the Gambling Commission has launched an investigation into him, a party spokeswoman says.
LOL....I did say when they start looking at this, its going to go all over the place. It will be journalists next.
Edit: "Kevin is an expert in political communications, crisis management, and corporate communications." - Time to deploy the crisis management tactics.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
I recommend the book "Engel's England" by Matthew Engel - a county-by-county trip around England's 39 traditional counties*. I don't recall whether he picked winners, but Herefordshire was one of his favourites. ISTR he found Bedfordshire somewhat difficult to pin down.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
I grew up in Leicestershire. The rough guide to Britain my parents bought just said that you pass through it on the M1 and the countryside is quite nice. Seems fair tbh.
I always wondered if it was a sly Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “mostly harmless” joke.
We had three separate examples of the same thing happening with Refuk leaflets yesterday - TimS got one for Lewisham West rather than Lewisham North, I got one for Hornsey rather than Islington North, and Madmacs also reported getting one for the wrong constituency.
You'd expect the Tories to be a bit better-organised than Refuk (especially in the chairman's seat!), but it's obviously the sort of mix-up that happens fairly frequently.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Fuck dont start me.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
Not through towns it shouldn't.
To be fair, 50mph would reduce the number of ambulances required because everyone hit by a car would just die. So there’s that in “favour”.
Well looking at the viewing figures for the latest season, they are becoming a lot rarer. "not exist any more", not very tolerant and open to differing opinions from Tennant.
I think it is personal for the 10th and 14th Doctor, rumour has it that his stepkid is trans.
Is that the jury in on whether Kemi is racist then?
Well looking at the viewing figures for the latest season, they are becoming a lot rarer. "not exist any more", not very tolerant and open to differing opinions from Tennant.
I think it is personal for the 10th and 14th Doctor, rumour has it that his stepkid is trans.
Is that the jury in on whether Kemi is racist then?
I wouldn't be surprised when all this betting stuff is finally finished there will have been loads of people investigated, but the vast majority it was £50 here or there.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
Dueling banjos? If you think the Forest of Dean is bad, try the Isle of Axholme.
Fortunately some of the population took themselves off on the Mayflower.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
Not through towns it shouldn't.
To be fair, 50mph would reduce the number of ambulances required because everyone hit by a car would just die. So there’s that in “favour”.
Its 60/70 mph on the through roads in nearby MK right up to the city centre.
One of the many, many, many very, very, very invaluable things I do, is cut lists for candidates, including mailing lists.
And one of the most important of the many & very, is policing to ensure that direct mail goes to postal addresses of voters who are actually within whatever district we're mailing into.
One source of error, is when the master list has voters from variety of relevant jurisdictions. For example, having a list for voters in a particular city . . . then finding out that it also includes voters in the same county BUT a different city.
This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone . . . even yours truly!
What is required is a) experienced list-mongers; and b) double-checks, and triple-checks, for quality control.
HOWEVER, clear over last few years that "quality control" is NOT a concern for early-21st century Tory Party.
The Labour suspension may hand the seat to the defending Tories as its very marginal on MRPs in Central Suffolk and Ipswich North. Dan Poulters old seat
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Fuck dont start me.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
Think you were going for sardonic all I'm getting is horrible bastard.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Fuck dont start me.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
On topic, is “ Starmer winning a massive majority which could be easily overturned in 2029.” a little bigged up?
A lot of froth on top a silly stupid supermajority might by small majorities, but as you come to mere landslide or plain working majority, the % win is larger. So the maths doesn’t support “easily overturned”.
Neither does the politics look feasible. Which party is “easily overturning” Labours majority, as overturning means gaining government, mere losing majority a phrase not used here, would be to NOM.
Tory’s will be on the floor fighting for survival. They don’t just need to reclaim seats from Labour next time, which they failed to do in 2001, from a far stronger base, but from libdems, perhaps even Reform and Greens.
The memory of Tory government will live long in the voters memories too.
Neither the electoral maths or politics supports “easily overturned in 2029” as header immodestly claims.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
Fuck dont start me.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
Think you were going for sardonic all I'm getting is horrible bastard.
Of course, It's the only way to face off to the locals.
Farage had got very lucky with all the gambling stuff, takes the attention away from his comments. Now its all about both parties and the plod are being investigated.
That been said, I wonder, has Nige been betting? He strikes as the sort who would.
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I'm *bored* that Starmer is winning. Because he is being terribly boring and inoffensive. Where's the umph?
This bit is 'win the election' and barring a mega shock it's going to be a resounding success. Then, 5/7 onwards, he's PM. Will he be boring, cautious, ineffectual? Or will he be a good, maybe very good, PM who'll relax a bit more in public over time?
I hope and expect the second, but who knows? What I do know is that people writing him off on the basis he hasn't been a thrill-a-minute as Opposition Leader or in this GE campaign are mainly engaging in prejudice-informed guesswork.
No, we’re just mocking his cringe. In my comment immediately after my mockery (which seems to have upset so many of you so weirdly) I actually say This won’t matter as long as he learns from it. We don’t want or need him to be funny so he doesn’t have to try and he shouldn’t even try
After the last few years we will take dull but competent if he can manage it. We all know he has a tough task (I expect him to fail but I genuinely hope he succeeds)
What we don’t want is an inept politician who also makes us cringe. That will be damaging. Quit the gags Sir Kir
No point trying to backtrack now. You're really put out that he isn't making you laugh so hard it hurts every time you see him. You think it's a big deal that he doesn't (can't?) do that. So much of a big deal that it's cost him your vote.
