I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
I have a friend who regularly buys stuff at car boots etc that he sees are listed for large sums on eBay and asserts that said items are worth that. They are not. Simply being listed at x pounds does not equal being sold for that. I suspect some sellers are happy to have vastly inflated priced goods for an eternity on the off chance some idiot buys it, while most wouldn’t. Of course it could be money laundering but it’s surely easer to open the fifth Turkish barbers on the high street.
My dad ran a business on ebay for some years, specialising in old cameras, stereos and jazz records. A lot of it would be considered trash by most people, for example old promotional literature for midrange Japanese cameras of the Seventies, but it always sold. Once he bought up a few crates of old reel to reel tape, but it all sold. Indeed he was the only seller of it for a while.
You can sell anything if you can find a buyer, and the internet is perfect for that. The real benefit though is clearing out the clutter rather than gathering more.
HMRC are onto it now mind.
Still,I’m planning to flog lots of stuff this summer and declutter the loft.
Now I have all of my DVDs on my strapons and backed up I can flog the ones worth stuff. Same with my Dr Who books.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Another arsehole who would beggar pensioners to enrich themselves.
It’s always cut the triple lock. It’s never tax benefits as income or reduce the rate of increase of benefits. Up 6.4% this year.
Because it is absurd and mathematically incoherent.
And the ever burgeoning benefits bill isn’t 🤔
Govts and parties havent committed to an endless ever increasing share of GDP going to anything else, apart from state pensions. Other planned increases like we have seen on health recently, and defence in the future have end points whether time or % share.
Yet when this govt wanted to slow the rate of growth of the benefits bill, not cut it just slow it, it couldn’t do it.
It should absolutely be up for discussion too.
Sure, that is a political problem, but it is not mathematically incoherent.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
When asked whether he ever got fed up performing American Pie, Don McClean said that if it were a bad song, he would have. But it isn't, so he doesn't.
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
They were speaking to Peter Hook from New Order and Graham Coxon from Blur on Today yesterday about this in light of the Pet Shop Boys doing a series of shows with B-sides and oddities only.
Both musicians said there is always a tension between those fans who know every song and don’t care which ones they here really, those who have come to hear the latest album, and those who know three big hits and only care about those songs.
I’ve always found the Cure choose a great set list balancing the songs big fans love, the greatest hits people all know and new music. Can’t be easy.
Peter Hook does great shows. Every single song by Joy Division and New Order are on his repertoire and get called out when it fits.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
Hence tribute bands who would play the greatest hits exactly as on the records. Then, having seen how many fans will pay how much money for tickets, bands went back on the road as their own tribute bands, performing their old standards for million pound paydays.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
When asked whether he ever got fed up performing American Pie, Don McClean said that if it were a bad song, he would have. But it isn't, so he doesn't.
Says it all really.
There are certainly some bands / artists who seem to absolutely live for the crowd reaction to playing their iconic songs. There are few bands I like that always open with one particular track and finish with another, every gig and have done for 20 years. It expected but also I am presuming it means something to them (for one band the last song is rememerbing a former band mate who killed themselves) and the crowd go absolutely mental.
But the way I see it a bit is if even if I liked the track, its a bit like eating your favourite meal every single day for year after year after year, particularly if you have lots of other options.
(NYT) - Iran has been unable to open the Strait of Hormuz to more shipping traffic because it cannot locate all of the mines it laid in the waterway and lacks the capability to remove them, according to U.S. officials.
And yet they're able to allow those who pay tolls to get through, while simultaneously threatening to blow up any that don't have "approval"? 🤔
It’s looks like they’ve spammed the whole strait with mines except for the bit that passes close to Iran. Hence the ability to impose a toll.
Honestly…it’s genius. Comprehensive victory.
What reason is there for there to be a ceasefire, if the Strait remains closed?
Stupid President TACO.
Talks are rather more likely to succeed during a ceasefire. That's hardly controversial.
Starting the war was stupid: no real planning, no consultation with potential allies; no explicit war aims (other than Netenyahu's) ... and no public support for it either in the US or elsewhere.
The entire world, with the possible exception of Israel, is worse off because of this adventure.
Israel definitely seems worse off to me. They've burned through alliances that they managed and curated for generations, in exchange for swapping the Iranian Supreme leader for his son.
While I don't dispute that this war has been a global disaster, in the longer term one thing we are now likely to see is Qatar, UAE, Saudi, Kuwait et al. move away from a neutral position to assist attempts to undermine the Iranian regime - and this could involve at least covert cooperation with Israel. They won't forget the attacks on their territory, and will want to do what they can to install a more plaint regime in Tehran.
Oderint dum metuant. They certainly hate Iran but do they fear it? In which case they will deal with Iran.
I suspect the GCC will split. Iraq and Oman are reasonably friendly. Bahrain is a Sunni I think dictatorship trying to keep a lid on its Shi'ite population sympathetic to Iran. It's also small and vulnerable. It may not have a choice. Kuwait I don't know what drives its regime. Then in increasing order of unlikelihood: Qatar shares the world's biggest gas field with Iran and has other geographical reasons to work together. UAE very hostile but also has a lot to lose in a long drawn out dispute with Iran. Saudi I don't see ever dealing with Iran. Admit I don't know a whole lot about this.
More on this:
The announcement of a ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran, brokered by Pakistan, evoked mixed reactions from the Gulf states, reflecting their fundamental differences regarding the conflict. While Qatar and Oman, which maintained a pro-Iranian line throughout the war,[1] warmly welcomed the ceasefire agreement, other states expressed significant reservations. The UAE refrained altogether from issuing an official welcome and strongly demanded clarifications, guarantees for the cessation of Iran's aggression, compensation for the damages of the war, and the immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia took a dual approach: while the political leadership issued formal statements of support, the state press expressed considerable pessimism regarding the success of the ceasefire and the likelihood of a real and lasting change on the ground.
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
I doubt they have to take much account of the bats in Ukraine in fairness.
I linked to Mail reporter long form videos who has been embedded with the drone squads on the frontline in Ukraine. The lads in tiny hole in the ground with a few power tools can whip up these drones ready to go with a payload etc from the kit parts now in a few minutes and then bizarrely sit there playing chess on their mobile phones (perhaps even against Russians).
I'm not betting against Harris; certainly not this far off the election.
While there are a good half dozen Democrats who would be better candidates (they have an unusually strong list of options this cycle), she remains extraordinarily popular with Democratic voters (and a lot less so with independents).
