Thane of Cawdor

I don't know if this is still the case, but it certainly was back in the day. I think this example is quite close to the idea of means-testing a benefit that has supposedly been earned through National Insurance contributions. Contribution-based JSA and pensions Contribution-based JSA is not means-tested as such, but the amount of JSA payable is reduced on a pound for pound basis by any regular income the claimant receives from an occupational or private pension in excess of £50 a week. At current JSA rates (£73.10 a week from April 2015), contribution-based would therefore be withdrawn completely from those with pension payments totalling £123.10 a week or more.

It's a class thing, and an age thing and, I think an English thing. In a moment of nostalgia, some years ago, I bought Maw Broon's Cookbook. I can confirm that Paw Broon supplies the definitive answer: Breakfast Denner [sic] Tea Supper

Extract from John Barleycorn, by Jack London, where he realises that the etiquette of drinking involves reciprocity. In fairness to him, he is mortified. That was why Nelson had lingered at the bar. Having bought a drink, he had waited for me to buy one. I HAD LET HIM BUY SIX DRINKS AND NEVER ONCE OFFERED TO TREAT. And he was the great Nelson! I could feel myself blushing with shame. I sat down on the stringer-piece of the wharf and buried my face in my hands. And the heat of my shame burned up my neck and into my cheeks and forehead. I have blushed many times in my life, but never have I experienced so terrible a blush as that one.

Seemingly, we've been playing fute-ball for 700 years. You'd think we might have got quite good by now. The world’s oldest football was discovered during an excavation project at Stirling Castle in the 1970s; it had been lodged in the rafters of the Queen’s Chamber in Stirling Castle during the reconstruction works commissioned by James V, which dates the hoofing of it to the 1540s. The ball, made from cowhide and a pig’s bladder, is prominently displayed at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/09/where-tourists-seldom-tread-part-9-crewe-boston-barnstaple-stirling

What about shooting, Ernest? Hemingway was an avid big game-hunter. I remember a piece by Clive James where he sneaks a look round one of Hemingway's homes. James claimed that he could see on the walls the heads of every animal Hemingway had ever shot.

You all seem to be overlooking the most vulnerable and vilified segment of the country. Fortunately, Jonathan took it on himself to highlight this dreadful issue, and recommend stern measures to resolve it. A Conservative MP has said anyone using the term “white privilege” should be reported to the government’s counter-terror programme, and that teachers who criticise the Conservative party should be sacked. Jonathan Gullis told a fringe meeting during the party’s conference in Manchester last week that anyone using the phrase should be referred to the government’s Prevent programme, which is used to track potential terrorists. According to a recording obtained by the Independent, he told activists: “The term white privilege – very quickly – is an extremist term, it should be reported to Prevent, because it is an extremist ideology. “It’s racist to actually suggest everyone who’s white somehow is riddled with privilege.” Gullis, who is a former member of the parliamentary education select committee, was speaking at an event organised by the Conservative Friends of Education group. He added: “I hope [using the term white privilege] will be reported, I hope that will be looked into, and any teacher who’s perpetuated it in the classroom ultimately should face a disciplinary hearing at the very least.” The Prevent programme was set up in 2006 to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, and to clamp down on radicalisation. During the same event, the 31-year-old MP said that teachers should be “sacked” if they criticise the Conservatives. He was elected to the Commons in 2019 for Stoke-on-Trent North. “The other way we can stop the cancel culture is by actually saying to the woke left lecturers and the woke left teachers – who seem to be becoming more and more apparent – is that ultimately, what’s going to happen if you are going to push your ideology in the classroom there are going to be consequences for you,” he said. “For some reason, if a Labour party member wants to stand up in front of the classroom and say how bad and evil the Tories are, then the headteacher has to take some kind of sympathetic view to that. “It’s absolutely disgusting, we need to start sacking people who are pushing their political ideology.” https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/09/tory-mp-says-using-term-white-privilege-should-be-reported-as-extremism

I have read this sentence several times. I now have a sore head.

