It doesn't even come close to meeting the humour threshold for a joke
That’s an irrelevant personal view. You didn’t find it funny and get the chance to polish your halo on the back of it.
It’s a joke. Some will laugh others won’t.
Nobody would laugh at that. I mean, it was judged inappropriate at a rugby club dinner. I have no interest in having a halo, I'm no saint. It's not about "taking offence" or "cancelling" somebody. It's simply judging somebody who has chosen to put themselves in the public eye by the things they have said.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
Nah, that "joke" is a little window into the man's mind. What a sordid and nasty place it is. When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.
These are from Danny Shaw, a former BBC home affairs correspondent and an adviser to Yvette Cooper for a brief period, on the Tory implicit allegations about Morgan McSweeney.
So, what exactly is the allegation against Morgan McSweeney?
That he arranged the theft?
Or, disposed of his phone then lied, telling police and No 10 Security staff it had been stolen?
Both are absurd, frankly.
It's not at all absurd, it's likely. The "theft" was probably his least worst option. It's what I'd have done in his situation.
Likewise
As soon as I heard the story, I thought: Neat. I even felt a tremor of respect for the shamelessness
What he ALLEGEDLY did is outrageous, but also flawless, it is impossible to prove he's lying. And in one go it gets rid of the whole problem
Let's call them junior doctors because everyone understands what that means.
I get slightly irritated with the opposite aspect on this one - the continual media insistence on "formerly known as junior doctors". It's been long enough now imo. Drop that.
Would ‘lazy entitled bastards’ do instead ?
Entitled bastards can be argued (although I personally wouldn't) but lazy? Check out the average weekly hours they work and the intensity. They are not lazy.
Well they don’t like hard work given how much time they take off striking.
also they get paid for extra hours, weekends, shift allowances , etc etc , greedy barstewards
Uni academics have seen a similar degradation in real terms pay. However most of us know the financial pressure the institutions are under and are realistic about how asking for pay restoration would go. In other news I hosted my favourite colorectal surgeon today. He moaned a loudly and at length about management. Hospitals and health services need managing for sure, member and I don’t subscribe to the idea of vast culls of admin staff but I do wonder whether the admin burden itself is the problem. And then also the residents - remember that a lot of them will up as consultants on rather decent salaries.
Supply, demand and power.
If uni academics go on strike, few people notice. If they leave, the queue to take their job will instantly stretch from the University Library to the Senate House... of the University in the next city.
(Back in my days as a postdoc, we used to speculate on how we could murder sufficient permanent academics to be confident of a tenured job, and it's far worse now than 20 years ago.)
It's the same logic as to why tube drivers threaten so many strikes... because they can. Yes, there's a cost in public love, but money is literally more valuable.
Let's call them junior doctors because everyone understands what that means.
I get slightly irritated with the opposite aspect on this one - the continual media insistence on "formerly known as junior doctors". It's been long enough now imo. Drop that.
Would ‘lazy entitled bastards’ do instead ?
Entitled bastards can be argued (although I personally wouldn't) but lazy? Check out the average weekly hours they work and the intensity. They are not lazy.
Well they don’t like hard work given how much time they take off striking.
also they get paid for extra hours, weekends, shift allowances , etc etc , greedy barstewards
Uni academics have seen a similar degradation in real terms pay. However most of us know the financial pressure the institutions are under and are realistic about how asking for pay restoration would go. In other news I hosted my favourite colorectal surgeon today. He moaned a loudly and at length about management. Hospitals and health services need managing for sure, member and I don’t subscribe to the idea of vast culls of admin staff but I do wonder whether the admin burden itself is the problem. And then also the residents - remember that a lot of them will up as consultants on rather decent salaries.
NHS is undermanaged imo. Too few experienced managers. Too much clinician time wasted/use unproductively.
African choir and drums now at the cathedral giving a lively performance
"Wokeness gorn mad!"
Black British are percentage wise more likely to attend C of E services now than white British and globally the average Anglican is now an African
So the question should be: why have most white people, particularly working-class white people, given up on the religion their family used to follow?
Were white working class Anglicans enthusiastic church goers in the past? My WWC grandparents were nominally Anglicans but not at all interested in religion. My other grandparents, from nonconformist lower middle class stock, were much more religious (and left wing).
Yet now Anglicans have a higher church attendance than Methodists and Quakers Meeting Houses, though Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Baptists and Pentecostals tend to have the highest church attendance rate amongst their members
Kemi and her front bench team are going to have to u-turn on this, so they are in future backed up by the science and the facts in what they are claiming.
No they don't. They say it won't change oil and gas prices, which it won't.
As a matter of economics, it will earn the country money, and won't make any difference at all to our oil and gas consumption.
We could even put the £2bn or so extra that government might earn into solar plus grid backup projects.
So there is no good argument not to do it.
The Unions game here is wholly interested in taxpayers money keeping people in jobs, by government subsidising any industry, anywhere, that’s not economically viable or profit making. That’s what Unions are doing in the lobby.
The industry lobby says it’s all government policy decision, not geology at all. Green Lobby says UK North Sea is waning due to geology, and UK policy is still too much commitment to drilling fossil fuel for far too long. Here’s an example of Green Lobby spin: https://www.upliftuk.org/post/the-declining-economics-of-the-north-sea
North Sea policy is a war. There’s various sides, each have vested interest in not sticking to fact or balance - including government with their net zero policy, and the Conservatives who invented net zero policy in office, but prefer to argue Populist position against net zero in opposition.
Truth is the first casualty of war. It’s very hard to for us to spot what’s smartest in long run with this one imho.
That's just babble. If the government allowed licenses for the new fields, industry would develop them at their own expense.
There's no argument about that.
Nigel - but this is exactly the point I am arguing about. 🤷♀️
Industry would not develop them at their own expense. They haven’t even been doing so, even when the basins were more mature than they are now. Private ventures drilling UKs North Sea do this with bungs of tax payers money.
Remember the bad old days before Lady Thatcher, where factories, coal pits etc etc etc were not making profit, but Labour and the Unions were bunging them help with tax payers money? That’s what Kemi and Farage are pushing for, from the opposition benches.
Both Farage and Kemi have said the same thing at PMQs this past week. UK gets All the gas. Factually not true. UK gas prices will be cheaper. Factually not true. But thirdly, quite importanty what they are not saying, the jobs are secured, the private ventures take a dividend, but based on a hefty tax payer bung to the new drilling.
The UK is highly integrated with the European gas market, being physically linked with the wider continent through undersea pipelines. It will be the European market price UK customers will pay, unless we can change that marginally buy pumping an awful lot more than anyone’s currently suggesting.
