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Your afternoon watch – politicalbetting.com

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  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110

    Overcast in New York.

    The sultry heatwave of the last weeks - the kind of heatwave that drove Sylvia Plath mad in the Belljar - has abated a tad.

    New York architecture is sometimes awful, but America followed a Beaux-Arts tradition right up into the 1940s, which has left a much handsomer legacy than much anything London managed in the 20th century.

    Not true. Hampstead Garden Suburb can be stunning (which is no doubt why it was copied worldwide). It's all 20th century

    London went wrong somewhere around 1930-40, and really wrong in the postwar years. But then so did almost everywhere on earth

    There are hopeful signs. One of the few good things Boris did as mayor AND PM was introduce an architectural template, called the New London Vernacular. It generally means richly detailed brickwork (very London) - NOT concrete, and proper windows and doors on streets, and the like

    Once you learn of it you see it everywhere

    https://in.pinterest.com/pin/453385887507354098/

    It's not all good by any means, but on average it is much better than 90% of the stuff built 1945-2000, and when it's really nice it's beautiful
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,434

    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    F*** me! That's hardly going to sell a million copies of the Sun on Sunday!

    When you said gossip I assumed you meant salacious gossip!
    Woman finds Cornwall “utterly enchanting”.
    It’s up there with writing about watching paint dry.
    Which we had yesterday.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 33,131

    Has somebody hacked Leon's account?

    Bear in mind that he's been to a marvellous party. This is probably a good thing.
    A marvellous party full of awful pseuds like Leon, Rod Liddle, Tim Shipman, Sean Thomas, and Michael Gove...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    This is Britain today. Randomly chosen. This photo could easily have been taken in newent or Rotherham or Bradford or Birmingham

    Does this look like a place on the verge of “civil strife”????

    lol


    No it couldn't.

    Newent doesn't have any tacky pseudo-Georgian fountains.
    Pseudo-Georgian? This is the frigging Regent’s Park you thicko

    Who was the Regent? George. Prince Regent. George. Of the Georgian era

    He literally ordained this park and its palatial surrounds. This is Georgian Central. It’s like you just said St Peter’s Basilica “isn’t very papal”
    The Triton Fountain was installed in 1950.

    Before that the place was a greenhouse.

    (Never believe anything you are told by a Londoner; they are all spivs in varying degrees.)
    That's not the Triton fountain. The Triton fountain is in the Inner Circle by Queen Mary's Gardens
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,368
    This has been de facto reality for a while, but it's probably a good idea to market it, especially to a sceptical US administration.

    Ukraine launches the “Test in Ukraine” program — foreign manufacturers will be allowed to test the latest weapons directly on the battlefield against the Russian Federation, — Reuters
    https://x.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1946103788760183229
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 35,283
    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    Were they not wearing burqas?

    Apologies if I've remembered the religion of the accused incorrectly.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,274
    Leon said:

    Overcast in New York.

    The sultry heatwave of the last weeks - the kind of heatwave that drove Sylvia Plath mad in the Belljar - has abated a tad.

    New York architecture is sometimes awful, but America followed a Beaux-Arts tradition right up into the 1940s, which has left a much handsomer legacy than much anything London managed in the 20th century.

    Not true. Hampstead Garden Suburb can be stunning (which is no doubt why it was copied worldwide). It's all 20th century

    London went wrong somewhere around 1930-40, and really wrong in the postwar years. But then so did almost everywhere on earth

    There are hopeful signs. One of the few good things Boris did as mayor AND PM was introduce an architectural template, called the New London Vernacular. It generally means richly detailed brickwork (very London) - NOT concrete, and proper windows and doors on streets, and the like

    Once you learn of it you see it everywhere

    https://in.pinterest.com/pin/453385887507354098/

    It's not all good by any means, but on average it is much better than 90% of the stuff built 1945-2000, and when it's really nice it's beautiful
    HGS is all about the topiary.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    edited July 18

    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    F*** me! That's hardly going to sell a million copies of the Sun on Sunday!

    When you said gossip I assumed you meant salacious gossip!
    Woman finds Cornwall “utterly enchanting”.
    It’s up there with writing about watching paint dry.
    Which we had yesterday.
    It's interesting, to me, because I am Cornish, and I am very used to the place, and find it pleasant, sometimes deeply pleasant - but decidedly unexciting. I think Brits over-rate it

    But then you discover an American absolutely loves it, and you realise that with fresh eyes it probably is quite "magical"

    Whether this interests some tiresome bourgeois money manager like you is of no concern to me
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Overcast in New York.

    The sultry heatwave of the last weeks - the kind of heatwave that drove Sylvia Plath mad in the Belljar - has abated a tad.

    New York architecture is sometimes awful, but America followed a Beaux-Arts tradition right up into the 1940s, which has left a much handsomer legacy than much anything London managed in the 20th century.

    Not true. Hampstead Garden Suburb can be stunning (which is no doubt why it was copied worldwide). It's all 20th century

    London went wrong somewhere around 1930-40, and really wrong in the postwar years. But then so did almost everywhere on earth

    There are hopeful signs. One of the few good things Boris did as mayor AND PM was introduce an architectural template, called the New London Vernacular. It generally means richly detailed brickwork (very London) - NOT concrete, and proper windows and doors on streets, and the like

    Once you learn of it you see it everywhere

    https://in.pinterest.com/pin/453385887507354098/

    It's not all good by any means, but on average it is much better than 90% of the stuff built 1945-2000, and when it's really nice it's beautiful
    HGS is all about the topiary.
    That's not true either. The best bits were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens himself: an absolute stone cold architectural genius
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,368

    Has somebody hacked Leon's account?

