Master Obit

Got to be Chomsky.

The negatives: I don't really see what the point of the "suggestions for 2025" thread was if there was never any question of them deviating from their "pick anyone famous who is 90+" strategy. 41/50 picks are 90+. Similar to the rule that no more than half the list can have featured the previous year, I think it'd be much more exciting if there was a rule that no more than half the picks can be 90+ Just as Rob Burrow and Jonnie Irwin were missed last year despite being virtually guaranteed hits, Steve McMichael and Peter Yarrow are overlooked this year. Roberta Flack being dropped is extremely risky. There are still too many bed-blockers for my liking - Greenspan, Murray and Gall are all going to be kept on the list until they die by the look of it despite the fact they're only really on it for being extremely old and there's no reason to assume they won't all plod on to 104. They're very much a "committee is in their 60s, and these people were slightly relevant decades ago but no one young would know them" feel to them. The positives: Dick Cheney has finally been dropped, and I'm glad to see some of the other boring picks like Daniel Barenboim gone (even if they've been replaced by other boring picks). Yoko Ono is a great returnee. I reckon there might be twice as many hits as last year, which sounds great until you remember there were only six last year.

I'm surprised to not see Tomiko Itooka - 117 Inah Canabarro Lucas - 117 Ethel Caterham - 116 Might as well have them at this point if the strategy is to just pick really old people. I will say that the list will probably get double digits, but I can't see it doing extremely well.

This first point means virtually nothing when he's led a lifestyle of not looking after himself. 93 and 88 aren't really crazy ages, so there's no reason to think he's blessed with insane genetics that will counterbalance his unhealthiness. He's a heart attack waiting to happen, and is to undertake an incredibly stressful job. I'm saying he sees 85 tops.

I'll say Noam Chomsky, fuck it.

I have to nitpick here and state that it having happened recently doesn't make it less likely. The events are independent. I do agree it's an unlikely event, nonetheless.

Can we please lock this thread ASAP before mymango posts a heartfelt tribute? I think it'd crash the site with how long it'd be.

Damn. I reckon he'll struggle to recover from this but you can never count him out.

He'd probably get less if he was actually better at presenting himself to the people. The Winter Fuel Allowance thing was a bit of a PR own goal, and was really inviting criticism for going after the most vulnerable members of society. A lot of the pensioners who can't now claim it didn't necessarily need it, but he should really have anticipated that going for them so quickly would be seen as targeting the vulnerable. I spoke with a relative in their 70s who falls in to this category, and he doesn't even disagree that at its roots it wasn't a terrible idea, just that it felt like an unfair immediate attack on the aged especially when Labour is supposed to be all about defending the weak in society. It could easily have been deferred and slotted in a bit later down the line when there couldn't really have been an angle for "Keir wants to immediately kill the pensioners!" It would still have invited criticism from the press, but there'd have been more people willing to entertain it as a tough, but necessary, decision as opposed to a mercenary attack on the vulnerable.

Yeah, that's clearly not trustworthy. I am the king of the gays, not this imposter.

Dude, get help. Seriously. There's dark humour and then there's...needing psychological help.

Fascinating. I'd be interested if you have any stories/information about when you met him!

Would that have been Reg Dean?

I'm not sure that's enough to put him on the list tbh. Picking people on the basis of poor mental health is risky.