UK needs to make the right decision here, for now, the short term, medium and long term of National interest. The post you called babble was me saying, wherever we go for the facts of what that is,we are being met with spin, lobby groups, vested interests, and political opportunism.
And your “unarguable point” is one of very many arguable nuances towards getting it right - especially for anyone with a liking and a love for Thatcherism. Kemi Badenoch was in bed with the UK Unions and 1970s British Socialism at Lunchtime today. When in coalition government with Reform after the next election, both Kemi and Farage will hang portraits of Lady Thatcher in their offices. But that’s fake, it’s ignorance and cosplay, if they’re not practicing the economic philosophy Lady Thatcher bequeathed to us.
Don’t use ChatGPT
Instead look at the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are drilling wells. Lots of them. Right next door to fields we are shutting down.
I’m glad you brought that up.
The fourth piece of ignorance both Kemi and Farage are bringing to the North Sea drilling debate is where they keep saying Norway are doing it, so why don’t we - as though it’s as easy as copying Norway to get the same result for UK that Norway will get. That line is a con. To coin a phrase: One Piece Economics. Just go and pick up the treasure and get rich. In many ways UK in a vastly different place than Norway regarding this.
Direct ownership in oil/gas fields is very different currently between the two countries, meaning income is going to be very different. The Norwegian oil and gas industry is not fully nationalized, but it is heavily controlled by the state through a hybrid model. The state owns all resource rights, holds a 67% stake in Equinor, and maintains direct financial interests in fields and infrastructure via Petoro. With these different models, while UK and Norway have produced similar total volumes of oil and gas over the years, their financial outcomes differ by quite a bit. In 2018, for recent example, Norway generated roughly 34 times more oil tax revenue than the UK from similar total volumes.
In recent years - once you look at net figure minus all the bungs making it happen - UK government income has been averaging £3.5BN. No new drilling, this falls to £300M by the end of this decade. With the new drilling Farage, Kemi {and their economic advisors the Unions} are pushing for, it is £1.5B income at end of this decade instead of the £300M. It’s definitely not the great easy to pick up treasure trove being spurned, that it’s being made out to be.
The geology was never perfectly split. Eight of the ten largest fields in the North Sea are located in Norwegian waters. Norway's sector tends to have thicker reservoirs and larger "structural closures," which provide longer production tails. Norway still has relatively underexplored "frontier" areas like the Barents Sea. And UK pumped ours out faster leading to UK production peak in the last century - 1999.
The two countries are in different places as regards what they have left, and how they have been generating income from it. Are you saying this is factually wrong to say?
There’s a really great Norwegian tv series about that called State of Happiness . It’s 3 seasons , it’s a shame BBC Iplayer only now have the 3rd . If you get a chance to find the whole series I’m sure you’d enjoy it .
PC + GRN could (almost) govern on those numbers. Two distinctly left wing parties. None of this 'left of centre' business, proper left. We could be looking at the Socialist Republic of Wales. If so, I'll be rooting for them and taking regular holidays there.
Though probably only for one term, given the number of businesses that will close or leave Wales as they hammer them with tax and regulation
The usual scaremongering whenever anything designed to shift a bit of advantage from capital to labour is mooted.
How are you feeling about the first female head of the church, H? Quite a moment.
Wales is already one of the most taxed and highest public spending nations in the world, it needs tax cuts and some fiscal conservatism not even more of the same.
I am fine with the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, 2/3 of Synod voted for female bishops a decade ago but I would still allow alternative episcopal oversight for those conservative Anglo Catholic or evangelical churches which still believe St Paul only allows male headship in churches
Plaid did turn your head once though istr.
Yes, a positive event. I'm not religous but I'm not unmoved by it.
I voted for all 4 Tory council candidates in that town council election, I had 6 votes though and as Plaid were the only other party who had bothered to stand candidates I voted for 2 of them as I on principle use all my votes. Had a LD or Labour or UKIP candidate stood I would have voted for them ahead of Plaid
It doesn't even come close to meeting the humour threshold for a joke, sorry. There is no version of the universe where anyone would laugh at that. FWIW I don't mind a sick joke if it's funny. But if you're going to say something that mean-spirited, ignorant and unpleasant then you'd better make sure it is funny. Otherwise you're just a c**t.
No no no.
A bad joke is a joke. An unfunny joke is a joke. An offensive joke is a joke. A sick joke is a joke.
You're doing something akin to what newspapers do in these circumstances. As soon as one person doesn't like it it's "remarks" or "comments". Nope. Joke.
It doesn't even come close to meeting the humour threshold for a joke
That’s an irrelevant personal view. You didn’t find it funny and get the chance to polish your halo on the back of it.
It’s a joke. Some will laugh others won’t.
Nobody would laugh at that. I mean, it was judged inappropriate at a rugby club dinner. I have no interest in having a halo, I'm no saint. It's not about "taking offence" or "cancelling" somebody. It's simply judging somebody who has chosen to put themselves in the public eye by the things they have said.
It's a terrible joke, because it's not funny and yet it is also offensive in different ways
But a bad joke should not end a political career, that is ridiculous. It should earn him a rebuke that makes him feel like a loser, and then we all move on
All this over-reacting, on all sides, is tiresome in the extreme
Are we supposed to believe the Rugby crowd didn't laugh because it's a) homophobic; or b) racist because of the curry reference; or c) a gross image. My guess is c).
Kemi and her front bench team are going to have to u-turn on this, so they are in future backed up by the science and the facts in what they are claiming.
No they don't. They say it won't change oil and gas prices, which it won't.
As a matter of economics, it will earn the country money, and won't make any difference at all to our oil and gas consumption.
We could even put the £2bn or so extra that government might earn into solar plus grid backup projects.
So there is no good argument not to do it.
The Unions game here is wholly interested in taxpayers money keeping people in jobs, by government subsidising any industry, anywhere, that’s not economically viable or profit making. That’s what Unions are doing in the lobby.
The industry lobby says it’s all government policy decision, not geology at all. Green Lobby says UK North Sea is waning due to geology, and UK policy is still too much commitment to drilling fossil fuel for far too long. Here’s an example of Green Lobby spin: https://www.upliftuk.org/post/the-declining-economics-of-the-north-sea
North Sea policy is a war. There’s various sides, each have vested interest in not sticking to fact or balance - including government with their net zero policy, and the Conservatives who invented net zero policy in office, but prefer to argue Populist position against net zero in opposition.
Truth is the first casualty of war. It’s very hard to for us to spot what’s smartest in long run with this one imho.
