Ronnie

24 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

With regard to Student Debt, isn’t it more of a bursary type deal? Don’t you only pay it back once you hit a wage threshold?  I know it’s something that get on the tits of Martin Lewis. 
 

 

Yes, it's an additional payroll tax which kicks in once you're earning around £26k.

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

But that's something we should admire the French for, they'll strike over anything ...

Yes, they don't need asking twice.

I used to live in France. One day I was walking through Toulouse on a Thursday, and happened upon a massive demonstration of teachers and students swarming down a boulevard. I asked one of them what was going on. The teacher explained that they were angry about the expulsion of a good student from their school after it had emerged that he or she was an illegal immigrant.

But that wasn't what they were demonstrating about there and then: they'd already protested about that in Paris on the Tuesday. On this particular day, they were protesting that the train which took them to their earlier demonstration got them there fifteen minutes late.

There was also the woman who on another day felt that a car might have got a bit too close to her and her bicycle in the narrow one-way streets just off the centre, and who then proceeded to hold up every other car for the next quarter of an hour with an impromptu protest in which she stood in the middle of the street and refused to get out of the way.

1 hour ago, Keith Houchen said:

Sickens me how people with nothing on the lowest rungs of society see Johnson as one of them.

I've just watched a report where people in unimaginable desperation are either not sure who they're going to vote for or even say that they like what 'Boris' is saying. I really don't understand how "not the Tories" isn't an automatic answer if you're one of these very unfortunate people. Somebody was so moved by the sight of a woman with 14 pence to her name and a pack of bacon, loaf of bread and two pints of milk to last her and her son a fortnight that she's just set up a crowdfunder for them and people in a similar situation. Even a couple of quid will make a lot of difference to these people.

Johnson still hasn't agreed to be interviewed by Andrew Neil. Brillo's commented publicly on it now:

Forget talk of an interview; it would be a bloodsport.

There's the message I'm seeing:

There were problems with Spotify embeds because of a change in their end, which were rectified with an update in November. There was a further update in December, so it could be that YouTube changed something but this site is running an older version. I've just tried that same link on the current version and it embedded fine.

23 minutes ago, Cod Eye said:

Question to those of you with a more in deph knowledge of the various polls that are going around. I've seen that they are generally saying the Tories lad is down to 9 points. How would this translate to seats, and does it mean we are likelly to have another hung parliament?

A lead of 9 percentage points is significant.

You know Labour's landslide win in 1997, when they got 2.5 times the seats that the Tories did? Their lead over the Tories was 12.5 percentage points. In 2015, the Tories' lead over Labour was only 6.5 percentage points, which was enough to give them a majority, with Labour wining about a third of seats. Extrapolate from there and you get the picture that 9 percentage points is good news for the Tories.

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Jacob Ree-Mogg has the look of a Dickensian workhouse owner with an air of snootyness. Mark "Respect the votes of 17.4 Million People" Francois looks like an exploding pressure cooker made of spam.

The most strikingly descriptive names I've heard for that pair are The Haunted Pencil and Luncheon Meat Penfold. Spot on.

On 10/29/2019 at 8:11 PM, Grecian said:

I'm in the NE Somerset constituency. I will happily vote for anyone that is not Rees-Mogg. Sadly, he's still rather popular in these parts and as much as I'd love to see him get voted out (or horsewhipped), I'll be amazed if he's not re-elected. 

Although his share is depressingly high, it does seem that if there were some sort of pact among the progressives, he might be dethroned.

In my own case, it looks as though I'm going to have to hold my nose and vote Labour. I checked the stats for Green and Liberal Democrats, the two parties I'd be favouring under PR, and neither hit 2% last time, presumably because I and others were holding our noses then too.

Quote

Who are you voting for?

We're traditionally a swing town. Two thirds of our voters voted Leave, so I expect our very docile Tory incumbent to hold his seat.

I suppose on the basis of not wanting the Tories to do well, I should vote Labour. Ultimately, I would like to see a confirmation on the Withdrawal Agreement, and don't think that a GE is the tool for doing it, but it will be treated as such should the Tories form the new government.

But I'm all rather lost. I don't like Labour and don't want to endorse them. In an ideal world, there'd be some sort of Remain alliance and my vote would go there, with Labour signed up to it too. But I don't think they will.

