Renton

The Metro newspaper is informative this morning. 32 advert less pages of the Royal Funeral, not a shred on the news of anything else. Last night R5 decided to repeat the audio of the entire funeral. I hope the grief keeps us all warm this winter. I've never felt any emotion at all about the queen dying, just a feeling of bewilderment and fear that the country can behave like this in a time of crisis. But thinking about it, it does seem quite likely that the queen passing does mark the final end of an age for the UK where we were a prosperous and influential country. Now we are just a pound shop USA with a health service added on. The rot started properly 12 years ago but the end of the Elizabethan age may set a hard marker for this country's decline. Hope I am wrong.

Also there is no way this lunacy will help growth in that time frame. Also doubt this will counteract the effect of our self imposed trade barriers. Don't forget every UK port is effectively a free port for the EU now,with no tariffs applied or any regulation checked. Guess labelling in imperial will put a lot of foreign exporters off though.

It'd be interesting to see the more recent data on this. Since the tories have been in power, our pay has gone down about 30% relative to our EU peers, pretty sure that is accelerating even more now.

It's all becoming clear now. Liz Truss is an activated sleeper unit whose mission is to take down the tory party and the monarchy. She's already taken down the Queen, stage one complete.

A reminder of what we've got to look forward to after the Bank Holiday tomorrow.

Pretty depressing read. It's estimated iby 2024 the average UK family will be less well off than the average Slovenian family. I never regarded Slovenia as a well off place tbh. By 2030, the same stat will be true for Poland apparently. Perhaps in the 2030s there will be a Polish version of Auf Wierdesehen Pet, if any British workers can secure work visas there .....

More a refence to the social media PL referred to. I haven't seen that myself as I don't partake.

I'm finding some of the negativity here surprising tbh. Very early days this season, still inbeaten at SJP, still in the cup, our key attacking players out for recent games. Manager who knows what he is doing tbh. Less than a year since the takeover when we looked relegation certainties. I'm happy enough.

I missed it yesterday which is the principal reason we put in a poor performance and failed to win. Soz. I think we're probably at the early stages of a transitional period, but lack the personnel to pull it off, at least when we have substantive injuries. To progress we need to become a team that dominates possession after years of the opposite, and is effective at this. It's not an easy thing to achieve. We're still a better counter attacking team, hence seemingly better against top opponents, but that isn't sustainable. It's clear Howe is a fantastic motivator and coach to me, getting the best out of the players. But for the next step up we need more quality. There is only so long you can rely on pure effort before things go flat. I hope we strengthen in January and if our owners want a truly competitive Premiership team now is the time for them to spend. We have two steps to navigate, become a genuine contender first, which is the hardest thing to do, and then actually win something. For the latter we really need to go flat out in the cups. I'm confident we will get there eventually.

Well look at all the millions of people the queen has made cry. Perhaps you need to have a word with her.

I love winding thr kids up. Just told them that we couldn't get to London in time so we have to do a simulated queue instead. We have to stand outside in the garden, occasionally walking a few yards in a circle, for 24 hours. Then tomorrow we can watch the BBC coffin streaming channel and cry a bit for 3 minutes, before moving on and getting warmed up My youngest one (always been exceptionally gullible) started crying at this prospect. My eldest just gave me that look which all but says "zip it, dickhead". Hey, what else are Dad's for?

The below anthem is a Borat piss take, but you know what, it's better than ours. At least the anthem is about the country and its people, not about one fucking single person arbitrarily selected to "rule" over it. And potassium is an important industrial chemical.

There's also a verse about crushing rebellious Scots. Also it is a complete dirge. As to antipathy to it, I suspect that as a broad rule the further north you go, the greater the dislike. Also there are some pockets that are more negative, like Liverpool and parts of Glasgow and Belfast, obviously linked to sectarianism. This is not an anthem that unites the nation and mainly for the reasons @Rayvin saya I will never sing it.

Should have saved his feet and queued in his palanquin. He is royalty himself, iirc.

Someone's absolutely desperate for a knighthood.

Leasehold as well. You don't even get to own a piece of England.

As iirc you are employed in this field, are their actually bankers who are so good at their jobs that they are head hunted by top banks? What type of skillset would that be, someone amazing at maths, or perhaps just a consummate bull shitter? I think bonuses should always just be extras, so people aren't incentivised to take reckless levels of risk. 200% seems insane enough to me. Ours is capped at 15%.

My favourite Q. We need to bloody cheer up and be more like this.

Chronologically maybe but you don't know Fish. Was bald at 15 for starters.

Do it Monty Hall style, get a representative pleb to choose a coffin, open a tramp coffin, and ask them if they wants to change their choice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem [For those that haven't heard of this and are interested in maths and probability, this is a genuinely fascinating problem].

And this.

I think sometimes people set up a false dichotomy up for themselves. There is nothing wrong with having tribal loyalties (I think it is hardwired into humans) but have a more global sense of belonging. There was never a contradiction for me in considering myself all of Northumbrian (and NUFC), British, and fiercely European. Call me a citizen of the Milky Way too if you like, it's true, and I will fight thos Andomedan bastards if the need arises. My issue with this cult (and it is a cult) is the deference associated with it. Some of these people must realy lack self-respect. I genuinely do not consider Charles to be my better in any way, shape, or form, and never will. I'm rambling a bit here but point is, the monarchy can get fucked for me.

I agree tbf. Russia destabilising will have a negative global impact in the short term at least, but what can you do when they're the author of their own demise. Imagine a country having territory from St Petersberg to Vladivostok wanting even more territory, it's mad.