And there's potentially a large sympathy vote for someone whose warnings about Trump (ridiculed at the time - and by some PBers, too) proved absolutely correct.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
It would start off making little difference to annual spend but it would do wonders for the gilt market, making government borrowing cheaper and thus improving the overall picture.
Some of the brightest noom on the Mediterranean littoral. An amazing Ancient Greek town, defended by deep green pine forests, perched on a noble promontory and surrounds by coves of the stillest turquoise water: you can basically dive straight into the sunlit sea from the temple steps of Apollo
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
The Mail has some numbers today but there's a lot of question-begging.
Averages 41 at a strike rate of 230 in the IPL. The highest career strike rate anyone else has reached in the IPL is 177. The likes of Sehwag, Gayle and Maxwell were 150s so he is scoring at 50% higher per ball than those!
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
Jeff Beck has described his hit "Hi Ho Silver Lining"* as "like having a pink toilet seat hung around your neck for the rest of your life." But even he gave up the fight and played at his gigs in his later years.
*still one of my favourites and a standard to get the lads up on the dancefloor in the discos of my youth. Who can resist?
I wonder if James Talarico might get a shot at the VP slot if he wins the senate race in Texas. Be very happy with Ossoff on the ticket.
Even though the Biden administration was light years better than what replaced it The dems need a fresh face (or 2) on the ticket. The world will not forgive them if they move left and blow it.
It beggars belief but you have to bear in mind that even now at least 40% of US voters still think Trump is doing a good job. I seriously believe Americans have lost the plot.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
And yet he blubbed when he heard Heart’s cover version of it (which was pretty good I have to say). Partly due to to Bonzo’s son playing apparently but even so.
I wonder if James Talarico might get a shot at the VP slot if he wins the senate race in Texas. Be very happy with Ossoff on the ticket.
Even though the Biden administration was light years better than what replaced it The dems need a fresh face (or 2) on the ticket. The world will not forgive them if they move left and blow it.
It beggars belief but you have to bear in mind that even now at least 40% of US voters still think Trump is doing a good job. I seriously believe Americans have lost the plot.
It's easy for us to underestimate the visceral hatred they have for the Libtards.
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
Bet they haven’t filled in 100,000 pages on the social exclusion issues caused by their netting.
Plus if we don’t give £100 million pounds to the contractors, some CEOs might not make their bonus this year. And then they might not have enough money to employ senior civil servants and politicians as non-ex directors, when they retire.
Pamphelis. An Ancient Greek port on the Lycian way. Hikers strolling to the swimming cove down a 3000 year old road. The snow capped Taurus mountains beyond
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
The Mail has some numbers today but there's a lot of question-begging.
This comes from a study (aka press release) from Vanguard which I can't immediately see on their site.
Yes I suppose I was more thinking of U.K. Ltd rather than individuals. My gut feeling is it is not a magic money tree for a long while, though as Occasionalranter points out it might cut the debt bill a bit if the markets like it.
I suspect the answer is more likely to be raising the age at which it’s paid out in future, which would clearly going to save lots, and doesn’t affect anything already in payment. The Govt has a review due in a couple of years and I’ll be amazed if they don’t set off down this road.
My comment saying much the same last night and giving the name of the 16 year old child hanged by the Iranian regime was described as "trolling". The poster doing so and the one liking it might want to reflect on Burke's famous dictum.
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
One of my dads other businesses was buying victorian furniture at house clearancee auctions and shipping it to Texas for sale. Worth nothing here but Americans had bigger houses and would buy the stuff at a good profit.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
The point of a lawyer isn't to tell you the truth about your wishes, it's to come up with the best rationalisation for your wishes that they can muster. In public, anyway.
Mostly, that's an honest part of an adversarial system. But sometimes, one has to wonder.
Pamphelis. An Ancient Greek port on the Lycian way. Hikers strolling to the swimming cove down a 3000 year old road. The snow capped Taurus mountains beyond
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
Bet they haven’t filled in 100,000 pages on the social exclusion issues caused by their netting.
Plus if we don’t give £100 million pounds to the contractors, some CEOs might not make their bonus this year. And then they might not have enough money to employ senior civil servants and politicians as non-ex directors, when they retire.
#Nu10K
Plus, these nets will be a disaster waiting to happen for bats...
I wonder if James Talarico might get a shot at the VP slot if he wins the senate race in Texas. Be very happy with Ossoff on the ticket.
Even though the Biden administration was light years better than what replaced it The dems need a fresh face (or 2) on the ticket. The world will not forgive them if they move left and blow it.
It beggars belief but you have to bear in mind that even now at least 40% of US voters still think Trump is doing a good job. I seriously believe Americans have lost the plot.
It's easy for us to underestimate the visceral hatred they have for the Libtards.
An interesting piece from The Atlantic on how MAGA captured even normal mainstream Republicans:
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
The Mail has some numbers today but there's a lot of question-begging.
This comes from a study (aka press release) from Vanguard which I can't immediately see on their site.
Yes I suppose I was more thinking of U.K. Ltd rather than individuals. My gut feeling is it is not a magic money tree for a long while, though as Occasionalranter points out it might cut the debt bill a bit if the markets like it.
I suspect the answer is more likely to be raising the age at which it’s paid out in future, which would clearly going to save lots, and doesn’t affect anything already in payment. The Govt has a review due in a couple of years and I’ll be amazed if they don’t set off down this road.
Maybe but increasing pension age locks in other inequalities, for instance those who left school at 16 and those who left school at 21 with five fewer years working are treated equally, or those who are poorer and more likely to die earlier, those who have physically demanding jobs and those whose only exercise is walking to the coffee machine.
Not to mention the people advocating this (and voting for it in parliament) have gold plated private pensions.
I wonder if James Talarico might get a shot at the VP slot if he wins the senate race in Texas. Be very happy with Ossoff on the ticket.
Even though the Biden administration was light years better than what replaced it The dems need a fresh face (or 2) on the ticket. The world will not forgive them if they move left and blow it.
It beggars belief but you have to bear in mind that even now at least 40% of US voters still think Trump is doing a good job. I seriously believe Americans have lost the plot.
It's easy for us to underestimate the visceral hatred they have for the Libtards.
Agreed, but even if you would still support the GOP how could anyone seriously approve of Trump's performance?
