Straggler

It's the deal the NHS is being softened up for. US private healthcare is positively tumescent with the idea of getting its hands on our NHS. Loosing the NHS into private hands would be even worse than Brexit IMO and it is happening Infront of our eyes.

So true. This is one of the most frustrating parts of the game. At release it was a really good FIFA. The patches absolutely made the gameplay worse.

I enjoy the fallacy that the Royal family stay out of politics, or that the power they have is only ceremonial. Sure they don't do much out loud, but on the quiet in the background on matters of real estate, taxes etc they have a very powerful and direct route into policy makers that they are only too happy to use. Also breaking the law as a Royal is pretty much ok. Just imagine what would happen to you if you drove into a bus stop full of waiting passengers. They don't care much for politics it's true, but when it comes to cold hard cash they are happy to dip a toe in the water. One example

For the work they will be doing in Ukraine they are already overqualified.

Speaking of America and Trump, if Putin can hold out until the next general election in the states, the whole global outlook could change remarkably for him. A Republican win could really put the brakes on aid into Ukraine. If Trump is the President again (which is a real possibility) then the needle will shift remarkably. Remember Trump was always Putin's little bitch, he described the invasion of Ukraine as "very savvy" and "genius". Whilst Trump would contradict himself and shift opinions on almost everything, often in the same day, he was 100% consistent in his praise of Russia and his absolute obsequiousness towards Putin (it may be the only thing he was 100% consistent on). Even if Trump is not the candidate, his influence still runs deep in the Republican Party. The unwavering support and enormous financial / military aid heading towards Ukraine may only be there for as long as the Democrats are. It puts a further time pressure on kicking the Russians out.

Yeah, I very nearly name checked Nori as the only bright spark in the whole thing.

Sorry but I just can't get over how clunky it all feels. There are no conversations in this show, there are just actors waiting for their turn to deliver a line. The chemistry is zero. It is dead, inert, lifeless. I don't give a stuff about sticking to the lore and all that, all I wanted was a fun show with orks and wizards and elves and dwarfs. It is not fun.

Episode 3 was so bad I couldn't finish it. The dialogue problems if anything have got worse. It's so stiff and lifeless which is compounded by the clanking wooden delivery. Lots of new characters this time and almost all of them jar you out of the world because you can see the acting. The direction didn't help either. So many strange decisions, from the perfume ad half way through, to the unnatural positioning of the actors as they delivered lines. So often they face away from each other during conversation. Functionally they would not be able to hear the other and it's just not what people do. In a serious conversation eye contact is important. It all starts to scream "stand on mark X to deliver line 1 then move to mark y to deliver line 2" which may give them too much credit as most lines seem delivered with the actor frozen in place stiffly reading words they don't really understand the meaning of. The one noteness of the show remains too. In the human and elf world the the emotional range goes all the way from serious to stoic. Anger, is almost always demonstrated by the actor going from serious deadpan to more serious in a slightly lower voice and they ALL do it in the same way. The only exception to the rule is the harfoot crew who now seem imported from a primary school harvest festival. For a community that have been together for a thousand years they sure do have a spread of accents going on. Its just all so flat. I was about 50 minutes in when I started checking to see how long there was left. I was checking because I was bored. When I realized how bored I turned it off. I'm sure the episode ended with some cliff hanger or big reveal, but my big reveal was that I just don't care to find out

It's not just really those reasons. It's more that the vote to the left of the Tories is split. The country doesn't vote Conservative we are a majority to the left of them, but our form of democracy keeps on spitting out Tory majorities despite this. It is literally harder for labour to get into power.

I love him as an actor and in this show, but every time I see him I think of this moment: Which is one of my favourite movie moments. He's doing great now too, I'm never in doubt about his feelings even when he is conflicted.

Like our rivers and our seas, the conservative party shows that it is not just the cream that floats to the top.

