Dead Mike

'Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar' returned to R4 this week & it was terrific. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008bbc

Agreed. TBH at this point if Conor chooses to come back then it shouldn't be anywhere near the title for at least 2 fights. Stick him in there with Cowboy, Gaethje, Poirier 2 or a rematch with Aldo. All of these can headline a big PPV card & are decent matches for a man who's fought (and lost) once in 3 years.

TBH, according to the polls its the Momentum types that the casual voter finds the most toxic. Labour being unappealing to the masses is their biggest problem. The Tories can lurch to the right & not lose many voters as people will grumble & still vote Tory. Those on the left are more fickle, always been the way. Do you genuinely think that a Corbyn led Labour could win an election held within the next couple of months?

I'm not discounting any of this but it all boils down, as Chest pretty much said, to the reality vs the hypothetical. Has Corbyn been massively mistreated by the media? Yes. Does that change anything coming into another election? No. In 2017 Labour still hadn't completely fucked themselves with a fence sitting Brexit position. They've screwed that now, ardent remainers wont back them as they know Corbyn is a Brexiter at heart & the leavers wont back them as they're seen to be trying to stop Brexit. They've only committed recently to a position because the membership (70% remainers) were refusing at local levels to canvas on doorsteps with a bullshit Brexit policy. The 2017 'bounce' they had wont be repeated. Add to this the attitude of the staunch Corbyn supporters which has turned off swathes of causal voters (you know, the people you actually need to win a majority). 'Fuck off & join the Lib Dems you Red Tory'....many have. Slow hand clap for that shit. If it's purely hypothetical I'd have a Corbyn led Labour in Government, happy days. If we're dealing with actual reality then I want the Tories out & no matter how much you like him, it's not going to happen under Corbyn. It comes down to the question of priorities, do you want an ideologically pure Labour party or would you make a couple of concessions & get rid of the Tories? This is where the Tories do well, they realise that to get what you want you've actually got to be in power first. Feign unity then bicker once you're in Government. The left will continue to eat itself as many would rather be in permanent opposition but feel like they've got the moral high ground. I think it was James O Brien who said something like 'The right are playing the game & winning whilst the left are still complaining that the rules aren't fair'. Pretty much sums it up.

Nah, it'll be because too many people think he's awful. Again, Labour's last election manifesto was incredibly popular. They'd have to change very little apart from the leader who's trailing massively behind Johnson in the polls & was less popular than May in her final days when she was being lambasted from every angle. Corbyn seems like a decent bloke but he's electoral kryptonite, provably so. Would you rather have Corbyn as leader but be in permanent opposition or a new leader & an actual chance of getting rid of the Tories? You can't have both.

Looking forward to BJ vs Tito Ortiz in a bare knuckle bout or him fighting a massive woman in Japan on NYE.