The Iran and Epstein fiascos are at least showing up the cracks on the MAGA side, I found the personal attacks on MTG, Carlson, Megan Kelly and the info wars guy truly extraordinary.
Some of the brightest noom on the Mediterranean littoral. An amazing Ancient Greek town, defended by deep green pine forests, perched on a noble promontory and surrounds by coves of the stillest turquoise water: you can basically dive straight into the sunlit sea from the temple steps of Apollo
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
Pamphelis. An Ancient Greek port on the Lycian way. Hikers strolling to the swimming cove down a 3000 year old road. The snow capped Taurus mountains beyond
What a place!
Is it not Phaselis ?
You are quite right. Phaselis. I’m so dazzled by the bright bright noom I’ve got my pamphyliae all mixed up
I am now about to eat goat meat - maybe for the first time - in the Taurus mountains
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
And yet he blubbed when he heard Heart’s cover version of it (which was pretty good I have to say). Partly due to to Bonzo’s son playing apparently but even so.
He has a great friendship still with Pat and the kids, especially Debbie and Jason.
He visits the grave at Rushock every year, it's an incredible shrine to Bonzo.
My sister lives close by and sees them regularly.
If you watch the filming of the 200 Erdogan Concert very closely with Page, Plant, JPJ and Jason, as they finish Kashmir and meet on the stage to take their bows, you can lip read Planty say to Jason "your dad would be proud"...
They didnt authorise Stairway to Heaven on any recordings or filming of that Concert as far as I'm aware.
The Heart version was outstanding I thought.
There was a very good tribute band Fred Zeppelin in the Black Country and I've been to a few gigs of theirs at JBs and Robin Hood in those parts where Planty would very discreetly stand at the back and watch.
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
One of my dads other businesses was buying victorian furniture at house clearancee auctions and shipping it to Texas for sale. Worth nothing here but Americans had bigger houses and would buy the stuff at a good profit.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
If you love them, keep them!
This is the one thing I have learned from my new antiques thing - all that matters is if you love them, admire them, enjoy their beauty and their backstory. Forget completely aboot value. What does it matter? You can’t sell rosewood whatnots from the grave
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
He reversed Roe v Wade. His groupies will forgive him anything for that.
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
One of my dads other businesses was buying victorian furniture at house clearancee auctions and shipping it to Texas for sale. Worth nothing here but Americans had bigger houses and would buy the stuff at a good profit.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
I got bought a turntable last year by the Good Lady Wife for my birthday. I was reminded how much a faff vinyl is, how skips and crackles are INCREDIBLY intrusive after decades of perfect play from CDs.
And I really don't think the sound is better to my aging ears.
Interestingly, the Drift record shop in Totnes that went big on the vinyl revival for years, has now closed and gone online only.
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
Good morning
Propaganda war in full flow
US denies it has agreed to key Iranian demand - as Vance meets Pakistani PM
A report in the past hour or so - citing a senior Iranian source - suggested the US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets (see 10:22).
That demand, the source added, could help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But the White House has just responded to that claim, denying the US has made any such agreement.
Peace talks are expected to take place today in Pakistan, with delegations from both sides in the country's capital.
JD Vance, the vice president, is leading the US side and has held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the White House added.
Sharif "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region", his office said.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Another arsehole who would beggar pensioners to enrich themselves.
It’s always cut the triple lock. It’s never tax benefits as income or reduce the rate of increase of benefits. Up 6.4% this year.
That should be done too, but there's no cut. Pensions would still go up each year with earnings.
It would assure the country continues to be solvent and stable.
While the benefits bill races ahead. Lovely.
No, because that should be brought into line too.
It's "and" not "either or".
That’s my point.
Yet here the discussion is always about the triple lock and pensions and not a murmur about the benefits bill.
Plenty of people talk about the benefits bill. One of the differences with the triple lock is that the triple lock leads to an ever increasing bill for pensions as a mathematical certainty. The reasons why the benefits bill is increasing are more mysterious, and so it appears less inevitable that it will increase inexorably into the future.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
To me it's a no-brainer that the triple lock should go. Just pick one measure and stick to it. Even if it doesn't save much money it will be (or be perceived as) a lot more fair. Even the perception has value.
1,440 Russian troops and 66 artillery/MLRS not reporting for duty in Ukraine today.
Not sure whether this is included, but Russian troops were gathering overnight ahead of a big early morning push - 2 brigades with perhaps 60 vehicles in a field. Got spotted by Ukrainina drones. The Ukranians fired 600 shells in, over ten minutes. Cluster and high explosives.
Every vehicles destroyed, 20% of the force killed. Many of the rest injured.
It is reported that 90% of Russian troops never even see the enemy lines before they die.
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
Good morning
Propaganda war in full flow
US denies it has agreed to key Iranian demand - as Vance meets Pakistani PM
A report in the past hour or so - citing a senior Iranian source - suggested the US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets (see 10:22).
That demand, the source added, could help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But the White House has just responded to that claim, denying the US has made any such agreement.
Peace talks are expected to take place today in Pakistan, with delegations from both sides in the country's capital.
JD Vance, the vice president, is leading the US side and has held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the White House added.
Sharif "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region", his office said.
Well the US managed to come away from the previous talks apparently under the massive misapprehension that the ceasefire did not apply to Israel/Lebanon. Who knows what they think, or what they may or may not be agreeing to.
I'd call them a laughing stock, except they are not funny.
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
Bet they haven’t filled in 100,000 pages on the social exclusion issues caused by their netting.
Plus if we don’t give £100 million pounds to the contractors, some CEOs might not make their bonus this year. And then they might not have enough money to employ senior civil servants and politicians as non-ex directors, when they retire.
#Nu10K
Quite.
Not to mention their workforce is grotesquely white and male.
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
Good morning
Propaganda war in full flow
US denies it has agreed to key Iranian demand - as Vance meets Pakistani PM
A report in the past hour or so - citing a senior Iranian source - suggested the US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets (see 10:22).
That demand, the source added, could help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But the White House has just responded to that claim, denying the US has made any such agreement.
Peace talks are expected to take place today in Pakistan, with delegations from both sides in the country's capital.
JD Vance, the vice president, is leading the US side and has held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the White House added.
Sharif "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region", his office said.
They can talk all they want, agree all they want.
Then Israel just bombs the shit out of whatever, wherever takes their fancy.
Is Trump able to tell Bibi to back off? Does Bibi have the kompromat on Trump from Epstein too?
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Another arsehole who would beggar pensioners to enrich themselves.