No, you're missing the point. See also the Ryan Giggs clip. It's not just not funny, its the antithesis of funny. If funny is 1 and not funny is 0, what SKS and Ryan Giggs are are -1. Perhaps even i. It has all the cadences of humour, without the humour itself. It's awful and weirdly compelling. It's not just failing to tell a joke well, it's failing to recognise whether the story he's telling falls into the category of 'anecdote' or not. Many people aren't particularly funny. But this is more than just telling a joke which doesn't land. It's, well, weird. And certainly worthy of comment.
I think Leon has said though that he still intends to vote Labour. Doesn't mean he can't then comment on the Labour leader's oddities.
I don't miss points, Cookie, you know that.
It's just a sweet and rather forced little story in front of a bunch of stony faced teenagers. THAT is what's funny - least to me - them in the background. The awkwardness. Lol. Poor kids.
But look, it was clearly meant to be gently amusing not bring the house down. And it fell a little flat. So the fuck what? People going on about how incredibly 'cringy' it is - they are the weirdos here. Eg it's absolutely nothing next to "Peppa Pig" and "Buses".
But the good news? Leon is not voting Labour. It's Reform for our gammon with a vocab.
lol. You’re SO defensive. Is it because you’re a bit like kir royale yourself so it feels personal? Quite fascinating
If only. I am actually - to my great chagrin and discredit - far more like Boris Johnson than Keir Starmer. I so wish could change that. Too late now though.
No you’re not. Boris is a rampantly heterosexual ladies man and old Etonian and very funny and deeply deeply irresponsible. You are not irresponsible. Nor did you go to eton and so on
You are really quite like sir kir royale. A provincial upper working class lad made good in london. Hard working and sensible. Bit stiff. Intelligent and earnest. Similar age. Now in north london. Spooky!
You are so defensive about skyr because you are so alike. Perhaps you don’t realise this
Maybe he got it from here. Seriously, we're told that MPs read this site, so doesn't seem that odd that he does too.
The problem is that the rumour was already sweeping parliament, as Fink went on podcast that day and said he was told it was July, but didn't believe it as such a mad thing to do.
I’m in yet another etc etc little french town. Sauzon. Its like someone decided to build an adorable little French town on a creek and nailed it all right down to the cute dinky lighthouses
Maybe Farage hasn't spotted the different tribes of (UK - USA is different) rightish thinking people. he should read the Speccie occasionally.
Dim ones are authoritarian and rather like the smack of firm government, like Germans who make the trains run on time and the marching prowess of North Korean soldiers, and listen to military marches and like the British Legion. For them Putin is not all bad and there is not a trace of coherence in their world view.
It is possible to be a thinking very rightish person too. They are much more liberal than liberals, and while they defend the indefensible they hate all forms of authoritarianism. They have heard of Roger Scruton and some have even read him. Farage is not their man. They don't have a leader, which is a very good thing, and the concept may well be without meaning.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
I grew up in Leicestershire. The rough guide to Britain my parents bought just said that you pass through it on the M1 and the countryside is quite nice. Seems fair tbh.
I always wondered if it was a sly Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “mostly harmless” joke.
The most boring county in the uk is Hertfordshire and it also has the most boring people.
On topic, is “ Starmer winning a massive majority which could be easily overturned in 2029.” a little bigged up?
A lot of froth on top a silly stupid supermajority might by small majorities, but as you come to mere landslide or plain working majority, the % win is larger. So the maths doesn’t support “easily overturned”.
Neither does the politics look feasible. Which party is “easily overturning” Labours majority, as overturning means gaining government, mere losing majority a phrase not used here, would be to NOM.
Tory’s will be on the floor fighting for survival. They don’t just need to reclaim seats from Labour next time, which they failed to do in 2001, from a far stronger base, but from libdems, perhaps even Reform and Greens.
The memory of Tory government will live long in the voters memories too.
Neither the electoral maths or politics supports “easily overturned in 2029” as header immodestly claims.
This is one of the issues with the Labour rapid collapse scenario, which I commented on a couple of days ago.
Labour and Starmer might well quickly see their approval ratings tank. They're not that high to begin with. But for them to fall significantly in voter intention someone else needs to benefit. The Tories are going to be on the floor and it's hard to see a rapid way back for them. Reform, Green and even the Lib Dems have ceilings. And Labour is not polling that high anyway - barely above 40%. So I think the polling might defy gravity for a while even if ratings sink.
"Labour candidate suspended as Gambling Commission launches investigation
Kevin Craig was seeking to become the party's MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, but Sky News understands he placed a bet on the outcome in the seat."
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I'm *bored* that Starmer is winning. Because he is being terribly boring and inoffensive. Where's the umph?
This bit is 'win the election' and barring a mega shock it's going to be a resounding success. Then, 5/7 onwards, he's PM. Will he be boring, cautious, ineffectual? Or will he be a good, maybe very good, PM who'll relax a bit more in public over time?
I hope and expect the second, but who knows? What I do know is that people writing him off on the basis he hasn't been a thrill-a-minute as Opposition Leader or in this GE campaign are mainly engaging in prejudice-informed guesswork.
No, we’re just mocking his cringe. In my comment immediately after my mockery (which seems to have upset so many of you so weirdly) I actually say This won’t matter as long as he learns from it. We don’t want or need him to be funny so he doesn’t have to try and he shouldn’t even try
After the last few years we will take dull but competent if he can manage it. We all know he has a tough task (I expect him to fail but I genuinely hope he succeeds)
What we don’t want is an inept politician who also makes us cringe. That will be damaging. Quit the gags Sir Kir
No point trying to backtrack now. You're really put out that he isn't making you laugh so hard it hurts every time you see him. You think it's a big deal that he doesn't (can't?) do that. So much of a big deal that it's cost him your vote.
