Meenzer

Jahn Teigen, Eurovision's finest nul-pointer

I was hoping his response would be "I think you'll find Britain's greatest athlete is Jessica Ennis-Hill"

We definitely toured around a bit on one of those trips with my parents, Teide included, but I remember it feeling pretty touristy even then, which is why I've never been overly keen to go back. I know the Lanzarote resorts are as generic as anywhere else but you've got the Timanfaya side of the island, the lagoons/caves and La Graciosa (which I finally went to on my most recent trip) which are all pretty remarkable in their own way. Will do my best to find something similar on the 'rife, though admittedly the main priority is sunshine, brain detachment and ploughing through a pile of books, so I'm sure it'll be grand for that either way.

Just booked for Tenerife in May - the usual villa trip with the Eurovision gang, but we thought we'd try somewhere different for a change. Not that there's a huge difference between Tenerife and the other Canaries, but still. I went to Tenerife with my folks in 1988 and 1990 on cheap and cheerful package deals but know basically nothing about it beyond that & have always had the impression it's the less interesting of the islands, if only because it got the tourist developments first. We're staying in Costa Adeje, which looks nice, but I'm hoping to hire a car and explore a bit.

Plus places that aren't on the Underground tend to be more affordable* anyway, so it's a double bonus. Though I appreciate this may not apply to the Dulwich neck of the woods. *less unaffordable

Nah, you just need to not have kids.

Poor fella buckled under the denpressure

A true patriot!

I like your storytelling priorities here. "I told him there'd be a General Election before the end of the year and the little bastard just refused to believe me. Also he said he was going to slit someone's throat"

How is that not a sackable offence?

These people have won. Great.

They've got Chucky Ferreyra up front, maybe the ref thought it was only fair to keep things 11 v 11.

It's relevant insofar as different standards apply to the obviously unwell person who's protecting rich people's interests and the angry socialist grandpa, just like different standards applied last time when Trump was already showing signs of his decline but apparently that didn't matter whereas Clinton wobbling/fainting into a car was immediately seized upon. It's not so much the "how" the American public are ok with it (primarily the media, obviously) as the fact that it's just the way it is in the first place and it can't be changed any more. Which is why they're fucked even before the left and the centre start tearing each other to pieces. Which, as you say, they will also almost certainly proceed to do.

Looks like Iceland will be sending Jason Mewes to Eurovision this year.

Saw it at the weekend and I still can't quite decide if it was good or not. I think it was, but tonally it's (necessarily) all over the place, which makes it hard to get a handle on. Still thinking about it several days later though, so I suppose it had the desired effect.

Imagine you take a job offer paying £50k p.a. having previously earned £19k p.a., but your company only pays you £31k because it turns out the offer included the £19k you no longer receive for your previous... no, it's no good, my heart's not in it

If Johnson promotes Rishi to Chancellor and appoints a replacement as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, what's the net increase in the size of the Cabinet?

*-heavy

If it helps, I still think you're wrong about almost everything else.

The claim is both mathematically justifiable and obvious political grandstanding. The two are not mutually exclusive. (Fucking Lib Dems always sitting on the fence etc.)

There was a couple of years where they played this pre-match a lot.

His post or yours.

Good to see all this Project Fear stuff turning out to be... oh, right, reality. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/10/checks-on-eu-bound-goods-inevitable-gove-tells-business-leaders Cracking.