It’s always cut the triple lock. It’s never tax benefits as income or reduce the rate of increase of benefits. Up 6.4% this year.
That should be done too, but there's no cut. Pensions would still go up each year with earnings.
It would assure the country continues to be solvent and stable.
While the benefits bill races ahead. Lovely.
No, because that should be brought into line too.
It's "and" not "either or".
That’s my point.
Yet here the discussion is always about the triple lock and pensions and not a murmur about the benefits bill.
Plenty of people talk about the benefits bill. One of the differences with the triple lock is that the triple lock leads to an ever increasing bill for pensions as a mathematical certainty. The reasons why the benefits bill is increasing are more mysterious, and so it appears less inevitable that it will increase inexorably into the future.
absolute bollox, it has been increasing expenentially forever. Triple lock only increases pension if wages/inflation are soaring
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
One of my dads other businesses was buying victorian furniture at house clearancee auctions and shipping it to Texas for sale. Worth nothing here but Americans had bigger houses and would buy the stuff at a good profit.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
I got bought a turntable last year by the Good Lady Wife for my birthday. I was reminded how much a faff vinyl is, how skips and crackles are INCREDIBLY intrusive after decades of perfect play from CDs.
And I really don't think the sound is better to my aging ears.
Interestingly, the Drift record shop in Totnes that went big on the vinyl revival for years, has now closed and gone online only.
I wouldn't argue that my vinyl is a better audiphile experience. My turntable is decent, but not high end, and most of my records were second hand even back in the day. They pop, crackle and hiss. The joy of vinyl is in the tactile nature, of playing records. You have to be involved at least every 20 min or so to cue up another one. It can never be just background muzak, it requires engagement.
I have an interesting puzzle for PB brainiacs to resolve. I’ve become addicted to eBay - I love just browsing the mad stuff people sell (and also the really cheap lovely antique stuff)
I’ve come across a company called London Fine Antiques. They seem to be legitimate. They have a a proper quality website and phone numbers, they’re based in Devon. They get good ratings and feedback, and seem to have lots of eager buyers
But the stuff they sell is insanely overpriced. Look here. A very generic cut glass vase. 1970s maybe. Should be £20 in a car boot sale at most
Here’s an antique newspaper rack. Should be about £50 at most. Who really wants this stuff? It’s £895
It’s of these items have likes. People eager to buy. Here’s a favourite
A fake book bin. They’re not even pretending these are real books. It’s a moulded plastic wastepaper basket made to look like books. Yet it has seven watchers. Who is really out there thinking “I need a £500 fake book wastepaper basket and I’d better act fast because seven other people want it too”
Is the whole thing a hoax, a scam, conceptual art? Are all the buyers imaginary? The blurbs are hilarious. This is for the bin:
“This is a vintage library waste bin. An English, composite leather effect book basket, dating to the late 20th century, circa 1980.
Fascinating book form to this distinctive bin - ideal for a home library Displays a desirable aged patina throughout Crafted from composite with bound book motif Replicating a leather spine, each book reads 'Royal Academy Pictures' Dressed to the base with a protective textile base”
As sent up by Harry Enfield in the "I saw you coming" sketches. Which were getting on for twenty years ago. Ruddy Hell.
But it's also a bijou example of a wider question. In large chunks of the West, some of us have more money than we know how to usefully spend. Whereas lots of other people don't.
I know the economic theory behind why this is so, I acknowledge the possibility that alternative models would be worse... But it doesn't make for a good society.
But this example is so extreme it just doesn’t make sense even within that context. Why buy a 1970s glass decanter for £500 when literally 30 seconds of browsing will show you ten more, easily as good, for £50?
Mugs, that's who. But you only need to find one mug somewhere in the world to be quids in. After all, if it's listed at £500, it must be valuable...
Then again, who uses decanters any more? When Mrs Romford and I got married, we did the classic wedding list, and so there are a couple of nice decanters in the cupboard with the nice glassware. We haven't used them in 20 years, and I can't imagine circumstances where we would.
I can talk about crystal glass with a degree of knowledge, with the past 2 generations of my family racking up 70 years of loyal service with Royal Brierley Crystal.
I've inherited stacks of nice pieces.
In the UK you can't give it away, especially around the Stourbridge area where Royal Brierley, Stuarts and Corbett Crystal fought like cat and dog to collar markets at home and around the globe.
The Japanese and Yanks will pay firtunes for it.
I found Royal Brierley in a top Jewelers on 5th Avenue on the top floor where you had to buzz to get let in about 20 years ago selling decanter sets for $5000, they were what we'd call "seconds" slight imperfections... I was trained by grandparent to look for imperfections from a young age, he started in the furnace at 14 and did his last shift taking coach visitors round at 84. The Williams-Thomas family were wonderful to him.
Believe me no one should be paying 500 quid for any crystal in the UK. There is so much of it hoarded away.
It's the same with Wedgwood plates. I used to work for them and accumulated a lot of kutani crane in my younger years. I can't give it away now.
I have a lovely set of Wedgewood Columbia 595, given as a wedding present. It hasn't been out of the sideboard for over a decade.
I think it still sellable in the USA, but no one wants that sort of "best china" any more here.
It’s getting really hard to sell in the USA as well. And the continent. And the same applies only more so to big mahogany furniture
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
One of my dads other businesses was buying victorian furniture at house clearancee auctions and shipping it to Texas for sale. Worth nothing here but Americans had bigger houses and would buy the stuff at a good profit.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
I got bought a turntable last year by the Good Lady Wife for my birthday. I was reminded how much a faff vinyl is, how skips and crackles are INCREDIBLY intrusive after decades of perfect play from CDs.
And I really don't think the sound is better to my aging ears.
Interestingly, the Drift record shop in Totnes that went big on the vinyl revival for years, has now closed and gone online only.
Yes, I just don't get the fad for vinyl. Still, I was very happy to sell my record collection for £300 back in 2012 when I would have been glad to have offloaded to a charity shop for nothing.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Another arsehole who would beggar pensioners to enrich themselves.
It’s always cut the triple lock. It’s never tax benefits as income or reduce the rate of increase of benefits. Up 6.4% this year.
That should be done too, but there's no cut. Pensions would still go up each year with earnings.
It would assure the country continues to be solvent and stable.
While the benefits bill races ahead. Lovely.
No, because that should be brought into line too.
It's "and" not "either or".
That’s my point.
