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Let’s talk about Coldplay – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,591
edited July 23 in General
Let’s talk about Coldplay – politicalbetting.com

What news story did Britons hear the most about last week? (asked 20-21 Jul)=1. Immigration to UK: 10%=1. Gaza: 10%=3. Coldplay concert affair: 8%=3. Trump (general): 8%5. Epstein files: 6%yougov.co.uk/politics/art…

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  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,543
    edited July 23
    Talk about Coldplay?

    No.

    (Sorry)

    (First)

    (Unless somebody can tell me who they are.)

    (Are kisscams legal - privacy law etc?)
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    MattW said:

    Talk about Coldplay?

    No.

    (Sorry)

    (First)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNxeF4KMsY&list=RDyKNxeF4KMsY&start_radio=1
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 23,184
    "...the events in Gaza is..."

    Oh dear.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,368
    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    SandyRentool said:

    "...the events in Gaza is..."

    Oh dear.

    That's fecking autocorrect/me getting distracted the wicket/review.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,543
    edited July 23
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    MattW said:

    Talk about Coldplay?

    No.

    (Sorry)

    (First)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNxeF4KMsY&list=RDyKNxeF4KMsY&start_radio=1
    Back at you - dig those lawyerly shoes: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?t=1
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,850
    Afghan data leak & Immigration to the UK & "Riots" in Epping are all connected tbh.
    Gaza and middle east likewise.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,992
    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,149
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,253
    Mitch Benn was right:

    Everyone tries to sing like Chris
    Plays the piano just like this
    Very restrained, not too much row
    Everything sounds like Coldplay now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPh8nOrUVk

    The bar chart in the header highlights the problem with our national conversation, though.

    Unless something huge happens, there isn't one.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
    Ostracisation from the sisterhood.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,543
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    If they wish to find some to be practical experiments, it's not exactly difficult.

    Women never cheat, of course. Or perhaps they are better at deception have better emotional intelligence, social, and relationship management skills.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 3,772
    MattW said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    If they wish to find some to be practical experiments, it's not exactly difficult.

    Women never cheat, of course. Or perhaps they are better at deception have better emotional intelligence, social, and relationship management skills.
    I've been reading a bit about paternity fraud.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,425
    I suspect Afghans comes under "immigration", so in fact it is top
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,992
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 5,149
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
    Ostracisation from the sisterhood.
    Ouch.

    I've had a razor sharp 65cm blade delivered this morning for Mrs Flatlander.

    I think she wants to do some scything but I'd better behave, just in case.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    Leon said:

    I suspect Afghans comes under "immigration", so in fact it is top

    But the coverup would be under the Afghan story.

    If you look at YouGov’s post they have used AI to collate this and AI is never wrong.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,253
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    He had some of those skills- he could tell a story, he could communicate a vision. But did he ever say anything about difficult bits? Or have a plan, beyond getting the scruffy Mekon in to do the hard work for him?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 31,924
    AnneJGP said:

    MattW said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    If they wish to find some to be practical experiments, it's not exactly difficult.

    Women never cheat, of course. Or perhaps they are better at deception have better emotional intelligence, social, and relationship management skills.
    I've been reading a bit about paternity fraud.
    Paternity. Fathers. Men.
  • Frank_BoothFrank_Booth Posts: 427
    This draws attention to something that I've been thinking about for a while. The social cost of philandering. Of course it's hardly new is it? But adultery used to come with some form of social penalty. There no real ostracism now. It may sound puritanical and I wouldn't go as far as someone like Louise Perry who suggest we ought to re-think sex before marriage. But it's pretty clear things aren't working too well right now.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 19,583
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    If I have my maths right all those cheating men have someone they were cheating with. Any sanction for them?
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,133
    MattW said:



    --snip--

    (Are kisscams legal - privacy law etc?)