No, you're missing the point. See also the Ryan Giggs clip. It's not just not funny, its the antithesis of funny. If funny is 1 and not funny is 0, what SKS and Ryan Giggs are are -1. Perhaps even i. It has all the cadences of humour, without the humour itself. It's awful and weirdly compelling. It's not just failing to tell a joke well, it's failing to recognise whether the story he's telling falls into the category of 'anecdote' or not. Many people aren't particularly funny. But this is more than just telling a joke which doesn't land. It's, well, weird. And certainly worthy of comment.
I think Leon has said though that he still intends to vote Labour. Doesn't mean he can't then comment on the Labour leader's oddities.
Exactly right and very eloquent to boot. He doesn’t apparently understand humour at a basic level. This is like “how do you do fellow kids” but he means it
Add in the non-dreaming and third person stuff and we have a proper oddball coming into number 10. But then maybe that’s what Britain needs as we stare into the abyss
He doesn’t have a favourite poem or novel either. Hmmm. He’s the cliche of an alien trying to be human and failing. But again - that could be just the ticket
Tho TMay and Brown were a bit like this and they were disasters
The man is institutionalised after years working for the CPS. Hes a dangerous man in the sense he will be a puritan on legislating on things like ethnic minority pay gaps.
Sir Keir will basically be another Gordon Brown as PM, except if Brown had won a landslide majority for his policies
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
Yes, Herefordshire is ravishingly beautiful. If only every British county was as lovely and unspoilt!
It’s also really really noomy in the south and west as it butts up against the Welsh hills. Plus the Wye valley, the orchard lands of the east, half the malverns and half the Forest of Dean. Tintern abbey. Kilpeck. Galway. The lugg. Craswall
"...You gotta know when to Holden, and know when to fold'em ...know when to walk away, and when to run..."
To be fair it probably wasn't Holden's fault.
Some in CCHQ need to check their postcodes and maps again, delivering in rural Harlow constituency I found a few leaflets for Kemi Badenoch who is a bit further north in NW Essex
So how does a Labour candidate have inside knowledge about the surprise election date the Tory PM is about to announce?
He apparently bet on himself? Which is surely allowed?
If that’s the case I imagine Labour have acted quickly to not be accused of hypocrisy, even though I don’t really see what is wrong with it if he bet on himself.
Edit: if he bet against himself of course that is different
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I'm *bored* that Starmer is winning. Because he is being terribly boring and inoffensive. Where's the umph?
This bit is 'win the election' and barring a mega shock it's going to be a resounding success. Then, 5/7 onwards, he's PM. Will he be boring, cautious, ineffectual? Or will he be a good, maybe very good, PM who'll relax a bit more in public over time?
I hope and expect the second, but who knows? What I do know is that people writing him off on the basis he hasn't been a thrill-a-minute as Opposition Leader or in this GE campaign are mainly engaging in prejudice-informed guesswork.
No, we’re just mocking his cringe. In my comment immediately after my mockery (which seems to have upset so many of you so weirdly) I actually say This won’t matter as long as he learns from it. We don’t want or need him to be funny so he doesn’t have to try and he shouldn’t even try
After the last few years we will take dull but competent if he can manage it. We all know he has a tough task (I expect him to fail but I genuinely hope he succeeds)
What we don’t want is an inept politician who also makes us cringe. That will be damaging. Quit the gags Sir Kir
No point trying to backtrack now. You're really put out that he isn't making you laugh so hard it hurts every time you see him. You think it's a big deal that he doesn't (can't?) do that. So much of a big deal that it's cost him your vote.
No, you're missing the point. See also the Ryan Giggs clip. It's not just not funny, its the antithesis of funny. If funny is 1 and not funny is 0, what SKS and Ryan Giggs are are -1. Perhaps even i. It has all the cadences of humour, without the humour itself. It's awful and weirdly compelling. It's not just failing to tell a joke well, it's failing to recognise whether the story he's telling falls into the category of 'anecdote' or not. Many people aren't particularly funny. But this is more than just telling a joke which doesn't land. It's, well, weird. And certainly worthy of comment.
I think Leon has said though that he still intends to vote Labour. Doesn't mean he can't then comment on the Labour leader's oddities.
Does no one recall Mrs T's attempts at humour ?
Ha, yes, I was thinking that actually. That was almost the opposite. Thatch had relatively good jokes (whether they were her own or scripted for her is another matter) but she got the delivery absolutely horribly wrong, as if she'd never seen a joke delivered before. SKS has clearly seen a joke delivered before but appears not to recognise what distinguishes an anecdote from not-an-anecdote.
The other aspect to the clip was the bored kids. I mean, it was a boring story, but come on kids - it might have gone somewhere. And even its failure to do so is interesting. And that's the future Prime Minister there talking to you. There is some top grade determination to be bored going on there. Absolute terror of showing enthusiasm in case it arouses mockery from your peers. Well done lads.
No one even claimed that thatcher was “funny in private” which is the normal get around. Cf starmer, brown, etc
However thatcher was interestingly bohemian - liked a drink, good red wine or scotch - at lunch! - and liked artistic company. And she was seriously intelligent on any number of subjects. People used to sneer at her intellect - I think she had had the last laugh
Probably the smartest PM of the modern era? Wilson was famously clever but thatcher had a much broader vision
Of recent PMs I think Blair is the brightest
Although cast by her enemies as a philistine she was genuinely interested in ideas. Writers like VS Naipaul and Kingsley Amis attended events at No 10 and were impressed by her - and it wouldn't be easy to impress either Naipaul or Amis, that's for sure. And I can't imagine any of her successors doing so.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
Not through towns it shouldn't.
To be fair, 50mph would reduce the number of ambulances required because everyone hit by a car would just die. So there’s that in “favour”.