Yet here the discussion is always about the triple lock and pensions and not a murmur about the benefits bill.
Plenty of people talk about the benefits bill. One of the differences with the triple lock is that the triple lock leads to an ever increasing bill for pensions as a mathematical certainty. The reasons why the benefits bill is increasing are more mysterious, and so it appears less inevitable that it will increase inexorably into the future.
absolute bollox, it has been increasing expenentially forever. Triple lock only increases pension if wages/inflation are soaring
That is only 2 parts of the Triple Lock. The minimum is 2% even if inflation and wages growth are zero or negative.
Then there is the double bubble of one increase to match inflation, then one the following year to match the wages catch up with that inflation.
Ending the Triple Lock doesn't mean no increase in pensions ever (similarly unlinking benefits and minimum wage from CPI). It means that the CoE has flexibility depending on the overall state of the national finances.
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
This is bad news for all of us. The Trump administration is giving up leverage that it had before the war to get back something we already had before the war. It means any meaningful restraint on Iran's nuclear programme is now very unlikely.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
Good morning
Propaganda war in full flow
US denies it has agreed to key Iranian demand - as Vance meets Pakistani PM
A report in the past hour or so - citing a senior Iranian source - suggested the US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets (see 10:22).
That demand, the source added, could help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But the White House has just responded to that claim, denying the US has made any such agreement.
Peace talks are expected to take place today in Pakistan, with delegations from both sides in the country's capital.
JD Vance, the vice president, is leading the US side and has held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the White House added.
Sharif "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region", his office said.
Well the US managed to come away from the previous talks apparently under the massive misapprehension that the ceasefire did not apply to Israel/Lebanon. Who knows what they think, or what they may or may not be agreeing to.
I'd call them a laughing stock, except they are not funny.
There's a book called 'The Art of the Deal' which the US negotiators might want to read.
Harris. There's 2 of them. The one who flopped in the 2020 primaries and the one who stepped up at short notice in 2024, ran a strong campaign from behind the 8 ball and relished every aspect of the experience except the result. The first Harris is a poor performer who must not be the candidate. And the good news is she definitely won't be because, as per 2020, there's a Democratic primary to win and we know that the first Harris can't do that. This is the key control which ensures that if she is the candidate it will be the upgraded model.
Yes, Harris is unlikely to get it. You have to go back to Nixon to find the last losing presidential election nominee for the Republicans or Democrats who was nominated again for their party and who had never been elected president before and that was only after an 8 year gap not a 4 year gap.
She also isn't polling that well either for someone who effectively led the Democrats in 2024, leading Newsom in national polls of Democrats by less than 10% and Buttigieg leads her in early polls of Democrats in the key primary state of New Hampshire. Both of them are more likely than her in my view to be 2028 Democrat nominee
On the GOP side it is hard to see past VP Vance who has big double digit leads now in both national and early state polls amongst Republicans, effectively lapping Rubio and Trump Jr already
But you have only have to back to Trump to find the last losing presidential election nominee for the Republicans or Democrats who was nominated again for their party, and he won.
1,440 Russian troops and 66 artillery/MLRS not reporting for duty in Ukraine today.
Not sure whether this is included, but Russian troops were gathering overnight ahead of a big early morning push - 2 brigades with perhaps 60 vehicles in a field. Got spotted by Ukrainina drones. The Ukranians fired 600 shells in, over ten minutes. Cluster and high explosives.
Every vehicles destroyed, 20% of the force killed. Many of the rest injured.
It is reported that 90% of Russian troops never even see the enemy lines before they die.
Although the war has been oft-compared to WWI trench warfare, there often isn't a defined front line as such. If there were an obvious front line it would be hit repeatedly by large numbers of drones which, unlike artillery shells, can fly themselves through the doors of bunkers.
There's a wide contested grey zone, in which movement is most easily achieved by small groups of infantry on foot who will hope to get lucky and not be seen by a drone while they're in the open.
The side that can manage to develop a mobile FPV drone defence system is going to have a huge advantage.
I always think it must become quite torturous for big bands who keep going for a long time. 30 years of gigs and your audience demands 3-4 of the tracks must be certain ones, every single gig.
Robert Plant hates Stairway To Heaven and flatly refused to sing it for many years.
And yet he blubbed when he heard Heart’s cover version of it (which was pretty good I have to say). Partly due to to Bonzo’s son playing apparently but even so.
He has a great friendship still with Pat and the kids, especially Debbie and Jason.
He visits the grave at Rushock every year, it's an incredible shrine to Bonzo.
My sister lives close by and sees them regularly.
If you watch the filming of the 200 Erdogan Concert very closely with Page, Plant, JPJ and Jason, as they finish Kashmir and meet on the stage to take their bows, you can lip read Planty say to Jason "your dad would be proud"...
They didnt authorise Stairway to Heaven on any recordings or filming of that Concert as far as I'm aware.
The Heart version was outstanding I thought.
There was a very good tribute band Fred Zeppelin in the Black Country and I've been to a few gigs of theirs at JBs and Robin Hood in those parts where Planty would very discreetly stand at the back and watch.
He is a very humble soul.
I'm sure I've told this here before, but for any newbies...
In the 80's, a friend had a pop-up shop in Covent Garden (one of the very first) selling some rather lovely arty stuff from my friend's chums from art college and elsewhere. It attracted all sorts, including lots of luvvies (given its proximity to theatre land.
I was helping her out one day when she waved me over, looking rather flustered. "This guy wants to buy £500 of these [very Giacometti-like] sculptures. But he doesn't have a cheque card. What should I do?"
So I looked at the guy and then looked at the cheque.
"You'll be fine" I said. "Firstly - it's a Coutts cheque - they probably don't do cheque cards because they aren't going to bounce it."
"Secondly - have you looked at the name on the cheque?"
My friend did. Then looked at the customer. Then at the cheque. Then back at him.
"R. Plant. What - The R Plant?"
We both nodded.
He was quite impressed though when she said that she had seen Zep at the Isle of Wight.
I agreed to drop the statues round to his house in Primrose Hill. Really nice guy. Really nice gaff.
ALTHOUGH my wife was song-writing will him in her west London flat, many many moons back. He had a complete sense of humour failure when her two West Highland Whites found his Yorkie bar in his Afghan bag - and proceeded to eat it. No denying their guilt - white dogs, brown faces.
Wifey was not impressed. "You would have been right to be angry if they'd found your stash. But a Yorkie bar? C'mon..."