    Probably buried on page 94 of the terms and conditions you don't read when you buy a ticket online.
  • Frank_BoothFrank_Booth Posts: 427
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
  • nunu2nunu2 Posts: 1,522
    Nobody is separating the Afghan leak story from small boats or legal migration. Lol
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
  • Frank_BoothFrank_Booth Posts: 427
    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    To tell people how bad things are? I'm not sure they want to listen to anymore of that.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,253
    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    Trouble is, "we've all messed up badly for decades, the bill has now arrived, it will get worse before it gets better and lots of you will be dead before the good times return" may be truthful, but it doesn't win you the next election.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,992
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    It's possible Kemi has calculated that it is too soon. If she comes up with some sharp ideas now Labour will just steal them and they will in any event be old hat by the election. Its also possible that the current Conservative party wouldn't know a good idea if you hit them over the head with it.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 10,216
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,672
    AnneJGP said:

    MattW said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    If they wish to find some to be practical experiments, it's not exactly difficult.

    Women never cheat, of course. Or perhaps they are better at deception have better emotional intelligence, social, and relationship management skills.
    I've been reading a bit about paternity fraud.
    I can't help smiling when someone claims to be descended from famous person X in at least partly the paternal line. Not tactful to point out the logical flaw, though, so I don't.
  • ChrisChris Posts: 12,077
    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    It sounds more like someone staggering to the Gents' before last orders than someone carrying a Ming Vase.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 9,229
    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    Make Britain Great Again?
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,956
    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,956
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    There's no vacancy and if such a leader tried to come forward, they'd be shouted down by those who have been told consistently and persistently for a generation the Magic Money Tree will provide, borrowing isn't a problem and we can all live happily without the wobbles.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Top politics is about shaping the future anew. No-one has seriously tried a reasonable degree of honesty for quite a long time. Political distortion and lying has dominated the culture for many years. Peter Oborne's book The Rise of Political Lying was published 20 years ago. And he wrote it at a point many years into the new manipulative culture being in place. It's a long time since truth was tried. When you are 17% in the polls and used to dominate the political scene could be a good moment for the Tories to give it a try.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,992
    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Looking for an idea in the current politics is like looking for an England wicket after they have put the opposition in. I'm not saying it never happens but it is a rare event.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 19,253
    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    To tell people how bad things are? I'm not sure they want to listen to anymore of that.
    Not quite. There is always a place for vision and a plan. To take the extreme test case; Churchill 1940. We are not in the place where he was, so there is no point in saying there is no future. Nor are we Gazans, Somalis or Sudanese, nor are we a people ruled by Trump, Putin or Xi.

    The basic steps of the template are well known. Unless you can sort of fill in the details for anyone who wants to sell you a future - which is the core business of government then they are not doing it well. Here is a version of universal application:

    1) This is where we are
    2) This is who we are and what we are for
    3) This is how we behave
    4) This is where we are going
    5) This is how we are going to get there

    So ask this WRT to Lab, Con, Reform......No. Nor me neither. Not a clue.
    The trouble with the Churchill analogy is that he had massive political advantages:

    An obvious, basically unarguable aim (defeat the Nazis)
    All the apparatus of the state agreeing with that aim
    604 of the 615 MPs in Parliament on his side.
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,342
    edited July 23
    Something for all you Latin fans

    "Google develops AI tool that fills missing words in Roman inscriptions

    Aeneas program, which predicts where and when Latin texts were made, called ‘transformative’ by historians    "

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/23/google-ai-tool-roman-inscriptions-aeneas
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    stodge said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    There's no vacancy and if such a leader tried to come forward, they'd be shouted down by those who have been told consistently and persistently for a generation the Magic Money Tree will provide, borrowing isn't a problem and we can all live happily without the wobbles.
    After so many years of assuming the view you represent is right, perhaps in fact it is time to find out. I don't think we can know for sure.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    Stuartinromford said:

    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    To tell people how bad things are? I'm not sure they want to listen to anymore of that.
    Not quite. There is always a place for vision and a plan. To take the extreme test case; Churchill 1940. We are not in the place where he was, so there is no point in saying there is no future. Nor are we Gazans, Somalis or Sudanese, nor are we a people ruled by Trump, Putin or Xi.