    Bear in mind that he's been to a marvellous party. This is probably a good thing.
    A marvellous party full of awful pseuds like Leon, Rod Liddle, Tim Shipman, Sean Thomas, and Michael Gove...
    What a swell party...
    "Havin' a nice time?
    Grab a line"
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,274
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    You know who did claim to have been at uni with the Unabomber ?

    Q: "On Tuesday the president told a very detailed story about his uncle, John Trump, and Theodore Kaczynski, the late Unabomber. He said Dr. Trump taught Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was not identified as the Unabomber until 1996, 11 years after John Trump passed away. It would have been impossible for John Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the president. So what was he talking about?"

    Leavitt: "With so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question...The president's uncle did teach at MIT."

    https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1945910740478513349

    Donald's good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    It's dragging in all sorts of false trails to confuse the hounds.
    MAGA: The WSJ story is fake. That’s not how Trump talks. He never uses the word “enigma.”

    Roll the tape. Trump: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1946219558051684683
    And the guy who "never draws pictures" is an incessant doodler. I suppose he must say truthful things occasionally. Nobody can lie the whole time surely.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 35,283
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    You know who did claim to have been at uni with the Unabomber ?

    Q: "On Tuesday the president told a very detailed story about his uncle, John Trump, and Theodore Kaczynski, the late Unabomber. He said Dr. Trump taught Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was not identified as the Unabomber until 1996, 11 years after John Trump passed away. It would have been impossible for John Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the president. So what was he talking about?"

    Leavitt: "With so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question...The president's uncle did teach at MIT."

    https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1945910740478513349

    Donald's good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    It's dragging in all sorts of false trails to confuse the hounds.
    MAGA: The WSJ story is fake. That’s not how Trump talks. He never uses the word “enigma.”

    Roll the tape. Trump: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1946219558051684683
    And the guy who "never draws pictures" is an incessant doodler. I suppose he must say truthful things occasionally. Nobody can lie the whole time surely.
    Have you not been here long?

  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 6,033

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    I don’t know why people are so down on the British economy

    I’ve literally just walked from St James and through St James Park, then across the Mall to St James Palace and onwards - ever onwards - past Buck House and Piccadilly and the Ritz and now I’m on Albermarle St with the art galleries and caviar shops and it’s all, quite frankly, wonderful. Prosperous and beautiful and glistening in the sun and full of rich blonde people

    Enough of this doomerism. Britain is doing fine

    London is.

    Is that Britain?
    That's not even London: that's Mayfair.
    I've still never been able to afford to buy that in any Monopoly game, and lace it with hotels.

    Much to my chagrin.
    Just as well. You would have had the problem of getting rid of Leon after too many G&Ts.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,769
    Nigelb said:

    This has been de facto reality for a while, but it's probably a good idea to market it, especially to a sceptical US administration.

    Ukraine launches the “Test in Ukraine” program — foreign manufacturers will be allowed to test the latest weapons directly on the battlefield against the Russian Federation, — Reuters
    https://x.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1946103788760183229

    Seems the Russians might get their hands on some of the latest prototypes though.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 6,033
    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    Sounds like she’s into noom.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,274
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    This is Britain today. Randomly chosen. This photo could easily have been taken in newent or Rotherham or Blackpool or Birmingham

    Does this look like a place on the verge of “civil strife”????

    lol


    All credit to Keir.
    This is what deft management of decline can deliver. Just a tiny bit of decline.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 6,033
    edited July 18
    Leon said:

    Overcast in New York.

    The sultry heatwave of the last weeks - the kind of heatwave that drove Sylvia Plath mad in the Belljar - has abated a tad.

    New York architecture is sometimes awful, but America followed a Beaux-Arts tradition right up into the 1940s, which has left a much handsomer legacy than much anything London managed in the 20th century.

    Not true. Hampstead Garden Suburb can be stunning (which is no doubt why it was copied worldwide). It's all 20th century

    London went wrong somewhere around 1930-40, and really wrong in the postwar years. But then so did almost everywhere on earth

    There are hopeful signs. One of the few good things Boris did as mayor AND PM was introduce an architectural template, called the New London Vernacular. It generally means richly detailed brickwork (very London) - NOT concrete, and proper windows and doors on streets, and the like

    Once you learn of it you see it everywhere

    https://in.pinterest.com/pin/453385887507354098/

    It's not all good by any means, but on average it is much better than 90% of the stuff built 1945-2000, and when it's really nice it's beautiful
    Not everywhere. Whilst many places, particularly in the UK, replaced bomb damaged buildings with brutalist concrete, some places tried to reconstruct the buildings that were bombed.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,274

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    You know who did claim to have been at uni with the Unabomber ?

    Q: "On Tuesday the president told a very detailed story about his uncle, John Trump, and Theodore Kaczynski, the late Unabomber. He said Dr. Trump taught Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was not identified as the Unabomber until 1996, 11 years after John Trump passed away. It would have been impossible for John Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the president. So what was he talking about?"

    Leavitt: "With so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question...The president's uncle did teach at MIT."

    https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1945910740478513349

    Donald's good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    It's dragging in all sorts of false trails to confuse the hounds.
    MAGA: The WSJ story is fake. That’s not how Trump talks. He never uses the word “enigma.”

    Roll the tape. Trump: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1946219558051684683
    And the guy who "never draws pictures" is an incessant doodler. I suppose he must say truthful things occasionally. Nobody can lie the whole time surely.
    Have you not been here long?
    Ha. No, cmon, even the most mendacious PB post will always have a grain. Lying without respite is actually pretty exhausting, I'd have thought.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 6,033
    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    What were they? Fife nurses?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,100

    Has somebody hacked Leon's account?

    Bear in mind that he's been to a marvellous party. This is probably a good thing.
    The Marvellous Party - the latest splinter faction from RefUK!
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,274
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Overcast in New York.

