Gloucester Saint

I did think the unresolved attacks on his property were probably a major contributor. Hope the coppers load the charges up like toppings on a Subway sandwich when they locate the culprits. It goes far beyond criminal damage for me, whether it’s a world-reknowned cricketer or Joe Public.

Just informed by someone very senior in economics who is ITK and independent that Brexit has shrunk the UK economy by 6% and that’s without impacts from Covid and the NI rises. The elephant is still in the room economically.

Plymouth have dropped Conor Hazard, their first choice and who had kept clean sheets including their cup win at Brentford. Wonder if Bazanu is going there on loan?

Trump is only doing that if the tea is a golden colour.

If your satnav takes your near Bradford as some routes do (we tended to opt for via Skipton when going to Wensleydale, and we love Skipton, the farm shop is a cracker, great classic car show every June, Jenson Samuel for men’s shirts) then if you enjoy industrial history Saltaire is well worth a visit. David Hockney art collection as well. When we stayed between the Lakes and Dales up above Kendal near the M6, a stunning route into the Dales is that way. Lakes fells in the rear view mirror, Yorkshire Three Peaks ahead and Howgill Fells straddling the two counties but within Dales National Park despite being in Cumbria.

Whitby and the Abbey not too far either. Boulby Cliffs the other side of Staithes are some of the highest in the country and haven for wildlife.

I criticised cutting the Regional Development Agencies at the time, and Cameron partially acknowledged the mistake by setting up the Local Enterprise Partnerships within 12 months. But there was going to be public spending cuts in 2010 regardless, everyone outside of Labour’s core knew that, Brown had already started in some areas (my wife was working with one of the country’s biggest local authorities and money was already being cut heavily). Did they cut too far? Retrospectively, yes, it choked off recovery a bit but it looks very sane now compared with 2015 onwards.

The weather can make a huge difference, we tended to be up there in the last two weeks of June which bar last year is normally great weather. Still loads to do if raining, but it needs decent weather to be at its best whereas the Lakes, coast and Cotswolds can get away with it a bit more.

Cumbria 😉

That would go nicely with our third strip. Very fetching.

Agree with all of Hypo, and I have my own issues with their decisions and impact, but we’ve not even seen a full cycle yet. Thatcher took time and if you asked people on the street in late 1979, 1980, they were very angry with the economic course resulting in the 1981 riots.

Exactly this Egg. I voted Lib Dem and no regrets, MP is good and popular locally but I want to see Davey pushing the Single Market far more than he is. But I won’t accept any posts on here saying ‘Labour is in power in now’, or Brexit’s happening because the last 9 years have fucked this country royally to save their own party (failing anyway) and create new ones (Farage, Tice, Lowe). If Lowe’s time at SFC was anything to go by, Reform are like having a headache and decapitating yourself. People will debate 2010-15, 1997-10 and 1979-90 but those were all versions of the UK I recognised and loved. I don’t recognise the current populist shithole the UK and the world is becoming and my grandfathers who fought in WW2 could tell you about the dangers of populism.

Che Adams was so right footed that his left was purely for standing.

They’ve made decisions I wouldn’t have done on employees v employers NI there but weren’t any panaceas. Hunt would have been repealing his own NI cut, plus other tax rises and the Mail’s server would meltdown. We’d all be moaning on here that we couldn’t afford to keep the heating on, renovate/update our houses, it would have been different constituencies getting upset that’s the only differences. We all have to take responsibility for the last 9 years nearly, the country screwed up at the referendum, Labour elected Corbyn, Lib Dem’s Swinson and kept on voting for populism in Farage’s outfits which are as healthy for us economically as a lard pie. Parliament tried to save us from a cliff edge Brexit but the public drove us over it anyway. It’s damaged Europe as well which has been a boon for Putin although he’s shot his load with Ukraine and got inflation of 21%. Then Truss after Boris had made a mess of everything, plus the impacts of Covid. It wasn’t just one tax rise that got us here in summary. The people who voted for Trump are going to see the cost of their essential appliances go through the ceiling. Political parties are a mess and there’s a lack of good leaders on the scene.

We will never know. My sense on the NI issue is they were too worried about the press but it was a better option than the employers route they took. They wouldn’t have chosen either, but then the economy is very different to 1997 where Clarke left it in good shape and we were major players in the EU. Public services were run down but there was time and scope to address in term 2. They aren’t breaking records, that’s hyperbole, but their decisions in some cases wouldn’t have been mine. The government does matter but we’ve made decisions during and since 2016 that have boxed us in and made life a lot more difficult. The levers we could pull before to adjust are reduced. Boris couldn’t do levelling up properly and even then it was too focused on Tory marginals which they lost anyway. I don’t think they are worse than 2016-24 objectively but I wanted them to be much better. If you read the context above on the early Thatcher years that was grim 1979-82 and a lot of their own party, let alone outside, wanted Howe and Thatcher to stop the monetarism and supply side switch, and step in to save steel, shipbuilding etc but they rode it out despite it getting very hairy economically and massive social unrest in cities all across the country.

