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Seems reasonable. Hardly surprising that they'd fall back on the success of their "if you're part of the wealthy elite you don't need to worry about the rules" messaging from earlier in the year.

How is that incorrect? Vote against- ruin and mayhem is the result. Abstain - ruin and mayhem Vote for - yep, still ruin and mayhem.

I've not said that Labour should vote in favour of it. I've said that they will. I expect that the SNP and Lib Dems will vote against, precisely for the reasons you've given. In my opinion abstention is best of three terrible choices.

There's no option that isn't a vote in favour of ruin and mayhem. And as I suspected, they'll be voting in favour of whatever is brought before Parliament. Whenever that might be.

I've just been reading up on the guy on Wikipedia and it turns out he's got a really sketchy past. Into the harbour with him.

Would seem that the Education Secretary has been going method by hanging around in school playgrounds.

Isn't one of the problems that the fridges do exist, but they are currently full of flu vaccine?

I wish I had the forethought to make some money out of these nutters.

It's really a case of least-worst option, and they're all pretty terrible. Voting against is a bit of a non-starter. It wouldn't be a vote on good versus bad, it would a vote on shit versus really really shit. So you don't actively vote for really really shit. I think abstaining is the morally right thing to do, but it's probably politically the one that opens the door to the most damage in the short-term as it'll just be a return to "Labour still don't have a Brexit position", and will allow the scum in charge to deflect the consequences onto that handy soundbite. I suspect they'll vote for it - and I think the calculation is so that in February when everything is chaos he can frame it as "the deal was fine, you're just incompetent and fact that the country is on fire is nothing to do with Brexit, it's just your government". But when the history books are written, they'll show Labour as having dipped their hands in the blood of some of the worst legislation brought before Parliament. TLDR, I think he'll sacrifice the longer-term reputation of the party for shorter-term electoral gain.

You'll likely have six months full sick pay, six months of half your salary and either two or three times your salary death in service. Which is pretty substantial. Although the second part (I'm guessing) won't cover your mortgage. Speak to a financial advisor about it. It's nearly always commission-based, and paid by the provider. So nothing to really lose from talking to someone.

Apart from the disaster at the beginning of September when schools went back and people were being directed to all ends of the country, the testing/ results bit has always been pretty smooth. We had to get a test for my daughter in May, and the experience was much the same as yours. It's the tracing bit that was, and still is, not fit for purpose.

I'd probably take it.

Cringingly twee, but I guess it's preferable to "angry at everything, all of the time" that the last few years have been.

As a fellow aficionado, a few to check which you may or may not know (I don't think they've come up in this thread) but are good additions for any eight-hour Christmas day playlist: Christmastime - Smashing Pumpkins The She & Him Christmas album, but particularly Christmas Day The Ghost Of Christmas - Manic Street Preachers The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes Christmas Is Coming Soon - Blitzen Trapper Christmas is Cancelled - The Long Blondes Christmas In The Trenches - John McCutcheon This Ain't New Jersey - Smith & Burrows The last three in particular end up on very hard rotation in my house through December.

I'd add Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande as well. But it's obviously in the eye of the beholder. If someone wasn't listening to commercial radio stations during the last decade when they were released then they're not going to be "recognisable straight away" to that person however popular they might be in the wider world.

Yachts. He had three, at last count.

Tricky. It's a better policy, but £10 better? Maybe, maybe not. Easy solution - go back to the one with the more expensive policy, ask him to outline the extra £10 "worth" of the RL one compared to Zurich. Once he's done that, if you think you've got £10 per month of extra value from it, then do it. If not, then go the other way.

Who are the two providers and what's the price difference?

Yup. Obvious from the start. Like this from January 2019...

Give it three election cycles and it probably will be. If we've not declared war on France over mackerel quotas by then.

The Trump campaign paid $3m for a manual recount in Milwaukee. Result - Biden increased his lead by 132 votes. Money well spent.

Yes we do.