That's just babble. If the government allowed licenses for the new fields, industry would develop them at their own expense.
There's no argument about that.
Nigel - but this is exactly the point I am arguing about. 🤷♀️
Industry would not develop them at their own expense. They haven’t even been doing so, even when the basins were more mature than they are now. Private ventures drilling UKs North Sea do this with bungs of tax payers money.
Remember the bad old days before Lady Thatcher, where factories, coal pits etc etc etc were not making profit, but Labour and the Unions were bunging them help with tax payers money? That’s what Kemi and Farage are pushing for, from the opposition benches.
Both Farage and Kemi have said the same thing at PMQs this past week. UK gets All the gas. Factually not true. UK gas prices will be cheaper. Factually not true. But thirdly, quite importanty what they are not saying, the jobs are secured, the private ventures take a dividend, but based on a hefty tax payer bung to the new drilling.
The UK is highly integrated with the European gas market, being physically linked with the wider continent through undersea pipelines. It will be the European market price UK customers will pay, unless we can change that marginally buy pumping an awful lot more than anyone’s currently suggesting.
UK needs to make the right decision here, for now, the short term, medium and long term of National interest. The post you called babble was me saying, wherever we go for the facts of what that is,we are being met with spin, lobby groups, vested interests, and political opportunism.
And your “unarguable point” is one of very many arguable nuances towards getting it right - especially for anyone with a liking and a love for Thatcherism. Kemi Badenoch was in bed with the UK Unions and 1970s British Socialism at Lunchtime today. When in coalition government with Reform after the next election, both Kemi and Farage will hang portraits of Lady Thatcher in their offices. But that’s fake, it’s ignorance and cosplay, if they’re not practicing the economic philosophy Lady Thatcher bequeathed to us.
Don’t use ChatGPT
Instead look at the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are drilling wells. Lots of them. Right next door to fields we are shutting down.
I’m glad you brought that up.
The fourth piece of ignorance both Kemi and Farage are bringing to the North Sea drilling debate is where they keep saying Norway are doing it, so why don’t we - as though it’s as easy as copying Norway to get the same result for UK that Norway will get. That line is a con. To coin a phrase: One Piece Economics. Just go and pick up the treasure and get rich. In many ways UK in a vastly different place than Norway regarding this.
Direct ownership in oil/gas fields is very different currently between the two countries, meaning income is going to be very different. The Norwegian oil and gas industry is not fully nationalized, but it is heavily controlled by the state through a hybrid model. The state owns all resource rights, holds a 67% stake in Equinor, and maintains direct financial interests in fields and infrastructure via Petoro. With these different models, while UK and Norway have produced similar total volumes of oil and gas over the years, their financial outcomes differ by quite a bit. In 2018, for recent example, Norway generated roughly 34 times more oil tax revenue than the UK from similar total volumes.
In recent years - once you look at net figure minus all the bungs making it happen - UK government income has been averaging £3.5BN. No new drilling, this falls to £300M by the end of this decade. With the new drilling Farage, Kemi {and their economic advisors the Unions} are pushing for, it is £1.5B income at end of this decade instead of the £300M. It’s definitely not the great easy to pick up treasure trove being spurned, that it’s being made out to be.
The geology was never perfectly split. Eight of the ten largest fields in the North Sea are located in Norwegian waters. Norway's sector tends to have thicker reservoirs and larger "structural closures," which provide longer production tails. Norway still has relatively underexplored "frontier" areas like the Barents Sea. And UK pumped ours out faster leading to UK production peak in the last century - 1999.
The two countries are in different places as regards what they have left, and how they have been generating income from it. Are you saying this is factually wrong to say?
There’s a really great Norwegian tv series about that called State of Happiness . It’s 3 seasons , it’s a shame BBC Iplayer only now have the 3rd . If you get a chance to find the whole series I’m sure you’d enjoy it .
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
I don't have a strong view, but it underlines a pretty maladroit start to the Holyrood campaign by Reform. And Offord was supposed to be the sensible one. They've already lost two candidates in just a few days after announcing who's running for them.
Reinforces the image of bampots, Tory rejects, and opportunists. Think they may underperform come May. Especially if this develops as the narrative.
Kemi and her front bench team are going to have to u-turn on this, so they are in future backed up by the science and the facts in what they are claiming.
No they don't. They say it won't change oil and gas prices, which it won't.
As a matter of economics, it will earn the country money, and won't make any difference at all to our oil and gas consumption.
We could even put the £2bn or so extra that government might earn into solar plus grid backup projects.
So there is no good argument not to do it.
The Unions game here is wholly interested in taxpayers money keeping people in jobs, by government subsidising any industry, anywhere, that’s not economically viable or profit making. That’s what Unions are doing in the lobby.
The industry lobby says it’s all government policy decision, not geology at all. Green Lobby says UK North Sea is waning due to geology, and UK policy is still too much commitment to drilling fossil fuel for far too long. Here’s an example of Green Lobby spin: https://www.upliftuk.org/post/the-declining-economics-of-the-north-sea
North Sea policy is a war. There’s various sides, each have vested interest in not sticking to fact or balance - including government with their net zero policy, and the Conservatives who invented net zero policy in office, but prefer to argue Populist position against net zero in opposition.
Truth is the first casualty of war. It’s very hard to for us to spot what’s smartest in long run with this one imho.
That's just babble. If the government allowed licenses for the new fields, industry would develop them at their own expense.
There's no argument about that.
Nigel - but this is exactly the point I am arguing about. 🤷♀️
Industry would not develop them at their own expense. They haven’t even been doing so, even when the basins were more mature than they are now. Private ventures drilling UKs North Sea do this with bungs of tax payers money.
Remember the bad old days before Lady Thatcher, where factories, coal pits etc etc etc were not making profit, but Labour and the Unions were bunging them help with tax payers money? That’s what Kemi and Farage are pushing for, from the opposition benches.
Both Farage and Kemi have said the same thing at PMQs this past week. UK gets All the gas. Factually not true. UK gas prices will be cheaper. Factually not true. But thirdly, quite importanty what they are not saying, the jobs are secured, the private ventures take a dividend, but based on a hefty tax payer bung to the new drilling.
The UK is highly integrated with the European gas market, being physically linked with the wider continent through undersea pipelines. It will be the European market price UK customers will pay, unless we can change that marginally buy pumping an awful lot more than anyone’s currently suggesting.
UK needs to make the right decision here, for now, the short term, medium and long term of National interest. The post you called babble was me saying, wherever we go for the facts of what that is,we are being met with spin, lobby groups, vested interests, and political opportunism.
