This is the News!

[JayzusB.Christ]

Of course Starmer's Labour isn't perfect, but it would be hard to imagine a worse UK government than the ones headed by Johnson and Truss, barring of course some kind of dictatorial coup.  Starmer may be quite a bit to the right of Corbyn, but as IP said, the current government is has very little whatsoever to offer beyond far-right populism.

I honestly believe that Starmer is at heart a fairly decent person who has at least some intention of helping the people he might lead.  I'm struggling to see any such people in the Johnson / Truss cabinets. 

And, at the risk of labouring (sorry) the point ad nauseum, I know that it's not my government I'm talking about, but over half of my extended family either are English or live in England, and Truss's outlook on the Good Friday Agreement has the potential of creating very, very serious problems this side of the Irish Sea.  As in large-scale killing and maiming problems.

[Funt Solo]

That isn't me, Kwarteng tells Mirror over wrong image

This is like getting Spike Milligan and Johnny Rotten confused.

Reminds me of a wonderful, road-crash of an interview with Samuel L. Jackson.

[Hawkmumbler]

Alex Jones fucked around and found out.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

the lady says she is for turning.

tories eh? the soap that keeps giving. and taking.

[Funt Solo]

I preferred the previous season, with that mop-haired fop character - getting pissed and then pretending he didn't know what a party was - that was some great television. Of course, nothing can beat the earlier season with the pig-fucker smugly asking the British if they were a nation of insular, backward-minded simpletons that don't understand basic economics and being utterly dumbfounded that the answer was a resounding yes (shouted into the froth of a real ale tankard whilst horse whipping a peasant, or their spouse, or their neighbor, or a French).

This season's shit - it's just repeating last season but with someone who might've got a job as Thatcher's foot-stool in season #1. Remember season #1? When Thatcher stole all the children's milk?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I've seen it compared to the show from which this was originally spun off. The one with the jowly guy* that fought both nazis and alcoholism, but I feel too many people are willing to overlook all the racism and misogyny because of the witty, well written dialogue.

I think you've missed the point of this Truss character Funt,  she's intended to show how no virus** is as deadly as an incompetent public servant.

*that, weirdly enough, sells car insurance in dog form now
**the (quite dull) focus of the last few seasons

[Funt Solo]

*that, weirdly enough, sells car insurance in dog form now

That's made me chortle so much I've come back to read it a second time. Oh yes!

[Funt Solo]

Someone being honest about how they feel being quickly ushered out of the studio...

Miriam Margolyes swears about Jeremy Hunt on BBC Radio 4 – audio


The BBC article about it won't even tell any of the grown-ups the actual words that were said. This has been happening a lot recently - tons of stories where the press don't feel they can actually tell us the words used - just that they were somehow beyond the pale. "Words were used in real life today which shouldn't be used and which we won't repeat - just take our word for it. It was awful. We have reported." Surely, at that point, you just need to not write the article.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

i love miriam margolyes. i'm glad the showrunner got such a fine actor in for the otherwise dark and depressing and pointless season 44 of tory downing drowning street. all the other characters are such clichéd and unbelievable and uniteresting villains.

as things stand, it still looks as if jeremy anatomicalwordbeyondthepale will be making the disabled pay for more fortunate people's tax cuts.

there has never been any transcendence in this particular soap (tho they did tease us in 2017).

[Funt Solo]

jeremy anatomicalwordbeyondthepale

Here's a helpful quote from a Guardian article:

During a debate ... journalist Victoria Derbyshire added herself to a long list of presenters who have inadvertently referred to him as "Jeremy Cunt".

I wonder if that ever happened to King Cnut?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I'm getting the impression that Liz Truss' legacy will be obscure pub quiz facts.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I wonder if that ever happened to King Cnut?

***king Cnut?

[The Legendary Shark]

'King Cnut = a particularly annoying Cnut.

[Funt Solo]

I wonder if that ever happened to King Cnut?

***king Cnut?

Aye - he's the fella who notoriously tried to turn back the tide and was disappointed. (There is another reading of the event where he's not actually expecting the tide to turn and is instead making a point about the limits of Kingship.)

Interestingly, also known as Cnut the Great - so, from some perspectives, he was a great Cnut. It's from when the Vikings pretty much took over England, having made some great sport of Æthelred the Unready (which really means Æthelred the Ill-Advised). Æthelred's son, Edmund Ironside (later famous for a US detective show) dies after a just a few months on the throne and Cnut stepped in, replacing the English line (which had become a bit of a shit-show) with some hard bastards.

Cnut had a daughter, you know! Cunigund.

[The Legendary Shark]

He also tried to ban anagrams.