Surprise Demise

So you've got: England: Ethel Caterham (115)/Donald Rose (109) Scotland: Jenny Smart (109)/Hugh Kerr (109) Wales: Kathleen Somerville (108)/Owen Filer (105) Northern Ireland: Agnes Thompson (109)/Norman Irwin (106) Ireland: Ruby Druce (108)/Joe Veselsky (106) A lot of mega-oldies don't really get coverage anymore: neither of the Scots have, for example. These are also only the oldest folk who've been identified: it's possible there's older folk who are anonymous.

As enthralling as a five-hour tabloid trawling extravaganza sounds, I know there's probably also some people here who have Google Alerts switched on for things like this, so they get notified of them automatically.

Doesn't look like a reputable source at all. The page was seemingly only created within the last day, posted some vague spammy nonsense, and then that.

In the Columbus films especially I believe a lot of people who were cast as unidentified characters just to pad out scenes were retroactively 'linked' with a character from the books at some point during production, but they weren't actually supposed to be playing anyone in particular, just "sit there, look wizardy."

It's like a lot of niche communities with lauded figures I think - some tend to form parasocial relationships and project things onto them a little. The death of a close family member or friend will always be a sad occasion - even if they are 114 - for those that knew them, but these people have lived much longer lives than any of us could imagine: if people on forums from halfway across the globe only took a moment to step back and gain perspective they'd know that the death of a supercentenarian is not the reason for frantic "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?" posts. It's unfortunate, but it's something to be expected with an interest in longevity. Then there's the people who get upset simply because they weren't able to pass some arbitrary milestone. I don't really know what to say to that...

Why is it all these supposed 'free-thinkers' sound exactly alike. If I had a penny for every time someone used the redpill analogy for some batshit conspiracy theory I'd have enough money to build my own fucking moon rocket.

Farage is nowt but a scapegoater. If things are going shitty, he energises and riles people up by giving them a 'monolithic' group something to blame ('lefty loonies', the EU, immigrants). People then vote Reform because they then think if Farage gets rid of these groups everything will be all sunshine and daisies, but as we have seen from Brexit that clearly is not the case. It's the Trumpian fashion of eliminating nuance in politics and trying to establish an us-vs-them mentality. A Farage premiership would achieve nothing but exacerbating hostilities between different political factions while quality of life continues to steadily decline - but it's okay apparently because "we know it's [Insert Group Here] that's causing it and Nige has a plan to set them straight!". The man is a clear grifter and could not spare a fraction of a thought for the plights of the common person in this country.

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, is 66 today!

Caithness is much the same (just look at our flag - we're basically cosplaying a Scandinavian colony!) and despite the disaffection for the SNP I struggle to see how it would be possible to manifest the >15% swing (if I've done my maths right) that would be necessary to have Reform second in the seat. If I'm wrong and they do second I'll eat my hat - in a Paddy Ashdown way.

This is a very weird prediction for second place in Orkney & Shetland The Brexit Party lost their deposit there last time! (with SNP and the Lib Dems being the only parties to exceed 10%) I feel like the Scotland data might end up being a bit off.

The number of Reform votes in Sunderland is a bit terrifying.

The potential Tory gains in Scotland aren't great to see (I'm now ostensibly surrounded by Tory seats!) and Reform being on 13 is worrying, but overall it's looking to be a good night.

Went for the Lib Dems. I've recently moved back to my hometown, which is in the most northerly mainland constituency (and also the largest); which last election was marginal Lib Dem-SNP. I can't really bring myself to vote for the SNP at the moment given the shitshow that's gone down recently, and Labour have done absolutely no campaigning up here and selected some rando candidate with an address in London so they clearly couldn't give less of a fuck. Ed Davey's emphasis on social care definitely helped me feel more confident in my voting decision as my mum has MS (I believe his wife does as well) and it's good to see a party taking a firm stance in guaranteeing support.

Had a dream last night with the Tories on 47 and the Lib Dems on 64. As much as I'd like to see that happen I think we'll get something more like this: Labour 439 Conservative 102 Liberal Democrat 59 Scottish National Party 19 Reform 5 Plaid Cymru 4 Green 2 Independent/Other 1 (possibly Jezza or Galloway) Labour Majority 228 I actually completely forgot the Alba Party was a thing until my postal vote arrived and I learned they were standing in my constituency (Lib Dem-SNP marginal). I'll be interested to see how many votes they manage to siphon as there's definitely a demographic of hardline independence folk dissatisfied with the SNP that probably aren't leftist or environmentalist enough to vote Green.

I'd also put Leila Denmark forward for consideration: co-developer of the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, who reached 114!