Yes, they have. But at the moment we’ve all got to hope they pick up and the country picks up. All of these dickhead calls for a GE - it ain’t happening and Badenoch would worsen it further. Have a look at the IFS assessment of Reform’s policies. Not pretty. I think it’ll stabilise if we get tensions reduced in Ukraine and Middle East but that’s a very fragile hope with Trump! But actually substantial growth? Not outside of the Single Market for me, and even the Lib Dem’s are being anaemic on the issue let any of the others.

Yeah, there’d have been a bit of shouty stuff from Hunt and Sunak at the budget statement, but anyone with half a brain knew we couldn’t afford that NI cut and it was sop to the morons in the ERG. Hunt didn’t have much political choice. Labour tied themselves up in knots with the employers/employees distinction and actually it’s dispersed already very low confidence. Let’s be clear - Hypo, Duck and others - the Tories would have been reversing their own NI cut and raising income taxes, winter fuel allowance etc.

The NI Employers cut is not what I’d have done for example - I’d have reversed the employees NI cut as it was unfunded by Hunt - but the black hole couldn’t have been ignored. The economy is not big enough to do what any of the main parties want to do to enable growth - China is another tangent - for me it’s obvious that re-joining the Single Market is the turbo boost needed, and France and Germany could do with the boost as well. Trade deal with the US ain’t likely - the public DO NOT want US insurers tied in with the NHS and their animal welfare standards are woeful on food. Sadly they’ll battle on without wanting to re-open the Brexit Pandora’s Box - but the UK will carry on struggling for growth without it. Where the fuck Tice thinks the headroom is for massive tax cuts are is anyone’s guess. Thatcher only cut them when they could afford it later on.

Nope…one was taking a huge economic experiment to try to keep her and her party in power, putting the country second. Akin to Martin’s playing from the back experiment in the PL this season. The other are people who are taking some decisions any government would find bloody difficult, even if they aren’t the ones I’d have chosen myself. Do you think any Labour government wants to cut departmental budgets by 5-10% on top of 14 years of reductions bar the protected areas. The Tories don’t like doing it despite the rhetoric in opposition but the Left will create hell for Reeves in the CSR. Have a look at Reform’s ‘waste and efficiency’ plans - they are bonkers and typical of people with no practical experience, but they’ll carry on promising everything with no way of finding it post-Single Market like they did during the referendum. Have a look online at the reaction James Callaghan got at their conference in 1976 when they did.

Different circumstances - Truss could see the political winds and tried an IEA Hail Mary which failed spectacularly. What Starmer and Reeves has inherited is the worst post-war. Normally if a Tory government comes in, they get slightly better public services but slightly worse public services from Labour. Reverse that for Labour from Tory. That’s true post-war, the most extreme example since then before this was Callaghan-Thatcher. What people are forgetting but I haven’t is how long that took to turn around. She came in May 1979, doubled VAT having said they wouldn’t, and the economy was struggling even worse than now, steel went to the wall, no Clyde style shipbuilding rescue packages, BL ailing and in huge debt. It wasn’t demonstrably better until the other side of the Falklands. Howe and her monetarist policies to get public debt under control were under huge fire even from most of their own party, especially the ‘wets’. The large tax cutting veteran right wingers wank off about every week in the fucking Telegraph or Mail didn’t happen until 1985 with Nigel Lawson when they could afford it. The stagflation of the 1970s also bears some relation to now. Globally the economy is choppy, Trump doesn’t help with that but the one variable we could change straight away and restore 5-10% of national economic power is the Single Market.

Appreciate what you are saying but given the Cox, Amess and earlier Lib Dem fatal stabbings I just don’t want to see that language. The Navratilova things was amusing with Duck though, as if he’d normally take any notice of someone like that.

The achievements with women’s refuge and safety are considerable and well done to her those. I can’t stand Galloway but it’s still not the right behaviours for public life. Politicians and those with a large public voice like Musk need to be better in the language they use and accuracy/evidence of what they say.

I don’t like Phillips that much either for some of the reasons you’ve identified above, and others, but two wrongs don’t make a right. What Musk said wasnt evidenced whatsoever. Musk ought to do better with the following he has and the extremes some of them will go to (as we see with MAGA) - they both should do better as whilst I can’t stand Corbyn, the comment about him was a disgrace.

Probably wearing a protective boot 👢

Some photos of the Yorkshire dales for anyone who has not been or been for quite a while. Bottom photo has Ingelborough in the distance, which Turkish climbed last year I think.