    The basic steps of the template are well known. Unless you can sort of fill in the details for anyone who wants to sell you a future - which is the core business of government then they are not doing it well. Here is a version of universal application:

    1) This is where we are
    2) This is who we are and what we are for
    3) This is how we behave
    4) This is where we are going
    5) This is how we are going to get there

    So ask this WRT to Lab, Con, Reform......No. Nor me neither. Not a clue.
    The trouble with the Churchill analogy is that he had massive political advantages:

    An obvious, basically unarguable aim (defeat the Nazis)
    All the apparatus of the state agreeing with that aim
    604 of the 615 MPs in Parliament on his side.
    I agree with you, but I am still right! Today's politicians can only play on the playing field as it is.
  • novanova Posts: 876
    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    DavidL said:

    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Looking for an idea in the current politics is like looking for an England wicket after they have put the opposition in. I'm not saying it never happens but it is a rare event.
    England may have a vacancy for a couple of world class bowlers. UK has a vacancy for ideas and vision led political leadership without followership.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,672
    CatMan said:

    Something for all you Latin fans

    "Google develops AI tool that fills missing words in Roman inscriptions

    Aeneas program, which predicts where and when Latin texts were made, called ‘transformative’ by historians    "

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/23/google-ai-tool-roman-inscriptions-aeneas

    Indeed.

    The linky to the research is u/s, but this seems to be it

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09292-5

    and a comment piece

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02335-x
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,850
    nova said:

    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
    People won't be voting Reform because of tightly costed plans for gov't.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 122,932
    I’ve seen it all now.

    Rishab Pant sweeping then reverse sweeping Jofra Archer in consecutive balls.
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    Pulpstar said:

    nova said:

    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
    People won't be voting Reform because of tightly costed plans for gov't.
    No, but people might be put off voting for them who otherwise would.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    nova said:

    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
    Not only has he made additional spending commitments, by the time of the 2029 election it is inevitable that he will have to commit to the welfarism required by the voters of Clacton, who, as Reform government approaches will start thinking about who will pay for their zimmers, pensions, PIPs and social care.

    Prediction: Farage will not be able to reduce TME by the state by even a single % point. (That's about £13bn).
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 15,065
    Pulpstar said:

    nova said:

    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
    People won't be voting Reform because of tightly costed plans for gov't.
    Reform, if they win, will still have to govern. This small point is being overlooked.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 40,349
    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    Err what about the cheating woman?! Surely she takes the other 50% of the blame given that she was also married.
  • sarissasarissa Posts: 2,200
    CatMan said:

    Something for all you Latin fans

    "Google develops AI tool that fills missing words in Roman inscriptions

    Aeneas program, which predicts where and when Latin texts were made, called ‘transformative’ by historians    "

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/23/google-ai-tool-roman-inscriptions-aeneas

    Or as gov.uk AI says for Scotland, "Omnis me puny lacessunt"
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,692
    On topic: that is massively low for everything - my impression has been that where the header has highlighted these surveys before we've been decently over 10% on some topics, though I may misremember.

    Is this the definition of silly season?
  • CookieCookie Posts: 15,732
    Stuartinromford said:

    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    algarkirk said:

    Frank_Booth said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Politics is very difficult if no-one is optimistic about the future. I'm not sure you can blame politicians for that. They're swimming in the same water of ideas as everyone else.
    No. Political leadership is about leadership, not followership. No-one being optimistic about the future is exactly what creates the gigantic vacancy.
    To tell people how bad things are? I'm not sure they want to listen to anymore of that.
    Not quite. There is always a place for vision and a plan. To take the extreme test case; Churchill 1940. We are not in the place where he was, so there is no point in saying there is no future. Nor are we Gazans, Somalis or Sudanese, nor are we a people ruled by Trump, Putin or Xi.

    The basic steps of the template are well known. Unless you can sort of fill in the details for anyone who wants to sell you a future - which is the core business of government then they are not doing it well. Here is a version of universal application:

    1) This is where we are
    2) This is who we are and what we are for
    3) This is how we behave
    4) This is where we are going
    5) This is how we are going to get there

    So ask this WRT to Lab, Con, Reform......No. Nor me neither. Not a clue.
    The trouble with the Churchill analogy is that he had massive political advantages:

    An obvious, basically unarguable aim (defeat the Nazis)
    All the apparatus of the state agreeing with that aim
    604 of the 615 MPs in Parliament on his side.
    Did he? When Chamberlain resigned in 1940 it was him or Halifax, whose view was that the Germans couldn't be defeated and that we shouldn't try. Churchill had his work cut out to sell his vision, and worked hard to do so. Did he have 604 MPs on his side in 1940?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,425
    I’ve started having afternoon naps

    It’s all over from here, isn’t it?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,850
    Baby steps, but it looks like the umpires are actually noticing about over rates !
  • CookieCookie Posts: 15,732
    Frank_Booth said:

    This draws attention to something that I've been thinking about for a while. The social cost of philandering. Of course it's hardly new is it? But adultery used to come with some form of social penalty. There no real ostracism now. It may sound puritanical and I wouldn't go as far as someone like Louise Perry who suggest we ought to re-think sex before marriage. But it's pretty clear things aren't working too well right now.

