Mailwatch(ed) Forum

The Barclay Brothers caff in that gusset street between Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross with the washed-up drag queens and the speeding punks, was that the actual Barclay weirdos?

To be honest, my memory has holes in which a Singapore-bound flight could lose altitude.

Youngian wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 6:59 pm Do the legendary Wapping pubs with obscure market trader licences still exist? Printers, journos and market traders boozing it up at 7am.

There was definitely a café at St. John's Wood where you could get a teapot full of rum and flat coke while the day broke. It looked like tea if the cops came in, and it helped bide the time until the Smithfield pubs opened at five.

I have no idea why that seemed perfectly normal, nor where that stamina went.

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 8:38 pm The Barclay Brothers caff in that gusset street between Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross with the washed-up drag queens and the speeding punks, was that the actual Barclay weirdos?

Allan Ginsberg salutes you.

who sank all night in submarine light of Bickford’s floated out and sat through the stale beer afternoon in desolate Fugazzi’s, listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox,

Both feted and gilded, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two sides of the same rotten politics
Aditya Chakrabortty

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ishi-sunak

Where do you begin?

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 8:10 pm

Starmer: Born in Southwark, frequently derided as "North London".

Both non-London southerners, they come from well-paid jobs outside Westminster, Sunak in finance and Corbyn in trade union activism. Both are unbelievably shit at political leadership and have scant respect among their own MPs and the public.

Do you believe that Starmer is 'shit at politics' and 'has scant respect from his MPs and the public'? Because the evidence seems to point in the other direction.

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:39 am Do you believe that Starmer is 'shit at politics' and 'has scant respect from his MPs and the public'? Because the evidence seems to point in the other direction.

Who said that?

Think they’re called jobs, Simon

Our schools don’t prepare young people for life. National service could change that
Forget the military, but working under supervision in the NHS, care sector or for a charity could be hugely beneficial for many
Simon Jenkins

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... 1716879986

Youngian wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 12:15 pm

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:39 am Do you believe that Starmer is 'shit at politics' and 'has scant respect from his MPs and the public'? Because the evidence seems to point in the other direction.

Who said that?

You did.

I think some confusion has been caused by the headline in the post further up referring to Sunak and Starmer, and immediately after that Ian referring to Sunak and Corbyn.

Yes, the switch from the original quote fooled me.

Chakraborty again

Owen Jones no longer practices journalism.

Youngian wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 6:59 pm Do the legendary Wapping pubs with obscure market trader licences still exist? Printers, journos and market traders boozing it up at 7am.

There was still one in about 2006 asa friend lived in a near and apartment there.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... o-all-that

Thatcherism, austerity, Brexit, Liz Truss... goodbye and good riddance to all that
Will Hutton

For 45 years, Britain has been blighted by Conservative ideologies that promised a path to prosperity, but achieved nothing of the sort

Well, to be fair, those at the top certainly prospered. It's the rest of us that got shafted.

George Monbiot. Having spent all his life calling for disarmament, he finally realises it might not be an entirely good idea if others aren't doing it. Strangely still wants to dump the nuclear deterrent which he says is going to be dependent on Trump (which I'm not sure is correct, and anyway, Trump might not win, and probably won't be around forever). He naturally pads it out with stuff about the Iraq War and deposing of Mossaddegh (in 1953) to imply he wasn't wrong before.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... in-defence

Monbiot again. In a fairly standard "tax the rich" (we do, not all that differently to other places) he comes up with this genius.

The government could, for example, replace inheritance tax with a lifetime gifts tax kicking in at £150,000, a level that would affect only wealthy people.

That's not a tax rise that affects only the wealthy. That's something that affects a person who's inherited a run down 2 bed terrace in the least nice part of Gloucester. Sure, if you want to tax inheritance higher, do it. But I'm struggling to look at the houses on Rightmove and associate them with the wealthy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... mic-growth

Why is he even writing about tax? Lots of genuine experts are available.