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Quite possibly lockdown has played a part, as have the regular tourney's.  Some of the spam was 'interesting' to say the least.     Glad that's died away though.

Maybe it's just perceptual but it does feel like the forum is moderated with a light but consistent touch.  Comments and threads are more self-moderated / collectively moderated than officially moderated? 

It makes for a far more civilised place though.  I would also say that it means that we actually have more space and freedom to say all we otherwise would.  There's little risk of sparking abuse and derision, thinking is legitimately challenged rather than simply attacked.

As you say, place is doing nicely right now.

[won't]

And with Labour and the Lib Dems shifting to cowardly "tell us what we need to do for you to vote for us" mode, it's hard to see how the opposition can hope to win in 2024.

Aye, Labour seriously need to sort their lives out.  Liberals as a credible option?  I doubt it, not after Clegg.  The Greens?  ...

Nope.  British politicians have so much to answer for with this.  I think you really have hit the nail on the head though.  They're way too concerned about getting and keeping support and not concerned enough about hard choices and doing the job they're paid for.  For me that pretty much guarantees that I won't vote for the buggers.

Johnson has all but guaranteed that this issue is going to run and run, either side of the Irish sea.  3 hours to debate a bill of such massive importance?  After a similar number of days to scrutinise the text?  How do you reach any conclusion at all?

No, Johnson deliberately ran down the clock knowing that nobody was willing to risk the UK shifting to WTO terms, a land border in Ireland, the ire of the Americans and any number of issues that would result from a failure to conclude some sort of agreement.  The only problem is that as the reality of this deal emerges there will be a drip of revelations to keep the issue open like a festering wound.

He may well believe that he has outmanoeuvred his opponents.  I think the truth is that it is he himself that has been manipulated.  He has been set up as the perfect fool, willing and eager to take on the mantle of 'leader' at this time. 

I'm also now starting to become incredibly suspicious of Cummings' very public departure several weeks ago.  Was it designed to give him the excuse that he was not there for the final days of negotiations?  If his rumoured involvement in the 2024 campaign is to be believed has he bolted to give himself the veneer of innocence when the matter of Johnson's deal comes up?

Maybe that latter is tin-foil-hattery.  Then again I sometimes fear that I am nowhere near cynical enough for British politics these days.

I'm a monthly subscriber.  The last month was downright bizarre.  No prog for three weeks then all turned up on pretty much the same day.  Unfortunately just after the subs department had asked about them and then said they would put replacements in the post.

So it looks more like the posties are the problem than the subs department.  As for Smiths (which is pretty much the only local newsagent left round here), they've been pretty consistent with progs, specials and megs.  I've been picking up the specials because a) I wanted to cherry-pick this year as there were too many that I didn't have any interest in and b) I want to encourage them to stock the specials for casual readers.

Post does seem too be getting back to normal now that the Christmas / Covid chaos is dying down.

The more I think about the new trilogy films the less impressed I find myself.  There is just so much that really does not make sense.  The middle film is the most peculiar one, right from the word go.  Don't get me wrong, the space bombers are impressively designed but they just don't make sense.

First off, they move incredibly slowly.  Why?  It just makes them so much easier to hit (which strangely is what happens!)  Then .... they 'drop' bombs ... in space ...  Seriously?  Who came up with that idea?  Could we explain the gaping flaw here?  I mean, when it comes to space 'suspension of disbelief' takes on a whole new meaning here.  Not to mention the old ... they fall really slowly ... easy to hit ... problem.

Then the whole of the rebellion fits in a single spaceship.  Sorry .... try that again .... the 'whole' of the rebellion?  They're chased by a massive armada but now they're down to this single ship ... okay?

Don't get me wrong, Star Wars is supposed to be about as realistic as a promise by Alexander Johnson.  I get that.  But at the same time I really have to wonder if the people in the script pitching meeting were even listening to themselves speak, never mind each other.  More to the point, if that is the sort of lame thinking that qualifies for international cinema script-writing these days then I've got a remedial English class that could do with some work ... (actually reading that last bit back I realise how insulting that is to those English students).

Well, it has been an 'interesting' year to say the least.  Even so, here's wishing everyone the best of the season.

Merry Christmas folks!