    I'd say Andy Byron is paying a fairly hefty social cost right now.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 44,434
    Stuartinromford said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    He had some of those skills- he could tell a story, he could communicate a vision. But did he ever say anything about difficult bits? Or have a plan, beyond getting the scruffy Mekon in to do the hard work for him?
    BJ’s rare forays into the difficult bits (eg Zaghari-Ratcliffe was ‘simply teaching people journalism’) suggest it was a very good thing his laziness usually won out.
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    Leon said:

    I’ve started having afternoon naps

    It’s all over from here, isn’t it?

    I’ve been having them since my twenties. Usually after a couple of bottles of wine.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    That list does really does not include Blair, who was quite adept at avoiding the difficult bits.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,089
    No_Offence_Alan said:

    MattW said:



    --snip--

    (Are kisscams legal - privacy law etc?)

    Probably buried on page 94 of the terms and conditions you don't read when you buy a ticket online.
    Every concert ticket since at least the ‘80s, has had something like “Professional type cameras and video recording devices are not permitted in the venue. Attendees consent to being recorded as part of the audience” written on the back of it.
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61
  • eekeek Posts: 30,780
    Taz said:

    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61

    What he’s written is word salad

    The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers.

    So you want to pay the producer (price controls) less while also supporting them?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,089
    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Theresa May tried to be honest about one particular area of policy during an election. It damn nearly cost her job, and the issue she highlighted is still being pushed into the long grass eight years later, despite the problem itself continuing to get bigger.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 36,522
    edited July 23
    Bad miss by Jamie Smith earlier. Potential catch down the leg side.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,780
    Sandpit said:

    No_Offence_Alan said:

    MattW said:



    --snip--

    (Are kisscams legal - privacy law etc?)

    Probably buried on page 94 of the terms and conditions you don't read when you buy a ticket online.
    Every concert ticket since at least the ‘80s, has had something like “Professional type cameras and video recording devices are not permitted in the venue. Attendees consent to being recorded as part of the audience” written on the back of it.
    I was surprised how few phones were recording the Billy Bragg / Paul Heaton concert I was at last night. Don’t remember the last time I saw so few cameras
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    After all the hype.

    Ukraine will not receive the Patriot air defense systems promised by Trump until at least the spring of 2026 (!) — meaning a wait of at least another 8 months, RBC-Ukraine reports, citing Spiegel.
    https://x.com/saintjavelin/status/1947985726223659437
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,672
    eek said:

    Taz said:

    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61

    What he’s written is word salad

    The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers.

    So you want to pay the producer (price controls) less while also supporting them?
    Er, price controls can work either way. For instance, making the supermarkets pay a minimum for milk.

    I'm old enough to remember the Milk Marketing Board and the Egg Marketing Board.
  • eekeek Posts: 30,780
    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    Taz said:

    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61

    What he’s written is word salad

    The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers.

    So you want to pay the producer (price controls) less while also supporting them?
    Er, price controls can work either way. For instance, making the supermarkets pay a minimum for milk.

    I'm old enough to remember the Milk Marketing Board and the Egg Marketing Board.
    True but when the post begins

    Food inflation in the UK is the highest among the G7 countries.

    It’s hard to see how he wants minimum prices - as I said it’s word salad without any actual idea behind it
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    Chances of Trump's DoJ actually doing this; approx zero.

    EPSTEIN LATEST: In light of what we released last week from my staff's investigation, I'm handing Trump's DOJ a ready-made case with seven different lines of investigation for them to follow the money on Jeffrey Epstein.
    https://x.com/RonWyden/status/1948008143998623903
  • eekeek Posts: 30,780
    Sandpit said:

    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Theresa May tried to be honest about one particular area of policy during an election. It damn nearly cost her job, and the issue she highlighted is still being pushed into the long grass eight years later, despite the problem itself continuing to get bigger.
    May’s issue was she revealed it in the middle of an election campaign which meant it was instantly destroyed in point scoring.