Its 60/70 mph on the through roads in nearby MK right up to the city centre.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
No, not having Cheshire as boring, either on traditional or modern boundaries. Cheshire has some National Park, for as start. Cheshire has Joddrell Bank, one of the seven wonders of the North West* Cheshire has the rows and walls of Chester, the Peckforton Hills, the Anderton Boat Lift, Stockport Bus Station, Port Sunlight, the Dee Estuary, Helsby Hill, Little Moreton Hall, Gawsworth Hall, Alderley Edge. Cheshire has the books of Alan Garner. Cheshire has the Macc Lads. Cheshire has a panhandle. Cheshire has Lyme Park. Cheshire is, what, the seventh highest county in the country (or thereabouts). Boring this place is not.
Cheshire is less instantly exciting than most of the other northern counties, but beats most of the Midlands and South East. Imagine one of those calendars you get in moderately upmarket garden centres. Cheshire's calendars will beat at least 50% of other counties into a cocked hat.
I would say most boring county probably Huntingdonshire. Highest point in Huntingdonshire? Boring Field. QED, my friends, QED. Other clearly more boring counties than Cheshire include Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
I grew up in Leicestershire. The rough guide to Britain my parents bought just said that you pass through it on the M1 and the countryside is quite nice. Seems fair tbh.
I always wondered if it was a sly Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “mostly harmless” joke.
The most boring county in the uk is Hertfordshire and it also has the most boring people.
A candidate if you took out St Alban's and Hatfield House. But yes, in the top few for boringness.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
Yes, Herefordshire is ravishingly beautiful. If only every British county was as lovely and unspoilt!
It’s also really really noomy in the south and west as it butts up against the Welsh hills. Plus the Wye valley, the orchard lands of the east, half the malverns and half the Forest of Dean. Tintern abbey. Kilpeck. Galway. The lugg. Craswall
We were staying in Creuse (Dun-le-Palestel) the night Princess Diana was killed. In the bakery on Sunday morning the locals lined up to offer condolences, which I solemnly accepted on behalf of the nation. Doesn't make it interesting, but it does make it memorable.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
No, not having Cheshire as boring, either on traditional or modern boundaries. Cheshire has some National Park, for as start. Cheshire has Joddrell Bank, one of the seven wonders of the North West* Cheshire has the rows and walls of Chester, the Peckforton Hills, the Anderton Boat Lift, Stockport Bus Station, Port Sunlight, the Dee Estuary, Helsby Hill, Little Moreton Hall, Gawsworth Hall, Alderley Edge. Cheshire has the books of Alan Garner. Cheshire has the Macc Lads. Cheshire has a panhandle. Cheshire has Lyme Park. Cheshire is, what, the seventh highest county in the country (or thereabouts). Boring this place is not.
Cheshire is less instantly exciting than most of the other northern counties, but beats most of the Midlands and South East. Imagine one of those calendars you get in moderately upmarket garden centres. Cheshire's calendars will beat at least 50% of other counties into a cocked hat.
I would say most boring county probably Huntingdonshire. Highest point in Huntingdonshire? Boring Field. QED, my friends, QED. Other clearly more boring counties than Cheshire include Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
And you can actually get odds on the Tories holding Huntingdon, when within most PB’ers living memory it was the Tories safest seat.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
For some of the weirdos on here who are absolutely obsessed with 20mph speed limits, driving at 30mph through a town makes them feel all manly.
30mph through a town is pretty staid and slow. 20 is absurdly slow.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
Not through towns it shouldn't.
To be fair, 50mph would reduce the number of ambulances required because everyone hit by a car would just die. So there’s that in “favour”.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
No, not having Cheshire as boring, either on traditional or modern boundaries. Cheshire has some National Park, for as start. Cheshire has Joddrell Bank, one of the seven wonders of the North West* Cheshire has the rows and walls of Chester, the Peckforton Hills, the Anderton Boat Lift, Stockport Bus Station, Port Sunlight, the Dee Estuary, Helsby Hill, Little Moreton Hall, Gawsworth Hall, Alderley Edge. Cheshire has the books of Alan Garner. Cheshire has the Macc Lads. Cheshire has a panhandle. Cheshire has Lyme Park. Cheshire is, what, the seventh highest county in the country (or thereabouts). Boring this place is not.
Cheshire is less instantly exciting than most of the other northern counties, but beats most of the Midlands and South East. Imagine one of those calendars you get in moderately upmarket garden centres. Cheshire's calendars will beat at least 50% of other counties into a cocked hat.
I would say most boring county probably Huntingdonshire. Highest point in Huntingdonshire? Boring Field. QED, my friends, QED. Other clearly more boring counties than Cheshire include Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
I offer an unconditional surrender. But you are not having Lincolnshire (England's most interesting county) or Northamptonshire (most underestimated). Nottinghamshire you can have; I had forgotten it existed.
Its not that daft if you think about. Depending on the odds, if you get a decent bet on yourself to lose, it could cover the cost of the time you spent not working and out campaigning. If you happen to win, well you are on the Westminster gravy train for 5 years.
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I'm *bored* that Starmer is winning. Because he is being terribly boring and inoffensive. Where's the umph?
This bit is 'win the election' and barring a mega shock it's going to be a resounding success. Then, 5/7 onwards, he's PM. Will he be boring, cautious, ineffectual? Or will he be a good, maybe very good, PM who'll relax a bit more in public over time?
I hope and expect the second, but who knows? What I do know is that people writing him off on the basis he hasn't been a thrill-a-minute as Opposition Leader or in this GE campaign are mainly engaging in prejudice-informed guesswork.