    The sultry heatwave of the last weeks - the kind of heatwave that drove Sylvia Plath mad in the Belljar - has abated a tad.

    New York architecture is sometimes awful, but America followed a Beaux-Arts tradition right up into the 1940s, which has left a much handsomer legacy than much anything London managed in the 20th century.

    Not true. Hampstead Garden Suburb can be stunning (which is no doubt why it was copied worldwide). It's all 20th century

    London went wrong somewhere around 1930-40, and really wrong in the postwar years. But then so did almost everywhere on earth

    There are hopeful signs. One of the few good things Boris did as mayor AND PM was introduce an architectural template, called the New London Vernacular. It generally means richly detailed brickwork (very London) - NOT concrete, and proper windows and doors on streets, and the like

    Once you learn of it you see it everywhere

    https://in.pinterest.com/pin/453385887507354098/

    It's not all good by any means, but on average it is much better than 90% of the stuff built 1945-2000, and when it's really nice it's beautiful
    HGS is all about the topiary.
    That's not true either. The best bits were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens himself: an absolute stone cold architectural genius
    We might be thinking of different parts. The bit I'm talking about is known for its sharply defined hedges, some of them quite elaborate. I sometimes take a detour to drive through it for that reason.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,323
    edited July 18
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    F*** me! That's hardly going to sell a million copies of the Sun on Sunday!

    When you said gossip I assumed you meant salacious gossip!
    Woman finds Cornwall “utterly enchanting”.
    It’s up there with writing about watching paint dry.
    Which we had yesterday.
    It's interesting, to me, because I am Cornish, and I am very used to the place, and find it pleasant, sometimes deeply pleasant - but decidedly unexciting. I think Brits over-rate it

    But then you discover an American absolutely loves it, and you realise that with fresh eyes it probably is quite "magical"

    Whether this interests some tiresome bourgeois money manager like you is of no concern to me
    I quite enjoyed my visit there during the period of the pandemic when you could leave home but not the country. Which was my first time back down there since my student days, other than a brief overflight to the Scillies. But, like Norfolk, it’s further away than it ought to be given where it is on the map, much of the coast is probably the worst affected by second-home-itis of anywhere in the UK, and many picture postcard spots are now fake, ghost settlements. And while Cornwall still gets lots of compliments, that of having friendly and welcoming locals isn’t often heard.

    Meanwhile, it’s still bloody hot outside, got up to 28C early afternoon.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,333
    edited July 18
    Leon said:

    MattW said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    This is Britain today. Randomly chosen. This photo could easily have been taken in newent or Rotherham or Bradford or Birmingham

    Does this look like a place on the verge of “civil strife”????

    lol


    No it couldn't.

    Newent doesn't have any tacky pseudo-Georgian fountains.
    Pseudo-Georgian? This is the frigging Regent’s Park you thicko

    Who was the Regent? George. Prince Regent. George. Of the Georgian era

    He literally ordained this park and its palatial surrounds. This is Georgian Central. It’s like you just said St Peter’s Basilica “isn’t very papal”
    The Triton Fountain was installed in 1950.

    Before that the place was a greenhouse.

    (Never believe anything you are told by a Londoner; they are all spivs in varying degrees.)
    That's not the Triton fountain. The Triton fountain is in the Inner Circle by Queen Mary's Gardens
    You may have me there. I know Hyde Park and Green Park better.

    Never trust AI, either !

    Have a good evening everyone. It's till 26C here.

    More on Trump seems to be emerging...
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808
    edited July 18
    Evening all.
    I go out and Zia Yusuf tries to end his career, again. Rael Braverman is wetting himself laughing at him
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808

    Oh I cant edit. Man you lot will be sick if my autocorrects and misspells by lunchtime
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110


    Oh I cant edit. Man you lot will be sick if my autocorrects and misspells by lunchtime

    You can edit, it's just weirdly hidden
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808
    Leon said:


    Oh I cant edit. Man you lot will be sick if my autocorrects and misspells by lunchtime

    You can edit, it's just weirdly hidden
    Thanks, just worked it out!
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,659
    Strangely not a word on the BBC . One can only imagine the outrage if this had been someone from another party liking an anti-Semitic tweet .

    It seems as if the BBC wants to help Reform and it continues to give them a free ride .
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,120

    I don’t like how Jenrick wants to “call bullshit”.
    Sounds very American to me.

    He should suggest that Zia is peddling stuff and nonsense.

    There is far too much Americanism creeping into our language at the moment.

    I've seen Cotton Candy replace candyfloss recently, with my kids, and donut replace doughnut. Yuk.

    Next: they'll be calling armbands waterwings.
    Back in youth I spent a summer making and selling candy floss.
    Were you a dentist drumming up trade?
  • sladeslade Posts: 2,201

    Leon said:


    Oh I cant edit. Man you lot will be sick if my autocorrects and misspells by lunchtime

    You can edit, it's just weirdly hidden
    Thanks, just worked it out!
    Where?
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808
    nico67 said:

    Strangely not a word on the BBC . One can only imagine the outrage if this had been someone from another party liking an anti-Semitic tweet .

    It seems as if the BBC wants to help Reform and it continues to give them a free ride .

    Best result for all is him struggling on, muzzled.
    Poisonous little man
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,138

    They’ve upgraded Vanilla again.

    Looks like we've gone mobile first, even on desktop. Are you sure this is Vanilla and not rcs1000 pressing buttons?
    OK. I see rcs1000 has credited @Pagan2. It still looks like the mobile-first version though. That said, it is easy to read.
    Only issue on a mobile is the perma-header in a large bold font showing all and sundry what website you are perusing.

