beefybake

Yes, it's such a mystery how they manage to make £Bilions of profits.........

In my area, £20 is the max I've been quoted. I gave that a miss, and went for the £12.50 quote from another place. Next time, it had gone up to £15. Last time, it was back down to £12.50. Phone around. And for 6 tyres, I'd go for the haggle. My embarrassment threshold is usually around 10% in a face to face encounter.

Any of the above telling you that it's long past time to leave .... ?

Serbia is basically an unreconstructed rather nasty country, where underlying attitudes are little changed from when they were committing genocide at Srebenica in the 1990's. The ongoing support in Serbia for all of that, and it's associated war criminal leaders is very much the reason why people like Mladic were so long in being handed over for appearance at The Hague. The lesson here , now, is that in Russia there is broad support for the assault on Ukraine. There is no liberal minded opposition as we know it. Which is why Russia must be defeated, and seen to be defeated over Ukraine.

Not much, other than calling in a few favours. Places lke Saudi seem to welcome deposed dictators and the like. I did wonder if Lukashenko stopping his plane at Moscow was to offer Putin a lift. I guess he must have refused. "Whaaaaat ? Spend the rest of my life in some desert shithole, drinking from a dried up wadi, not a drop of vodka in sight. No fanks....". There's always his chum Assad in Syria, I suppose..?

A few years back, when Donald Trump was talking about "... shithole countries...", he was looking in the wrong direction.

Take your anti-union rant sh*te somewhere else.

The new guy at the MET is not up to the job. Nothing will change there until the modern day version of Robert Mark is brought in to go through the organisation like a flamethrower.

Why ... ? Unless you've had some sort of rose tinted, misty eyed view of the police.

When I was a kid in the early '60's, my family lived in Milngavie , just outside Glasgow. For major household purchases there would be an expedition into the city. The go to place was Lewis's department store in Argyll St. I well remember all those (seeming ) hours being dragged around the various floors as choosing minds were made up, then changed, and finally it was time for lunch.. The cafe restaurant on the top floor ( as I recall ) was great. Fish and chips brilliant. Another big department store was Coplands in Sauchiehall St.. Not a regular destination for the family, but around 1970 I did buy some stuff there when I went in on my own. As my clothing choices were more on the lines of John Lennon glasses, purple loon pants, tee shirts etc, Coplands wasn't really my style. But I needed some socks. For payment, they had a marvelous system. You'd give your money to the counter assistant. She, always a she, would put the money and receipt, into a cylindrical capsule. She'd then put the capsule into a system of pipes that whooshed the capsule up to the accounts dept. They'd mark up the sale, put whatever change was due into the capsule along with receipt, and it would all whoosh back down to the counter. It was wonderful. All done by vacuum. Elon Musk, and his Hyperloop, definitely did not get there first.

Tbf, it doesn't take much here for the police to produce the batons and tazers.

On a car that age..., Live with it, or spend a lot of attention, and substitutions working out which items are ****ed. VAG ( Volkswagen Audi Group ) are notorious for their older cars having electric problems. A few years ago I had a 2002 Golf TDI. It had done moon mileage ( 238,000 +), and the engine and mechanicals ( brakes, suspension ) were fine..., it never burned a drop of oil, but the electrics had minds of their own..., faulty door lock modules, central locking module, comfort (climate control) module, ABS, traction control electrics, air bag lights...., You name it. . I gave up in the end, and got rid.

Spangles...., particularly the Old English flavour.

Still muddying the water....

The only person talking about Tories is you. The Bolsheviks had the power and the authority to make a peace deal with Germany, and they did so at Brest Litovsk. An armistice is not a peace deal, it's a cessation of active hostilities. A truce. And if you had paused for a few moments, rather than trying to muddy the water, you' might have discerned that my comment was that the guys referring to 1917 seemed to have overlooked that the aftermath for Russia, of 1917, was in reality the acknowledgement of what was in effect military collapse, as measured by the very harsh terms imposed/agreed at Brest Litovsk.

Sorry my comment doesn't quite fit into the narrative you wish to present. It is though a clear statement of fact. I suggest that you not try to deny, diminish or divert from that.

Interesting interpretation of history. There were two revolutions in Russia in 1917. The first was in February . In the conflict with Germany, Russian soldiers were demoralised, refusing to fight, and running away when the enemy attacked. The country, and its people were tired of war. The Minister of War ( soon to be leader ), Alexander Kerensky, decided that the war would continue. In the July offensive, more humiliations followed. This was very much instrumental in bringing about the October 1917 revolution. The Bolsheviks came to power and promptly made peace with Germany.

Said he, defensively.

I found it rather gross. Maybe it's my somewhat puritanical upbringing, I don't know. As for history, some product designer hasn't studied much.... https://woodbridgekitchencompany.co.uk/product/best-of-british-cardboard-cakestand/

tbf, cock welfare is very, very important.

On the contrary, in those circumstances I'd prefer to accept the general thrust of what was reported. It was a Press Release, not a line by line description of what, why, where and when events happened. There's far too many countries and political powers involved in supporting and supplying Ukraine, with skin in the game of proving, or at least reassuring the various publics, that Ukraine only kills the baddies..... not to question what exactly prompted the the motivations of those who forced the further investigation.

Quite an effort being made to discredit Amnesty International.

I'll stand by what I said. It all seems slightly odd. Aside from, obviously, direct political opponents who would gain, are there others with a significant interest in all this ?

Must say, I think it's all rather odd the way people are being put under arrest. Nothing there about 'assisting police with enquiries', or inviting people to show up at police station to discuss things. It's not as if they're very llkely to flee the country. The faint thought that this is all a bit like a right wing coup, and a wonder as to who it is that is driving the heavy handedness of all that's being going on....... has crossed my mind ?

The last one that I recall was against Stirling Albion, 10+ years ago. 8 goals conceded, and immediately after the game the manager, Derek Ferguson, walked.