No, we’re just mocking his cringe. In my comment immediately after my mockery (which seems to have upset so many of you so weirdly) I actually say This won’t matter as long as he learns from it. We don’t want or need him to be funny so he doesn’t have to try and he shouldn’t even try
After the last few years we will take dull but competent if he can manage it. We all know he has a tough task (I expect him to fail but I genuinely hope he succeeds)
What we don’t want is an inept politician who also makes us cringe. That will be damaging. Quit the gags Sir Kir
No point trying to backtrack now. You're really put out that he isn't making you laugh so hard it hurts every time you see him. You think it's a big deal that he doesn't (can't?) do that. So much of a big deal that it's cost him your vote.
No, you're missing the point. See also the Ryan Giggs clip. It's not just not funny, its the antithesis of funny. If funny is 1 and not funny is 0, what SKS and Ryan Giggs are are -1. Perhaps even i. It has all the cadences of humour, without the humour itself. It's awful and weirdly compelling. It's not just failing to tell a joke well, it's failing to recognise whether the story he's telling falls into the category of 'anecdote' or not. Many people aren't particularly funny. But this is more than just telling a joke which doesn't land. It's, well, weird. And certainly worthy of comment.
I think Leon has said though that he still intends to vote Labour. Doesn't mean he can't then comment on the Labour leader's oddities.
Exactly right and very eloquent to boot. He doesn’t apparently understand humour at a basic level. This is like “how do you do fellow kids” but he means it
Add in the non-dreaming and third person stuff and we have a proper oddball coming into number 10. But then maybe that’s what Britain needs as we stare into the abyss
He doesn’t have a favourite poem or novel either. Hmmm. He’s the cliche of an alien trying to be human and failing. But again - that could be just the ticket
Tho TMay and Brown were a bit like this and they were disasters
The man is institutionalised after years working for the CPS. Hes a dangerous man in the sense he will be a puritan on legislating on things like ethnic minority pay gaps.
Sir Keir will basically be another Gordon Brown as PM, except if Brown had won a landslide majority for his policies
You're obsessed with how everything that might happen is somehow just the same as something that happened before. It's really weird. Like you've only got five slots in your head and everything has to conform to one of those. 1. The 1997 election 2. Gordon Brown 3. The Russell Group 4. A cat 5. The monarchy
Here, HYUFD, here's a picture of my dog "It's basically like a cat only larger and with a longer nose"
Hey, HYUFD, did you see Eurovision? "Yes, it was like the the 1997 election only with a jury system and more political parties. The winner was basically Gordon Brown if Gordon Brown had been a 24 year old woman from Azerbaijan who was dancing on a floor screen the size of 400 cats. Yass queen [consort, HRH Camilla]"
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Oi.
Nothing boring about Bedfordshire. Quite small but have some splendid countryside that is the equal of anything in the Cotswolds and market towns and far enough out of London to be beyond the worst of the stockbroker belt. They get as far as Luton (our London Inner City type borough) and turn back.
And no ULEZ, Congestion Charge or 20mph limits (except short bits by schools)
"Bedfordshire isn't boring because [checks notes] you can drive at 30mph" I was going to plump for Herefordshire, but you've just converted me to the Bedfordshire camp.
Herefordshire is a stunningly beautiful county. Lots of uphill and down dale rather than flat sandpit Bedfordshire. OK, the people are like the duelling banjo players from Deliverance if very much more scary.
Yes, Herefordshire is ravishingly beautiful. If only every British county was as lovely and unspoilt!
It’s also really really noomy in the south and west as it butts up against the Welsh hills. Plus the Wye valley, the orchard lands of the east, half the malverns and half the Forest of Dean. Tintern abbey. Kilpeck. Galway. The lugg. Craswall
One of the happiest days of my life was a bike ride I did from Lyonshall to Hay on Wye and back again. Just absolutely perfect. Big blue skies, hot and silent. Every pub looked inviting. I crossed over into Wales and rode over the Begwns. My expectation is that less than 5% of this board will have heard of the Begwns, and yet it is one of the most spectacular locations in the country; views over the Wye Valley to the Black Mountains, east into the appealing loveliness of Herefordshire, North and West into the drama of Wales. I was there at midday: I understand it is spectacular at dawn and dusk. And yet almost noone has heard of it. That's the marches for you.
Its not that daft if you think about. Depending on the odds, if you get a decent bet on yourself to lose, it could cover the cost of the time you spent not working and out campaigning. If you happen to win, well you are on the Westminster gravy train for 5 years.
Although, it rather requires nobody knowing you have placed the bet...
Like "Peppa Pig" from the amusefest that was Boris Johnson wasn't the fucking cringiest thing ever from a politician.
C'mon. Get a grip. Various people are just pissed off Starmer's winning.
I'm *bored* that Starmer is winning. Because he is being terribly boring and inoffensive. Where's the umph?
This bit is 'win the election' and barring a mega shock it's going to be a resounding success. Then, 5/7 onwards, he's PM. Will he be boring, cautious, ineffectual? Or will he be a good, maybe very good, PM who'll relax a bit more in public over time?
I hope and expect the second, but who knows? What I do know is that people writing him off on the basis he hasn't been a thrill-a-minute as Opposition Leader or in this GE campaign are mainly engaging in prejudice-informed guesswork.
No, we’re just mocking his cringe. In my comment immediately after my mockery (which seems to have upset so many of you so weirdly) I actually say This won’t matter as long as he learns from it. We don’t want or need him to be funny so he doesn’t have to try and he shouldn’t even try
After the last few years we will take dull but competent if he can manage it. We all know he has a tough task (I expect him to fail but I genuinely hope he succeeds)
What we don’t want is an inept politician who also makes us cringe. That will be damaging. Quit the gags Sir Kir
No point trying to backtrack now. You're really put out that he isn't making you laugh so hard it hurts every time you see him. You think it's a big deal that he doesn't (can't?) do that. So much of a big deal that it's cost him your vote.