    A lot of this stuff needs to be brought up in advance, if Labour had called out Hunt’s NI cuts as the unaffordable bribe that they were Labour wouldn’t be in its current budget mess
  • CatManCatMan Posts: 3,342
    Ban red advertising at cricket grounds
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,089
    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    Taz said:

    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61

    What he’s written is word salad

    The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers.

    So you want to pay the producer (price controls) less while also supporting them?
    Er, price controls can work either way. For instance, making the supermarkets pay a minimum for milk.

    I'm old enough to remember the Milk Marketing Board and the Egg Marketing Board.
    English football league teams used to play each other for the Milk Cup in the ‘80s.

    Price floors in that sense were protectionism for farmers against the supermarkets.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,672
    edited July 23
    eek said:

    Carnyx said:

    eek said:

    Taz said:

    One of labours foremost thinkers raises the call for price controls

    ‘The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers. Without action, food insecurity will deepen as climate risks grow‘

    https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1948041877959193042?s=61

    What he’s written is word salad

    The UK needs targeted price controls and support for producers.

    So you want to pay the producer (price controls) less while also supporting them?
    Er, price controls can work either way. For instance, making the supermarkets pay a minimum for milk.

    I'm old enough to remember the Milk Marketing Board and the Egg Marketing Board.
    True but when the post begins

    Food inflation in the UK is the highest among the G7 countries.

    It’s hard to see how he wants minimum prices - as I said it’s word salad without any actual idea behind it
    A free marketeer might nevertheless find it not beyond him to appreciate that the exit of suppliers from the market gives the supermarkets a greater monopoly of what food remains, much of which is [edit] therefore increasingly imported, especially if - thanks to Brexit - they are the only organizations capable of even coping with the import paperwork.*

    *or have been lately, even if things improve: the small suppliers and importers have been bankrupted and driven out of the market.
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    Fascinating video for the contrast

    Queue of people waiting to pay for their goods at Greggs in Becontree.

    Meanwhile two roadmen load up a carrier bag and leave.

    As I said before, why pay and follow the rules when others don’t with no comeback.

    I remember being told by a Lib Dem (obvs) here that I was the problem for merely posing the moral dilemma. Not the tea leaves for the theft 😂😂😂😂

    If you forget to insure your car or tax it by a day, or forget to renew your license you get hauled into court and fined, usually via SJP where the magistrate will ignore any mitigation. Yet this carries on, effectively decriminalised.

    https://x.com/crimeldn/status/1947983616874566120?s=61

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    After the Boriswave, next the Vladiwave.

    Russia plans to import 1 mn Indian workers as war drains domestic labor pool

    Workers will be assigned to maintain essential services—from municipal operations to basic infrastructure—filling jobs previously held by Russians fighting in Ukraine
    https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1948035799444078800
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 52,473
    edited July 23
    Reindeer for dinner. Again.

    They even do reindeer pizza.
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    One for Luckyguy

    ‘Maximum strike prices for Ed Miliband's missing wind auction are out.

    Gruesome.

    Offshore wind: £113/MWh

    Higher than last year. Highest in a decade. And that's before all the extra costs of grid, backup, and wasted wind.

    As a comparison, the average cost of electricity last year: £72/MWh.

    The Climate Change Committee forecast for offshore wind is £38/MWh (!!)

    These prices are high because Ed's told the market he's got to buy whatever they're selling, no matter the price, to meet his mad targets.

    This is what we've been warning about. There is no way Labour can bring down bills with this plan.’

    https://x.com/clairecoutinho/status/1948051956817166414?s=61
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,089
    Nigelb said:

    After the Boriswave, next the Vladiwave.

    Russia plans to import 1 mn Indian workers as war drains domestic labor pool

    Workers will be assigned to maintain essential services—from municipal operations to basic infrastructure—filling jobs previously held by Russians fighting in Ukraine
    https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1948035799444078800

    European sanctions on Indian imports, visas, and IT companies, coming up in 3,2,1…
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    IanB2 said:

    Reindeer for dinner. Again.

    They even do reindeer pizza.

    I remember seeing Vera Lynn there and I asked what her lunch was.

    She said ‘Whale Meat again ‘ !
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 25,308
    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
    Ostracisation from the sisterhood.
    Ouch.