Our Smiths has copies of 2211 and 2212 (or at least it did today).  If anyone wants me to see if they are still there when they're open next and grab copies then please let me know.

TBH my memories of telly growing up are quite weird.  Earliest memories are of Iranian television which ran Star Trek alongside a slightly out of sync BBC World Service English translation.  We had one at Northwood in the late seventies when Dad wanted to watch either the Olympics or Commonwealth Games.  Gave us the chance to see Blakes 7 and Bakers Doctor Who along with re-runs of Space 1999 (heady days!).

We had a little b&w portable out in Germany that only picked up the American Armed Forces Network.  On the plus side it meant a chance to see some of the US stuff that rarely got to the UK.  For some reason Dad had trained as a projectionist and he was responsible for the films in the Brit club in our block of flats, along with picking the films too!

I think the weirdest recollection though has to be the regional variations that could result in some interesting experiments with aerials.  If you lived in the right place and angled your aerial right you could sometimes pick up signals from other ITV regions.  So some of the programming variations could result in a lot of twisting and flexing of coat hanger aerials!

So who, then, are they believing? It appears to literally be 'something my mate Dave saw on YouTube'.

This is where the likes of NewsThump are terrifyingly accurate in their satire.  Some of their articles hit the nail on the head so hard it goes right through the wood!  Couple of examples;

Scientists urged to seek advice on new Covid strain from bloke off Twitter

'I'm not letting a vaccine alter my DNA' insists 3rd generation criminal with family history of depression and coronary heart disease

I don't trust that vaccine, insists man whose last line of blow was cut with cattle dewormer

University of Life's Epidemiology class of 2020 leaps into action

Then you have politicians like Priti Patel telling the nation that the government has been "ahead of the curve" throughout the pandemic.

So I guess I can see why people are responding as they do! 

At this point, you do wonder what's required for even fairly moderate English Tories to switch to Labour or the Lib Dems en masse. "Johnson yesterday accidentally nuked Bristol." "We can't blame him—it's really tough being Prime Minister.

To be fair if he decided to nuke Suffolk he would have my vote!

Gottaa be one of the[spoiler] Button Man[/spoiler] books, not sure which one though

Surely the length of the title is a giveaway?  There would be more to it if it was any other than the 'obvious'.

I'd have to agree with [spoiler]Button Man [/spoiler]

And the government wonders why this is spreading so fast in schools.

Leaving aside the fact that in comps it is impossible to socially distance in any meaningful sense in school and that no one is enforcing it the moment kids pass the school gates, trying to keep classes ventilated is a nightmare as you're fighting school management who don't want kids wearing coats in class on one hand and kids who are freezing on the other.

Mind you, the government is adamant that schools are not significant transmission vectors for this.  The same government that didn't believe in asymptomatic transmission not that long back.  Go figure!

Welsh Assembly has libraries down for "click and collect" only, same as non-essential retail.  Similar in England?  TBH I can see the logic there.  For some folks library services are a life-line.

My father had a pace-maker fitted back in the summer (well, he is nearly 80!).  Mam wanted to meet up at the start of December to exchange presents.  We knocked that on the head with the climbing infections in these parts.  In the last few weeks of term literally every student in school has had to isolate because of cases within each year group.  My daughter was sent home the last day for the same reason.  She ends isolation today.  No way am I chancing getting anywhere near my father under these circumstances.

What is even more infuriating is when you suddenly realise that PHE flagged this mutation five days ago and Hancock even mentioned it in the HOC.  BBC reported on it but hardly anyone paid attention because of where it  was buried.  It's also worth noting that it would have taken PHE time to pick up on the trend from the data so this would have been going on for weeks now.  Just think of all of those lovely pictures of p***-heads in London. 

I've spent a bit of time reading Hansard and some of the crap Johnson has been spouting as well as how Starmer has been discussing measures.  I would say 'ironically' today's news is no surprise but it is just one more thing to p*** everyone off with.  He was calling Johnson out for dithering again and for more robust measures.  How many lives will now be lost because of that?

I'd have to check dates but I'd put Gibson's "Idoru" ahead of Sin / Dex on that score ...

They're probably over-compensating for having moved away.

Thing is, she's the only one that was born in the East End.  The rest are all too young!