No, you're missing the point. See also the Ryan Giggs clip. It's not just not funny, its the antithesis of funny. If funny is 1 and not funny is 0, what SKS and Ryan Giggs are are -1. Perhaps even i. It has all the cadences of humour, without the humour itself. It's awful and weirdly compelling. It's not just failing to tell a joke well, it's failing to recognise whether the story he's telling falls into the category of 'anecdote' or not. Many people aren't particularly funny. But this is more than just telling a joke which doesn't land. It's, well, weird. And certainly worthy of comment.
I think Leon has said though that he still intends to vote Labour. Doesn't mean he can't then comment on the Labour leader's oddities.
Exactly right and very eloquent to boot. He doesn’t apparently understand humour at a basic level. This is like “how do you do fellow kids” but he means it
Add in the non-dreaming and third person stuff and we have a proper oddball coming into number 10. But then maybe that’s what Britain needs as we stare into the abyss
He doesn’t have a favourite poem or novel either. Hmmm. He’s the cliche of an alien trying to be human and failing. But again - that could be just the ticket
Tho TMay and Brown were a bit like this and they were disasters
The man is institutionalised after years working for the CPS. Hes a dangerous man in the sense he will be a puritan on legislating on things like ethnic minority pay gaps.
Sir Keir will basically be another Gordon Brown as PM, except if Brown had won a landslide majority for his policies
You're obsessed with how everything that might happen is somehow just the same as something that happened before. It's really weird. Like you've only got five slots in your head and everything has to conform to one of those. 1. The 1997 election 2. Gordon Brown 3. The Russell Group 4. A cat 5. The monarchy
Here, HYUFD, here's a picture of my dog "It's basically like a cat only larger and with a longer nose"
Hey, HYUFD, did you see Eurovision? "Yes, it was like the the 1997 election only with a jury system and more political parties. The winner was basically Gordon Brown if Gordon Brown had been a 24 year old woman from Azerbaijan who was dancing on a floor screen the size of 400 cats. Yass queen [consort, HRH Camilla]"
The Labour guy has been suspended FOR BETTING ON HIMSELF TO LOSE. No this is too much.
Seriously, how the eff am I meant to keep on writing threads if we keep on getting plot twists like this?
A few days ago folks were writing here that the election is dull. It's absolutely got the lot. Epoch making potential; comedy gold; no idea what sort of majority Labour will get; no idea what any new government can do to sort the country. Dull?
On topic, is “ Starmer winning a massive majority which could be easily overturned in 2029.” a little bigged up?
A lot of froth on top a silly stupid supermajority might by small majorities, but as you come to mere landslide or plain working majority, the % win is larger. So the maths doesn’t support “easily overturned”.
Neither does the politics look feasible. Which party is “easily overturning” Labours majority, as overturning means gaining government, mere losing majority a phrase not used here, would be to NOM.
Tory’s will be on the floor fighting for survival. They don’t just need to reclaim seats from Labour next time, which they failed to do in 2001, from a far stronger base, but from libdems, perhaps even Reform and Greens.
The memory of Tory government will live long in the voters memories too.
Neither the electoral maths or politics supports “easily overturned in 2029” as header immodestly claims.
This is one of the issues with the Labour rapid collapse scenario, which I commented on a couple of days ago.
Labour and Starmer might well quickly see their approval ratings tank. They're not that high to begin with. But for them to fall significantly in voter intention someone else needs to benefit. The Tories are going to be on the floor and it's hard to see a rapid way back for them. Reform, Green and even the Lib Dems have ceilings. And Labour is not polling that high anyway - barely above 40%. So I think the polling might defy gravity for a while even if ratings sink.
Actually I expect the opposite.
A new, honeymoon, government typically sees its ratings rise rather than fall as people who didn't back the winner retrospectively do.
And Reform are going to die and fade into insignificance as they get either no, or next to no, MPs.
The Tories are going to be riven and fighting each other and an irrelevance until they find a Cameron style reformer.
So Labour over 50% in the polls before the end of the year wouldn't surprise me at all.
So how does a Labour candidate have inside knowledge about the surprise election date the Tory PM is about to announce?
We’re approaching the point where the question arises as to how no-one on PB knew in advance?
Apart, maybe, from moonrabbit.
I knew, I know it gauche to point out my brilliance and modest fellow that I am but I did tip a July election back in March at 20s when MoonRabbit was spamming the site with why it would be a May election.
It’s completely unfair that France gets all this natural beauty (and better weather, and slimmer women) while we have Newent, Wick and @kinabalu’s golf club
I’m therefore trying to cheer myself out of my jealousy by working out what is the most boring, least interesting department of France. The obvious choice would be somewhere in Picardy but I think I’ve found a prime candidate
Creuse. It seems to be the ultimate nowhere land smack bang in the middle of the country. It has a tiny population with only lozere smaller (in departments) but Lozere is quite spectacular -moors, mountains, megaliths and ravines
Creuse has… farms. And a town that used to make tapestries. That seems to be it
Is it that bad? Has anyone been? How boring is creuse?
If we're comparing like with like then you'll need to see what if offers vis a vis Bedfordshire.
Hah. I did for a moment wonder about the “most boring county in Britain” and yes Bedfordshire floated into my head
Yes, Bedfordshire is boringest county (traditional boundaries) by some way. The competition is for number 2. Staffordshire or Cheshire perhaps. But even Bedfordshire has a lifetime of interest in it. Marston Moretaine; Elstow; Shillington; Luton Central Mosque interior; Luton bus station at night; Luton Airport departure lounge.