    (On vf)
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808
    slade said:

    Leon said:


    Oh I cant edit. Man you lot will be sick if my autocorrects and misspells by lunchtime

    You can edit, it's just weirdly hidden
    Thanks, just worked it out!
    Where?
    Usual place but I had to turn tablet landscape. Im not in vanilla
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 56,296
    MattW said:
    I think those buildings were beyond repair.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874
    Blimey. Finally we have an MP that Cummings doesn't want to be binned.

    Dominic Cummings
    @Dominic2306

    Danny Kruger is a rare MP: moral courage, personally kind, and an understanding of English history

    https://x.com/Dominic2306/status/1946206435756359840
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,120
    stodge said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    Foss said:

    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    First?

    Of course you're first - you devised, posted, and then commented on your own thread.

    Jeez.
    We need a judge-led inquiry.
    Lessons will be learnt.
    Documentation will be e-mailed to Afghanistan.
    Don't forget to bcc Iran, Russia and China.
    And leave paper copies on a train, in a bar, and in a waste paper bin.
    That's why Leon is so well-informed, it's not the gossip, it's wandering around St James's Park checking the bins
    I’ve just had enough of it. The constant negging. The gloomsters

    I’m still walking - I went down old Bond Street and then new Bond Street. Mile after mile past sothebys and the Louis Vuitton flagship. Then on - heedless of my safety - past south molton street and into Marylebone and ALL the way down wimpole street, not just part of it - all of it. Hours

    And now I am in the Regent’s Park by the Nash terraces and it’s all Bentleys and Ferraris and the like. And happy people like me drinking free pouilly fusse in the sun

    Where is this so-called “breadline Britain”??? It doesn’t exist. It’s a tabloid fiction, and it’s time we stopped listening to these doom-mongers
    Very true. Mrs Stodge and I have visited Matlock today. Very pleasant town with a park and nice walks along the banks of the Derwent. Plenty of food and drink options and as I remarked to Mrs Stodge over lunch, the place reeks of money.

    Prosperous Derbyshire - Reform heartland. Who’d have thunk it?
    Matlock votes Lib Dem.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874
    Why oh why oh why does Vanilla feel the need to "upgrade" every few months?
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,327

    Why oh why oh why does Vanilla feel the need to "upgrade" every few months?

    If it works fix it
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,333

    MattW said:
    I think those buildings were beyond repair.
    i think you need to review the before and after photographs.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,333

    MattW said:
    I think those buildings were beyond repair.
    i think you need to review the before and after photographs.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100

    I don’t like how Jenrick wants to “call bullshit”.
    Sounds very American to me.

    He should suggest that Zia is peddling stuff and nonsense.

    I don’t like how Jenrick wants to “call bullshit”.
    Sounds very American to me.

    He should suggest that Zia is peddling stuff and nonsense.

    Quite.

    It is unnecessarily coarse too.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 12,175
    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,611
    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    I’m sorry to hear that. That’s two PBers stuck by cancer in the last few months.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,323
    edited July 18
    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    If you’ve been refitting PB, your brain seems to be cooking on gas…. ;):)
  • ConcanvasserConcanvasser Posts: 191
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    F*** me! That's hardly going to sell a million copies of the Sun on Sunday!

    When you said gossip I assumed you meant salacious gossip!
    Woman finds Cornwall “utterly enchanting”.
    It’s up there with writing about watching paint dry.
    Which we had yesterday.
    It's interesting, to me, because I am Cornish, and I am very used to the place, and find it pleasant, sometimes deeply pleasant - but decidedly unexciting. I think Brits over-rate it

    But then you discover an American absolutely loves it, and you realise that with fresh eyes it probably is quite "magical"

    Whether this interests some tiresome bourgeois money manager like you is of no concern to me
    There is a wonderful interview with Daphne Du Maurier (circa 1970) on YouTube where Cornwall shines as brightly as she does. Talks of Boy (rather a naughty boy too) and smokes like a Trooper throughout. It's all rather inspiring and your young friend might enjoy it.

  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 30,318
    I like the upgrade.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,908

    stodge said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    Foss said:

    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    First?

    Of course you're first - you devised, posted, and then commented on your own thread.

    Jeez.
    We need a judge-led inquiry.
    Lessons will be learnt.
    Documentation will be e-mailed to Afghanistan.
    Don't forget to bcc Iran, Russia and China.
    And leave paper copies on a train, in a bar, and in a waste paper bin.
    That's why Leon is so well-informed, it's not the gossip, it's wandering around St James's Park checking the bins
    I’ve just had enough of it. The constant negging. The gloomsters

    I’m still walking - I went down old Bond Street and then new Bond Street. Mile after mile past sothebys and the Louis Vuitton flagship. Then on - heedless of my safety - past south molton street and into Marylebone and ALL the way down wimpole street, not just part of it - all of it. Hours

    And now I am in the Regent’s Park by the Nash terraces and it’s all Bentleys and Ferraris and the like. And happy people like me drinking free pouilly fusse in the sun

    Where is this so-called “breadline Britain”??? It doesn’t exist. It’s a tabloid fiction, and it’s time we stopped listening to these doom-mongers
    Very true. Mrs Stodge and I have visited Matlock today. Very pleasant town with a park and nice walks along the banks of the Derwent. Plenty of food and drink options and as I remarked to Mrs Stodge over lunch, the place reeks of money.

    Prosperous Derbyshire - Reform heartland. Who’d have thunk it?
    Matlock votes Lib Dem.
    No, you must be wrong. It doesn’t have a Gail’s.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100

    Evening all.
    I go out and Zia Yusuf tries to end his career, again. Rael Braverman is wetting himself laughing at him

    I've been very impressed by Zia Yusuf, but he seems to have just completely picked up where he left off in Reform after his last meltdown. I've heard zero of Dr David. Might have been a good idea to *actually* take on a smaller role with a greater allowance for breaks.

