OneGuyFromBarlick

From the commendable John Crace sketch in The Guardian today. -

Nothing shouts “Don’t panic! Don’t panic” more than a hastily arranged speech from the prime minister outside No 10 at 5.45pm on a Friday. Still, on the plus side, those who chose to carry on watching Pointless on BBC One won’t have missed a thing. It would have been hard to tell the two apart.

Rishi Sunak is the politician’s anti-politician. If he ever came close to a real politician, he might dissolve on contact. Just as well there are so few of them in his cabinet. You could almost call it a talent – the unerring ability to do the wrong thing. To strike the wrong tone. To misjudge the situation. Every time you think things couldn’t get any worse, Rish! appears to say: “Hold my Coke.”

Mr Crace is spot on David. Sunak doesn't understand the difference between dissent and 'extremism' whatever that is.....

The new Dundee-born Rochdale MP George Galloway famously asked the late Scottish leader Donald Dewar why people took an 'instant' dislike to him. The droll Dewar replied: 'Because it saves time, George.'

I first heard that when (In the TV series M.A.S.H.) Winchester asked Hawkeye that and got the same reply.

Probably originally by the Marks brothers I would reckon, they were pretty hot on that in M.A.S.H as well as with Hotlips.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch". Free Iftar

Can there be a connection with Stanley's recent and rather personal observation -

"Not for the first time it struck me that David is one of the most rotund people I have ever come across! "

They slipped that past me without me noticing David! What a practical custom, I hope those who were genuinely hungry got to know about it......

The chancellor has praised a Tory MP for apologising after he admitted he gave other MPs' personal phone numbers to someone on a dating app. Jeremy Hunt said William Wragg had been "courageous" in telling the Times he was sorry for the "hurt" he had caused.

Any suggestions for adjectives other than "courageous"?

Swap Out for Cou and outrageous might do the job

I agree with Peter. What struck me about Hunt's opinion was that it was one member of the Club defending another. Would you want to know that your MP was sending compromising images of himself to some anonymous address off the web? And then compromising other members of the club to save his own skin? Is that courageous in Hunt's world?

Just hear this attributed to an anonymous EU Prime Minister.
"We all know how to tackle the financial problems we face. Problem is getting re-elected after!"

Rod Liddle says today - after the 'shock' resignation of Tory MP for Fylde, Mark Menzies

“My favourite fact about Mark is a testament to the wit and intelligence of our governing party. Ten years ago Menzies was accused of attempting to procure drugs from a teenage Brazilian rent boy. He immediately quit his ministerial position — and what did the party do then? It made him the government trade envoy to Colombia and Peru. Fill your boots, then. Do the Tories not understand how difficult it is to write satire when they do stuff like that?”

Lovely!
(I see he has quit the Tories. That was news to me.)

The Guardian -

The Home Office will launch a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday, weeks earlier than expected, in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda, Thursday's local elections, the Guardian can reveal.

I think they will be regarding Thursday with a certain degree of perturbation.

I just found this in Angus Bethune Reach's (great name !) book. The Middleton chapter was transcribed by Stanley a while ago, and featured on the site. Then I found the full book can be bought on Abebooks for the usual price of a cup of coffee - so naturally it's on its way.


" Teetotallers here? Aye, there be a few on 'em; but we're all very moderate.”
“We wouldn't be so very moderate if we could afford a little drink better,” said the second weaver.

In those days and also when I was younger here in Barlick, it wasn't unknown for men (it was always men) to 'Strike t'rant'. which meant they drank for a couple of days non stop. They only stopped when they collapsed or the money ran out. In other parts of the world the same thing was 'A Bender'.

Yesterday Grant Shapps told MPs the government had reason to believe the MOD hack "was the suspected work of a malign actor" - and the BBC understands that ministers suspect China was responsible
Now let's see..... Remind me, how much are we paying this jerk to spout bleeding obvious drivel like that?