My dad was round mine the other day. He is normally the sort of bloke who always has a plan and the drive to find a way through most things. He told me the most sensible thing to do now is to leave the country and if he was my age he wouldn't give it a second thought. He sees the country going to the dogs and no way back for generations if at all. It came as quite a shock to hear that from him as his analysis is normally spot on. It's not just the Tories, it's the ecosystem that supports them. The media, the money, the corruption, the voting system, they have clubbed together to ensure that all the wealth gets concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. It will take decades to fix if we were all on the same team. We are not all on the same team. The problem is where to go? I'm thinking Canada looks nice from the outside.

A very good point. That said, for me any scene that has Tyrian and Bron together is TV gold as far as I'm concerned. Also a big shout out for Lena Headey who is great in everything.

I say dour because in the main the characters are all so serious and a bit one note. It's all furrowed brows and serious looks, even friendship and family is a serious endeavour. The lightness/charm/relatability that Sam, Merry and Pip brought to the movies is noticeably absent from this show. Gandalf especially could be warm, charming, cheeky, funny, serious, powerful and scary at times. It is helped that he was wonderfully portrayed in the movies. I don't want to be too down on it as I am enjoying the show enough to come back. I'd just like better dialogue.

I'm interested without being excited by it. The dialogue leaves me struggling to be invested in the characters as none of them feel relatable. I'm mainly going back for the pretty pictures. There isn't much about the story that makes it compelling viewing tbh

Seen both episodes. It's decent so far without doing too much. It is very impressive visually, a proper feast for the eyes on many occasions and the acting is passible for the most part. It is very serious though, very light on the light relief, almost to the point of being dour. Also the dialogue is a bit exposition heavy, but I think that is a feature of most of these short run shows that have to try and cram a lot of plot in quite quickly. Overall I'd say it is very watchable and I shall be back for the next episode. Those that feared something like the Wheel of Time need not worry, this is leagues better than that rubbish.

I accurately called the timing of Sherwood's departure when he was appointed. It's on the record on this very website, not that I can be bothered to find it. I'm not really one for making big predictions like that, but I knew that he was not only, not up to the job, but that he wouldn't even be up to faking it for any length of time.

What a sad existence Truss leads. To be smart enough to know that the more people hear you speak the less they will like you.

Missing out Bombadil was possibly the smartest decision made in the making of that movie. It's odd even in the book.

Or locked down earlier as the scientists recommended, or had a test and trace solution that was worth a damn, or hadn't sent the kids back to school for a day before deciding to have a lock-down, or f me there are a million things they did wrong. If the lessons learned to be applied to the next pandemic is for the politicians to ignore scientific advice and instead go on gut feel, then we are not long for this world. This new breed of populist Tory is downright dangerous. It will take a decade and probably more to put right what they have screwed up and we still can't be sure that the country is not going to vote for more of this madness.

I've watched episode 1of She Hulk. It's not great TV, but I didn't hate it. It reminds me of the sort of TV I watched as a kid on a Saturday afternoon (1980's). It's lightweight family entertainment, bright and colourful with a bit of predictable humour. Lightweight is probably the operative word. If you enjoyed Bird on a Wire or Failure to Launch then this could be right up your street. It's chewing gum for the mind, lots of mastication with no sustenance. 5 out of ten, bang average TV. The Boys is way better, the scooter gang episode of the book of Boba is way worse. If gritty or dark or grounded or realistic or original or powerful are things you have to have then avoid cos it is none of those. I enjoyed the throwback feel to it though. It's harmless family fun and isn't really trying to be much more than that.

Ms Marvel is a mutant now.

Jeeze I hope the gameplay has improved a lot. Career mode is basically identical. I'll be surprised if it doesn't have the same bugs in 23 too. Getting a grade for transfers is a waste of programming time. I don't give a crap if I have hit the algorithm's idea of a good deal and it in no way represents how a real club is run. I was kinda hoping they were keeping their powder dry for another bigger feature, but it really is a minor reskin. It really is just third kits and keeper kits, that I like as an option and even then the editor looks identical which is uninspiring. EA suck.

I actually didn't mind she hulk. Not great, but as a bit of a cheesy family sitcom it's ok.

I get a feeling that the new anti protest laws are going to be getting a pretty thorough test this year.