And your “unarguable point” is one of very many arguable nuances towards getting it right - especially for anyone with a liking and a love for Thatcherism. Kemi Badenoch was in bed with the UK Unions and 1970s British Socialism at Lunchtime today. When in coalition government with Reform after the next election, both Kemi and Farage will hang portraits of Lady Thatcher in their offices. But that’s fake, it’s ignorance and cosplay, if they’re not practicing the economic philosophy Lady Thatcher bequeathed to us.
Don’t use ChatGPT
Instead look at the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are drilling wells. Lots of them. Right next door to fields we are shutting down.
I’m glad you brought that up.
The fourth piece of ignorance both Kemi and Farage are bringing to the North Sea drilling debate is where they keep saying Norway are doing it, so why don’t we - as though it’s as easy as copying Norway to get the same result for UK that Norway will get. That line is a con. To coin a phrase: One Piece Economics. Just go and pick up the treasure and get rich. In many ways UK in a vastly different place than Norway regarding this.
Direct ownership in oil/gas fields is very different currently between the two countries, meaning income is going to be very different. The Norwegian oil and gas industry is not fully nationalized, but it is heavily controlled by the state through a hybrid model. The state owns all resource rights, holds a 67% stake in Equinor, and maintains direct financial interests in fields and infrastructure via Petoro. With these different models, while UK and Norway have produced similar total volumes of oil and gas over the years, their financial outcomes differ by quite a bit. In 2018, for recent example, Norway generated roughly 34 times more oil tax revenue than the UK from similar total volumes.
In recent years - once you look at net figure minus all the bungs making it happen - UK government income has been averaging £3.5BN. No new drilling, this falls to £300M by the end of this decade. With the new drilling Farage, Kemi {and their economic advisors the Unions} are pushing for, it is £1.5B income at end of this decade instead of the £300M. It’s definitely not the great easy to pick up treasure trove being spurned, that it’s being made out to be.
The geology was never perfectly split. Eight of the ten largest fields in the North Sea are located in Norwegian waters. Norway's sector tends to have thicker reservoirs and larger "structural closures," which provide longer production tails. Norway still has relatively underexplored "frontier" areas like the Barents Sea. And UK pumped ours out faster over the decades, leading to UK production peak in the last century - 1999.
The two countries are in different places as regards what they have left, and how they have been generating income from it. Are you sure this is factually wrong to say?
I would listen to @Richard_Tyndall who knows and works in the industry before with respect your ramblings
It is economic vandalism not to get billions over years from the tax and use it to reduce energy bills or invest in renewables
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
If the Tories seriously think 98% of the population give a flying feck about Morgan McSweeney phone theft they are utterly deluded.
98% of the population will be saying, the Tories are utterly irrelevant if this is one of the most 20 important issues today.
Of the questions Tories raise the only one remotely contentious is the location question. However the fact that he was in the open air having just had a phone nicked perfectly explains this.
The Party of Boris Johnson desperately flapping around.
Badenochs worst Pmq in 6 months.
Local and Devolved elections coming up and Kemi smells a rat.
Well rats should know what rat piss smells like, the self confessed web hacker, liar about her academic record and cabinet colleague of Boris Johnson is obviously suffering from delayed rat smell syndrome going back 25 years.
Deja vu with the stink of extinction for the irrelevant Tories.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
It's genuinely brilliant, Richard, but that's the 25th time it's been posted on here this week.
Going to join pineapple on pizza, this one, I think.
And why the hell not.
Never saw it on here. I should pay more attention I suppose.
If the Tories seriously think 98% of the population give a flying feck about Morgan McSweeney phone theft they are utterly deluded.
98% of the population will be saying, the Tories are utterly irrelevant if this is one of the most 20 important issues today.
Of the questions Tories raise the only one remotely contentious is the location question. However the fact that he was in the open air having just had a phone nicked perfectly explains this.
The Party of Boris Johnson desperately flapping around.
Badenochs worst Pmq in 6 months.
Local and Devolved elections coming up and Kemi smells a rat.
Well rats should know what rat piss smells like, the self confessed web hacker, liar about her academic record and cabinet colleague of Boris Johnson is obviously suffering from delayed rat smell syndrome going back 25 years.
Deja vu with the stink of extinction for the irrelevant Tories.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
African choir and drums now at the cathedral giving a lively performance
"Wokeness gorn mad!"
Black British are percentage wise more likely to attend C of E services now than white British and globally the average Anglican is now an African
So the question should be: why have most white people, particularly working-class white people, given up on the religion their family used to follow?
Were white working class Anglicans enthusiastic church goers in the past? My WWC grandparents were nominally Anglicans but not at all interested in religion. My other grandparents, from nonconformist lower middle class stock, were much more religious (and left wing).
Yet now Anglicans have a higher church attendance than Methodists and Quakers Meeting Houses, though Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Baptists and Pentecostals tend to have the highest church attendance rate amongst their members
Catholics go to Mass on Sundays because to miss Mass is a mortal sin, and you GO TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY. Unless you go to confession. I remember the anxiety well.
Kemi and her front bench team are going to have to u-turn on this, so they are in future backed up by the science and the facts in what they are claiming.
No they don't. They say it won't change oil and gas prices, which it won't.
As a matter of economics, it will earn the country money, and won't make any difference at all to our oil and gas consumption.
We could even put the £2bn or so extra that government might earn into solar plus grid backup projects.
So there is no good argument not to do it.
The Unions game here is wholly interested in taxpayers money keeping people in jobs, by government subsidising any industry, anywhere, that’s not economically viable or profit making. That’s what Unions are doing in the lobby.
The industry lobby says it’s all government policy decision, not geology at all. Green Lobby says UK North Sea is waning due to geology, and UK policy is still too much commitment to drilling fossil fuel for far too long. Here’s an example of Green Lobby spin: https://www.upliftuk.org/post/the-declining-economics-of-the-north-sea
North Sea policy is a war. There’s various sides, each have vested interest in not sticking to fact or balance - including government with their net zero policy, and the Conservatives who invented net zero policy in office, but prefer to argue Populist position against net zero in opposition.
Truth is the first casualty of war. It’s very hard to for us to spot what’s smartest in long run with this one imho.
That's just babble. If the government allowed licenses for the new fields, industry would develop them at their own expense.
There's no argument about that.
Nigel - but this is exactly the point I am arguing about. 🤷♀️
Industry would not develop them at their own expense. They haven’t even been doing so, even when the basins were more mature than they are now. Private ventures drilling UKs North Sea do this with bungs of tax payers money.