No, not having Cheshire as boring, either on traditional or modern boundaries. Cheshire has some National Park, for as start. Cheshire has Joddrell Bank, one of the seven wonders of the North West* Cheshire has the rows and walls of Chester, the Peckforton Hills, the Anderton Boat Lift, Stockport Bus Station, Port Sunlight, the Dee Estuary, Helsby Hill, Little Moreton Hall, Gawsworth Hall, Alderley Edge. Cheshire has the books of Alan Garner. Cheshire has the Macc Lads. Cheshire has a panhandle. Cheshire has Lyme Park. Cheshire is, what, the seventh highest county in the country (or thereabouts). Boring this place is not.
Cheshire is less instantly exciting than most of the other northern counties, but beats most of the Midlands and South East. Imagine one of those calendars you get in moderately upmarket garden centres. Cheshire's calendars will beat at least 50% of other counties into a cocked hat.
I would say most boring county probably Huntingdonshire. Highest point in Huntingdonshire? Boring Field. QED, my friends, QED. Other clearly more boring counties than Cheshire include Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
I offer an unconditional surrender. But you are not having Lincolnshire (England's most interesting county) or Northamptonshire (most underestimated). Nottinghamshire you can have; I had forgotten it existed.
Go on then, offer a defence of Lincolnshire? I do actually quite like a reason to go to Lincolnshire - the flatness feels quite exotic. It is quite unlike most of the rest of England. I like Lincoln, and I like Boston Stump, and the Fens are strangely compelling. But England's most interesting?
Comments
Bleak, empty, farmland stretching to horizon. And very very very flat.
Some might like it though. Bit noomy in the right light.
OTOH, it's pretty well what the Tories are telling trans individuals, so turn about, I guess.
The speed limit should be 40-50 in most places.
“Maybe – just maybe – this past week was the moment when Farage’s attempt to become the undisputed leader of the right in the UK faltered.”
https://x.com/NewStatesman/status/1805632260260925789
FOAF - let's call him Steve because I honestly can't remember his name - used to work with Mark Baker in an office job.
Now Mark had studied animation at Middlesex poly, and had done bits and bobs for various projects for a couple of decades, so clearly knew a bit about the industry, but it wasn't paying the bills and he needed a regular job.
Mark was always doodling these funny little animal characters with both eyes on the same side of their heads. "What do you think of these Steve?" he would ask. Steve was polite but could summon little enthusiasm. Nobody could.
Unfortunately, some time around the late 90s/early noughties, he was made redundant, and the pressure was on (I think he had a family to support) to try to earn some money out of animation again. He had these little animal characters, but no-one seemed interested. Finally, he got some interest from Channel 4: they offered him what Steve thought an astonishing £40,000 for the rights to Peppa. With no money, and no ready source of income, Mark took the incomprehensible decision of turning them down. "I just think they're worth more than that."
A year later, Steve met Mark in the pub. "My daughter watches your Peppa on Channel 5 - did you manage to sell them in the end then?" "No, I kept hold of the rights. Does she want some merchandise?" Three days later, a truck turned up at Steve's house with more Peppa merchandise than any sane family could want or need.
Fifteen years later, Mark Baker and his co-animators sold most of their stake in Astley Baker Davies for £47m each.
Fair play to them. I wonder how many people would have turned down the £40,000? I don't think I would have done.
I owned a factory in La Creuse and commuted there for 4 years. Its a cultural vacuum. Parisians laugh at it as the arsehole of France - but thts a level of national pride I never understood - it's worse than that. It's the kind of place where the swingers sleep with their other sister. The town I stayed in had an Irish Pub called le Loch Ness I couldnt be arsed explaining but that was international division of the departement. For years it held the record of the only department without a Michelin star, its population has been on the slide for a century and has only pepped up in the last decade or so because nitwit english are buying houses there. Houses they will never be able to sell unless some numpty like Pater Mayle is sponsored to write ficion by the local estate agents
Surpisingly for what is quite an agricultural area it votes far left. All those years of interbreeding with their cousins and their livestock have produced some seriously screwed up people. When I was driving to Limoges airport to go home I passed signs for Oradour sur Glane and had to suppress my guilt that I understood where the 2SS Division Das Reich were coming from. There is next to no industry and what there is the locals try to wreck as they are all paid up members of the CGT the manic communist union. The type of people who key your car and knife your tyres if your negotiating wages. Meanwhile the local plods just stand back and watch.
And it's not just me, Macron famously had a bust up with people at the factory ( after my time )
https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/creuse/visite-presidentielle-en-creuse-les-salaries-de-lsi-ex-gm-s-mobilises-pour-recevoir-le-chef-de-l-etat-2431768.html
and then they went even madder and got a leftie documentarist to push them on - he won the Palme dOr at Cannes
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/blow-it-bits-va-tout-peter-review-1210444/#!
There is sod all in the place except the people who cant leave, some charolais cattle who are smarter than their owners and regular riots. By all means visit, it will give you an appreciation for the dynamism and jet setting which is rural Suffolk. But dont try bedding the locals its a french SSI and you'll disrupt the gene pool. Anyway if the women have 3 legs how do you know youve got the right crevice, you could be unlucky and enter the one with the penis.
How did he know?
I drive at 40-50 most of the distance I travel through town, on the A-roads.
The local residential roads shouldn't be the arteries.
LOL....I did say when they start looking at this, its going to go all over the place. It will be journalists next.
Edit: "Kevin is an expert in political communications, crisis management, and corporate communications." - Time to deploy the crisis management tactics.
Anyway, it's very good.
*other definitions are available
I always wondered if it was a sly Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “mostly harmless” joke.
