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In fact Mabel as a name has been steadily increasing in popularity in England & Wales in recent years. In 2021 (the most recent figures available) 839 baby girls were registered as Mabel, putting the name in 59th place. A famous bearer of the name is the singer-songwriter Mabel, who is Neneh Cherry's daughter.

"Why people think the NHS is struggling" is not the same as "Why the NHS is struggling". Two of my best mates are consultant doctors, one in Acute Medicine, the other in A&E and at our meet-up over Christmas, the A&E doctor (who is technically still a junior at the moment and has been on the picket lines) said he fully understands the appeal of Australia and has seen plenty of doctors make the jump on social media and it looks amazing. They both shared a few details of the shambles that is hospital care in 2023-24, how winter pressures are now all-year-round pressures and it felt very much like they were shielding the worst of things from the non-doctors in our party to avoid us having a meltdown at the state of our healthcare system. The problem in the 21st century is this belief that whatever the voters think is automatically the right call and that said voters are 100% convinced that whatever they think is correct. And, on the flip side, engagement in politics has dropped dramatically, political literacy and critical thinking are virtually non-existent and misinformation is everywhere. It's led the rise of the far-right, the Brexit disaster, the Covid Conspiracy nonsense and 101 things besides. People are looking for simple explanations because they're not intelligent enough, or committed enough, to look into the details of how the world works and the complex reasons and histories of why situations develop. The NHS is struggling because too many immigrants are coming in is simplistic nonsense. The NHS is struggling for a huge number of reasons, from lack of doctors numbers to underfunding, to a chronic lack of social care provision. Blaming immigrants ignores the fact that many immigrants come to work in the NHS is a range of capacities, from clinical care to porters and cleaners. It ignores that the vast majority of immigrants who come to this country are young, fit and healthy which means they use the NHS a lot less than, say, our rapidly aging population who are living longer and, in many cases, more sickly. Perhaps that has something to do with pressures on the NHS too? Wow, what a thought...

Make that in two weekends... First, thank you for the patience everyone! There have been four deaths since this pool started. 1. @Spade_Cooley got us started with Johnny Ruffo on November 10th 2. @time is next up with Brigit Forsyth on December 1st. 3. @diego scored with Glynis Johns on January 4th. The other death, Richard McKenzie, also died on December 1st and is one of @justonecornetto subs. Maybe a rule in a future version will include two subs = 1 of the 3 deaths needed to win? Unsure... Side-notes: I apologize for the format of the entry list and some of the other sections. I will work on it and hopefully roll out a better looking/working version by next round. I also need to retire the "List of the Missed", it is just too much work to track all these shows. Might try a different version of it in the future...

Woodrow Wilson died on this day 100 years ago, aged 67. - Wilson's actual first name was Thomas, and he went by his middle name- derived from his mother's maiden name. While his grandfather James was an abolitionist, his father Joseph supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. - Wilson is the only US president to receive a PhD degree, awarded to him by Johns Hopkins University in 1886. He would later serve as a professor of history and political science, and would be promoted to the president of Princeton University in 1902. For these reasons, he has been nicknamed "The Schoolmaster" by some. - Wilson's tenure at Princeton got New Jersey's Democratic Party officials to encourage him to run for governor, and he won the 1910 election. Wilson quickly became a rising star in the party, and was the Democratic nominee for president in 1912- winning in a landslide due to the Republicans splitting between Theodore Roosevelt and the incumbent William Howard Taft. - Wilson's presidency is known for introducing the Federal Reserve, failing to stay out of World War I after three years of isolationism (leading to the League of Nations, which earned him the 1920 Nobel Peace Prize), and screening the first movie shown at the White House- The Birth of a Nation (Wilson was horribly racist and openly tried to remove Black people from federal jobs). - In 1919, Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him bedbound- his wife Edith would determine which documents would be given to him, and some jest she was the first female US president. By 1920, news of his condition reached the public, and although he wished to seek a third term, his political party quickly disassociated with him to find a healthier candidate. He was unable to attend Warren G. Harding's inauguration, although the two of them had tea together the day before. His health would not improve over the last three years of his life.

Now the other Steve Brown, the lyricist, composer and record producer, has died. He worked on West End Musicals Spend Spend Spend and I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical. He composed many of the songs and jingles on loads of programmes such as Spitting Image in the 80s/90s, Dead Ringers and The Ant and Dec Show (including Wonkey Donkey).

I register births in the UK and it is a very popular name at the moment. Mabel is here to stay!

3/2/2024 46 The Kinks — Waterloo Sunset +3 20 Barry Ryan — Eloise +1 14 The Beach Boys — God Only Knows 00 The Kinks — All Day And All Of The Night -6

Dropped him from the DDp because tbh I got bored and distracted by shiny new oldies, and 20 places isn't a lot. My trying to guess who would be picked has led to two of us bringing back Nadim Sawalha after a long absence and nobody picking Brian Glanville. Or Derry Irvine!

Don Murray, Oscar-nominated star of Marilyn Monroe's Bus Stop, dead at 94.

I am hearing he has died. Anyone got anything official ? Here's something Jonnie Irwin dead aged 50

Only protestants edit Wikipedia.

Long article on the BBC about Scolyer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67870595 Currently has no active cancer but prognosis still 'grim'.

“There’s still a little meat on that bone!”

Probably a good shout tbh. 84 this year and has taken a leave of absence yet again from the Lords. Would tend to suggest he's not in good health.

I noticed that I had dropped in just after you, and updated my post.

Help for Households - apparently the capping of bus fares at £2 falls under that umbrella. Entrance fee for local cinema £13.00 plus 70p booking fee, as opposed to 2 buses at £2.00 each plus cinema entry fee at £9.00, net saving of 70p. (less £6.50 for a pint, net loss £5.80).

i wish we can take only a few minutes to eradicate people named sir creep from the earth

https://www.stereogum.com/2250124/mc5s-wayne-kramer-dead-at-75/news/ Wayne Kramer (MC5) dead at 75. Proto-punk legend.

Having more doctors wouldn't cut waiting times? Ok then. Of course it wouldn't solve all the issues. It wouldn't fix the crumbling hospitals, the closing surgeries (although more doctors would probably help with this), the utterly shite computer systems they have to work with, the don't talk to each other and are on computers last described as cutting edge when John Major was in Downing Street. The Tories have decimated the NHS, and then blamed everybody but themselves for the damage. Scapegoating immigrants as the reason we don't have enough schools or hospitals is nonsense. We had a baby boom after the Second World War. Did we complain we didn't have enough schools and hospitals? Funnily enough, no. We built more schools and hospitals and trained more teachers and doctors. People felt a calling to these vocations and enjoyed the work as it was achievable and meaningful. It is not down to immigrants that teachers and doctors are in crisis, how ever much the Daily Fail and the rest of the Tory press would like to tell us it is.

He was just in the Mandalorian... surprising. My favourite role of his is being himself on Arrested Development though.

Murray was actually a first-time DDP pick this year, despite being an Oscar nominee actor well into his 90s!

And also the most recent player to be on the bench against England in any match to die. Sad news.

Interesting to see Tautou here ! She’s not anywhere as famous as Deneuve and Moreau out here. Cotillard and Deneuve make sense. I thought Moreau was up there with them. A wonderful actress and remarkable woman. A sex symbol also which turned Pierre Cardin hetero as they dated for 4 years.