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Another arsehole who would beggar pensioners to enrich themselves.
It’s always cut the triple lock. It’s never tax benefits as income or reduce the rate of increase of benefits. Up 6.4% this year.
That should be done too, but there's no cut. Pensions would still go up each year with earnings.
It would assure the country continues to be solvent and stable.
While the benefits bill races ahead. Lovely.
No, because that should be brought into line too.
It's "and" not "either or".
That’s my point.
Yet here the discussion is always about the triple lock and pensions and not a murmur about the benefits bill.
I will murmur. Pensioners also receive more non pension benefits on average than working age people. As well as obviously more state funded healthcare.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
To me it's a no-brainer that the triple lock should go. Just pick one measure and stick to it. Even if it doesn't save much money it will be (or be perceived as) a lot more fair. Even the perception has value.
Ok try this perception. I'm a pensioner, who always worked, paid NI, tax and pension contributions through my entire working life. Why is it fair that my pension benefit should be somehow right to cut when many other benefit claimants don't work, sometimes never had and pay nothing to the state but expect to be given benefits and infinitum? Cut those benefits first and let them do what I did, work or do without.
1,440 Russian troops and 66 artillery/MLRS not reporting for duty in Ukraine today.
Not sure whether this is included, but Russian troops were gathering overnight ahead of a big early morning push - 2 brigades with perhaps 60 vehicles in a field. Got spotted by Ukrainina drones. The Ukranians fired 600 shells in, over ten minutes. Cluster and high explosives.
Every vehicles destroyed, 20% of the force killed. Many of the rest injured.
It is reported that 90% of Russian troops never even see the enemy lines before they die.
Although the war has been oft-compared to WWI trench warfare, there often isn't a defined front line as such. If there were an obvious front line it would be hit repeatedly by large numbers of drones which, unlike artillery shells, can fly themselves through the doors of bunkers.
There's a wide contested grey zone, in which movement is most easily achieved by small groups of infantry on foot who will hope to get lucky and not be seen by a drone while they're in the open.
The side that can manage to develop a mobile FPV drone defence system is going to have a huge advantage.
Probably fairer to say they never see the enemy.
The Ukrainians have been brilliant at setting up kill zones, that seem to wipe out all the troops Putin's generals can order suicidally advance.
Almost all warnings and indicators that a wider war is coming are flashing red and it is "breathtaking" that the UK government is failing to better prepare, a top academic has warned.
Dr Rob Johnson, director of the Changing Character of Conflict Centre at Oxford University, said China is taking the steps that would be expected to have the ability to attack Taiwan, while Russia could well be readying to launch military operations against a NATO country.
So Starmer is to increase defence spending more quickly.
Which will require tax rises.
Or instead why don’t we ditch the triple lock.
Does anyone have figures as to how much this would save in the real world?
I assume by “ditching” what is meant is revert to it going up with just inflation (as was the case 1979 - the Coalition)? Or is it actually meant as no rises at all (which would impoverish many quickly)?
Any numbers anyone? Because if defence goes from 2.5 to 3.5% quickly that’s about £20-25bn to find I guess.
To me it's a no-brainer that the triple lock should go. Just pick one measure and stick to it. Even if it doesn't save much money it will be (or be perceived as) a lot more fair. Even the perception has value.
Ok try this perception. I'm a pensioner, who always worked, paid NI, tax and pension contributions through my entire working life. Why is it fair that my pension benefit should be somehow right to cut when many other benefit claimants don't work, sometimes never had and pay nothing to the state but expect to be given benefits and infinitum? Cut those benefits first and let them do what I did, work or do without.
I don't see anyone talking about cutting the pension, just not increasing it as an ever greater share of national income.
And the hole Britain is in is so large that the country is way beyond choosing one cut instead of another, or tax increases. All the unpopular things will have to be done to put the country back on an even keel and properly fund defence, justice and investment.
I noticed that 2 of the Labour candidates in my ward nominated themselves. On checking with our local agent it appears that it is now allowed under the new rules. So we could have the situation where every couple in the ward could nominate each other and we would have hundreds of candidates. I suspect the lawyers might have to look at this again.
Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ @LeftieStats · 1h ‼️NEW | Your Party to expel the Left🥀
Tomorrow, Your Party's exec will vote to purge the socialist left. Members of socialist parties will be expelled, but also anyone in a faction - a direct attack on Grassroots Left.
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
That Daily Mail video someone* posted yesterday about drone fighting in Ukraine was fascinating. You watch it and think why does the British Army not convert two of its armoured divisions to drone divisions? Our army is hopelessly out of date! Hire some Ukrainians to teach us how to fight a modern war.
But then you also have to remember that the Ukraine war reflects a particular set of circumstances and not all wars are or will be fought like that. The Iran War hasn’t involved the same use of FPV and fibre optic drones against infantry. The Sudanese Civil War looks very different again.
* Oh, that was you, FrancisU. Thank you. Most interesting.
Ukraine expands anti-drone defenses, installing protective netting over 25+ km of key roads in Donetsk at a pace of 1 km per day; 371 km of such structures have already been deployed across seven regions in 2026.
Sunday's parliamentary elections in Hungary will have big portents for our own Midterms, and not just because a defeat for Viktor Orban would be an embarrassment for @RealDonaldTrump, who has overtly injected himself into the race.
Orban, who in his 16 years as PM has gutted many pillars of Hungarian democracy, has long been a role model for Trump. IF the unpopular Orban's party wins through manipulation of the election process, it will further embolden Trump to pursue voter purges, vote suppression and other Orbanesque techniques to tip the scales that currently are weighing heavily against him.
I noticed that 2 of the Labour candidates in my ward nominated themselves. On checking with our local agent it appears that it is now allowed under the new rules. So we could have the situation where every couple in the ward could nominate each other and we would have hundreds of candidates. I suspect the lawyers might have to look at this again.
I saw that. Several times. Doesn't make sense to me, as a one-time Agent.
Almost all warnings and indicators that a wider war is coming are flashing red and it is "breathtaking" that the UK government is failing to better prepare, a top academic has warned.
Dr Rob Johnson, director of the Changing Character of Conflict Centre at Oxford University, said China is taking the steps that would be expected to have the ability to attack Taiwan, while Russia could well be readying to launch military operations against a NATO country.
An absolutely inexplicable puzzle as to why this President would spend US money trying to buy an election for the most corrupt and pro-Russian leader in Europe.
