In my sector (financial services) the days of receiving expensive gifts and hospitality are long gone. Since the Bribery Act most employers have strict rules about not accepting anything other than token gifts.
How could £2.75m taken at a rate of c£700k per year not be noticed?!? An astonishing failure of governance. Obviously PCC wanted this kept quiet but I agree with the judge here.
Apparently my 9 year old daughter MUST have either an Air Up or a Stanley water bottle, otherwise she will not fit in with her classmates and I will be the worst Dad ever...I hadn't heard of either of these products but they both seem very overpriced for what they are.
Badenoch ahead with the membership. Does Jenrick have enough excess votes to "lend" to either Tugendhat or Cleverly to knock her out of second place?
Remembering the optimism in 1997, things can only get better, Cool Britannia etc, I am very surprised the new government is not trying to install a sense of optimism - quite the opposite. Voters are not expecting miracles and understand improvements will take time, so need a more positive message.
Politicians using the phrase “no plans” which is code for “we might do this” is one of the most annoying features of our political system.
I see more green.
Great idea, followed all.
It’s September already! Back to school soon, last year Pokémon card trading was the big thing at daughter no. 1’s school, but this fad burned brightly and was over by Christmas. Wonder what the big thing will be this year?
The guy in the black cap, cool as you like!
He’s the best accumulator of runs we have ever had, perfect temperament and technique for the game. Unfortunately this summer has been underwhelming, test cricket will die with one sided series like these. At this rate it will just be the Ashes.
I doubt they want to hold a referendum yet and without this presumably the EU don’t want to spend the time and effort to negotiate a rejoin. There is stuff they can do now to move closer though, rejoin ing Erasmus & the Customs Union would be a good start.
Just done my twice yearly dance with The Times. They put my subscription back up. I call to cancel. They offer a lower rate. I tell them I still want to cancel. They say are you sure? I say yes. They say OK then we'll reduce it to what you were paying before for 6 more months. I grudgingly accept.
The trouble-shooter here has worked for me in the past - good luck! support.microsoft.com/en-gb/surfac...
Banning smoking in beer gardens? Definitely not a red wall friendly policy...
As Labour won not because of enthusiasm for them but a strong desire to get the Tories out, I guess it is hard for pollsters to capture the full extent of anti-Tory tactical voting.
As Beth Rigby said in the election debate “no plans” means we might do it.
Yes it is the immensity of it all - pretty much unfathomable.
Crypto bots are here! Hope this isn't the start of a slippery slope...
It hurts my brain to think about the speed of light. Light can travel around the earth 7 times a second, and just over a second to get from here to the moon, so it is incredibly quick. In cosmic terms though, it is slow, taking 8 mins to get to the sun and more than 4 yrs to the nearest star.
This is the sort of content I joined Bluesky for :-)
Probably just me, but this Oasis tour has reminded me that I prefer to remember the bands of my youth as they were in their prime. I know they earn next to nothing from streaming services & have lifestyles to maintain so might have to tour, but few bands reinvent themselves over time and stay fresh.
I isn't easy, but there has been chronic underinvestment in our economy for decades. Look at the state of our infrastructure compared with comparable countries. The housebuilding initiative is good, but so much more could be done investing in hospitals, schools, green energy and the rail network.
I agree and more investment in these areas is desperately needed. Using the cake analogy, I hope the government doesn't neglect the need to grow the overall cake, not just the size of the slice they take from it.
Rejoining the EU is not possible at the moment, there is not the political will on either side. Things like Erasmus are an ideal way of moving closer, then perhaps rejoining the customs union and who knows what could follow. This is a very short-sighted decision.
Public services are in a complete mess and I do understand this needs to be resolved, but growth is the answer to get out of this mess. We have been let down enough by our politicians in the past decade, I was hoping this time might be different.
In the General Election campaign Labour's focus on growth made sense to me. The tax burden is already high, with fiscal drag guaranteed to make it higher still. The cuts in capital investment and promises of painful tax increases in the forthcoming budget don't seem to me to be focussing on growth.
I think people would have (grudgingly?) accepted the reversal of the most recent 2p cut in NI and am surprised Labour boxed themselves in on this. Doing this would raise around £9bn per year.
