Salt n Vinegar

My favourite 'oh... I didn't think THAT was what it all meant' moment was when Priti Patel said that she would ensure that freedom of movement would be ended, she was actually talking about OUR freedom of movement being affected.

If Nigel is such a fan of the Battle of Britain, didn't he remember the quote from Squadron Leader Skipper in the film of the same name? "How many time have I told you - never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in a combat area!"

There is a little recognised benefit of flexi-time that Ivory Tower dwellers like JRM are probably ignorant of, or just don't care about. The large organisations I worked for from about 1987 all used it. It allows organisations to have earlier opening hours and later closing hours, as you will be reasonably certaIn that some staff will want to start earlier and others will want to start later. Instead of an office opening from 9.00-17.00 with an hour off for lunch, you can have the place staffed from say 8.00 to 18.00 with no lunch closure. Further to that, if the place was busy at particular times, you could have more staff in for longer hours on say a Monday or Friday with the staff working fewer hours later on. All the employers I worked for used 4-week "Accounting Periods" which gave employees and managers flexibility. For large organisations, like local authorities, it allows less pressure on roads and public transport at peak hours and even spreads the load for nearby cafes as you don't have all customers turning up for their decaf vanilla latte with seal milk 10 minutes before their office "opens" . I've never heard of a case of an organisation moving back from flexible hours working to set hours. Anyone else know of any? Flexi-time probably wasn't common in the Victorian era, which may explain why JRM doesn't like it.

As an atheist republican who is learning Gaelic, I might as well turn myself in!

"Thoughts and prayers" - the favoured response of Republicans in the USA when a nutter murders kids and teachers in school. Certainly easier than actually DOING something. If the Tories go full Trump in response to energy bills and the cost of living crisis no doubt we can expect "thoughts and prayers" from the new PM in response to folks' leccy bills.

The only good thing about that photo is that at least there wasn't a Bible in plain sight. With the Queen, the Union Jakie and the cheesy grins you only needed a Bible to make the four horsemen set complete.

I really wonder if there are any depths a politician won't plumb in the pursuit of publicity.

Maybe the data collected will reveal the extent of of "high social value" jobs that are financially undervalued and the Government might start to do something about that? (Cue flypast of pigs and unicorns... )

USG were beaten 3-0 by Mechelen yesterday. Maybe that's good, unless they played their reserves to keep players safe for midweek. Nice to see that SOMEONE can score against them...

I don't really have a dog in this fight, because I'll not be driving a lorry, but I don't much fancy the idea of folk of any age learning to drive and passing their test in a Ford Ka, then jumping behind the wheel of a 7.5t lorry and crusing the roads.

Radio commentary sounds encouraging but I'll confess that the lack of success with the final ball is as troubling today as it was last weekend and in midweek. Big 45 minutes needed now.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Ross County all the best today. That is all.

People from country that doesn't seem keen on implementing Brexit agreements are annoyed with EU country that doesn't seem keen on implementing Brexit agreements... From - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/06/britons-portugal-post-brexit-id-cards Quote - "Almost 35,000 Britons in limbo as Portugal fails to issue post-Brexit ID cards" Oops.

Jones is content to bring his 'expertise' into issues other than gun control. One relatively recent trip into medicines has resulted in him attempting to connect the growth in "monkey pox' cases to the use of certain covid vaccines. Source from May this year - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alex-jones-monkeypox-conspiracy-theory-b2086134.html There appears to be no end to the man's talents. It seems to me that Jones might face more legal - and costly - implications as well given that he appears to have named two companies in his analysis - "Alex Jones decided in a recent episode of his show InfoWars to promote a new and wild mistruth about the cause behind the recent global outbreak of monkeypox: Covid-19 vaccines. He began the segment by reminding his audience about how Bill Gates, a frequent target of derision by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists alike for the millions of dollars he’s invested in Covid-19 research and vaccine development, had “bragged” last year about how smallpox could be the cause of the next pandemic and how it will be “far worse”. ........ Mr Jones, however, was incorrect about Mr Gates’ purported “bragging”. In fact, the Microsoft founder and philanthropist provided an interview last year at Policy Exchange with chair of the health select committee Jeremy Hunt where he warned that governments should prepare for smallpox terror attacks. This point was clearly missed on Mr Jones, however, as he launched into a paranoid rant that attempted to falsely link Covid-19 vaccines, specifically J&J and AstraZeneca, to the recent monkeypox outbreak that the World Health Organisation has confirmed at least 80 cases of in at least a dozen countries in recent days." It's just so good that we can all benefit from his" wisdom", isn't it.

Hmm.. The New Statesman could make a few bob here. I wonder how much they could charge the SNP, Labour, the LibDems and Plaid Cymru for that clip, which should be the first few seconds of every party political/election broadcast for the next 10 years?