sadoldgit

Plenty of time for that I’m sure. Such a shame that Johnson is not the Labour leader. Just think what dirt the press could through his way.

The Sun has taken to preceding Keir Starmer with “millionaire barrister.” Not sure what that has got to do with anything. Perhaps they should also precede Boris Johnson with “serial adulterer and congenital liar” just to balance things up?

I am not sore that UC would not pay our mortgage. I am sore that my wife, who had worked all her life, got no financial support after all of the years of paying NI contributions, and was given no support in a system that is supposed to be there for you if you are looking for work. Perhaps if you had to use the system yourself you might understand. Better still, watch the film I, Daniel Blake. It is spot on. Instead of taking cheap shots at me, perhaps you should address the problem we have with poverty in general in the country? 5th largest economy but you wouldn’t know it. You don’t believe the official figures about child poverty? You might not have seen people sleeping rough where you live but you must have seen the foodbanks in your supermarket? Perhaps you think that it is all a conspiracy theory?

I remember a lot of anger over the non signing of Promes. It would be a lot easier just to say they are working hard to bring a player or two in rather than actually put a name out there. As soon as a player is named, the expectations become so much higher. We also hear a few years down the line of players we were genuinely interested in signing and the reasons that they didn’t come. It is better for your nerves if you believe a player is sold when he signs for another club and a player is signing when he actually signs on. Everything else is just bull**** until the ink is dry on the contract. We all read the transfer rumours, how many of them actually happen?

Given that the reason we have these issues at the moment is down to the very people who are now saying they are going to do something about it, it does leave me feeling somewhat sceptical. Especially as the current PM is a congenital liar and is completely untrustworthy. Let’s see what happens shall we. I am not holding my breath as we have already had a number of u turns already.

When the food banks disappear, when people are no longer sleeping on the streets, when child poverty is irradicated, when the Universal Credit system is fit for purpose, perhaps then they can talk about “One Nation” with a level of sincerity.

Is there no escaping you Wes? As for the One Nation claptrap, sounds like you have swallowed that hook, line and sinker.

I can see why the club might want to put out misinformation about a transfer target whilst pursuing others in order to put other clubs off the scent. I can see no benefit for the club to say they are trying to sign players when they are not. All that does is wind up the fan base even more.

We hear that the next Labour leader should be a woman and/or a northerner. Surely the next Labour leader should be the person most likely to get them elected? Out of the current candidates, for me the front runner is Starmer. What he lacks in charisma he makes up for with gravitas and is a polar opposite of Johnson. As a former QC he will give Johnson a hard time at the dispatch box. Having sat in a couple of meetings with him when he was the DPP I was impressed with the way he asked questions and actually listened to the answers. Other DPPs just turned up and spoke at you. Starmer has the clout and intelligence to turn Labour around. Whether he gets the chance remains to be seen. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a watered down version of Corbyn end up in the hot seat but more of the same will do them no favours. This country has always been conservative (with a small c) and the new leader will not only have to win over middle England, they will also have to win back the disaffected long standing Labour voters who have defected to Johnson. No easy task. The new leader will have to be flexible, dogma will not cut it. Get it right and they have a reasonable chance of turning the last nightmare around at the next election. Make the wrong choice and it is hard to see Labour forming a government for years to come.

I think the mistake we made was thinking that the next level would be higher.

Sport is about competing and ideally winning, entertainment is a side product that comes as a bonus. Yes the standard of football wasn’t great, but who wouldn’t take that to get through to the next round?

It looked like an under 23 match for the most part and we rarely bothered to get out of second gear. Through to the next round. Clean sheet. Two youngsters get on the score sheet with well taken goals. Happy with that.

Did they used to break into song every 10 minutes in the original Oliver Twist? If Dickens was in his prime and writing now I expect he would use the language we use now although I am sure that the criminal classes swore just as much then as they do now.What were considered profanities have now passed into common use. Given the darkness of many of his works I suspect he would have preferred the Knight version of Christmas Carol over the Muppet version. Still, there are plenty to chose from that cater for all tastes. It would be a pointless exercise to copy the original verbatim for every remake.

