Bellend Sebastian

I was wondering what synthesised mushroom flavour would taste like and whilst I'm not averse to a nicely fried one, I should have predicted that these would be rank and indeed they are

It's a shame isn't it? I mean you can't force them to stay but you know the effect it's going to have. I was at University in Sheffield in the mid 90s and the centre was feeling the effects of Meadowhall opening, which was counterbalanced a bit by the tram. No idea what it's like these days, never really been back

The weather didn't help, but it all felt a bit bleak when I went into the centre today, given it's only a week until Christmas. Was chatting to my mate who has a business there and he reckons the loss of the M&S has had a big, big impact, which was always the fear that would happen when they went

Interesting one this - loads of stuff has come out today that I'd not heard coverage of before (others may have followed it more closely). The initial press angle was that this guy is ex forces and is just so normal and respectable that it's all just inexplicable. Turns out that he was booted out of the army and also did some time, before turning his life around and being no bother for 3 decades until he loses it completely on that fateful day. Like I say I've not been following it that closely Unusual, to say the least. Just seen the sentence - well, if you do things like that....

I had assumed not, but someone at my work did get paid out when he trashed his BMW doing something that sounds very much like what we're talking about

I was worried for a moment there that they might not actually make America great again

There were some where the water was up to the windscreen and others where the car started to float away. I don't know how you can look at a quite a big expanse of water without any idea of how deep it gets and go 'this'll be FINE!'

I never cease to be amazed by the number of people that are prepared to drive their (often very nice, new and expensive) cars into flood water. Obviously not captured by the Facebook algorithm that would show them countless videos of folk doing this and enduring a very expensive fail

Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper has died. 84, not bad

The Telegraph admitting that Brexit may not have been a good thing. I know most people won't give two hoots about what they think but given the current administration's apparent over caution in going head on against the right wing media this feels potentially significant on at least some level

My first game this season and after the first goal went in the bloke behind me in a very matter of fact, unemotional way said "what a bunch of c***s" and it was quite difficult to argue with at that point

My first game since giving up my ST in the summer. God, I've missed this

Which bit? I can't see anything in there that's not covered by what I said

Don't quite understand the question, old chap. Do you mean tax relief? You get tax relief at your marginal rate on employee contributions, employer contributions are paid gross and they get corporation tax relief on those. If the employee contribution effectively becomes part of the employer contribution and salary is 'sacrificed' to accommodate this, you're not paying income tax equivalent to the tax relief you'd have got from paying it as an employee contribution. As you're earning less you're also paying a bit less NI and this is the bit where the rules are changing, in that the extent you can benefit from this additional perk is being restricted. I've been taking advantage of this as I've been ploughing loads of money into my pension as I hate my life (exaggeration, it's alright) and although I can't be sure as all the online calculators for this are being updated for obvious reasons, the actual cost to me isn't going to be much. Like the EV charge that I should be seeing as 'a bombshell' or 'slap in the face' if I were to immerse myself in a particular media ecosphere, I'd actually file this under a change to a very generous regime that I've benefited enormously from and will continue to do so, albeit at a slightly lower level. The suggestions in the Telegraph et al that this is a nonsensical retirement ruining tax raid I would file under the shrieking of twats. I don't know if this answers your question in any way or form, apologies if not

Not going to lie, this tax on Yazoo chocolate milk is going to hit me pretty hard

Oh Christ I've just remembered I'm going to that

Daily Mail owner buying the Telegraph titles. Can't wait to have the tsunami of offshore capital funded common sense and traditional values wash over me

Nathan Gill's got 10 years! See you later, Nat. One of the stories that's had a decent amount of media coverage but I've heard literally nobody mention in the offline world, despite feeling pretty significant to me, at least

A SIPP in practice can be one of two things - a scheme with pretty much open architecture that will let you hold just about anything within reason, including 'exciting' things like actual commercial property. These are usually marketed as SIPPs, but quite a few mainstream pensions, particularly those on platforms use a SIPP structure to open up the range and type of collective funds you can invest in, compared to an old style insured pension plan. Makes things a bit more complicated from an FSCS point of view but in practice it doesn't make a huge amount of difference

Yawning chasm in your life? Itch you just can't scratch? Probably for all the usual reasons but also because I've not posted a George Monbiot opinion piece from the Guardian for a while. Don't say I never give you anything: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/14/climate-crisis-communication-super-rich I think he's completely right, but it's one of these things that's perhaps too big an issue for us to collectively even acknowledge, let alone try and do anything about. I'm sorry to strike a pessimistic tone for a Friday morning but I am starting to think that we are truly f****d

Trump couldn't possibly have done anything wrong in connection with Epstein as surely at the first sign of anything untoward his powerful moral code would kick in Yes of I know I've made that joke before but I'm rather fond of it so no apologies

Have some data you lovable scamps https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/media_metrics/most-popular-websites-news-world-monthly-2/

According to The Telegraph and being repeated by other outlets AGAIN. They keep coming out with this stuff and I suppose some of it might come to pass sooner or later

Being less pithy and obtuse for a moment, I'd hope that something we all have in common regardless of our leanings, values or whatever, is we'd still rather make our judgements based on some sort of objective reality? Basically, we'd rather not be lied to, even if the lies fed to us are appealing in that they fit in with our world view. It's probably social media driven but it feels increasingly difficult to access that objective reality, or at least, you have to sift through a lot of distracting guff to get to it. At times I've found myself looking at research papers and government statistics in an effort to get some insight into the issues of the day and frankly it's absurd to live your life like that but you shouldn't have to

Yes, I went on the Whataboutery Course when everyone else went on the 'Weird Gloating over a possible Isolated Gotcha Whilst Letting a Tsunami of Normalised Disinformation from the Usual Sources Wash over You' course, I'll be honest, it felt like it would be the easier option. I mean it could be true, but the Telegraph article is behind a pay wall but we've got our headline and a reference to an 'internal memo' that I suppose is a step up from 'according to our insider' and is enough for the story to be widely circulated by the parts of the press that consider the BBC its enemy, be seen by a lot of folk and will serve its purpose whether it's true or not. If it turns out to be completely true then the BBC should be ashamed, at being dragged down to the level of the far too large section of our media who increasingly seem to be following the mantra of sentient infected cyst Steve Bannon to 'flood the zone with shit' but I expect that's the point you were making, Jon.