Dunge

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.” By an Aussie: ”It should be said that Queensland truly is God’s own country. Although why he filled it with dickheads remains a mystery.”

Likely an unpopular opinion due to giving it any praise at all, but Mrs. Brown’s Boys. The first couple of series were a novel concept, getting to see behind the scenes of a sitcom and all the bloopers. It was witty in places and the amateurish nature of it fitted the premise. But as time went on it became more and more contrived, the script nosedived and Brendan O’Carroll was increasingly revealed to be rather unpleasant.

I thought it was his idea.

I like The Wheel, but I have noticed that McIntyre finds an excuse to sit next to the pretty young lady of the week once per episode.

I think the generally accepted thing behind the scenes is that biggest danger of nuclear Armageddon is miscalculation or mistake. On that basis, being cautious made a lot of sense, particularly when Putin was acting strangely and likely on a cocktail of hard drugs for cancer or Parkinson’s at the start of the conflict.

In rhetoric, yes. In action, we’ll see.

Worth adding: I’m not totally against the idea of inheritance tax on these properties in principle, but I don’t think simple asset value is the way to do it. Part of the idea is to stop people hiding wealth in farms, so perhaps a combination of Length of Residence and evidence of direct activity in working the land would be a better measure. I appreciate, like trying to be more nuanced with winter fuel payments, that could lead to higher levels of bureaucracy.

My concern from listening to the debates on farming is that this could affect a lot of people who are asset rich but cash poor, ie they don’t actually see a lot of return from what they do. And farms are different from usual businesses or liquid inheritance because the whole thing is a lifestyle to these people, knowledge passed across generations throughout a lifetime. It also looks like it will affect more farms than expected due to hidden costs such as equipment asset prices as well as land. The result would then likely be traditional families forced out of farming, farms going to rich people who can afford the land, a large increase in tenancy and ultimately more Clarksons rather than fewer. I do take the point of improving efficiency in farming methods, but I think that should remain a carrot rather than a stick.

I’m not surprised; there’s nothing in there.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump’s team have been on the phone to the Kremlin over the last couple of days apologising profusely and begging Putin not to react. And of course Putin putting the phone down afterwards and laughing.

I had an All Day Breakfast sandwich from the Co-op today. There’s surely no way an All Day Breakfast is woke, but I’m worrying whether the Co-op might be.

Maybe I’ll prove to be wrong on this but it looks to me a massive migration’s starting to this Blue Sky and it won’t be easily stopped. Unfortunately it wouldn’t surprise me if Elon Musk tried to do just that through legislation. Ultimately though I don’t think it’s about Blue Sky as such. I just think people are going to abandon TwitterX and Blue Sky is their excuse and alternative port.

Hummus. It’s hummus isn’t it? Hummus and Quinoa on sourdough.

Is there not an argument to say that the worst thing for Twitter was for its owner to become part of the government? It automatically becomes perceived as a mouthpiece.

I note it’s happened at a time when it’s unlikely to get an emotional counter from Russia, precisely as you say because they’re waiting for Trump. But it does look like the whole thing will escalate in terms of body count if nothing else over the coming couple of months as Russia attempt to define as deep a front line as possible and try to bully the Ukrainian public and parliament into accepting as many concessions as possible. I reckon it’s also trying to define the rules for any future conflict too. It has a danger of Russia deciding the reverse is also acceptable (ie providing munitions to the direct enemies of NATO countries), although this Russia would likely make up an excuse to do that anyway if they so desired.

Surely it’s simply the free market and personal choice at work?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93716xdgzqo The UK needs to keep an eye on this. There could be a mass exodus of tech talent from the USA in the near future and, with it, an opportunity for someone to house it.

Rachel Riley on the front cover of The Economist would be a lot of fun to be fair. ”Countdown to interest rate drops by 0.25%!”

I heard someone say the other day that the world has moved to a Power era from of Rule of Law era and I thought that summed it up well.

Alright, but I think you need to share your proposal of how to deal with migration successfully yet humanely. And when you do, please inform every half-way liberal political party in the world because they’ll all be dying to hear it.

You can’t possibly look at that name and not have your brain read to you “Led Zeppelin”.

I’m not a moderator, but surely they remove it because such content has the potential to cause great anger and friction between users, as well as potentially leaving the site open to outside attack from people who don’t like what they read, on either side of the debate. Don’t treat it as a personal attack, or a declaration on either side. It’s just some poor b*stard trying to keep a football fan site running and not descending into deeply and emotionally held arguments that have frankly been raging for thousands of years without getting any closer to an answer. Plus the potential for litigation.

Even if they do, I imagine that practically it would be “Accept this or be left to your fate”. If there is a deal, which seems to be the way it’s going, I expect Zelensky will offer his resignation and live abroad, maybe even in the UK.

I wonder whether it would help if there was a clearer plan and timeline for it. I know you’ll say there is one but it always feels very distant.

That is interesting, given how everyone was talking about potential record turnout.