When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Given Prince Andrew will have to live somewhere, I'm not sure the King and rest of the Royal Family are doing themselves any favours with this media row about forcing Andrew out of one royal home into another, unless there really is a plan to force him overseas.
What can they do? The media has decided to go for him but the RF needs his agreement to leave royal lodge
I don't know, but historically, the Royal Family has always misunderstood the complicated relationship between themselves, the media and the people, whether one thinks of Prince Andrew's disastrous interview, It's a Royal Knockout, or staying in Balmoral after Diana's death. Perhaps the magic dies when we peep behind the curtain. I cannot see how forcing Andrew out of one royal lodge but then straight into another will satisfy anyone very long and it has already raised the spectre of Fergie, who most of us had forgotten about.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Fortunately, back then there were a number of think tanks - whether the Centre for Policy Studies or the Institute for Fiscal Studies - who produced thoughtful pieces on how we might get out of the rut.
Where are the think tanks now?
There are plenty - the ASI, the IEA etc. But they don't matter much. The solutions to our economic stagnation and decline aren't difficult or abstract. Simple undergraduate economics teaches that markets generally allocate resources more efficiently than governments, and empirical studies show, by a margin of eight to one or more that low tax and spending economies outperform high tax and spending ones.
What is needed is a charismatic and effective political leader with the courage to make the case for basic economic literacy, like Javier Milei or Margaret Thatcher, and to stick to his/her guns in the face of short-term unpopularity. And to stand up to the Russians without fear and do much more than just keep the Ukrainians in the fight. Then we can truly say we've learned from the seventies and the twenties.
No-one takes Mrs Thatcher's economics seriously anymore; Milei depends on bail-outs from that nice Mr Trump; and the two leading economies are China and the United States, whose governments spend, or invest, freely. What we need is more growth. Perhaps it would help if we stopped selling abroad every asset not nailed down, and writing subsidy cheques to foreigners, and hosted the next series of Strictly at Chequers.
Russian citizen and former French Legion soldier Pierre Malinowski is the suspected ring-leader of the Louvre Museum jewel heist in Paris. He works with Putin spokesman's daughter Elizaveta Peskova at Kremlin's subversion project Russian-French Historical Foundation in Moscow. https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1982902818882433499
Russian citizen and former French Legion soldier Pierre Malinowski is the suspected ring-leader of the Louvre Museum jewel heist in Paris. He works with Putin spokesman's daughter Elizaveta Peskova at Kremlin's subversion project Russian-French Historical Foundation in Moscow. https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1982902818882433499
If Russia are so desperate for cash that they're reduced to jewellery raids smash and grab style, no wonder Putin is said to be nervous about a possible coup.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Fortunately, back then there were a number of think tanks - whether the Centre for Policy Studies or the Institute for Fiscal Studies - who produced thoughtful pieces on how we might get out of the rut.
Where are the think tanks now?
There are plenty - the ASI, the IEA etc. But they don't matter much. The solutions to our economic stagnation and decline aren't difficult or abstract. Simple undergraduate economics teaches that markets generally allocate resources more efficiently than governments, and empirical studies show, by a margin of eight to one or more that low tax and spending economies outperform high tax and spending ones.
What is needed is a charismatic and effective political leader with the courage to make the case for basic economic literacy, like Javier Milei or Margaret Thatcher, and to stick to his/her guns in the face of short-term unpopularity. And to stand up to the Russians without fear and do much more than just keep the Ukrainians in the fight. Then we can truly say we've learned from the seventies and the twenties.
There's a catch, though.
An awful lot of the success of Thatcherism was being in the right place at the right time. Peak oil, falling dependency ratio.
And some of the good times in the 80s did come about by selling stuff off and spending the proceeds, with the consequences that we see around us.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
Except the ones exepcted to pay it , many of whom who will have the wherewithall to stick up two fingers and leave and so they will get less and less tax, they are morons.
How does the house move. That's the whole point of a property taxes you can't escape it by upping sticks because the tax on the property still needs to be paid otherwise it will eventually be taken off you to pay the bill.