Remember the bad old days before Lady Thatcher, where factories, coal pits etc etc etc were not making profit, but Labour and the Unions were bunging them help with tax payers money? That’s what Kemi and Farage are pushing for, from the opposition benches.
Both Farage and Kemi have said the same thing at PMQs this past week. UK gets All the gas. Factually not true. UK gas prices will be cheaper. Factually not true. But thirdly, quite importanty what they are not saying, the jobs are secured, the private ventures take a dividend, but based on a hefty tax payer bung to the new drilling.
The UK is highly integrated with the European gas market, being physically linked with the wider continent through undersea pipelines. It will be the European market price UK customers will pay, unless we can change that marginally buy pumping an awful lot more than anyone’s currently suggesting.
UK needs to make the right decision here, for now, the short term, medium and long term of National interest. The post you called babble was me saying, wherever we go for the facts of what that is,we are being met with spin, lobby groups, vested interests, and political opportunism.
And your “unarguable point” is one of very many arguable nuances towards getting it right - especially for anyone with a liking and a love for Thatcherism. Kemi Badenoch was in bed with the UK Unions and 1970s British Socialism at Lunchtime today. When in coalition government with Reform after the next election, both Kemi and Farage will hang portraits of Lady Thatcher in their offices. But that’s fake, it’s ignorance and cosplay, if they’re not practicing the economic philosophy Lady Thatcher bequeathed to us.
Don’t use ChatGPT
Instead look at the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are drilling wells. Lots of them. Right next door to fields we are shutting down.
I’m glad you brought that up.
The fourth piece of ignorance both Kemi and Farage are bringing to the North Sea drilling debate is where they keep saying Norway are doing it, so why don’t we - as though it’s as easy as copying Norway to get the same result for UK that Norway will get. That line is a con. To coin a phrase: One Piece Economics. Just go and pick up the treasure and get rich. In many ways UK in a vastly different place than Norway regarding this.
Direct ownership in oil/gas fields is very different currently between the two countries, meaning income is going to be very different. The Norwegian oil and gas industry is not fully nationalized, but it is heavily controlled by the state through a hybrid model. The state owns all resource rights, holds a 67% stake in Equinor, and maintains direct financial interests in fields and infrastructure via Petoro. With these different models, while UK and Norway have produced similar total volumes of oil and gas over the years, their financial outcomes differ by quite a bit. In 2018, for recent example, Norway generated roughly 34 times more oil tax revenue than the UK from similar total volumes.
In recent years - once you look at net figure minus all the bungs making it happen - UK government income has been averaging £3.5BN. No new drilling, this falls to £300M by the end of this decade. With the new drilling Farage, Kemi {and their economic advisors the Unions} are pushing for, it is £1.5B income at end of this decade instead of the £300M. It’s definitely not the great easy to pick up treasure trove being spurned, that it’s being made out to be.
The geology was never perfectly split. Eight of the ten largest fields in the North Sea are located in Norwegian waters. Norway's sector tends to have thicker reservoirs and larger "structural closures," which provide longer production tails. Norway still has relatively underexplored "frontier" areas like the Barents Sea. And UK pumped ours out faster over the decades, leading to UK production peak in the last century - 1999.
The two countries are in different places as regards what they have left, and how they have been generating income from it. Are you sure this is factually wrong to say?
You keep repeating this rubbish about Norway and in spite of myself and others pointing out it is utter bollocks you never seem to learn.
No, we did not pump our oil out faster than Norway. We have pumped out about 5 billion BOE less than Norway in about the same time.
No the geology is not different. I worked offshore as a geologist in Norway for 15 years. I doubt you could name a single Norwegian formation without getting AI to look it up for you.
And whilst the Norwegians have the Barents Sea we have West of Shetlands.
No things are not identical in each sector but those differences are nothing compared to the political decisions that have hamstrung our industry whilst the Norwegians have embraced theirs.
Kemi and her front bench team are going to have to u-turn on this, so they are in future backed up by the science and the facts in what they are claiming.
No they don't. They say it won't change oil and gas prices, which it won't.
As a matter of economics, it will earn the country money, and won't make any difference at all to our oil and gas consumption.
We could even put the £2bn or so extra that government might earn into solar plus grid backup projects.
So there is no good argument not to do it.
The Unions game here is wholly interested in taxpayers money keeping people in jobs, by government subsidising any industry, anywhere, that’s not economically viable or profit making. That’s what Unions are doing in the lobby.
The industry lobby says it’s all government policy decision, not geology at all. Green Lobby says UK North Sea is waning due to geology, and UK policy is still too much commitment to drilling fossil fuel for far too long. Here’s an example of Green Lobby spin: https://www.upliftuk.org/post/the-declining-economics-of-the-north-sea
North Sea policy is a war. There’s various sides, each have vested interest in not sticking to fact or balance - including government with their net zero policy, and the Conservatives who invented net zero policy in office, but prefer to argue Populist position against net zero in opposition.
Truth is the first casualty of war. It’s very hard to for us to spot what’s smartest in long run with this one imho.
That's just babble. If the government allowed licenses for the new fields, industry would develop them at their own expense.
There's no argument about that.
Nigel - but this is exactly the point I am arguing about. 🤷♀️
Industry would not develop them at their own expense. They haven’t even been doing so, even when the basins were more mature than they are now. Private ventures drilling UKs North Sea do this with bungs of tax payers money.
Remember the bad old days before Lady Thatcher, where factories, coal pits etc etc etc were not making profit, but Labour and the Unions were bunging them help with tax payers money? That’s what Kemi and Farage are pushing for, from the opposition benches.
Both Farage and Kemi have said the same thing at PMQs this past week. UK gets All the gas. Factually not true. UK gas prices will be cheaper. Factually not true. But thirdly, quite importanty what they are not saying, the jobs are secured, the private ventures take a dividend, but based on a hefty tax payer bung to the new drilling.
The UK is highly integrated with the European gas market, being physically linked with the wider continent through undersea pipelines. It will be the European market price UK customers will pay, unless we can change that marginally buy pumping an awful lot more than anyone’s currently suggesting.
UK needs to make the right decision here, for now, the short term, medium and long term of National interest. The post you called babble was me saying, wherever we go for the facts of what that is,we are being met with spin, lobby groups, vested interests, and political opportunism.
And your “unarguable point” is one of very many arguable nuances towards getting it right - especially for anyone with a liking and a love for Thatcherism. Kemi Badenoch was in bed with the UK Unions and 1970s British Socialism at Lunchtime today. When in coalition government with Reform after the next election, both Kemi and Farage will hang portraits of Lady Thatcher in their offices. But that’s fake, it’s ignorance and cosplay, if they’re not practicing the economic philosophy Lady Thatcher bequeathed to us.