Trump: “My Administration stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s Economy, as we have done for our Great Allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian People ever need it. We are excited to invest in the future Prosperity that will be generated by Orbán’s continued Leadership! President DONALD J. TRUMP” https://x.com/atrupar/status/2042704252032946282
I just can't come up with an explanation.
It's a very good question. Maybe Trump likes Orbán. He's a symbol and an example to follow for the populist right internationally. Farage is a big fan. It should give anyone thinking voting for Farage - but won't of course - why Farage is so embedded with Europe's most corrupt and pro-Russian leader
Isn’t it more likely that Orban hinders Europe? Although to be honest it’s probably whoever is whispering in Trump’s ear rather than something Trump specifically thinks through
Comments
Says it all really.
While the benefits bill races ahead. Lovely.
But the way I see it a bit is if even if I liked the track, its a bit like eating your favourite meal every single day for year after year after year, particularly if you have lots of other options.
More on this:
The announcement of a ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran, brokered by Pakistan, evoked mixed reactions from the Gulf states, reflecting their fundamental differences regarding the conflict. While Qatar and Oman, which maintained a pro-Iranian line throughout the war,[1] warmly welcomed the ceasefire agreement, other states expressed significant reservations. The UAE refrained altogether from issuing an official welcome and strongly demanded clarifications, guarantees for the cessation of Iran's aggression, compensation for the damages of the war, and the immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia took a dual approach: while the political leadership issued formal statements of support, the state press expressed considerable pessimism regarding the success of the ceasefire and the likelihood of a real and lasting change on the ground.
https://www.memri.org/reports/gulf-divided-over-us–iran-ceasefire-uae-conditions-its-support-guarantees-and-compensation
It's "and" not "either or".
While there are a good half dozen Democrats who would be better candidates (they have an unusually strong list of options this cycle), she remains extraordinarily popular with Democratic voters (and a lot less so with independents).
And there's potentially a large sympathy vote for someone whose warnings about Trump (ridiculed at the time - and by some PBers, too) proved absolutely correct.
It's far from impossible she gets the nomination.
Some of the brightest noom on the Mediterranean littoral. An amazing Ancient Greek town, defended by deep green pine forests, perched on a noble promontory and surrounds by coves of the stillest turquoise water: you can basically dive straight into the sunlit sea from the temple steps of Apollo
Wow
Wow wow wow
Full state pension is £1,300 a year higher under triple lock rather than just inflation
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-15721629/Full-state-pension-triple-lock-just-inflation.html
This comes from a study (aka press release) from Vanguard which I can't immediately see on their site.
Yet here the discussion is always about the triple lock and pensions and not a murmur about the benefits bill.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cdxk46dzewxo
Averages 41 at a strike rate of 230 in the IPL. The highest career strike rate anyone else has reached in the IPL is 177. The likes of Sehwag, Gayle and Maxwell were 150s so he is scoring at 50% higher per ball than those!
*still one of my favourites and a standard to get the lads up on the dancefloor in the discos of my youth. Who can resist?
https://youtu.be/rb-bKKRl_hw?si=p3a6hSDjT4Kz3mSD
Tunnocks got the sponsorship deal again I see
https://x.com/Number10cat/status/2042879921689690314
Even though the Biden administration was light years better than what replaced it The dems need a fresh face (or 2) on the ticket. The world will not forgive them if they move left and blow it.
It beggars belief but you have to bear in mind that even now at least 40% of US voters still think Trump is doing a good job. I seriously believe Americans have lost the plot.
https://youtube.com/shorts/K6MfI36Uznc?si=DV77Gl8W4q4Pg5Id
If highlighting the criminal records of those bankrolling UK political parties is not in the public interest, what is?
https://x.com/FraserNelson/status/2042881360927363074
I saw an insane example on X the other day of a huge mahogany Georgian book case which sold for £14,000 in the 90s (IIRC) and a week ago it went for auction for a couple of hundred
Bet they haven’t filled in 100,000 pages on the social exclusion issues caused by their netting.
Plus if we don’t give £100 million pounds to the contractors, some CEOs might not make their bonus this year. And then they might not have enough money to employ senior civil servants and politicians as non-ex directors, when they retire.
#Nu10K
https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/2042766075993993322
A notable contrast with how the GOP reacts to sex abuse scandals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWSk4mA0k4
What a place!
https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/10/23/britains-welfare-system-has-grown-sicker
A fair bit of what's happened is that people who would previously have sat on routine benefits now languish on benefits with a disability label.
I suspect the answer is more likely to be raising the age at which it’s paid out in future, which would clearly going to save lots, and doesn’t affect anything already in payment. The Govt has a review due in a couple of years and I’ll be amazed if they don’t set off down this road.
My comment saying much the same last night and giving the name of the 16 year old child hanged by the Iranian regime was described as "trolling". The poster doing so and the one liking it might want to reflect on Burke's famous dictum.
As an athiest it greatly amused him that he could buy beautiful Victorian Bibles for a quid each and sell them in Dallas for $100, where they would become "the family Bible". He stopped about 15 years ago when his US partner got ill.
Spotting what will be the items wanted in the future is the tricky bit. With the move to digital media, I think that the analogue revival has potential still, but really it is just an excuse for me to keep my turntable and vinyl in the living room.
Mostly, that's an honest part of an adversarial system. But sometimes, one has to wonder.
Especially once the boriswave get ILR.
Just slow the rate of growth. 6.4 % this year is nuts.
https://bsky.app/profile/theatlantic.com/post/3mj6kmdy6em2r
‘ BREAKING: The US has agreed to 'release Iranian frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks' and this is 'directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz', according to Reuters report.’
https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/2042902006512365888?s=61
Not to mention the people advocating this (and voting for it in parliament) have gold plated private pensions.
The Iran and Epstein fiascos are at least showing up the cracks on the MAGA side, I found the personal attacks on MTG, Carlson, Megan Kelly and the info wars guy truly extraordinary.
But, hey, I guess Trump smashed woke, or something.
I am now about to eat goat meat - maybe for the first time - in the Taurus mountains
He visits the grave at Rushock every year, it's an incredible shrine to Bonzo.
My sister lives close by and sees them regularly.
If you watch the filming of the 200 Erdogan Concert very closely with Page, Plant, JPJ and Jason, as they finish Kashmir and meet on the stage to take their bows, you can lip read Planty say to Jason "your dad would be proud"...