Doh the person moves and takes their money with them
There are a lot of vocal people, not to mention cash-poor pensioners in London who care quite a lot about a supposed mansion tax.
"Cash poor" is just a roundabout way of saying... rich.
Most of these pensioners have not earned their £2 million houses at all; it's just pure luck that prices have exploded in places like London. If their cash flow means they have to downsize, they are still going to be sat on a huge pile of unearned wealth most of which will never see the tax man.
It doesn't sound like my perfect policy but better than nothing.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
At the time of the Olympics, these attacks were fairly definitely linked to Russia.
Looks like we might have an end of the US government shutdown shortly. Largest federal workers’ union is urging Democrat senators to vote for the continuing resolution so that paychecks go out at the end of the month.
The biggest union representing federal workers urged Democrats in Congress to end the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called for the passage of a stopgap funding measure that Republicans have proposed.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
Well, given apart from one line you can only walk along it at the moment, that would seem appropriate.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
Well, given apart from one line you can only walk along it at the moment, that would seem appropriate.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
Well, given apart from one line you can only walk along it at the moment, that would seem appropriate.
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
Radical Left pixies, of course.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
The Trump tomb might as well be in Red Square. By the time this is over there may be no place in the US prepared to bury the Traitor-President.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
I hope steps are taken to protect our own high speed rail network.
Well, given apart from one line you can only walk along it at the moment, that would seem appropriate.
It's a network? Just two disconnected lines?
Two? Where's the second one?
The one you were talking about, albeit a walking route.
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
Radical Left pixies, of course.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
The Trump tomb might as well be in Red Square. By the time this is over there may be no place in the US prepared to bury the Traitor-President.
Fine old Soviet joke:
When Stalin died the Russian authorities wanted him to be buried somewhere faraway from Russia because they feared if he was buried in Russia his followers would make the burial place a pilgrim Centre .So they asked the British government if they would like to have Stalin buried in England. The British authorities said, “Sorry ,we already have the founder of communism buried here .We don’t want another great communist here. ” The Russians approached Germany, but the Germans said ,”we have here the grave of one of the most brutal dictators of the world .We can’t afford to have another.”
But Israel volunteered to have Stalin buried on their soil because Stalin had been helpful in the formation of Israel after the second world war. However, the Russians said ,oh no! There has already been a resurrection there !”.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
The issue is that football has gone woke. In the old days, everyone would have played on Friday 26 December. Then, everyone would have been scheduled to play on Sunday 28 December with a couple of games moved to the Monday and Tuesday nights for TV. In 2008-09, the next set of fixtures were FA Cup on Saturday 3 Jan with no New Year’s Day round. In 2014-15, they squeezed in a New Year’s Day round and had any FA Cup ties featuring premier league teams play the Sunday at the earliest.
However, a few seasons ago, the Premier League decided that two games in three days was not acceptable. Therefore, everyone is scheduled to play Tuesday 30 December. For broadcasting purposes, as that round can’t be the Sunday, it is treated as one of the five midweek rounds. Therefore, the round before is a weekend round as there are four other midweeks (early December, early January, Feb and Mar). So everyone is down to play Saturday 27 December.
The EFL are squeezing three games in with everyone playing Friday 26, Monday 29, Thursday 1. The Premier League could have done that but that would have meant far fewer unique slots for broadcasters.
So where we’ve ended up is with Sky filling Boxing Day with EFL coverage and getting their Sunday 28 December games from the Premier League round that follows Christmas.
Personally I’m not that bothered and would rather go to Arsenal on Saturday 27 December. But I do feel for fans of clubs in the EFL. They’re making players play four games in 10 days. Thats just as bad as making teams play two games in three days. Making fans go to games on Monday 29 December rather than Sunday 28 December is unfair in my opinion.
While I don't disagree with your conclusions, I'm not sure what this has to do with 'woke'.
Woke = Life being different to how it was when the writer grew up
That isn't a great definition but it probably matches common usage as much as any dictionary or political definition. It means very different things to different writers so is completely pointless, unless used pejoratively within an echo bubble.
