Personally, I think he would have been better using No Mates, rather than No Hope, but still accurate
Nothing to see here. Not even surprised anymore.
Just wanted to comment on beer in America. I am dual nationality. Born in England, grew up there, educated there, family there, lived and worked there until moved here to the States with wife and two young children, 12 years ago.
I expected the beer to be bad, but I have been very surprised on that score.
Tons of variety, numerous microbreweries putting out quality beers everywhere. Discount stores to buy it, and just around the corner from me, in a country where walking isnāt the norm, I can walk to an Irish pub with its own micro brewery on site and enjoy numerous quality beers.
Oh, and since it is the UK politics thread, great post above @Mascot and generally, with regard to Brexit, we are all better placed if we try to understand why it happened, and why people voted differently regardless of what side of the divide we are on, instead of perpetuating caricatures and having pop shots.
Oh, and Corbynā¦ my tuppence worth, decent man, left wing, but since Blair it has been clear that the UK wonāt elect someone who is too left wing. He probably didnāt have the charisma either.
As for Boris Johnson, he is in it for himself, he is not a public servant at all. He needs to be ousted, and in due course the British people need a proper election, to choose which way the country will goā¦ not an election dominated by Brexit, which blurred usual distinctions and preferences.
Cheers! As I hold up a smashing pint of something called Zombie Dust, a pale ale brewed by 3 Floydās Brewing, right here in Indiana. An excellent beer!
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What kind of a world is this where you canāt even rely on stereotypes any more?
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Fully agree on the beer bit.
Regarding politics, it is a shame that the politicians are either blatantly in it for themselves or enslaved to their party/institution - sort of a mini-version (a country cousin version) of what happens in the US. All the good ones have been chased out - at least the ones I had heard of and could/possibly/sort of get behind (Rory Stewart, Andy Burnham, the better Miliband and a few others I cannot recall atm or has been too long ago to be relevant).
I think weāre looking at Lord Johnson in a year or twoā¦
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āWorld Kingā I think is what he wants to style himself as
OK, this is a pretty random article that I came across just now but it really highlights what a useless ineffectual dipshit Grayling is. And itās supposed to be highlighting his good work for his constituents 
sadly fines arenāt enough. If people have been found to have broken the law they should be facing jailtime
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They canāt just make breaking lockdown a prison offence just because itās a high profile case.
They need to be punished to the full extent of the law, which is fines. We can only hope the reputational damage in the court of public opinion goes much further.
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But the law was to socially distance, no social meetings no parties.
They broke the law, and are the ones that wrote the law, so fuck 'em, hit them the hardest of all. They are the ones that should know better
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Yes, but thereās no special provision in the law to say that just because they wrote it they should be held to higher standards. I think I saw on the BBC site yesterday that the Conservatives will still be up for a vote of confidence if the clown himself gets fined, to address @Mascotās point, but Iām not sure what other consequences they would faceā¦
The law specifies what punishment is allowed - in this case as @mascot says, it is only fines. There might be other consequences fined individuals may face though - for example if they are civil servants, it may be considered a breach of the civil service code and therefore leave them open to disciplinary action?
In previous times, it presumably would have been considered a breach of the ministerial code and a matter of resignation. However, as we have seen this requires self policing. If the PM refuses to act in this way, there is nothing to directly enforce it. The closest thing we have is the PMās support within his own party and a successful challenge against him.
If we donāt like them, death penalty seems about right.
If we do like them, slap on the wrist?
Obviously Iām being silly. Whatever tariff is on the books for breaking the covid rules should be enacted. The fact that it is high profile people comes with additional reputational damage, and likely consequence beyond the law.
But you canāt have special laws as thatās a path to nowhere. Just enforce the ones we do have.
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Its interesting the thing about special laws. I agree we should not have them but there are instances where the law appears to be applied differently to different people.
For example, police officers that commit a crime. A (very loose) recent example was a horrible incident fairly recently of some officers sharing images of some murdered women on social media. They lost their jobs and (if I remember correctly) faced potential jail time. I am not sure the same would happen to some passer by that did the same. In this case it is the people who up hold the law being held to a higher standard. Should the law makers also be held to a higher standard?
Presumably most laws have a range of tariff that can be applied, at the discretion of the judge or magistrate.
If you are the law maker, and a public and influential figure, I would agree that you should be hit with the maximum that is permissible under the law, but not beyond the bounds of the law.
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What youāre describing here (loss of employment) is the rules of a particular employer, not different applicability of the criminal law. However, with regard to the threat of jail time, there are specific legal requirements for those who hold public office because, quite rightly, they assume extra accountability when they are custodians of public trust.
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I wonder if the Tory party will grow some balls now? I can see a few sitting tight, waiting for public opinion to become clear.
Aside from that, anyone willing to guess what next weekās crisis will be? Thereās one every week with this shower.