Consider North East Somerset, where Dr Phil Hammond is standing as an independent candidate against Rees Mogg. The last time I checked, the Greens and Lib Dems agreed not to field a candidate against him. Labour, however, decided against. Rees Mogg could genuinely be out on his ear just as Neil Hamilton was in 97 when he was challenged only by Martin Bell, if the field were narrowed just to two. And yet they appear willing to see him returned to Parliament. I don't get it. Better to stand a candidate when you stand no chance of winning than see a big-name Tory sent on his way by working with others, is it?

1 hour ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Anyway, I couldn’t do that again. No chance. But again, thanks for understanding how completely shit this is.

I totally get that, mate. My girls are getting older now (9 and 8) and I often have a niggling thought coming to me that they're well past the half-way mark now. I'm not looking forward to it at all. If it's any consolation, and I doubt it is, try to build on the fact that it's now done, he went without suffering, and there's no suffering in store for him any longer. It'll take time, of course, and it's perfectly alright to feel terrible.

Not trying to derail this thread (ongoing conversation is better here) but a few of us were speaking about this elsewhere yesterday:

9 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Yep. And for all they try to argue that they're not kids' films, how many of them fell in love with the franchise as an adult? 

Exactly. How many people north of 70 do you see who are passionate about the original trilogy? None, because they were over 30 when those kids' films were released.

I can look back objectively at the G1 Transformers cartoon and acknowledge that it's shit. I still loved it at the time and would, I think, enjoy them if I watched them again at 40, irrespective of the animation faults, prominent storyline inconsistencies and ropey stories. I get the feeling that the worst in the Star Wars community can't do that when they proclaim every other kids' film which came out after they'd grown up to be awful in comparison to the ones they enjoyed as children. I don't let nostalgia cloud my enjoyment and actually prefer the prequels to the originals, and have really enjoyed the recent offerings.

Twin Twist was supposed to be a drill. One of those magic drills that can bore tunnels far wider than the drill bits so that the rest of him could pass through.

36 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That's odd - I thought Twin Twist was one of two Jump-Starter Autobots? Could've sworn there was a red one as well. I know the Decepticon versions were Runamok and Runabout.

He was one of two, although you're wrong about the colours: Topspin was similar to Twin Twist but with inverted colours:

Quote

 Runamok

Runamuck  He and Runabout were Battlechargers. I really hated them and the Jumpstarters for their shit transformations.

Those catalogues don't have full ranges in. Note only two Dinobots (Grimlock and Snarl), one Seeker (Skywarp), one Conehead (Thrust), one Triple Changer (Blitzwing), etc. The range in 1985 was a lot bigger than they've got on display.

42 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

The toy pages of the 86/87 one should be classed as pornography. 

The Transformers spread from 85/86 is amazing to me! Well, except for rubbish Twin Twist.

The first big Transformer I was allowed to buy was Starscream. I got him from Argos. Although he isn't in any of these particular catalogues, I remember it distinctly (he cost £7.49!) because when I showed him to my grandmother afterwards, I proudly declared that I knew what colour he was: the catalogues had given me the impression that there was a colour called 'may vary', which I'd taken to be a shade of grey and felt very clever about knowing. She was a lot older than I was and she'd never heard of it!

18 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

I’m going to risk just completely getting it wrong and slandering an innocent poster but i’m sure the other backwards porcelain sitter was @Doog

Great memory!

The whole thread is so worth a re-read.

7 minutes ago, ElCece said:

Can anyone explain what be does with the tissue?

I think it's to demonstrate that what went into the receptacle was indeed alcohol rather than apple juice and water etc. Had they been, the wet tissue wouldn't have caught on fire.

On 10/19/2019 at 9:56 AM, WyattSheepMask said:

Someone get Dave a sense of humour for Christmas please

It's a little bit late for that fella, unfortunately:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SteveBarry85/status/1185789208335486977

1 hour ago, MungoChutney said:

No idea why but quote won't display properly.

It's because you quoted a post which contained no content other than a quote. Quotes within a quoted post don't show. If Houchen had written something, that would've featured in your post, although the quote he'd included wouldn't have been.

2 hours ago, David said:

They should be using email. 

I emailed my MP when the prorogation occurred and even wrote 'No need for a reply: I know you'll be very busy.'

I came home from holiday to find an envelope with my full name on it (= instant dread) and a pointless letter on the inside, which must've been sent to everyone else who mentioned the P-word. Straight in the bin.

I thought he kicked out too. I've looked back on it in slow motion and it's really hard, partially because of how blocky it is, to decide. He certainly starts the motion of lifting his arm before the count hits, although the point when his shoulder physically leaves the mat maybe perfectly coincides. Given that the act of kicking out is really the start of the motion of kicking out from the fans' perspective, it does look early. At any rate, it's far too tight for the ref to be able to confidently call it, as the reactions from all four participants plus the fans (there's the fading 'three-ooh' that you get on a false finish) suggest.

