Trivial things you don't understand/mildly annoy you

[horlock07]

That was my point, it is a very different experience.  The Country is essentially designed for car travel.

Whereas up here to Dover and back includes getting round/through both Birmingham and London.... twice!

[horlock07]

This whole case is just plain odd, intrigued to know what the possible motive for doing it was, its not like they are kids...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt

[4D]

Some people like to cause outrage. Some people are just scummy.

[Batch]

Yeah it's fucking stupid.

Pissed/drug fuelled "flex". Stupid bet. Who knows.

[Honkytonk]

I was in a pub a few years back now up that way, and there were a couple of arseholes who looked very similar to these fuckers doing coke in the toilets, who then sped off in a range rover. I happened to chat to the barman later (he thought my accent was funny, and we ended up comparing breweries) and asked him about them and he said nearly every pub in the area knew about them as arseholes but other than barring them on occasion for being rude entitled pricks they were just part of the local colour.

I'm not saying it was them, but...

I'm not normally ones for show trials but I hope they get the book thrown at them, what an entitled and selfish act that has made them universally loathed.

I do hope Tim Foxall gets to make some spatulas out of that tree mind, I've got half a dozen in my kitchen hanging, he's a glorious eccentric.

[horlock07]

Looking at the case unfolding it looks like we could be heading for a rats fighting in a bag situation between the defendants, which could be interesting/amusing.

[Bob's Orange]

Just giving the new Stereophonics album a whirl, and it has 8 songs and a running time less than 30 minutes. When I was buying CDs more regularly in the 1990s, aside from Green Day, most albums would have a run time of at least 45 minutes or so.

Have bands stop bothering these days?

[Honkytonk]

Just giving the new Stereophonics album a whirl, and it has 8 songs and a running time less than 30 minutes. When I was buying CDs more regularly in the 1990s, aside from Green Day, most albums would have a run time of at least 45 minutes or so.

Have bands stop bothering these days?

'twas always thus.

First album? "Yeah!! We've got a decade of bandwork to call on, 12 tracks easy!!"

Second album? "Yeah, okay that's fine we'll lock ourselves away somewhere and knock out 10 songs in a year"

Third album? "Well we've got the tour schedule to keep up and then x and y have had kids so can't do as many sessions... We'll work it out"

BAND BREAKS UP

BAND REFORMS

Fourth Album? "Fuck it this'll do, anything to get back on the road and make some money"

[adje]

Have bands stop bothering these days?

Too busy endorsing onyx and gold coloured splattered vinyl of old songs  for "record store day"that originally weren't good enough to be recorded. Probably

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

The Cures new album only had 8 tracks but it's probably longer than most 12 track albums 😂

[Audrey]

Looks like Trump-lite, Farage and Reform are giving the traditional Big 2 a right drilling at the local elections. I know council elections are seen as a mild way of giving off a good kicking but it should be a wake up call to get to grips with the unsustainable illegal immigration.

[horlock07]

Looks like Trump-lite, Farage and Reform are giving the traditional Big 2 a right drilling at the local elections. I know council elections are seen as a mild way of giving off a good kicking but it should be a wake up call to get to grips with the unsustainable illegal immigration.

Can't comment on the locals, but reading what the local journo's have been saying about the Runcorn by-election its has fuck all to do with immigration and everything with people being generally pissed off with Labours Tory continuation/diet Reform policies (Labour voters) and just given up on the Tories (Former Tory voters), the one strange thing is how poorly the Greens and LD's have done in places suggesting that much of the left wing vote has just stayed at home, not seen it but suspect the turn out was pretty abysmal.

Broadly reflected in this Ian Dunt piece https://iandunt.substack.com/p/election-results-none-of-this-really.

In terms of going forward, Labour should possibly start by learning the lesson that the right wing voters that Labour was trying to appeal to voted for a right wing party anyway and left wing voters decided not to vote for Labour because they’re too right wing now? Who could have possibly predicted this. People voted for hope and change in July 2024 what has emerged has basically been some sort of Reform/Tory lite continuation, albeit to be fair I still suspect that a large part of their problem boils down to where they are achieving things in policy terms which has the scope to make things better its very dry* boring stuff which is not media friendly and you really have to dig down to find it plus they are facing an almost 100% hostile media which chooses what is and isn't actually reported, with the BBC following behind like a loyal poodle. https://www.theguardian.com/comment...platforming-right-bbc-undermines-own-survival

* Speaking of my area of expertise some of the planning stuff really is biting already to get housing supply up (but will be viewed as a negative by most of the media who are obsessed with (and therefore made sure their readership is obsessed with) prices only going up, plus some of the stuff planned and being done with the NHS is already getting waiting times down.

Another lesson they should possibly look at is what has happened to the Tory Party whilst it has been desperately trying to ape Reform, unless something changes the Tories are looking like a busted flush TBH, Badenoch seems to be trying to some sort of Farage clone, but he is so much better at the nuts and bolts of it.

As for Reform, not sure how much anything can be taken as indication of a general election a fair few years down the line, locals always emphasise a protest vote and TBH considering their performance in parliament to date anything that shines light on how Reform actually perform when they have to do things and not just protest is possibly going to be their detriment longer term.

[ron dodgers]

Reform getting control of lots of councils could be fun. This DOGE efficiecny thing worries me a bit, insulting all your workers has not got a good history in theis country.
Good luck

[RobertT]

if the Right Wing parties truly continue to split their vote, you could be in for some interesting times at elections.  Parties with barely 30% could end up in power, more so than the way the last one ended up.  I like the idea of PR, and that would be really messy the way things are going, which could be fun.

[Qunk]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8074n5z597o

This is the least I’ve actually cared about a story since that woman got trapped in an alley by a mattress.