    I don't know if I think he liked the Tweet. I expect there are people managing his Twitter who are more likely to have liked it. But I suppose you never know.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 12,175
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Another lunchtime anecdote (I'll save the juicy gossip til I'm PROPPA drunk)

    One of my editors, young guy, around 30, told me of his new fiancee, Rich American Catholic girl

    She has a new favourite place on earth. Where? - Cornwall

    She finds it "utterly enchanting" and magical and can't get enough of it, and says it has the best of Britain with a unique lovely spooky quality of its own (noom?!). And this isn't just the coast, she loves the moors and mines as well - the bleak stuff

    It is interesting how others perceive us, for good AND bad

    F*** me! That's hardly going to sell a million copies of the Sun on Sunday!

    When you said gossip I assumed you meant salacious gossip!
    Woman finds Cornwall “utterly enchanting”.
    It’s up there with writing about watching paint dry.
    Which we had yesterday.
    It's interesting, to me, because I am Cornish, and I am very used to the place, and find it pleasant, sometimes deeply pleasant - but decidedly unexciting. I think Brits over-rate it

    But then you discover an American absolutely loves it, and you realise that with fresh eyes it probably is quite "magical"

    Whether this interests some tiresome bourgeois money manager like you is of no concern to me
    You were born in hereford and grew up in hereford. You are cornish in the same way goldfish are birds
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808

    Evening all.
    I go out and Zia Yusuf tries to end his career, again. Rael Braverman is wetting himself laughing at him

    I've been very impressed by Zia Yusuf, but he seems to have just completely picked up where he left off in Reform after his last meltdown. I've heard zero of Dr David. Might have been a good idea to *actually* take on a smaller role with a greater allowance for breaks.

    I don't know if I think he liked the Tweet. I expect there are people managing his Twitter who are more likely to have liked it. But I suppose you never know.
    The liked post was buried in the depths of replies to a RoboJenrick post, his 'staff' arent trawling through there, but he might well be given his recent obsession with him.
    He has had weird verbal diarrhoea on Braverman and Jenrick since Tuesday. Quite a few Reform adjacents and withinners are noticing.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100
    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    Sorry if you've disclosed this before, but it feels like new news to me.

    Very sorry to hear it. My mother had a brain tumour when we were little -deemed to be inoperable at one stage. I am delighted to say they managed to get it all (the specialist said "there's your miracle") and she is still very much vertical 35 years on, and thriving.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    nico67 said:

    Strangely not a word on the BBC . One can only imagine the outrage if this had been someone from another party liking an anti-Semitic tweet .

    It seems as if the BBC wants to help Reform and it continues to give them a free ride .

    They literally did a big hit piece on him last week about how he was a shit boss when he ran his startup.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    The defence is fascinating. I didn't know they were the police or women, I thought I was going to get caved in and shot.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874
    Decline of the West latest.

    US commentators are debating whether Trump would use a word like 'enigma'.

  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100

    Evening all.
    I go out and Zia Yusuf tries to end his career, again. Rael Braverman is wetting himself laughing at him

    I've been very impressed by Zia Yusuf, but he seems to have just completely picked up where he left off in Reform after his last meltdown. I've heard zero of Dr David. Might have been a good idea to *actually* take on a smaller role with a greater allowance for breaks.

    I don't know if I think he liked the Tweet. I expect there are people managing his Twitter who are more likely to have liked it. But I suppose you never know.
    The liked post was buried in the depths of replies to a RoboJenrick post, his 'staff' arent trawling through there, but he might well be given his recent obsession with him.
    He has had weird verbal diarrhoea on Braverman and Jenrick since Tuesday. Quite a few Reform adjacents and withinners are noticing.
    Deary me. As someone with deep Reform sympathies, I have to say they're struggling at the minute.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874

    Spencer Hakimian
    @SpencerHakimian
    ·
    11m
    🚨🚨 *ALL AIRCRAFT GROUNDED AT JFK DUE TO EMERGENCY
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 55,464

    Decline of the West latest.

    US commentators are debating whether Trump would use a word like 'enigma'.


    Possibly. It was years ago, before his brain faded so much.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 12,808

    Evening all.
    I go out and Zia Yusuf tries to end his career, again. Rael Braverman is wetting himself laughing at him

    I've been very impressed by Zia Yusuf, but he seems to have just completely picked up where he left off in Reform after his last meltdown. I've heard zero of Dr David. Might have been a good idea to *actually* take on a smaller role with a greater allowance for breaks.

    I don't know if I think he liked the Tweet. I expect there are people managing his Twitter who are more likely to have liked it. But I suppose you never know.
    The liked post was buried in the depths of replies to a RoboJenrick post, his 'staff' arent trawling through there, but he might well be given his recent obsession with him.
    He has had weird verbal diarrhoea on Braverman and Jenrick since Tuesday. Quite a few Reform adjacents and withinners are noticing.
    Deary me. As someone with deep Reform sympathies, I have to say they're struggling at the minute.
    He's a problem. I'd go as far as to say i think if Reform don't get rid of Yusuf they'll implode before we get near a GE
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 12,175

    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    Sorry if you've disclosed this before, but it feels like new news to me.

    Very sorry to hear it. My mother had a brain tumour when we were little -deemed to be inoperable at one stage. I am delighted to say they managed to get it all (the specialist said "there's your miracle") and she is still very much vertical 35 years on, and thriving.
    Life and death are merely two different states of being as far as I am concerned. We transition all of us at some point
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,152
    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    Sorry if you've disclosed this before, but it feels like new news to me.

    Very sorry to hear it. My mother had a brain tumour when we were little -deemed to be inoperable at one stage. I am delighted to say they managed to get it all (the specialist said "there's your miracle") and she is still very much vertical 35 years on, and thriving.
    Life and death are merely two different states of being as far as I am concerned. We transition all of us at some point
    True and wise and still deserving of every sympathy.