    I've had a razor sharp 65cm blade delivered this morning for Mrs Flatlander.

    I think she wants to do some scything but I'd better behave, just in case.
    A 65cm blade is a dagger? A shortsword? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_swords
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,368
    Pulpstar said:

    nova said:

    Stark_Dawning said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    algarkirk said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    There is a gigantic vacancy for a party and political leader with narrative and story telling skills, with a gift of saying it how it is including the difficult bits people look away from (tax, debt and a few other things), describes a plan and can communicate a vision.

    There has been almost none since the disaster of Iraq which did for Blair, and none at all since the day Cameron disgracefully resigned.
    Boris had those skills and that ability but he chose to use them....otherwise, for an easy life and ultimately self destruction. The lack of ideas, vision, ambition and drive in all of our politics right now is dismaying.
    Yes. What is a bit odd is that no-one is trying to do that job - the one which could easily bring our politics back to life. The stuff Blair, for all his faults did to win an election. I suppose it's possible Kemi has a cunning plan to start in the autumn, or Farage is going to publish a 10 pages of A4 coherent plan for government with a commentary from the IFS about how its works fiscally, or that Sir Keir will realise what his job really is and address the nation with coherence and vision. But for now, politically we are bored but not untroubled.
    I think Nigel is doing the Ming Vase strategy. He just has to persist with anti-immigrant innuendo to keep the base on side while fomenting an attitude of 'give Nige a go, he can't do any worse' with everyone else. He won't risk deep financial commitments and the risk of tax bombshells.
    He's made some huge spending commitments, and mostly it seems on the back of misunderstanding how much of the net-zero spending is coming from Government, and how much is private investment that the Government can't "save".
    People won't be voting Reform because of tightly costed plans for gov't.
    "Rolling the dice" is what it is, apparently. Guaranteed snake eyes imo, an absolute mug bet, but mugs by definition tend not to know they're mugs. Because if they did they wouldn't be.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 27,966
    Taz said:

    One for Luckyguy

    ‘Maximum strike prices for Ed Miliband's missing wind auction are out.

    Gruesome.

    Offshore wind: £113/MWh

    Higher than last year. Highest in a decade. And that's before all the extra costs of grid, backup, and wasted wind.

    As a comparison, the average cost of electricity last year: £72/MWh.

    The Climate Change Committee forecast for offshore wind is £38/MWh (!!)

    These prices are high because Ed's told the market he's got to buy whatever they're selling, no matter the price, to meet his mad targets.

    This is what we've been warning about. There is no way Labour can bring down bills with this plan.’

    https://x.com/clairecoutinho/status/1948051956817166414?s=61

    Meanwhile Clive Lewis wants to cap energy prices to keep food prices down.

    How many years in opposition did Labour have to think things through ?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 28,543
    edited July 23
    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
    Ostracisation from the sisterhood.
    Ouch.

    I've had a razor sharp 65cm blade delivered this morning for Mrs Flatlander.

    I think she wants to do some scything but I'd better behave, just in case.
    You need a traditional scythe.

    Then you can cut her off at the knees.

    This is the Scottish variety.
    https://youtu.be/o64B-mcOIfQ?t=21

    I may have a Midlands' one somewhere (or I may have left it at the previous large house, along with the window clamps - which are like a G-Clamp but big enough to do a sash window), which is a single shaft, a serpentine blade about 90cm long, and you use it by rotating the upper body - closer in than the Scottish one.

    https://youtu.be/o64B-mcOIfQ?t=21
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 39,369
    ...
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 60,791
    Flatlander said:

    TheScreamingEagles said:

    kinabalu said:

    I've managed to avoid the Coldplay story, highbrow unit that I am.

    It's got my female friends enraged.

    They want to cut off the goolies of all cheating men.
    What's the penalty for HR lady?
    She was unmarried, I believe. (Technically, she was already divorced. Unlike the ex-CEO.)

    So she was not the one who cheated.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 60,791
    Frank_Booth said:

    This draws attention to something that I've been thinking about for a while. The social cost of philandering. Of course it's hardly new is it? But adultery used to come with some form of social penalty. There no real ostracism now. It may sound puritanical and I wouldn't go as far as someone like Louise Perry who suggest we ought to re-think sex before marriage. But it's pretty clear things aren't working too well right now.