Don’t use ChatGPT
Instead look at the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are drilling wells. Lots of them. Right next door to fields we are shutting down.
I’m glad you brought that up.
The fourth piece of ignorance both Kemi and Farage are bringing to the North Sea drilling debate is where they keep saying Norway are doing it, so why don’t we - as though it’s as easy as copying Norway to get the same result for UK that Norway will get. That line is a con. To coin a phrase: One Piece Economics. Just go and pick up the treasure and get rich. In many ways UK in a vastly different place than Norway regarding this.
Direct ownership in oil/gas fields is very different currently between the two countries, meaning income is going to be very different. The Norwegian oil and gas industry is not fully nationalized, but it is heavily controlled by the state through a hybrid model. The state owns all resource rights, holds a 67% stake in Equinor, and maintains direct financial interests in fields and infrastructure via Petoro. With these different models, while UK and Norway have produced similar total volumes of oil and gas over the years, their financial outcomes differ by quite a bit. In 2018, for recent example, Norway generated roughly 34 times more oil tax revenue than the UK from similar total volumes.
In recent years - once you look at net figure minus all the bungs making it happen - UK government income has been averaging £3.5BN. No new drilling, this falls to £300M by the end of this decade. With the new drilling Farage, Kemi {and their economic advisors the Unions} are pushing for, it is £1.5B income at end of this decade instead of the £300M. It’s definitely not the great easy to pick up treasure trove being spurned, that it’s being made out to be.
The geology was never perfectly split. Eight of the ten largest fields in the North Sea are located in Norwegian waters. Norway's sector tends to have thicker reservoirs and larger "structural closures," which provide longer production tails. Norway still has relatively underexplored "frontier" areas like the Barents Sea. And UK pumped ours out faster leading to UK production peak in the last century - 1999.
The two countries are in different places as regards what they have left, and how they have been generating income from it. Are you saying this is factually wrong to say?
There’s a really great Norwegian tv series about that called State of Happiness . It’s 3 seasons , it’s a shame BBC Iplayer only now have the 3rd . If you get a chance to find the whole series I’m sure you’d enjoy it .
It is good. There was a real vibe of what I remember of Aberdeen in the 70s and early 80s during ‘our’ oil boom, aside from any discussion over how this largesse should be distributed of course.
It's a potentially profitable angle for a shakedown.
Why wouldn't they try it?
Well if I'm wrong and we end up paying £££ in reparations I'll be back to eat humble pie but my view is there is zero chance of that and these stories are mainly pushed by the TeleMail and ilk as ragebait.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
It's genuinely brilliant, Richard, but that's the 25th time it's been posted on here this week.
Going to join pineapple on pizza, this one, I think.
And why the hell not.
Never saw it on here. I should pay more attention I suppose.
Is North Sea gas really not cheaper than LPG tankers from the USA or Qatar?
Some years ago I attended a conference on shale gas. The stuff you extract through fracking. One of the speakers stated that the cheapest shale gas in the UK would be LNG from the US.
Badging something 'joke' isn't a license to spew crude nauseating bigotry and escape being viewed badly because of it.
Come now, totally unfair to judge someone whose theoretical stock in trade is communication, persuasion and taking people with you over their misreading of an audience.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
Hope you're not 'polishing your halo' there, Al. Living in Brighton and all.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
Go on then - what's the offense? It's a weak joke.
BREAKING: In a landmark decision, a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing apps that harmed kids and teens and failed to warn them about the dangers.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
It's genuinely brilliant, Richard, but that's the 25th time it's been posted on here this week.
Going to join pineapple on pizza, this one, I think.
And why the hell not.
Never saw it on here. I should pay more attention I suppose.
Let's call them junior doctors because everyone understands what that means.
I get slightly irritated with the opposite aspect on this one - the continual media insistence on "formerly known as junior doctors". It's been long enough now imo. Drop that.
Would ‘lazy entitled bastards’ do instead ?
Entitled bastards can be argued (although I personally wouldn't) but lazy? Check out the average weekly hours they work and the intensity. They are not lazy.
Well they don’t like hard work given how much time they take off striking.
also they get paid for extra hours, weekends, shift allowances , etc etc , greedy barstewards
Uni academics have seen a similar degradation in real terms pay. However most of us know the financial pressure the institutions are under and are realistic about how asking for pay restoration would go. In other news I hosted my favourite colorectal surgeon today. He moaned a loudly and at length about management. Hospitals and health services need managing for sure, member and I don’t subscribe to the idea of vast culls of admin staff but I do wonder whether the admin burden itself is the problem. And then also the residents - remember that a lot of them will up as consultants on rather decent salaries.
Supply, demand and power.
If uni academics go on strike, few people notice. If they leave, the queue to take their job will instantly stretch from the University Library to the Senate House... of the University in the next city.
(Back in my days as a postdoc, we used to speculate on how we could murder sufficient permanent academics to be confident of a tenured job, and it's far worse now than 20 years ago.)
It's the same logic as to why tube drivers threaten so many strikes... because they can. Yes, there's a cost in public love, but money is literally more valuable.
My friend who finally got a lectureship 20 years ago, used to meet the same group of hopefuls at each interview. He said back then that just to get an interview you had to be more qualified and published than most of the academics on the interview panel. Once he got in, he moaned about senior lecturers retiring and coming back on contract.
EXCLUSIVE: Each day since the start of the war, U.S. military officials compile a video update for President Trump that shows the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours.
But the military can’t brief Trump on every strike and so the video, while it showcases U.S. capabilities, doesn’t reflect the full scope of the conflict.
“We can’t tell him every single thing that happens,” a current U.S. official said. The official noted that Trump’s briefings tend to draw better feedback from his aides when they focus on U.S. victories.
Well, that's not new , is it? When the US military was releasing videos of their super-accurate "bunker-buster" bombs hitting their targets, it was left to Chelsea Manning to show the ones hitting weddings.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
Go on then - what's the offense? It's a weak joke.
I didn't have you in mind - I wouldn't expect you to find anything offensive about it.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
It's genuinely brilliant, Richard, but that's the 25th time it's been posted on here this week.
Going to join pineapple on pizza, this one, I think.
And why the hell not.
Never saw it on here. I should pay more attention I suppose.
Sorry, I didn't mean it to criticise. Not at all.
None taken. i really should pay more attention
You have a proper job of work. Priorities all wrong.