    May your goddess go with you.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 14,983

    stodge said:

    Leon said:

    Dopermean said:

    Foss said:

    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    First?

    Of course you're first - you devised, posted, and then commented on your own thread.

    Jeez.
    We need a judge-led inquiry.
    Lessons will be learnt.
    Documentation will be e-mailed to Afghanistan.
    Don't forget to bcc Iran, Russia and China.
    And leave paper copies on a train, in a bar, and in a waste paper bin.
    That's why Leon is so well-informed, it's not the gossip, it's wandering around St James's Park checking the bins
    I’ve just had enough of it. The constant negging. The gloomsters

    I’m still walking - I went down old Bond Street and then new Bond Street. Mile after mile past sothebys and the Louis Vuitton flagship. Then on - heedless of my safety - past south molton street and into Marylebone and ALL the way down wimpole street, not just part of it - all of it. Hours

    And now I am in the Regent’s Park by the Nash terraces and it’s all Bentleys and Ferraris and the like. And happy people like me drinking free pouilly fusse in the sun

    Where is this so-called “breadline Britain”??? It doesn’t exist. It’s a tabloid fiction, and it’s time we stopped listening to these doom-mongers
    Very true. Mrs Stodge and I have visited Matlock today. Very pleasant town with a park and nice walks along the banks of the Derwent. Plenty of food and drink options and as I remarked to Mrs Stodge over lunch, the place reeks of money.

    Prosperous Derbyshire - Reform heartland. Who’d have thunk it?
    I find we are often rather blinkered in our attitudes to our local/national environments.

    Most of Britain is a very pleasant looking country and a lot of our town environments aren’t too bad compared to places on the continent. Yes, we do have some very grim and soulless bits and I am not going to pretend that there are not significant challenges for our town centres, and urban environments alongside small town and rural economies. But if you are not careful you can walk into a pessimistic vision of the place as a hellscape, when that is very far from the truth.
    This is the basic mistake this Labour government has made from day 1; instead of telling us that the UK is a basically decent place with problems and Labour will make sure our half full glass gets fuller, and keep telling us how they are doing it really well, they have acted as if they plan to make our half empty glass emptier and tell us so.

  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,781
    We can't see who has "liked".
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 52,188
    dixiedean said:

    I like the upgrade.

    Said no one, ever...

    Sorry to hear the shit news @Pagan2, I hadn't picked that up as the cause of your recent hospital stay.

    There are many different variations, some very treatable, so best of luck.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,781

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    Spending their life savings on foreign holidays and praising Keir for the miracle of egates.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874

    Decline of the West latest.

    US commentators are debating whether Trump would use a word like 'enigma'.


    Possibly. It was years ago, before his brain faded so much.
    My point was more that this is the shite many in the US are focused on today and it is similar but the same shite every day at the moment and meanwhile China leadership get up every morning and say 'how can we steal a march with AI on the USA'?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,368
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    You know who did claim to have been at uni with the Unabomber ?

    Q: "On Tuesday the president told a very detailed story about his uncle, John Trump, and Theodore Kaczynski, the late Unabomber. He said Dr. Trump taught Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was not identified as the Unabomber until 1996, 11 years after John Trump passed away. It would have been impossible for John Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the president. So what was he talking about?"

    Leavitt: "With so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question...The president's uncle did teach at MIT."

    https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1945910740478513349

    Donald's good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    It's dragging in all sorts of false trails to confuse the hounds.
    MAGA: The WSJ story is fake. That’s not how Trump talks. He never uses the word “enigma.”

    Roll the tape. Trump: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1946219558051684683
    And the guy who "never draws pictures" is an incessant doodler. I suppose he must say truthful things occasionally. Nobody can lie the whole time surely.
    Challenge accepted.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 55,735

    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    The defence is fascinating. I didn't know they were the police or women, I thought I was going to get caved in and shot.
    Sounds like he really, really shouldn’t go on holiday to the US.

    Beating on female police officers in Miami airport would not end in a manner necessarily to his advantage.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 55,735

    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    The defence is fascinating. I didn't know they were the police or women, I thought I was going to get caved in and shot.
    Sounds like he really, really shouldn’t go on holiday to the US.

    Beating on female police officers in Miami airport would not end in a manner necessarily to his advantage.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771

    carnforth said:

    "A student who hit two police officers to the floor at Manchester Airport has told jurors he did not know they were women."

    Well that's ok then.

    The defence is fascinating. I didn't know they were the police or women, I thought I was going to get caved in and shot.
    Sounds like he really, really shouldn’t go on holiday to the US.

    Beating on female police officers in Miami airport would not end in a manner necessarily to his advantage.
    Mrs U has worked extensively across the US. She says Miami is the top of the list of airports where FAFO is most likely to come true.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,434
    Nigelb said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    You know who did claim to have been at uni with the Unabomber ?

    Q: "On Tuesday the president told a very detailed story about his uncle, John Trump, and Theodore Kaczynski, the late Unabomber. He said Dr. Trump taught Ted Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski was not identified as the Unabomber until 1996, 11 years after John Trump passed away. It would have been impossible for John Trump to have ever discussed the Unabomber with the president. So what was he talking about?"

    Leavitt: "With so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question...The president's uncle did teach at MIT."

    https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1945910740478513349

    Donald's good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    It's dragging in all sorts of false trails to confuse the hounds.
    MAGA: The WSJ story is fake. That’s not how Trump talks. He never uses the word “enigma.”

    Roll the tape. Trump: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”

    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1946219558051684683
    And the guy who "never draws pictures" is an incessant doodler. I suppose he must say truthful things occasionally. Nobody can lie the whole time surely.
    Challenge accepted.
    Does that mean you’ve *haven’t* accepted?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,100

    We can't see who has "liked".

