Not in Crawley

Fucking hell - I know this bloke who headed up the Co-Op - Gary Roden, used to GM some theatres before moving to TicketMaster. He has always been utterly useless - TM collegues used to joke about him, the team at Edinburgh just used to by-pass him for decisions as did I - couldn't even get FoH signage up in time. How he was overpromoted to this gig is anyone's guess. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/26/head-of-co-op-live-arena-quits-amid-opening-week-chaos-manchester

Same problem as everyone else in similar situations - we spend so much on rent we can't save for a deposit - vicious circle. The problem is I'm slightly older than the milleninals in that situation because I had to start again after the divorce and moving every 5 years becomes exhausting and expensive. Anyway, gone back saying we're happy to stay whilst the works go ahead or we'll need a min of 6 months as we'll probably look to move further into kent and get more for our money now we don't have to be in London everyday of the week. I mean given how much money we've given them over the past 6 years I don't think that's too much to ask.

The kitchen needs redoing because it needs a new floor (a pipe burst 3 years ago and the kitchen flooded, because it chipboard laid over joists it just soaked the water up and we've been saying for years can e get this looked at) He doesn't want any tenet in whilst that happens. We believe it's an excuse to get us out and either sell or raise the rent. The issue is the 2 months, we were on a year long contract before covid and have been asking for 2 years to be put back on but deafening silence. We need more time to sort out what we're doing and where we need to go. We have been talking for a while about going to Folkestone as we're not in London everyday but that's not a quick decision and over nearly a decade in this area we've built up a life as well.

Well here's a bit of front line politics for folks. So we've been complaining to our Landlord about our kitchen floor as 5 years ago a pipe busted. Monday finally somone came round. Email at 6pm - you have 2 months to leave. We've lived here for 6 years. We want to gut the house and we don't want anyone living there. We pay 2.3k a month. No wonder the Labour Party want to stop this eviction for families.

That's true - anything else is a fad.

Gonzos chap is bang on - the whole cardio, gym at a certain time really works.

Mount etc al could do with listening to this and then maybe bring the book https://open.spotify.com/episode/0EYmQ508x3v8xdhKcK9KcP?si=WMxUFn50T_6BHJ-nxOAOQg

He won't.

Gala nights always get a bit boring.

Ditto and we finally agree on something. 🥰

I don't think anyone is, this small little sample shows there are some already very giddy kippers waiting to jump up and down. Oh and your slightly revisionist reading of GB tenure is quite something. Anyway - I'm afraid i'll have to leave you to it as im out out tonight. 😘

The body is moving but there is little sign of life.

The issue is Bolty thinks the 'working classes' are only represented by those akin to the St Georges Day event. Its a way of trying to discredit Starmer used by those on the far right - same as the Londonistan trope - I swear he's either a bot or else gets this alt right messages directly pumped into his head without critical reasoning or rationality (what am I saying, of course he does) They have a range of target seats - the skill is to make sure the message is palatable for the shires and the red wall.

Its ok Bolts, you can come out anytime you want, its 2024.

They are already jumping with joy - they get the snipe at the sidelines knowing the horses they back turned to shit. That will all be forgotten though if Labour win. Nothing if not consistently dim/sexist/hypocritical is our Bolty at least.

Kind of, but I sense its something different at the moment. We've been through the western libreal consensus which was progressive and did work for many but if you weren't in larger cities and educated up to a certain level the more traditional blue-collar roles started to die off as internationalism became a main driver and therefore communities across the world have been left to die of the vine. Which you then see a growth of the Populist - or demagogic - leaders - Trump, Johnson, Le Penn, Putin actually saying they are the ones that listen and their row back on all the changes they don't like - most of which are progressive but basically come down to economics. The liberal centre became arrogant to think who wouldn't like all the changes but its happened too rapidly for some and they are still floundering in the wake of that change. Its also by 'Woke' can stand for anything, its basically short hand for Libral Centerism (hence why the far left also do well in these conditions - see Corybn)

To be fair, I know they are easily mocked but it does relate to a bigger issue, in the fact that there is a section of society just don't feel listened to - thats what Brexit did. I'm not saying we have to pander to these views but we/society/our leaders should do more to make them feel as though they had a voice because they feel society has left them behind and they live in places that also have been left behind. Self-inflicted damage like Brexit doesn't really matter when you don't have much to lose in the first place.

Becasuse - as I say, the later missions wouldn't have made sense without explaining the supoport they got and where it came from. It would have been stranger to ignore it in my humble opinion.

They had to show how the bomber squadrons started to be able to go deeper into enemy territory, otherwise some of the missions wouldn't have made any sense.

Why? It's an important part of the story - without those fighters the bombers couldn't have gone as far into Europe - they were a huge part of the success of taking control of the skies in WW2.

There's a film called Red Tails about the Tuskegee Airmen - it's not very good though.

I dunno - its just not, and never has been, part of our culture because of Britain and us being the dominate country in what is the United Kingdom. I personally don't, and never have felt the need to do anything on St George's day and I'm pretty sure that won't change through my lifetime. When my kids were are primary school they always did something for St George's day - same for St David's, St Andrews and St Patrick's Unfortunately the st George's Cross has once again become an emblem of right wing bigots - shame as I thought that had changed in the mid 90s. But again, all this goes back to England trying to find its place in a post Empire, post Brexit world. I'm pretty sure in 20 years when the next generation is starting to be in charge, the boomers have mostly died and Gen X retired or approaching retirement then things will shift.

I'm not sure anyone on this forum is defending the behaviour of some people today. However, it does show the schism around nationality and what we believe that to be. I'm English, yeah my great nana (who served in the Flying Shuttle in the 60s when it was a decent pub) was from the east end of Glasgow like many who moved for work. But my sense of nationality isn't defined by a flag its some other, its a culture I was born and raised into. Its in humour, and music and slate grey skies, it's in acceptance and in involvement and pride that I was lucky enough to be born I a country where I have free education, free healthcare and freedom of speech, that was built on some historically dubious premises but still I'm 2024 I'm benefitting from.

Well that's the point isn't it - is it OK to say, innocent people will die because of a war when they might not have to - because we aren't not fighting against a regime that directly want stop freedom bit for a political gain?

Really, sorry, don't know anything about that. Again all those stories, those lives that war takes. It's like I was in Lewisham the other day, there is a small plaque I was interested in seeing (after we went to a posh food market obviously) where the first V12 bomb landed in Britain. Killed just people going to Woolworths - it made no difference to the war and innocent people died. Echos something of the Gaza conflict.