egg

Yep. He was a phenomenal lawyer and very quick minded. That's what sets him apart from others at the despatch box.

That's a phenomenal number, but not surprising. I wouldn't be surprised if COVID has knocked off half of that again. The NI rises will be more damaging than people imagine.

Get a grip people. They ain't great either, and are a team under pressure. We'll give them a game, and it'll be closer than people think.

Bridge

Bamburgh castle is something else, just magnificent. We went to seahouses to get the boat but the tide was too low. Then the penny dropped that the causeway must be open so jumped back in the van! Driving over was pretty special. Berwick impressed us too, just a thoroughly nice place with a lot of history. Just over the border, Jedburgh was interesting too. Craster was a quirky little place, and great if you like a kipper.

Cheers, never heard of staithes or saltburn. Will look them up, and see how it fits on the route.

Venture further north and try Northumberland. Imagine the new forest but with peaks and troughs, waterfalls, rugged coastlines and castles. The drive across the causeway to Lindisfarne is something else.

I will do, thank you. We've added some stuff from you and Gloucester to the list, and noted to swerve Bradford!!

Yep. I'm an unashamed lib dem who didn't vote for either so just say what I see. Labour inherited a mess, but have arguably made it worse with their financial decisions. I think we'll do well to avoid a difficult recession this year or early next, and there's a danger that of Torie esque spending cuts to help stop borrowing and the interest bil spiralling.

I'm loving this thread as we're doing a north yorks road trip in the camper in the spring, thanks. Did Northumberland a couple of years ago which was amazing, but never seen much of north yorks so really looking forward to it.

Only staunch labour voters will shout down due criticism. What I find irritating is the "it's all labours fault" without any acknowledgement of the mess they inherited. For me, the Tories got it wrong for too long, and labour have made poor decisions thus far.

Labour's big mistake was refusing to reverse the damaging Tory NI reduction, and then passing the bill to employers. It was always going to have repercussions, and has. And yep, people will keep banging on about the Tories, Truss included, killing the economy, because they did. Labour, for their part, were given a mountain to climb, but are trying to climb it the wrong way.

Running away?! Behave. I have better things to do than continue a discussion ad infinitum with someone who clearly hasn't got anything better to do. You were wrong on the COVID point, citing articles 2 or 3 years after the event. Yet again you couldn't accept you were wrong, but I ain't got the inclination to keep reminding of you of that so happily allowed you the last (wrong) word. And no, I won't carry this on cos not a discussion. You're wrong, it's obvious, but you can't/won't admit it. I'm always willing to let you have the last word poppet, and you can have it on this issue too.

Are you seriously claiming that the video shows her laughing at mention of men's suicide? Seems to me that, once again, you've spouted off, got it wrong, but haven't got the humility to acknowledge that you're wrong.

She didn't. Her comment on it is here. If there's a link proving that she did, please post it. Thank you. On the second part, can you please explain why a need for an inquiry has only arisen since labour took office? Do the findings and recommendation of the 2022 report not cover the issue?

Pointing to articles from 2023 is not evidence of legitimate reports from 2020/21! Bless.

But, but, but, there were legitimate claims Badger, hypo said so (noting that the best hypo can do is refer to a report from 2023, not at the time the virus was actually an issue).

I'm making no claims. It's you who's saying that there were apparently legitimate reports that china created COVID. I saw no such claims at the time, and would be grateful for the links. Thank you.

Err, I'm not making allegations against china. Hypo claimed that "legitimate narratives about China developing Covid were suppressed". They weren't legitimate. They were unverified claims/lies.

Good. We need to play to win, and I want to see these players earn their keep.

So you can't in fact point to any fact checked and evidence based claims that china developed COVID. Call me sensible, but I'd rather we prevented the distribution of non fact checked and non evidence based claims of a serious nature.

Ah, gotcha. Were there fact checked and evidence supported claims at the time that china developed COVID?

I can't agree on a complete block on censorship. There's too many dinlos that treat anything they read as fact. We need to keep focus on the truth, not BS.

It's a claim that could we'll be true, but the point is that he hasn't substantiated it. That said, is his timing coincidental or contrived?

Yes, but the point is that him saying it happened doesn't mean that it did. Regardless, governments were (correctly imo) trying to roll out viruses to try to get the world back to normal so on balance I have no problem with suppressing an anti vax agenda.