    Kinabalu liked your post, as did I :)
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,100
    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    Sorry to hear about that, deepest sympathies.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,713

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    Spending their life savings on foreign holidays and praising Keir for the miracle of egates.
    The plan is an accessible pot of £1000 - which means this is very much aimed at those people who are not saving anything into a pension and this is designed to both encourage them to do so and give them access to a small amount of cash if required.
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 5,659
    Wasn’t this possible change to pensions suggested a few years ago and then dropped . This looks like a desperate measure by Reeves . Until politicians from all parties start living in the real world and level with the public we’re going go to get policies simply designed to kick the can down the road and ignore the reality facing the country .
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 55,100

    MattW said:
    I think those buildings were beyond repair.
    Like Warsaw in the wake of the Uprising?
  • TresTres Posts: 2,931

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874

    We can't see who has "liked".

    I can but there is no icon only a name.

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 25,336
    Best wishes and get well soon @Pagan2
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    Why has the edit option disappeared from site. Only available now if you go to the backend forum thingy.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,781
    I've seen the footage... Trump's alleged Epstein 'birthday letter' is just the start of this crisis. It could destroy his political career: DAN HODGES
    ...
    ...
    If you believe Donald Trump, the letter published today in the Wall Street Journal, purporting to be from him to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is ‘fake news’. According to the report, the message – prepared for Epstein’s 50th birthday – ‘featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman’. It is also said to include the cryptic comment: ‘We have certain things in common Jeffrey.’

    Trump is threatening to sue. And his allies have already been despatched to angrily defend the President. ‘Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter b******t,’ Vice President JD Vance raged. ‘Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?’

    Frankly, yes. That’s part of the problem. We’ve all heard the clip of Donald Trump boasting about how he likes to ‘grab them [women] by the p***y’. We’ve also seen the 1992 footage of him partying with Epstein on his Mar-a-Lago estate. At one point in the video, Trump is seen grabbing a woman towards him and patting her behind.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14918099/DAN-HODGES-Donald-Trump-birthday-letter-Epstein.html (£££)

    That's Trump safe then. No, the gist is that Trump has thrived by spreading conspiracy theories about Democrats, including linking Hillary to paedophile pizza parlours, but now is struggling to write off his own dealings with Epstein as another one.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 66,874

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The actual piece says:

    "Pete Glancy, of Scottish Widows, and Mike Ambery, of Standard Life, both told The Telegraph the plans could include the creation of emergency savings pots within pensions that people could access before retirement.

    The policy would allow savers to access up to £1,000 years before they retire."
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    North London councillor Shiva Tiwari resigns after he was caught on CCTV threatening a shopkeeper saying “Don’t annoy me, I’m a councillor for this area, I will shut down your bloody shop, ok?”

    https://x.com/UB1UB2/status/1946275538609262814
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,323

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The DT has been keeping it's circ data secret since 2020, but if the 2019 figure has fallen at the same rate as the overall market, they'll now be down to 170,000 or so. Given their demographics and the number of subs that must be cancelled during probate, it could be lower still.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,138
    edited July 18
    FPT

    eek said:

    An amusing tale from brother in law, currently trying to fly back from the Med.

    Plane had to turn back after one passenger kicked off because the cabin crew refused to take tuna off the menu.

    I imagine they'll be dumped off the plane and told to get a boat.


    Never fly cattle class on cattle airlines.

    Did they not change their tuna once they heard the plane was being turned back?

    I'm sorry.
    I would imagine deplaned with no airline willing to take them and a large expensive court case to cover the airlines costs when they get back home
    I assume they told the airline (Easyjet) in advance on the way out but failed to do so for the flight back.

    It seems the plane only got as far as lining up on the runway but even so a 45 minute delay will cost £££.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg8xld5ljxo
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,323
    eek said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    Spending their life savings on foreign holidays and praising Keir for the miracle of egates.
    The plan is an accessible pot of £1000 - which means this is very much aimed at those people who are not saving anything into a pension and this is designed to both encourage them to do so and give them access to a small amount of cash if required.
    Seems harmless, assuming it can be administered, but is hardly going to change the world.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    edited July 18
    IanB2 said:

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The DT has been keeping it's circ data secret since 2020, but if the 2019 figure has fallen at the same rate as the overall market, they'll now be down to 170,000 or so. Given their demographics and the number of subs that must be cancelled during probate, it could be lower still.
    Except it doesn't,

    For the period ending 31st December 2023, Telegraph Media Group had:

    1,035,710 subscriptions

    Print = 117,586 Digital = 688,012 Other = 230,112

    https://telegraphmediagroup.com/2024-01-18/

    I thought there were f##ked as well over all the talk about why anybody would want to buy them, but I was corrected previously on this. Their move to digital subscriptions is apparently doing very well.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    IanB2 said:

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The DT has been keeping it's circ data secret since 2020, but if the 2019 figure has fallen at the same rate as the overall market, they'll now be down to 170,000 or so. Given their demographics and the number of subs that must be cancelled during probate, it could be lower still.
    Yeah, no, this is misinformed nonsense

    The Telegraph does well and makes a fat profit, and is growing its subscribers

    "Subscriptions and underlying operating profits are up at Telegraph Media Group but its results have been impacted by a near-£280m exceptional hit due to loans owed by Barclay family businesses that are unlikely to be repaid"

    https://www.printweek.com/content/news/telegraph-results-hit-by-exceptional-charge/

    Mind you, the Times is doing even better

    The days when papers all made losses and were doomed are behind us. Of the major upmarket UK papers it is now just the Guardian that really struggles, because they are ideologically opposed to a paywall
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    edited July 18
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The DT has been keeping it's circ data secret since 2020, but if the 2019 figure has fallen at the same rate as the overall market, they'll now be down to 170,000 or so. Given their demographics and the number of subs that must be cancelled during probate, it could be lower still.
    Yeah, no, this is misinformed nonsense