Trying to get some thread integrity back after the Cunty Tory thread got derailed. For those (understandably) confused by this weeks parliamentary shenanigans this is a decent summary to bring you up to speed...... It's hard to imagine where he goes from here. Boris Johnson had clearly wanted an election. You knew he wanted it from the first time he said he definitely wouldn't hold one. Everything he'd done since the Tory leadership contest seemed to corroborate that, from testing Facebook ads, to finessing attack lines, to announcing policy measures on policing and education. Most of the events during the summer seemed to fall in line with that strategy. He needed an excuse and he was fairly certain some development in parliament would provide him with one. But tonight he finally pulled the trigger and nothing came out. He needed a two-thirds majority under the Fixed-terms-Parliament-Act. But Labour rejected the request. In the end the vote came in at 298 to 56, with the opposition party abstaining. He lashed out as best he could. "I can only speculate about the reasons for his hesitation," Johnson said of Jeremy Corbyn. "The obvious reason is that he doesn't think he will win." But in truth, he seemed completely stuck. What could he do now? He has no majority. It left with Phillip Lee to walk across the floor of the House yesterday, and then bottomed out into the centre of the earth when the prime minister withdrew the whip from the 21 Tory MPs who rebelled against him in the emergency debate which followed. The ensuing legislation shuttled through its stages in the Commons today. Brexit-supporting peers will try to kill it in the Lords, but the chances are pretty good that it can be secured by the end of the week or the start of the next. It would force the prime minister to extend Article 50 by October 19th if he doesn't get a deal. Johnson has promised he would never do that. But what avenue does he have if he cannot fight an election before then? To break the law? To resign? Neither option can seem particularly attractive. Politics now becomes an extremely delicate game of strategy, conducted to impossibly high stakes. Labour has spotted the trap and does not want to fall into it. But it also knows that it will be vulnerable to the argument that it is frightened of going to the country. How long can it withstand? If it goes too quickly, it hands Johnson exactly the thing he wants: to go for an election while he still has a bounce, with a pre-prepared parliament-versus-the-people message, while being sufficiently mercurial on no-deal that he can neutralise the threat from the Brexit party. Allowing the vote to happen before late October would also fail to prevent no-deal, because a new Johnson administration would be in place in time to deliver it. "The offer an election today is like the offer of an apple to Snow White from the wicked queen," Corbyn concluded. "What he is offering is not an apple, or even an election, but the poison of no-deal. Let this bill pass and gain Royal Assent, then we will back an election." On the face of it, this seemed ruinous. The bill will probably get Royal Assent in the next few days. If Corbyn then immediately accepted one of Johnson's requests for an election, it would take place before late October. A Johnson majority, if he got one, could then be used to repeal the rebel legislation and secure no-deal. But there was a little more wriggle room in there than that. Saying he would "back" an election is not the same as saying he would activate it. Could he block an election during the tiny gap between Royal Assent and prorogation starting? He'd then be clear for the next five weeks, with Johnson's own plan to silence parliament now working against him. Or perhaps a no-confidence vote could be used. This would start a 14-day period in which to try and form a government, either through himself as prime minister or someone like Harriet Harman. They could then extend Article 50 and then hold an election. And importantly the process would kill more time. There is space to work with in Corbyn's statement. It's still not clear which way he'll go. And there's a sustained effort from within the Labour party to stop him falling into Johnson's trap. What happens now will all be about pressure. If Corbyn feels it is building against him and the public see him as cowardly, he'll pull the trigger. If it starts to feel like politicians are playing clever-clever games over the heads of the electorate, he'll pull the trigger. But that goes both ways. This week showed just how badly Johnson could be made to squirm in a trap made of his own misjudged strategy. He looked increasingly like he was being damaged and weakened. If that pressure seems to be having a serious effect, it will hold Corbyn back. Either way, we'll probably know how it pans out by early next week. The result could decide which way the Brexit story finally ends. Ian Dunt is editor of Politics.co.uk and the author of Brexit: What The Hell Happens Now?

Most disappointing thing is that most of the best songs in the film didn't actually make it on the soundtrack. This was a massive film for me in my teens though, along with 'Can't Hardly Wait'. Not sure how well that's help up though? May have been skewed by my Jennifer Love Hewitt obsession.

Because by all accounts they'd regain their majority & actually be in a position to push through their proposals. This is the most recent poll from Survation (historically the most Labour friendly pollsters) IMO the ball is now firmly in the oppositions court in regards to how a GE could play out. If Labour were to agree to a GE post 31st Oct & Corbyn were to stand aside & let Keir Starmer lead the party there'd be a very real opportunity to get the Tories out. They won't though as there's a large % of the Labour membership who refuse to recognise Corbyn's toxicity. As it stands I reckon a GE where the Tory rhetoric is 'Corbyn blocked your Brexit & is an enemy of the people' wins comfortably. Old people will lap that shit up & young people don't vote (which is a bit simplistic but ultimately & sadly true).

I remember 'Oh Dr Beeching' having a great theme tune. Look at Blakey gurning it up on that promo pic, class.

I think a lot of people will be surprised (or not?) at what the Government defines 'critical medicines' as. Very few of them on the list are prescription meds, certainly not anti-depressants, inhalers & the like. Most large suppliers are building up stocks of 6-8wks but it's the replenishment orders. Approx 75% of all medicine (finished or component) come to the UK via the EU.

I posted in the Brexit thread a while back (Feb-ish) about how I'd been working on No Deal preparations for Pharma supply from Oct 2018 - March. Since the Government instructed everyone to cease 'No Deal' planning in April we've had no further instruction or word from the DoH. To our knowledge nobody in the industry has. I work for the countries largest pharma distributor & we're essentially winging it, choosing which lines to build up stocks of & putting our own measures in place for what is essentially rationing. My nan relies on about half a dozen repeat prescriptions & the increasing likelihood of 'No Deal' is making me feel physically sick.

It just means that he's definitely going to pay out. Keep sticking quids in.