Malcolm Offord what a totally loathsome vile cxnt !
There’s banter and there’s his disgusting homophobic so called joke about George Michael . We shouldn’t be surprised because Reform are full of vile bigots .
I missed that. George Michael was probably the most talented British musician of his generation. Who is Malcolm Offord and what stellar achievements is he bringing to the table?
He was decent, and a great human being, but most talented of his generation 🤷♂️
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. All this fake offence is pathetic.
I've not seen it so am not taking offense but really homophobic "jokes" what is this the 1970s? Ooh missus, look out for the shirtlifters, "I'm free"... give me strength. George Michael is an epochal musical talent and will be remembered long after this Reform mouthbreather is consigned to the dustbin of history.
It was 2018 when the joke was cracked.
He was a Tory then. But, muh, Reform.
It was a joke at an after dinner speech. A lot of fake offence about it now. Pretty pathetic.
Should we get all jokes approved so sensitive flowers aren’t offended ?
It's a free country, he can say what he likes but shouldn't act surprised at the reaction. FWIW I'm not offended, I just think the guy is obviously a fucking vile piece of shit.
Why, on the basis of a joke made at an after dinner speech ?
A few words which take up a couple of minutes of his life.
Why should that define what he is as a person. I don’t know the motherfucker from Adam but I wouldn’t judge him solely on a joke he made.
The reaction is stupid and fake offence. But typical of our politics and all parties are just as bad and all parties fake offence. Even Reform.
You refer frequently to people taking 'fake offence', but you never seem to consider the possibility that the offence taken is real, not 'fake'. In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
Hope you're not 'polishing your halo' there, Al. Living in Brighton and all.
Indeed, though I have to suffer a life of humourless wokeness down here with all the leftie gay green vegan types. Apparently. It's tough to be beside the seaside.
BREAKING: In a landmark decision, a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing apps that harmed kids and teens and failed to warn them about the dangers.
If the Tories seriously think 98% of the population give a flying feck about Morgan McSweeney phone theft they are utterly deluded.
98% of the population will be saying, the Tories are utterly irrelevant if this is one of the most 20 important issues today.
Of the questions Tories raise the only one remotely contentious is the location question. However the fact that he was in the open air having just had a phone nicked perfectly explains this.
The Party of Boris Johnson desperately flapping around.
Badenochs worst Pmq in 6 months.
Local and Devolved elections coming up and Kemi smells a rat.
Well rats should know what rat piss smells like, the self confessed web hacker, liar about her academic record and cabinet colleague of Boris Johnson is obviously suffering from delayed rat smell syndrome going back 25 years.
Deja vu with the stink of extinction for the irrelevant Tories.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
That's my all time favourite Monkhouse joke.
He was the master of timing.
The only person I can think of who compares -and it's a very, very different kind of humour- is Ricky Gervais.
Only with Ricky, he's throwing in something so wildly outrageous, you can't believe he said it. "Don't worry, I didn't kill her." (And we all know how that one ends.)
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
It's genuinely brilliant, Richard, but that's the 25th time it's been posted on here this week.
Going to join pineapple on pizza, this one, I think.
And why the hell not.
Never saw it on here. I should pay more attention I suppose.
Sorry, I didn't mean it to criticise. Not at all.
None taken. i really should pay more attention
You have a proper job of work. Priorities all wrong.
You mean to say there is something to life other than posting on PB? I say! That sort of talk might get you banned
Badging something 'joke' isn't a license to spew crude nauseating bigotry and escape being viewed badly because of it.
Come now, totally unfair to judge someone whose theoretical stock in trade is communication, persuasion and taking people with you over their misreading of an audience.
I think I'm in a parallel universe sometimes. It's not po-faced or sanctimonious to not want 'that' or the purveyors of it in positions of power, is it. Surely it isn't. It's draining the swamp, isn't it. Draining the swamp. If only.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
That's my all time favourite Monkhouse joke.
He was the master of timing.
The only person I can think of who compares -and it's a very, very different kind of humour- is Ricky Gervais.
Only with Ricky, he's throwing in something so wildly outrageous, you can't believe he said it. "Don't worry, I didn't kill her." (And we all know how that one ends.)
The successor to Bob Monkhouse is Jimmy Carr. I will die on this hill. Very similar in terms of delivery, dealing with hecklers, being able to think on his feet.
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
That's my all time favourite Monkhouse joke.
He was the master of timing.
The only person I can think of who compares -and it's a very, very different kind of humour- is Ricky Gervais.
Only with Ricky, he's throwing in something so wildly outrageous, you can't believe he said it. "Don't worry, I didn't kill her." (And we all know how that one ends.)
The successor to Bob Monkhouse is Jimmy Carr. I will die on this hill. Very similar in terms of delivery, dealing with hecklers, being able to think on his feet.
I've told any number of jokes since university that could have ended my career a thousand times over. Many were offensive.
We need to be a bit less outraged if we don't want a humourless society.
People often tell jokes because they want other people to applaud them for being so clever and witty, instead of for the purpose of making other people laugh, and in the former case they are terribly put out if you don't react how they want you to.
Someone who is genuinely funny will know their audience and choose their jokes to please their audience (rather than themselves).
That is why, for example, Stewart Lee is a tremendous comedian. He really knows his audience.
I have not seen any media mention of the fact that MMcS's communications, both sent and received, will be found on the counterpart phone. If, by any chance, they have got missing too then that is a talking point and one of those statistical freaks that occur occasionally at convenient times. If they haven't, there is no great problem is there?
People were mentioning Bob Monkhouse yesterday on here. Here are three classic Monkhouseisms - I think I heard him give the middle one live -
- "I'm not saying my wife's a bad cook, but he uses our smoke alarm as a timer" - "I got a horse for my wife. Fair trade, wouldn't you say?" - "I still enjoy sex at 74. I live at 75, so it's just across the road"
"When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everybody laughed. They're not laughing now."
That's my all time favourite Monkhouse joke.
He was the master of timing.
The only person I can think of who compares -and it's a very, very different kind of humour- is Ricky Gervais.
Only with Ricky, he's throwing in something so wildly outrageous, you can't believe he said it. "Don't worry, I didn't kill her." (And we all know how that one ends.)
Barry Humphries must be up there as a master of comic timing:
I've told any number of jokes since university that could have ended my career a thousand times over. Many were offensive.
We need to be a bit less outraged if we don't want a humourless society.
People often tell jokes because they want other people to applaud them for being so clever and witty, instead of for the purpose of making other people laugh, and in the former case they are terribly put out if you don't react how they want you to.