HAARP. Not the Lochee version.

Rangers fan?

I've no idea why McCoist intervened on this issue and in this manner, but I don't think he's bigoted as we normally understand that attitude. A guy I know, slightly, played for Sunderland at the same time as McCoist, and when he moved to a club in Scotland he lodged in the McCoist family home. Guy was comparatively devout RC for a young footballer. As far as I know, he and McCoist are still in regular social contact.

The growing popularity of the term "in my wheelhouse". I think it means "within my competence, my sphere of knowledge", but it irks me more than it should. I had assumed that the metaphor was meant to describe a Para Handy-like character demonstrating his mastery of the Vital Spark. However, it may be even more annoying; Google suggests that it may originate from baseball and refers to a pitch within the batter's reach.

Republican Congressman, and former Christian Pastor, has alternative version of the Beatitudes. Speaking in Dundee, Michigan. We Dundonians take a great interest in all things Palestinian. Rather than provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, the US should ensure it is subjected to atomic bombing the way that “Nagasaki and Hiroshima” were at the end of the second world war. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/31/tim-walberg-republican-congressman-gaza

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

O'Hagan mulls over a current preoccupation of Pie & Bovril. Probably recognises this is where the zeitgeist is developed. Here’s a possible irony. People who are young now may not have had the initial luck their parents had, but commentators say they are going to be much better off in the end, because they will inherit everything. A recent report says they will become the “richest generation in history”. Liam Bailey, who does research for the estate agency Knight Frank, argues that the ramifications of this transfer of wealth will be enormous. I think he means the effect on rental and property markets, but it could also signal a terrifying increase, in the future, of the gulf between those who inherit and those who don’t. (I would vote for a social housing tax on property windfalls beyond a certain value, even after inheritance tax and capital gains, just to close the gap a little and reduce inequality.) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/30/leaving-home-used-to-be-a-rite-of-passage-andrew-ohagan-on-family-freedom-and-a-generational-divide

While also wishing to avoid "a well of pedantry", and without endorsing your view, I think you mean envy stained pish.

I think it's more appropriate to nominate individual sportsmen/women rather than participants in team sports.* I also think we should exclude people dependent on the quality of their equipment, such as jockeys and racing drivers. Niche sports such as tennis are a bit problematic, since success is often associated with a degree of privilege. Finally, no managers or coaches; could we imagine Alf Ramsey featuring in an equivalent English list? * I could see exceptions in cases such as George Best, Pele and Maradona. Andy Murray Chris Hoy David Wilkie Dick McTaggart Liz McColgan Katie Archibald Benny Lynch Allan Wells Eric Liddell Bobby McGregor

I see you are continuing your anti-Polish vandetta from the German thread (Rosa Luxemburg). Emile Zola Voltaire Albert Camus (or is he Algerian?). Robespierre Edith Piaf

I found this comment strangely ambiguous. Is the location in the USA or Eastern Europe, and does it involve firing off an in memoriam round or raising a glass to the departed? All permutations seem equally likely.

Many years ago I read (or possibly saw) an interview with Tony Benn where he explained his views on inherited wealth. Tony was against it, but would leave it up to his children to decide. I don't know what Hilary and Melissa did with their inheritance, but their brother is now Viscount Stansgate.

So get off your high horse, Hillary!

Now that you have made me aware of your Dyscalculia, I'm afraid I can no longer trust your assessment of what constitutes a "c**t on the road".

Started with the keeper trying to chip a thirty-yard pass that was intercepted.

Your devoutness has been partially recognised.

Gonna need a wider goalie.

The great Irish writer (and drunk) Flann O'Brien created a phrase that perfectly describes the modern St Patrick's Day: "A virulent eruption of Paddyism." At least the plain people of Ireland get a Bank Holiday to recover, what do the other celebrants do?