Lady boy

I thought Knight’s version of A Christmas Carol was excellent. There are plenty of soft versions so we really don’t need another. This has a real bite to it. I think that Dickens would have approved. The final episode of Dracula lost its sense of humour and didn’t live up to the quality of the previous two, but overall another decent retailing of an old classic.

Not much of a spoiler now as it has been all over some of the newspapers. Van Helsing is a woman in this adaptation. I thought it was the first time the character had been female but is seems not as it was done before in a SkyFi series. As you were. Having said that, she is the best thing in it as a wisecracking nun.

I suppose at least your terminology in this post is in context. I agree that it is a good watch and it makes a change for the story to be told from Keeler’s perspective. I was 9 when it all kicked off and remember the media kicking off big time. Interesting to see the story fleshed out. I wonder if Boris Johnson has been recording it whilst away sunning himself?

Nothing to do with Dracula himself but I won’t spoil it for those who have yet to watch it. Don’t get too excited though as it is no big deal. Second episode tonight took a different turn, more of a who dun it, and the preview of the finale tomorrow was a real curve ball.

Perhaps you should watch it before you form an opinion?

The Moffat/Gatiss version of Dracula started last night and very good it is too. A nice mixture of horror and comedy and a twist in casting too for the”woke” generation.

Happy holidays!

They are based around Pagan ceremonies that have been hijacked by Christian doctrine. I have been to several wedding in the last 12 months, only one was in a church and neither the bride nor groom were believers. Most were in barns. I got married on a beach the first time and in a barn the lady time. I haven’t been to a burial for ages. Mostly they are cremations with the ashes spread elsewhere. Most of the services attended have been humanist. Television used to feature church programmes but you would be hard pressed to find anything remotely religious on tv now. I can take to to a number of homes that used to be chapels. Our local church shares its vicar with 6 others and the services are done on a rota basis as the congregations are so small. It may technically be a Christian country but let’s not pretend that the church plays an important part in our lives anymore. When it does it is just a community thing rather than a religious thing.

I had a poltergeist experience back in the 90’s. My stepdaughter has just reached puberty and for several days in a row bayonet fixing bulbs popped out of a chandelier and smashed on the floor. A picture fell off of her wall and a glass fell off of a shelf in the hall and smashed. This all happened in the middle of the night. This lasted for about 4 nights in a row and didn’t happen again. Paranormal activity is nothing to do with God/religion.

As like most people of my generation I was spoon feed religion as a child. In my case it was the Protestant version of Christianity. When I started think think for myself it made no logical sense to me so I bailed out. A few years ago I dabbled in spirituality, not the God type but the universe type. It made more sense than the organised religion stuff but in the end it still makes more sense to deal with what we can sense in there here and now. Focus your engery into what is good for you and those around you and you can’t go far wrong. Over the years I have dated some religious believers including a Mormon, a lapsed Jehovah’s Witness and a Born Again Christian. We didn’t used to talk about religion much, but when we did and I asked them why they believed that all said that they “just did.” There was no hard evidence, just blind faith. At first I used to feel left out. Why could they feel God within them and I couldn’t? What was wrong with me? After a while I began wondering whether the feeling of finding God within you was more to do with a sense of relief of finding a sense of order in a world and universe where consciousness and being make no logical sense whatsoever. The way that mankind has made sense of the universe since we crawled out of the swamps is to believe is some intelligent power bigger than us. Some religions have multiple dieties and some just the one. Many have been ditched over the centuries in favour of just one, although that one often differs or has interacted with us in ways that we completely disagree with each other about. Is is very hard for a non believer to take religion seriously when it is at such odds with itself here on Earth. Believers cannot agree between themselves about what the written words mean and how they should be interpreted. People are still being persecuted and put to death because they a different perception of God and what needs to be done to serve Him/Her/It. I would argue that an all powerful diety has long since served its purpose. We don’t need a vengeful God to keep us in our place. We already have the power to destroy the planet many times over. We are destroying the planet ourselves anyway by the way we have chosen to live. Surely it is better to stop passing off responsibility for our failings by bringing in some supernatural being and just deal with what we actually know to be 100% true, which is our lives in the here and now. When I hear the words “it is Gods will” all I can think is what a kop out. A complete denial of our own responsibility as individuals and as a species. We are all God and we all stand or fall by what we do here on Earth.

Yep, all sound good!