You'd expect the Tories to be a bit better-organised than Refuk (especially in the chairman's seat!), but it's obviously the sort of mix-up that happens fairly frequently.
That's Fridays 'missing' You Gov, rather out of date now
Fortunately some of the population took themselves off on the Mayflower.
And one of the most important of the many & very, is policing to ensure that direct mail goes to postal addresses of voters who are actually within whatever district we're mailing into.
One source of error, is when the master list has voters from variety of relevant jurisdictions. For example, having a list for voters in a particular city . . . then finding out that it also includes voters in the same county BUT a different city.
This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone . . . even yours truly!
What is required is a) experienced list-mongers; and b) double-checks, and triple-checks, for quality control.
HOWEVER, clear over last few years that "quality control" is NOT a concern for early-21st century Tory Party.
A lot of froth on top a silly stupid supermajority might by small majorities, but as you come to mere landslide or plain working majority, the % win is larger. So the maths doesn’t support “easily overturned”.
Neither does the politics look feasible. Which party is “easily overturning” Labours majority, as overturning means gaining government, mere losing majority a phrase not used here, would be to NOM.
Tory’s will be on the floor fighting for survival. They don’t just need to reclaim seats from Labour next time, which they failed to do in 2001, from a far stronger base, but from libdems, perhaps even Reform and Greens.
The memory of Tory government will live long in the voters memories too.
Neither the electoral maths or politics supports “easily overturned in 2029” as header immodestly claims.
That been said, I wonder, has Nige been betting? He strikes as the sort who would.
You are really quite like sir kir royale. A provincial upper working class lad made good in london. Hard working and sensible. Bit stiff. Intelligent and earnest. Similar age. Now in north london. Spooky!
You are so defensive about skyr because you are so alike. Perhaps you don’t realise this
You can't really be Black without being politically "Black". If you're not you're worse than those they'd expect to be Tories; you're a traitor.
This sort of stuff really pisses Kemi off, quite aside from it being personal and nasty, which is why she's reacted in the way she has.
Dim ones are authoritarian and rather like the smack of firm government, like Germans who make the trains run on time and the marching prowess of North Korean soldiers, and listen to military marches and like the British Legion. For them Putin is not all bad and there is not a trace of coherence in their world view.
It is possible to be a thinking very rightish person too. They are much more liberal than liberals, and while they defend the indefensible they hate all forms of authoritarianism. They have heard of Roger Scruton and some have even read him. Farage is not their man. They don't have a leader, which is a very good thing, and the concept may well be without meaning.
Labour and Starmer might well quickly see their approval ratings tank. They're not that high to begin with. But for them to fall significantly in voter intention someone else needs to benefit. The Tories are going to be on the floor and it's hard to see a rapid way back for them. Reform, Green and even the Lib Dems have ceilings. And Labour is not polling that high anyway - barely above 40%. So I think the polling might defy gravity for a while even if ratings sink.
https://news.sky.com/story/labour-candidate-suspended-as-gambling-commission-launches-investigation-13158716
"Labour candidate suspended as Gambling Commission launches investigation
Kevin Craig was seeking to become the party's MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, but Sky News understands he placed a bet on the outcome in the seat."
It’s also really really noomy in the south and west as it butts up against the Welsh hills. Plus the Wye valley, the orchard lands of the east, half the malverns and half the Forest of Dean. Tintern abbey. Kilpeck. Galway. The lugg. Craswall
A speccie travel piece on it here
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-welsh-marches-englands-foodie-frontier/
Apart, maybe, from moonrabbit.
https://x.com/craig4monty/status/1805605565688627666
Some in CCHQ need to check their postcodes and maps again, delivering in rural Harlow constituency I found a few leaflets for Kemi Badenoch who is a bit further north in NW Essex
If that’s the case I imagine Labour have acted quickly to not be accused of hypocrisy, even though I don’t really see what is wrong with it if he bet on himself.
Edit: if he bet against himself of course that is different
The Labour guy has been suspended FOR BETTING ON HIMSELF TO LOSE. No this is too much.
Cheshire is less instantly exciting than most of the other northern counties, but beats most of the Midlands and South East. Imagine one of those calendars you get in moderately upmarket garden centres. Cheshire's calendars will beat at least 50% of other counties into a cocked hat.
I would say most boring county probably Huntingdonshire. Highest point in Huntingdonshire? Boring Field. QED, my friends, QED.
Other clearly more boring counties than Cheshire include Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
Edit - LOL he bet on himself losing. If it’s big amounts that’s much worse than the Tories.
"Hold my pint..."
1. The 1997 election
2. Gordon Brown
3. The Russell Group
4. A cat
5. The monarchy
Here, HYUFD, here's a picture of my dog
"It's basically like a cat only larger and with a longer nose"
Hey, HYUFD, did you see Eurovision?
"Yes, it was like the the 1997 election only with a jury system and more political parties. The winner was basically Gordon Brown if Gordon Brown had been a 24 year old woman from Azerbaijan who was dancing on a floor screen the size of 400 cats. Yass queen [consort, HRH Camilla]"
No wonder we are a failing country.
"Labour: no longer winning here. Says their candidate...."
A new, honeymoon, government typically sees its ratings rise rather than fall as people who didn't back the winner retrospectively do.
And Reform are going to die and fade into insignificance as they get either no, or next to no, MPs.
The Tories are going to be riven and fighting each other and an irrelevance until they find a Cameron style reformer.
So Labour over 50% in the polls before the end of the year wouldn't surprise me at all.
“Tough on betting, tough on the causes of betting.”
I do actually quite like a reason to go to Lincolnshire - the flatness feels quite exotic. It is quite unlike most of the rest of England. I like Lincoln, and I like Boston Stump, and the Fens are strangely compelling. But England's most interesting?