RuamRudy

Good news - disaster has been averted thanks to the application of a bit of @transam and @impulse's suggestion and the insertion of a BBQ skewer. Thanks to all for you input. Sláinte

The royal family costs the UK almost £1 million per day. That's money that could be used to better the lives of the people of the country. The posts from some individuals absolutely reek of hatred and venom, especially towards his wife. That you haven't noticed it is not an indication of it not existing.

I like that idea. I will try it in the morning - I have already poured a monkey shoulder tonight.

Credit where credit is due. I have yet to try it but it's on my list. https://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/blogs/news/the-worlds-best-single-malt-whisky

My concern is that the cork is already starting to break up - I guess if the worst came to the worst I could sieve it though a coffee filter afterwards...

Last night I was a bit over enthusiastic in getting this bottle opened and the cork split halfway down the neck of the bottle. Is there a way to extract the cork without it disintegrating and falling into the bottle? Cheers!

I can't imagine there is any scenario where you would lie low, Tranny.

Word salad? Use your finger on the lines if it makes it easier for you. He hasn't be convicted of anything yet so I couldn't possibly speculate as to what she did or didn't know.

It gets harder and harder to disagree with you. It seems that the journey was more important than the destination to such an extent that the destination became an afterthought.

I have met neither, but then again, I am not a member of the SNP - just someone who believes that my country could be much better looking after its own affairs.

Thanks for announcing my arrival - not actually necessary and not entirely accurate but always happy to help with your efforts to increase your post count no matter the drivel you spout getting there.

The hatred for a man who simply decided that the organisation he was born into and was expected to uphold was so internecine, so corrupt and so out of date that he wanted nothing to do with it is astonishing, and shows how remarkably adept the palace is at keeping the sheep on side while they bleed them dry.

Why might they regret it?

Care to explain? I could explain to you but you clearly wouldn't understand.

I don't think that any single person could explain adequately just why one individual is worth so much to any company - if Musk was hit by a bus tomorrow, the share price may take a blip but Tesla would continue on its trajectory without him. This push towards the normalisation of corporate greed, in fact the lionising of it to make it appear as something to be admired and aspired towards, is seemingly relentless as world leaders sit quietly by. Yesterday Tesla started to reduce its workforce with a plan to make 14,000 people redundant to cut costs; today they want to give $56 billion to one man. These are not the actions of a board looking to deliver long term value to shareholders - unless this is a dead cat to distract from how badly they have handled the lay-offs.

Without wishing to foreshadow the trial, the maxim that power corrupts seems like it may be appropriate here. And, of course, there is no reason that the SNP should not be infected with the same human frailties other parties endure. The tragedy is that, more than ever before, Scotland needs to free itself of the parasite clutches of the country next door, but that prospect is looking further away than ever because of vain and weak people convincing the majority that they can provide the vehicle to a better situation. Sadly, the door to escaping this corrupt and massively damaging union seems as firmly closed as ever, ironically because of the allegations of corruption against those who promised to break us free of the yoke.

A disappointing decision by a disappointing administration. There appears to be literally no decent and credible party either in Scotland or any other country in the UK. We are seemingly doomed to continue to live all our days under the stewardship of incompetent, mediocre clowns who's vision for the future is restricted to their own aggrandisement. That is the story of life in the UK.

Good news for Sunak on a day that he lost another MP. And this one's a scorcher! Revealed: Tory MP allegedly demanded campaign cash to pay ‘bad people’ "Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP for Fylde and a government trade envoy, rang an elderly local party volunteer at 3.15am in December saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”. The sum, which rose to £6,500, was paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from campaign funds raised from donors."

You are on the wrong thread again, Tranny. This one is about the humiliation Liz Truss is experiencing as being, arguably, the most incompetent PM the UK and the rest of the world has ever laughed uproariously at. To be fair though, she's a game old bird, still putting her utter uselessness and lack of self awareness out there to keep the mirth going. Fair play to her on that one.

Poor Liz indeed - as she said upon hearing news of the death of the queen, "why me?".

But as the current population is getting older, who is going to do the work of growing or even maintaining the economy to sustain those no longer contributing to society? Taking your approach, it's the elderly we need to cull - maybe a reboot of Logan's Run...

Domestically, Iran cannot be seen to be doing nothing. That the US and Israel knew about the attack in advance, and that the mode is slow and relatively easy to intercept makes me think that you are correct, and that Iran gave advanced warnings to minimise collateral damage.

The OBR doesn't make policy, it advises on the impact of policy proposals. Are you happy for unqualified MPs who, to a man, are incentivised to make populist, short term policy proposals, to make potentially massive changes to our society without expert guidance and oversight?

MPs, including ministers and Prime Ministers, are rarely subject matter experts in incredibly complex and fickle things like managing a globally connected country. Without models, which have been developed by actual experts and refined over decades of data acquisition and analysis, how are the ideas of short term non-expert incumbents, who are naturally inclined towards selfish decision making, to be tested?

Horses for courses?