Bellend Sebastian

I'm getting nervous about markets to be honest and reading about the BofE warning about the risk of the AI bubble bursting isn't helping. Pension has done so well over the last two years I'm weighing up de-risking a bit. So difficult to decide though, having had three decades of just going all out risk wise and not worrying about it

I think Robert Jenrick should go back to concentrating on helping ordinary people, like that time he helped former pornographer Richard Desmond save 40 million pounds by unlawfully pushing through his property deal

I see stuff like this and think the planet killing meteorite cannot come quickly enough: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/07/robin-williams-daughter-zelda-hits-out-at-ai-generated-videos-of-her-dead-father

If it works I'm struggling to think of anyone I would take more seriously

Four years after getting my first 5g capable phone, more than that on a supposedly 5g SIM only contract, and 2 years since I got my current handset, assorted visits to EE shops, replacement SIM cards, various calls to EE customer services my phone has at last started receiving a 5g signal completely out of the blue. Ours is not to question the machinations of the technology gods

Knowingly had a post deleted for the first time in 19 years, really feel like I've made it, baby

Obviously it's impossible that Andrew Neil would ever be ignorant of the facts or knowingly lie, but what he's done here is made the reader think that because small numbers of asylum seekers were returned under the Dublin agreement then its lapsing under Brexit couldn't possibly be the reason why there was a sudden massive increase in people seeking asylum here immediately afterwards. It's like decriminalising murder because not that many people get convicted of it, then moaning when suddenly there seem to be a lot more murders than there were before

Went to see the Beta Band at Rock City this evening. Very good, but weird in that it was sold out and absolutely rammed, and I saw them at the same venue on their farewell tour and it was half empty

We're seemingly collectively obsessed with the idea of society being undermined by actual people coming here, but have a complete blind spot when it comes to any other type of outside influence - foreign ownership of our media, weird US dark money going into think tanks and lobbying groups, Russian bot farms, Johnson shaking off his security detail so he can go to a party with that Lebedev guy, etc etc Not very patriotic is it? The word treason gets bandied around on social media to the extent it's lost all meaning but how these f**kers who look like they're actively acting against our interests barely get scrutinised let alone held to account is a mystery to me

Is there anything fundamentally right wing about this obsession with fossil fuels? What is it about the use of ancient hydrocarbons for power generation that aligns with conservative values in a way that solar or wind power, for example, doesn't? I don't really get it

A story about a Tesla crash and fire in Germany popped up on Facebook so I've just been enjoying all the comments from people who "wouldn't buy an EV if it was the last car on earth" and "I wouldn't drive one if you paid me", "I'll stick to my 25 year old diesel forever, thanks!" etc etc etc etc etc Has sir or madam been tricked into becoming an unwitting participant in a culture war? You could really have fun on the internet if you had the time, couldn't you? I don't, sadly

This whole album is insane and also very good

I'd love to be able to play the drums, the 4 limbs doing different things always just seemed like witchcraft though

My son is so desperate to get it he read a book

If I can learn to play the guitar then I think anyone with hands can

Perhaps one for the unpopular opinions thread. The bloke has more talent in a fingernail than I have in my entire body but there's something about stage musicals - even his - that makes me just want to drink

Not that long ago I'd have said be able to play cool guitar solos but I can sort of do that now, so I'd say be able to write top pop hits to give to the chart bothering acts of the day. I saw a documentary years ago where a very camp man who wrote 'Like a Virgin' was showing how he threw it together on a piano in a few minutes and I thought it looked like being able to do that would be the best fun. Like that Lin-Manuel Miranda bloke that's done a lot of the Disney songs over the last few years (I'll ignore Hamilton, which I think is shite) - imagine being able to churn out songs like that - just knowing that people will love them. A proper gift

But it can be! That's one of the things that has turned my brain inside out especially since the pandemic is how literally ANYTHING can be turned into a culture war. And these are wars that cannot be won. What does victory look like? If everything is split down the middle it's not like the other side just evaporate into the ether. It's so exhausting and destructive as well, isn't it? And such an enormous waste of energy and time - imagine if that were channeled into something constructive

Well then I simply must insist that everybody reads it twice. Come on folks, chop chop. Did you listen to the last episode of The Rest is Politics US? I would guess she wrote it either after that or around the time that was recorded as the article expands on that conversation. I really thought The Mooch was on to something when he said we perhaps need to stop thinking about things from a right/left perspective which seems to get ever more extreme largely due to social media algorithms that just push people apart

Worth a read if you're still prepared to digest the written word, from a BBC journalist of all people: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78n0e83ye0o

My understanding is that everything you have said is possible but this stuff is very scheme specific and basically you need to check with the rules of your arrangement because sometimes there are exclusions

And when you see one in the flesh you think you're stood closer to it than you actually are! I had an old Mazda 6 before, and the footprint was actually about the same, but the IONIQ just seems so FAT in comparison. The good thing about it though is it does translate into a ton of interior space, which was important to me as I'm not small and my son is growing very quickly so I need space front and back

I do feel a bit self conscious about my car sometimes, in that although it's an EV and not an SUV it's as big and heavy as one, and it takes up a lot of space, although I'm lucky in that I've got a drive to put it on. I also don't insist on driving up to the door of everywhere I want to go, which is a modern phenomenon I'm very aware of, living next to a school I'm all for taxation based on negative impact, and as the driver of an EV that weighs two tons it's only fair that this is reflected in how it's taxed. It's a weird situation though isn't it? EVs are heavy by their very nature but that so many people have decided to drive massive, heavy vehicles isn't what I would've predicted. There are more vehicles on the road, we're struggling to find the space to put them, the cost of living has rocketed, the environment increasingly seems to be f**ked so the public says: let's all get SUVs

In most situations, no. If you're taking a roundabout at speed you're aware you're driving a tall and heavy car but I imagine that's the same in any SUV of any size. Otherwise it's really, really easy. You just sort of waft about effortlessly and I even find parking it really easy thanks to the camera, sensors etc, none of which I had on my previous vehicle

I've driven an IONIQ 5 for two years and it's been brilliant overall