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
Radical Left pixies, of course.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
The Trump tomb might as well be in Red Square. By the time this is over there may be no place in the US prepared to bury the Traitor-President.
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
The worry is that it’s not vandals looking for copper cables, but a deliberate attempt to cause disruption to services. Or worse.
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
Radical Left pixies, of course.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
The Trump tomb might as well be in Red Square. By the time this is over there may be no place in the US prepared to bury the Traitor-President.
When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Given Prince Andrew will have to live somewhere, I'm not sure the King and rest of the Royal Family are doing themselves any favours with this media row about forcing Andrew out of one royal home into another, unless there really is a plan to force him overseas.
What can they do? The media has decided to go for him but the RF needs his agreement to leave royal lodge
I don't know, but historically, the Royal Family has always misunderstood the complicated relationship between themselves, the media and the people, whether one thinks of Prince Andrew's disastrous interview, It's a Royal Knockout, or staying in Balmoral after Diana's death. Perhaps the magic dies when we peep behind the curtain. I cannot see how forcing Andrew out of one royal lodge but then straight into another will satisfy anyone very long and it has already raised the spectre of Fergie, who most of us had forgotten about.
Amazing that she is still leeching off teh public purse and seemingly sold a house in Belgravia recently for 4 million.
When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Given Prince Andrew will have to live somewhere, I'm not sure the King and rest of the Royal Family are doing themselves any favours with this media row about forcing Andrew out of one royal home into another, unless there really is a plan to force him overseas.
What can they do? The media has decided to go for him but the RF needs his agreement to leave royal lodge
I don't know, but historically, the Royal Family has always misunderstood the complicated relationship between themselves, the media and the people, whether one thinks of Prince Andrew's disastrous interview, It's a Royal Knockout, or staying in Balmoral after Diana's death. Perhaps the magic dies when we peep behind the curtain. I cannot see how forcing Andrew out of one royal lodge but then straight into another will satisfy anyone very long and it has already raised the spectre of Fergie, who most of us had forgotten about.
The decent thing would have been to do it quickly and quietly but he has fought every step of the way
Comments
He works with Putin spokesman's daughter Elizaveta Peskova at Kremlin's subversion project Russian-French Historical Foundation in Moscow.
https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1982902818882433499
Cable fires cause chaos for TGV passengers trying to travel between Paris and southern cities
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/27/france-fast-trains-arson-disruption/ (£££)
Half-term in France (and here). Foreign-inspired arson or home-grown? Theft of copper cables for scrap (as we have seen in Britain) is probably just ordinary crime but this is not that.
An awful lot of the success of Thatcherism was being in the right place at the right time. Peak oil, falling dependency ratio.
And some of the good times in the 80s did come about by selling stuff off and spending the proceeds, with the consequences that we see around us.
Most of these pensioners have not earned their £2 million houses at all; it's just pure luck that prices have exploded in places like London. If their cash flow means they have to downsize, they are still going to be sat on a huge pile of unearned wealth most of which will never see the tax man.
It doesn't sound like my perfect policy but better than nothing.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/27/federal-union-government-shutdown-end.html
The biggest union representing federal workers urged Democrats in Congress to end the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called for the passage of a stopgap funding measure that Republicans have proposed.
When Stalin died the Russian authorities wanted him to be buried somewhere faraway from Russia because they feared if he was buried in Russia his followers would make the burial place a pilgrim Centre .So they asked the British government if they would like to have Stalin buried in England. The British authorities said, “Sorry ,we already have the founder of communism buried here .We don’t want another great communist here. ” The Russians approached Germany, but the Germans said ,”we have here the grave of one of the most brutal dictators of the world .We can’t afford to have another.”
But Israel volunteered to have Stalin buried on their soil because Stalin had been helpful in the formation of Israel after the second world war. However, the Russians said ,oh no! There has already been a resurrection there !”.
That isn't a great definition but it probably matches common usage as much as any dictionary or political definition. It means very different things to different writers so is completely pointless, unless used pejoratively within an echo bubble.
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