The video also puts to bed any doubt about the assault, doesn't it? Samuels appears to jump the ring in temper and dump the referee into the mat.

6 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I think you are overestimating how insulated you will be from the effects of brexit. Your money can only shield you so far in the face of further recession in the face of crumbling social infrastructure from years of austerity.

We've always intended to move abroad by the time Ronette's 40, so within the next four years. Thankfully, her mother's Irish, so she's entitled to an Irish passport, and (by then) I would be the spouse of an EU citizen, so able to go with her. The mortgage will be paid off within the next two years (a jump of base rate to 5% will only add a further month; 10% will add only three), and the countries we're looking at are so comparatively cheap that even a collapse in the UK housing market won't prevent us from being able to afford to go.

I don't say it lightly: I hate Brexit and what it will bring. But the consequences of it to us personally are relatively minor compared with so many other people. I would still far rather that the entire con be magicked away and all this misery be avoided, but I can't pretend that we'll suffer greatly compared to people who will lose their homes in the face of expected interest-rate rises or who are already struggling to make ends meet before the imposition of tariffs raise food prices substantially. 

42 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

If No Deal is as bad as Yellow Hammer suggests then we're looking at some pretty horrific times ahead of us.

I'm sure it will be blamed on the EU. That's how the gutter press handles things around here.

Do you remember a couple of years ago when the Spanish lettuce crop dwindled because of flooding and they had hardly any left to export? That was presented as the greedy Spaniards eating lettuces so the hard-working British families can't have them. We've already heard Tories speaking about how 'disgracefully' the EU has been treating us. And everybody seems to have forgotten that the backstop was a proposal made by the British government, now that it's become problematic!

6 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

So how does he survive?

Because enough people aren't interested in what's really happening. Facts and critical analysis don't come into it. They don't get the information on what's been happening because they only rely on sources which don't report it and which instead play to the prejudices of their readers and above all push for what they want to happen. If they find out about a legal verdict, it's presented to them as saboteur judges acting as their enemies. Or, in this case, biased Scottish judges, not like our good English judges (except for those who reach the wrong conclusion).

When an election comes, some of these people will vote in enough numbers that the Conservative party, in spite of everything we know and how abominably they've behaved, will win a large number of seats. I suspect that they'll even return the largest number of seats, even if not a majority overall, followed by declarations that 'the people' have thus declared that they want a no-deal Brexit. Were the question of Brexit to be asked in an alternative way, say, a manner in which the result were announced as a number of votes for a position rather than seats won, the answer would be clearly different. And that's why they're trying so hard to goad the Opposition into a GE. I imagine they've got it backed up twice too: if there isn't a GE, which there won't be, then they'll get their no-deal Brexit, will be able to portray themselves as the party of the people, and then will be in a strong position for a GE down the line.

I think I'm pretty much done with the whole thing. Brexit won't be terribly bad for me personally, I think. Our jobs are safe. We can absorb the rising prices without having to tighten our belts. Houses are overpriced anyway and I'm not against them crashing (it's better for people who aren't yet on the ladder); the supposed drop of one third will take us back to where we started. That's not the end of the world, even though we were hoping to sell and move abroad in about four years' time. Probably the worst way in which we'll be hit personally is longer queues in airports, a trivial affair in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, I see poor cousins and people who grew up near me, the typical poorly educated and struggling to make ends meet type, still bleating on about how they want their precious WTO Brexit, even though they and people like them are the ones who will be worst hit, whilst the people they get their information from make a killing on shorting the pound and escaping the new tax regulations. At some point you've got to say 'fuck it'; let them reap the consequences of what they're so fervently pushing for. I think the old thinking about voting being a civic duty should be rephrased into something like 'it's your civic duty to be informed and vote'. I'd feel bad for the people hard hit who are innocent of unleashing all this but what can you do when their friends and neighbours are powering it?

Fuck me, this is a depressing post.

5 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Who’s the bigger Tory cunt. Boris or JRC? after today. 

Who's JRC? You mean Mogg?

They both show that being educated and being intelligent aren't the same thing. There's at least a bit of charm to the PM even when he's lying or out of his depth compared to the condescension of the Haunted Pencil.

I think it'd be more satisfying to get a dig in on Mogg but, really, you wouldn't be upset if it missed and caught Johnson.