Rob Blundell

I generally agree with Dan Neidle that stamp duty is a nutty anachronism that is harmful.

But it is lucrative so can't just be killed off easily.

And promising to get rid of it still won't win this voter.

Lemon topped for the occasion

Tomorrow I am very excited to report that I am going to Redcar for a work meeting.

I'd say that they don't understand anything where there isn't a factory and a big lump of product at the end - but these types LOVE the financial markets for making money even though they have an even looser grasp on how that really works.

I think they know there is money there, but they sort of assume 99% of it goes to Simon Cowell or Lineker and the rest are just struggling luvvies who do it for the love of it and work in Costa at weekends.

Bagsy "Lord Protector"

I'm sure there is a long form essay out there that analyses it, but you are quite right that the Arts really show up in sharp relief the consequences of loss of Soft Power.

See also the pointy end of it: BBC World Service, DFID, etc, etc.

They just don't get it do they? How can they not see value?

wooo-hooo-oooo-ooooo....

I fear that flight has already left the gate.

It's why they got in a froth over Truss - she was ostensibly going to do all painful steps at once, and hang the counter-intuitive aspects ("people will love this in the long term").

The obfuscation of the above approach though means that people with daft ideas also say the same thing.

The thinking is:
Man in street can't understand "complicated policy" so political party simplifies message to get it through. Also it needs to actually tell people something counter-intuitive that they won't vote for.
But the complication means that the policy only works if you do all steps.

Depiction of a struggle session. The sign being attributed to the person being denounced reads "我承認演示軟體很糟糕"

I'll let you off then. But only because you denounce PowerPoint

Makes my eye twitch to know the first person to use these templates will inevitably edit and format without using my beautiful Styles!

Never! Damn those Excel wierdos (also known as accountants) and their calculating voodoo!

I'm unashamedly a Word devotee - and yesterday sorted six template documents for a client with harmonised Styles, cross-referencing and lots of Tables.

My sister reports that her actual gym* downstairs from her office still has Apparatus (the proper old wooden rung stuff, not this gaudy modernity).

(*it is in Italy before you get too excited)

The time of year that I get outta town!

(TBF they haven't done it officially for quite some time, but it never stopped the few oddbods turning up each year)

You should try Pickering this weekend. They're actively dressing it up like the 1940s!

As a school governor in Kevin's constituency the (admittedly minor) issues we have with racism in schools are largely due to kids having nigh on zero experience of other races.

Fair enough. They did an extensive riff on how the system only gives negative news, how the planning regime actively avoids positive comments, etc

Thoroughly depressing tbh

Been listening to The Abundance Podcast?

"More an observation than a question..."

A good read.

Depressed now though.

Boris Johnson destroyed the Tories. An old Etonian, Bullingdon Club member, Oxford twerp, destroyed The Conservative Party. The party of Peel, Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher. Now obsolete and irrelevant. Replaced by an alcoholic cosplay Hitler with bad teeth and his seething swarm of racists.

Yep. I went to Tivat and thought it reminded me strongly of Jumeirah beach in Dubai - then I saw that it was built by the same money...
Lots of Russians - but then I think it is the only place where I have also seen car reg plates from 27 EU states.

"No Dmitri, not that Lizzi Collinge! This one is surely an Archbishop as it says "Her Grace" - go check Debretts!"

What no honorifics?

You'll be livid when I tell you about Dexter Fletcher.

Just looked it up and there are currently 16 past prime ministers of France still living, double the number in the UK, and given their predilection for appointing senior types to the role (Attal aside, 52+) this is not a great state of affairs.

(They aren't numerous because they were so young)

Watched it for the fourth time this weekend. Still crying at Sheila's lemonade.