    Remeber, it's not premarital sex if you never get married.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 63,790
    The ICJ has gone rogue. This is an insane judgement:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce379k4v3pwo
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 46,368
    Leon said:

    I’ve started having afternoon naps

    It’s all over from here, isn’t it?

    Not if you wake up supercharged and ready to rumble all the way to 9pm.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 63,425
    Is @williamglenn banned? Why? Just for being unwoke? Or did he do something actually bad?
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,956
    algarkirk said:

    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Top politics is about shaping the future anew. No-one has seriously tried a reasonable degree of honesty for quite a long time. Political distortion and lying has dominated the culture for many years. Peter Oborne's book The Rise of Political Lying was published 20 years ago. And he wrote it at a point many years into the new manipulative culture being in place. It's a long time since truth was tried. When you are 17% in the polls and used to dominate the political scene could be a good moment for the Tories to give it a try.
    I do agree it's about "the vision thing" and if I were a Conservative. Lib Dem or Green, I'd be thinking hard about how I envisage governing Britain in the 2030s and beyond.

    What does that Britain look like? How does it work? How does it operate in the best interests of all its citizens? The first thing is probably to tear up past policies and even ideologies and look at practical solutions to problems.

    We've seen many times conservatism and liberalism re-invent themselves to take account of societal and technological changes. That doesn't mean abandoning core principles but recognising adaptation and evolution.

    To be honest, the first thing the Conservatives need to do is be more willing to undertake a profound mea culpa - Sunak started that on the day after the election but it was never going to be enough to turn the page in and of itself.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    Taz said:

    One for Luckyguy

    ‘Maximum strike prices for Ed Miliband's missing wind auction are out.

    Gruesome.

    Offshore wind: £113/MWh

    Higher than last year. Highest in a decade. And that's before all the extra costs of grid, backup, and wasted wind.

    As a comparison, the average cost of electricity last year: £72/MWh.

    The Climate Change Committee forecast for offshore wind is £38/MWh (!!)

    These prices are high because Ed's told the market he's got to buy whatever they're selling, no matter the price, to meet his mad targets.

    This is what we've been warning about. There is no way Labour can bring down bills with this plan.’

    https://x.com/clairecoutinho/status/1948051956817166414?s=61

    Milliband is an enormous disappointment.
    And I had only mediocre expectations of him.
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 5,133
    eek said:

    Sandpit said:

    stodge said:

    DavidL said:

    Politics is both boring and depressing at the moment, has been for some time now. Wit has turned into witlessness on all sides. No one believes anything that any of them are saying.

    Its hardly surprising that the great British public are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. Even to Coldplay.

    Yet the truth is if you ask "the great British public" what "the answer is" all you get is incoherent gibberish which usually starts with tax rises for everyone except me and swingeing cuts for everyone else who uses the services I don't use.

    That's the problem with trying to be honest - the electorate don't want politicians to be dishonest but they don't want them to be honest either.
    Theresa May tried to be honest about one particular area of policy during an election. It damn nearly cost her job, and the issue she highlighted is still being pushed into the long grass eight years later, despite the problem itself continuing to get bigger.
    May’s issue was she revealed it in the middle of an election campaign which meant it was instantly destroyed in point scoring.

    A lot of this stuff needs to be brought up in advance, if Labour had called out Hunt’s NI cuts as the unaffordable bribe that they were Labour wouldn’t be in its current budget mess
    Well of course they wouldn't, they wouldn't have been elected.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 33,294
    Leon said:

    Is @williamglenn banned? Why? Just for being unwoke? Or did he do something actually bad?

    TBF it is a handy time to be banned. If he times it right the Trump-Epstein scandal will have washed over so he won't have to back pedal on his Trump admiration.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 7,100
    Just wondering. Is two toer Keir guilty of telling more lies to the electorate than Boris? It must be getting close.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 79,567
    Has that wicket shifted the balance of the match our way ?
  • TazTaz Posts: 19,904
    Casino_Royale said:

    The ICJ has gone rogue. This is an insane judgement:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce379k4v3pwo

    We owe £Trillions in climate reparations apparently.

    Charities and lobbyists are pushing for it.

    By some happy coincidence the same charities would get to administer it.

    Just tell this court, who the article says is advisory, to GFT.
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