Someone who is genuinely funny will know their audience and choose their jokes to please their audience (rather than themselves).
That is why, for example, Stewart Lee is a tremendous comedian. He really knows his audience.
Stewart Lee, professional comedian
Malcolm Offord, not a professional comedian
Putting aside all the pearl clutching and fake offence here why would you book him as an after dinner speaker ?
Is he known on the circuit or were they on a budget and couldn’t afford Lee Hurst
I can’t say I’d be shelling out cash to hear his routine.
Comments
Overrated in my opinion, farcical that fir England he often played in preference to the far superior Trevor Francis.
I have no interest in having a halo, I'm no saint. It's not about "taking offence" or "cancelling" somebody. It's simply judging somebody who has chosen to put themselves in the public eye by the things they have said.
As soon as I heard the story, I thought: Neat. I even felt a tremor of respect for the shamelessness
What he ALLEGEDLY did is outrageous, but also flawless, it is impossible to prove he's lying. And in one go it gets rid of the whole problem
If uni academics go on strike, few people notice. If they leave, the queue to take their job will instantly stretch from the University Library to the Senate House... of the University in the next city.
(Back in my days as a postdoc, we used to speculate on how we could murder sufficient permanent academics to be confident of a tenured job, and it's far worse now than 20 years ago.)
It's the same logic as to why tube drivers threaten so many strikes... because they can. Yes, there's a cost in public love, but money is literally more valuable.
A bad joke is a joke. An unfunny joke is a joke. An offensive joke is a joke. A sick joke is a joke.
You're doing something akin to what newspapers do in these circumstances. As soon as one person doesn't like it it's "remarks" or "comments". Nope. Joke.
But a bad joke should not end a political career, that is ridiculous. It should earn him a rebuke that makes him feel like a loser, and then we all move on
All this over-reacting, on all sides, is tiresome in the extreme
That is beautiful music
My phone just chose to randomly play it on my Sonos, and wow
EVERYONE STOP WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING AND LISTEN TO "THE LARK ASCENDING" BY RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
It is economic vandalism not to get billions over years from the tax and use it to reduce energy bills or invest in renewables
Trump: “I’ve been talking to Iran”
https://x.com/JamieBonkiewicz/status/2036782191422710214?s=20
In respect of the 'joke' involved, I can imagine quite a lot of people finding it really offensive.
Racists and bullies love a bit of banter.
Why wouldn't they try it?
London Marathon considers two-day event in 2027
Even I might give it a go if I've got a couple of days to do it.
Blue Georgia
@BlueATLGeorgia
Harry Enten: "There is no floor for Donald Trump... Donald Trump is just so freaking unpopular."
Quinnipiac -20 points. Yahoo/YouGov -21 points. Verasight -23 points. Ipsos -26 points. All of these are term-two record lows.
Foreign policy approval rating hits a term-two low at -27 points.
In cost of living, he is now 41 points below water.
https://x.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/2036806225652834716
https://youtu.be/0hCOUKisG60?si=6KRF9ByVzldhGy4U
No, we did not pump our oil out faster than Norway. We have pumped out about 5 billion BOE less than Norway in about the same time.
No the geology is not different. I worked offshore as a geologist in Norway for 15 years. I doubt you could name a single Norwegian formation without getting AI to look it up for you.
And whilst the Norwegians have the Barents Sea we have West of Shetlands.
No things are not identical in each sector but those differences are nothing compared to the political decisions that have hamstrung our industry whilst the Norwegians have embraced theirs.
Off-colour jokes are fine, but the “joke” that was told by Lord Offord strikes me as being gross, rather than amusing.
There was a real vibe of what I remember of Aberdeen in the 70s and early 80s during ‘our’ oil boom, aside from any discussion over how this largesse should be distributed of course.
I thought Sandpit says they were sunk in this regard
Elections 2027 to start operating 2028.
https://www.gov.uk/regional-and-local-government/devolution#news_and_communications
Don't know about the others, but the Hampshire one was nailed on from the start.
https://news.sky.com/story/what-is-the-controversy-over-morgan-mcsweeneys-stolen-phone-13524327
https://bsky.app/profile/stemthebleeding.bsky.social/post/3mhvkwde66c27
BREAKING: In a landmark decision, a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing apps that harmed kids and teens and failed to warn them about the dangers.
https://x.com/ABC/status/2036865123801874507?s=20
We need to be a bit less outraged if we don't want a humourless society.
Once he got in, he moaned about senior lecturers retiring and coming back on contract.
But it's an off colour joke in a rugby club. Sorry but don't go to rugby club dinners if you don't want to hear something that may offend. Fuck off.
So my view is, I don't like the shit joke, but I will defend to the death someone's right to make it, AND still have a career in politics afterwards.
https://x.com/UKLabour/status/2036821072121565678
That Joke isn’t funny anymore !
Doesn't explain Tories frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs
Nobody is bovvered.
The Tories are facing wipe out in Wales, in Scotland, in large parts of England and this is their priority.
Bring back Liz Truss.
She looks like Margaret Thatcher next to this shit show.
I'm increasingly of the view that algorithmic social media needs to be regulated into oblivion. Or at least into a much less harmful product.
Deary me.
I don’t believe McSwindle had his iPhone stolen. 🤷🏼♂️
He was the master of timing.
The only person I can think of who compares -and it's a very, very different kind of humour- is Ricky Gervais.
Only with Ricky, he's throwing in something so wildly outrageous, you can't believe he said it. "Don't worry, I didn't kill her." (And we all know how that one ends.)
Neutralises an unhelpful meme.
Brixian seems to think its a non story like McSweeney
Karl Turner MP
@KarlTurnerMP
·
15m
Fear not, I’m hearing that McSwindle is advising that this is nowt. It will soon be tomorrows fish n chip paper.
Someone who is genuinely funny will know their audience and choose their jokes to please their audience (rather than themselves).
That is why, for example, Stewart Lee is a tremendous comedian. He really knows his audience.
Lenny Henry recently wrote a book on reparations.
‘ Ghana demands compensation for slavery in landmark UN vote’
https://x.com/bbcworld/status/2036766606731231257?s=61
TFW is...?
I think it's a shorthand that's been used on tiktok videos a lot.
Yep, definitely am older now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j05aITNM4qo
Malcolm Offord, not a professional comedian
Putting aside all the pearl clutching and fake offence here why would you book him as an after dinner speaker ?
Is he known on the circuit or were they on a budget and couldn’t afford Lee Hurst
I can’t say I’d be shelling out cash to hear his routine.