    The Telegraph does well and makes a fat profit, and is growing its subscribers

    "Subscriptions and underlying operating profits are up at Telegraph Media Group but its results have been impacted by a near-£280m exceptional hit due to loans owed by Barclay family businesses that are unlikely to be repaid"

    https://www.printweek.com/content/news/telegraph-results-hit-by-exceptional-charge/

    Mind you, the Times is doing even better

    The days when papers all made losses and were doomed are behind us. Of the major upmarket UK papers it is now just the Guardian that really struggles, because they are ideologically opposed to a paywall
    The bloody begging letter every time you open the Guardian website is f##king annoying. I doubt selling off the Observer as a separate thing to the slow dead boring news group Tortoise will go well.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Unfortunately for you the Telegraph is thriving, hence the competition to buy it
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100
    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    I'd just like to put out a big thanks to @Pagan2 for putting his own time and effort in to redisgn the comments layout.

    Any issues, please reach out directly to him.

    errr what? have hardly posted of late let alone designed anything sort of of been coming to terms with the brain tumour
    Sorry if you've disclosed this before, but it feels like new news to me.

    Very sorry to hear it. My mother had a brain tumour when we were little -deemed to be inoperable at one stage. I am delighted to say they managed to get it all (the specialist said "there's your miracle") and she is still very much vertical 35 years on, and thriving.
    Life and death are merely two different states of being as far as I am concerned. We transition all of us at some point
    Oh yes, there I agree.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110

    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Tres said:

    Workers could be allowed to raid their pension savings at any age under radical new government plans to be unveiled next week, experts have suggested.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/private-pensions/labour-allow-workers-access-pension-savings-early/

    Is this some desperate attempt to get growth by people spending their life savings on tat?

    more like some desperate attempt by the telegraph to retain readers by publishing any old shite
    Much that I think the ReformyGraph has gone downhill and I am not a subscriber, when we have looked at this didn't we find that actually they are doing pretty well these days in terms of subscribers.
    The DT has been keeping it's circ data secret since 2020, but if the 2019 figure has fallen at the same rate as the overall market, they'll now be down to 170,000 or so. Given their demographics and the number of subs that must be cancelled during probate, it could be lower still.
    Yeah, no, this is misinformed nonsense

    The Telegraph does well and makes a fat profit, and is growing its subscribers

    "Subscriptions and underlying operating profits are up at Telegraph Media Group but its results have been impacted by a near-£280m exceptional hit due to loans owed by Barclay family businesses that are unlikely to be repaid"

    https://www.printweek.com/content/news/telegraph-results-hit-by-exceptional-charge/

    Mind you, the Times is doing even better

    The days when papers all made losses and were doomed are behind us. Of the major upmarket UK papers it is now just the Guardian that really struggles, because they are ideologically opposed to a paywall
    The bloody begging letter every time you open the Guardian website is f##king annoying.
    It really is. They should simply accept a paywall, and stop whining about how virtuous they are. Then they will make good money, then they can hire better writers (instead of losing all the good ones - eg Jay Rayner to the FT)

    There is a market for their stuff, even Adrian bloody Chiles, they don't have to give it away
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 32,100

    I've seen the footage... Trump's alleged Epstein 'birthday letter' is just the start of this crisis. It could destroy his political career: DAN HODGES
    ...
    ...
    If you believe Donald Trump, the letter published today in the Wall Street Journal, purporting to be from him to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is ‘fake news’. According to the report, the message – prepared for Epstein’s 50th birthday – ‘featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman’. It is also said to include the cryptic comment: ‘We have certain things in common Jeffrey.’

    Trump is threatening to sue. And his allies have already been despatched to angrily defend the President. ‘Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter b******t,’ Vice President JD Vance raged. ‘Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?’

    Frankly, yes. That’s part of the problem. We’ve all heard the clip of Donald Trump boasting about how he likes to ‘grab them [women] by the p***y’. We’ve also seen the 1992 footage of him partying with Epstein on his Mar-a-Lago estate. At one point in the video, Trump is seen grabbing a woman towards him and patting her behind.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14918099/DAN-HODGES-Donald-Trump-birthday-letter-Epstein.html (£££)

    That's Trump safe then. No, the gist is that Trump has thrived by spreading conspiracy theories about Democrats, including linking Hillary to paedophile pizza parlours, but now is struggling to write off his own dealings with Epstein as another one.

    If the people behind Trump are clever (and I agree that there is very little evidence that they are), they will have created this letter to discredit the Trump allegations when it explodes.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,110
    I'll tell you who does really surprisingly well online - and I mean online print not online video

    GBNews. No kidding

    Someone showed me "some figures" today. It is remarkable. They are turning into a successful FoxNews for the UK
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 85,771
    edited July 18
    I am struggling to believe that after 12 years of the media and opposition digging into everything they can find about Trump that they some scandal with him and Epstein. I can definitely believe he wrote a birthday card, as at the time, Epstein appeared to be befriended literally everybody with any amount of money or fame, and of course Trump will instantly lie about everything.

    But the Democrats paid for people to go out and dig as much dirt as possible, the likes of CNN / MSNBC spent 23hrs a day trying to dig up story after story about Trump for years, but I am supposed to believe after all that, they only just found something really bad with him and Epstein (and after he has been reelected).

    It has a feel of Russiagate again about it. When Occam's Razor says, Epstein hobnobbed with all the rich and powerful, Trump was part of that set at the time, so there will of course be times when Trump was at parties with Epstein and I am sure that is embarrassing (as it is for loads of rich people). But everybody missed something really serious for 12 years?
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