davidlennardgijon.bsky.social
Provincial pensioner, news junkie, often grumpy, increasingly resistant to excitement
158 posts
102 followers
33 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
That's the episcopalians for you - always going for the cheapest option
comment in response to
post
It was scrapped first time round because the cost massively outweighed the benefits.
But it's a really good way to massage youth unemployment figures.
comment in response to
post
First Chinese in Bristol was in the mid 60s. A go-to for birthday treats and the like. Sweet and sour AND the Beatles convinced my grandmother that the end times were upon us.
comment in response to
post
brilliant
comment in response to
post
They needed an expensive study to discover the bleedin' obvious? Tchah.
comment in response to
post
Social conservatism, not political; otherwise, plus ça change etc
comment in response to
post
Is there such a field as eclectic philosophy? Cast away constraints!
comment in response to
post
This UK government continues to disappoint and (alas) one must point at Keir Starmer as pusillanimous administrator in chief. If you have a very adequate majority but see your role as second guessing Mr Farage while alienating your own troops and natural supporters, then you shouldn't be PM
comment in response to
post
Yup. If it were called the Exclusive Market, the UK would be there with bells on,preening itself for being a member through thick and thin
comment in response to
post
Sir John Reith is spinning in his grave... good thing too.
comment in response to
post
Doublethink, thoughtcrime, and the rest... all need newly sterilised ground in which to grow.
comment in response to
post
Most folk stop being obsessed with toilet behaviour once they can wipe their own arses.
comment in response to
post
¿¿...?? What have I been rude about, pray?
comment in response to
post
They are an acquired taste, to put it mildly. Trouble is, acquiring the taste is a long, hard, and often unpleasant slog.
comment in response to
post
The only one that bothers me is Klingon
comment in response to
post
Here comes the Butlerian Jihad
comment in response to
post
The man is an entire orchestra of dogwhistles, and he hasn't got a clue about the truth of a single dam' one of them
comment in response to
post
But he has a beautiful, beautiful soul... he said so yesterday, on a Sunday, so it must be true
comment in response to
post
(And tomorrow is the 104th anniversary of the declaration of the Second Republic - April 14 1931.There will be a secular memorial demonstration here in Gijón, and I will be proud to attend. Roll on the Third Republic, sez I.)
comment in response to
post
And yet Spain recovered... mostly: half a century since the old man died, and still his shade hangs over some aspects of the country, and - alas - its politics. (Although you won't find many Spanish politicians who'd agree with me).
comment in response to
post
Have you noticed that when the 24 hour news cycle is market driven - as it has been recently, you may have noticed - the news cycle itself calms down at weekends... hoist by their own petards, forsooth, until 24 hr trading is introduced to satisfy the newsies.
comment in response to
post
To be fair, most kids are infuriating, especially the male ones, but that's their job FFS, and it's the adults' job to be annoyed but to answer the questions and redirect the energy in as tolerable a way as possible. I raised two like that, and they're both alive and don't ask for money - success!
comment in response to
post
There is a valid excuse for the neutral form in written Spanish, and other languages with gendered suffixes, but when speaking one just uses both - "compañeras y compañeros" etc - and that's fine too. In English it's kinda dumb: it started out with chairperson and has since spiralled out of control
comment in response to
post
Concerning tittlebats? My opinion of Herr Bohr , leaving aside his remarkable intellectual stature, which is a given, has just risen sharply
comment in response to
post
And like so many shockingly beautiful experiences, watch out for the sting in the tail
comment in response to
post
He is (or used to be) a pretty good historian. But as do so many academics, he thinks that exquisite knowledge in one field is proof of equal expertise in all others. This is not usually the case: we might call it Chomsky's syndrome, or Dawkins disease, but whatever - life's rich tapestry, etc.
comment in response to
post
If Mars were the new Australia...
comment in response to
post
Democracies enter wars because they are reacting to something, and their initial stance is always defensive. It takes a while for them to engage a forward gear
comment in response to
post
Yup. Everyone there wears smart suits.
comment in response to
post
Pecked to death by a flightless bird... it makes Spencer Perceval's demise appear positively mundane.
And big cats are on the rampage again, Miss England contestants will no longer have to parade in bikinis: the important stories are there if you look for them...
comment in response to
post
PMQs might be entertaining tomorrow, unless Ms Badenoch leaves her brain at home, as usual
comment in response to
post
is that "insisted that I had discussed" or insisted that I discuss" ?
comment in response to
post
Just use piss artist or fcukwit and have done with it
comment in response to
post
Never has an aging superstition been analysed so exhaustively for so little reason.
comment in response to
post
There's no way he plays bridge: it requires some thought.
comment in response to
post
Bleach! I need bleach!
comment in response to
post
There are times when compromising my masculinity seems a small price to pay for rational thought.
comment in response to
post
I have a perfectly fine bidet, ta very much, but there's a water saving habit here too, and toilet tissue can be a good insulator in chilly times. Lofl, lmfao, etc
comment in response to
post
I wonder if "exit strategy" is in the vocabulary of anyone in the WH
comment in response to
post
It's depressingly clear that this is Mr Trump's Liz Truss moment, albeit on a vastly greater scale. But a presidential system is different from a parliamentary one, and the elected representatives of the American people seem to be either brainwashed or supine. Me, I'm stocking up on on toilet paper.
comment in response to
post
Akin to Peter Sutcliffe's glowing endorseement of Jimmy Savile...
comment in response to
post
Apples and pears: this a different type of fascism, based more on spite and vengeance than on pseudo science and resentfulness. The classic markers are there, there are parallels and precedents, but it is essentially sui generis, a creature of unbalanced plenty and greed rather than of hardship
comment in response to
post
And they're frightened too, or so it would seem - with some very honorable exceptions
comment in response to
post
I was under the impression that the bon mot in question was originally uttered by Gilbert Harding... but Peter Cooke may well have used it (homage, not theft, naturally)