They didnt authorise Stairway to Heaven on any recordings or filming of that Concert as far as I'm aware.
The Heart version was outstanding I thought.
There was a very good tribute band Fred Zeppelin in the Black Country and I've been to a few gigs of theirs at JBs and Robin Hood in those parts where Planty would very discreetly stand at the back and watch.
He is a very humble soul.
This is the one thing I have learned from my new antiques thing - all that matters is if you love them, admire them, enjoy their beauty and their backstory. Forget completely aboot value. What does it matter? You can’t sell rosewood whatnots from the grave
And I really don't think the sound is better to my aging ears.
Interestingly, the Drift record shop in Totnes that went big on the vinyl revival for years, has now closed and gone online only.
Propaganda war in full flow
US denies it has agreed to key Iranian demand - as Vance meets Pakistani PM
A report in the past hour or so - citing a senior Iranian source - suggested the US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets (see 10:22).
That demand, the source added, could help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
But the White House has just responded to that claim, denying the US has made any such agreement.
Peace talks are expected to take place today in Pakistan, with delegations from both sides in the country's capital.
JD Vance, the vice president, is leading the US side and has held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the White House added.
Sharif "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region", his office said.
pant...pant...
Has he completely misunderstood the purpose of negotiation?
Not sure whether this is included, but Russian troops were gathering overnight ahead of a big early morning push - 2 brigades with perhaps 60 vehicles in a field. Got spotted by Ukrainina drones. The Ukranians fired 600 shells in, over ten minutes. Cluster and high explosives.
Every vehicles destroyed, 20% of the force killed. Many of the rest injured.
It is reported that 90% of Russian troops never even see the enemy lines before they die.
I'd call them a laughing stock, except they are not funny.
Not to mention their workforce is grotesquely white and male.
Then Israel just bombs the shit out of whatever, wherever takes their fancy.
Is Trump able to tell Bibi to back off? Does Bibi have the kompromat on Trump from Epstein too?
Then there is the double bubble of one increase to match inflation, then one the following year to match the wages catch up with that inflation.
Ending the Triple Lock doesn't mean no increase in pensions ever (similarly unlinking benefits and minimum wage from CPI). It means that the CoE has flexibility depending on the overall state of the national finances.
There's a wide contested grey zone, in which movement is most easily achieved by small groups of infantry on foot who will hope to get lucky and not be seen by a drone while they're in the open.
The side that can manage to develop a mobile FPV drone defence system is going to have a huge advantage.
In the 80's, a friend had a pop-up shop in Covent Garden (one of the very first) selling some rather lovely arty stuff from my friend's chums from art college and elsewhere. It attracted all sorts, including lots of luvvies (given its proximity to theatre land.
I was helping her out one day when she waved me over, looking rather flustered. "This guy wants to buy £500 of these [very Giacometti-like] sculptures. But he doesn't have a cheque card. What should I do?"
So I looked at the guy and then looked at the cheque.
"You'll be fine" I said. "Firstly - it's a Coutts cheque - they probably don't do cheque cards because they aren't going to bounce it."
"Secondly - have you looked at the name on the cheque?"
My friend did. Then looked at the customer. Then at the cheque. Then back at him.
"R. Plant. What - The R Plant?"
We both nodded.
He was quite impressed though when she said that she had seen Zep at the Isle of Wight.
I agreed to drop the statues round to his house in Primrose Hill. Really nice guy. Really nice gaff.
ALTHOUGH my wife was song-writing will him in her west London flat, many many moons back. He had a complete sense of humour failure when her two West Highland Whites found his Yorkie bar in his Afghan bag - and proceeded to eat it. No denying their guilt - white dogs, brown faces.
Wifey was not impressed. "You would have been right to be angry if they'd found your stash. But a Yorkie bar? C'mon..."
No we Kam't
No we really really Kam't
She ran a bad campaign, shows no signs of learning the lessons of defeat, and has not made an argument about why she would succeed this time.
There is no goal so open that the Democrats can't miss it.
If they get rumbled by us within 24 hours.
Which is all of them.
Pause
What????
The Ukrainians have been brilliant at setting up kill zones, that seem to wipe out all the troops Putin's generals can order suicidally advance.
However you have to slow cook it for about five hours (I asked) to get the juicy tenderness
We need to get serious. Quickly.
Almost all warnings and indicators that a wider war is coming are flashing red and it is "breathtaking" that the UK government is failing to better prepare, a top academic has warned.
Dr Rob Johnson, director of the Changing Character of Conflict Centre at Oxford University, said China is taking the steps that would be expected to have the ability to attack Taiwan, while Russia could well be readying to launch military operations against a NATO country.
https://news.sky.com/story/warning-lights-for-a-coming-war-are-flashing-red-and-britain-is-not-prepared-13530330
And the hole Britain is in is so large that the country is way beyond choosing one cut instead of another, or tax increases. All the unpopular things will have to be done to put the country back on an even keel and properly fund defence, justice and investment.
Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️
@LeftieStats
·
1h
‼️NEW | Your Party to expel the Left🥀
Tomorrow, Your Party's exec will vote to purge the socialist left. Members of socialist parties will be expelled, but also anyone in a faction - a direct attack on Grassroots Left.
The vote is expected to pass easily.
(Via
@Weekly_Worker
)
https://x.com/LeftieStats/status/2042899853101899842
But then you also have to remember that the Ukraine war reflects a particular set of circumstances and not all wars are or will be fought like that. The Iran War hasn’t involved the same use of FPV and fibre optic drones against infantry. The Sudanese Civil War looks very different again.
* Oh, that was you, FrancisU. Thank you. Most interesting.
Єдиний в Україні Центр реабілітації рукокрилих
Наймастабніший проєкт зі збереження, популяризації та дослідження рукокрилих в Східній Європі.
@davidaxelrod
Sunday's parliamentary elections in Hungary will have big portents for our own Midterms, and not just because a defeat for Viktor Orban would be an embarrassment for @RealDonaldTrump, who has overtly injected himself into the race.
Orban, who in his 16 years as PM has gutted many pillars of Hungarian democracy, has long been a role model for Trump.
IF the unpopular Orban's party wins through manipulation of the election process, it will further embolden Trump to pursue voter purges, vote suppression and other Orbanesque techniques to tip the scales that currently are weighing heavily against him.
https://x.com/davidaxelrod/status/2042804460863283452
https://t.me/noel_reports/44953