msc

Some might say Paul Arthurs got a touch of cancer, but it's treatable so he's gonna roll with it.

Listening to an interview with Jon Anderson of Yes. His voice hasn't been what it was in his prime for a while, but it was so weak here I could barely make out what he was saying. Maybe one to watch, alas.

She was on my radar pre pandemic but seemed in good spirits despite her own health and more frequently updated on Terry's!

Are you an Observer subscriber? I'm not but according to the old DVD forums, Meltzer's Observer referred to Gatorwolf dying in jail in September 2017. But Dave didn't mention it on his twitter at all, which would be a level of tact I had no ascribed to him, tbh. But that's apparently the source.

Richard Franklin's friends break radio silence to confirm he's in good spirits and being looked after (in the nursing home, I think). Again, I believe that's an old photo, and no mention this time of recovering from his last op.

Ask me again when I'm 118! It's all about quality of life but more importantly enjoyment of life, and by all accounts, including her own, Kane Tanaka enjoyed the most of hers till the end. RIP. All of these longevity cases seem to cite chocolate, fizzy drinks and exercise as the key. I'm already great at two of those!

That was one of the most obvious disconnect moments in the (very enjoyable) series between what was clearly big in music that year for music journos and what was big for singles buying kids at the time, I thought. I'd never heard of the act and I'm quite into music - hell, I was quite into Suede at the time!

I'm sure I posted that earlier off the phone, but must not have pressed reply. Anyhow, I agree.

From the "Fucking Arsebiscuits" department, I dropped Belgium singer Arno from my teams this year.

DDP pick. @YoungWillz has kept the faith with Chappell for a number of years now.

Queenie, then Charles, then William, and I don't expect William to predecease me.

Yes, Informal ie they don't campaign in each others targets rather than formal.

It's hard to really judge where the Lib Dems want to be on the political spectrum, in the last 25 years or so they've had leaders who were genuine centrists (Paddy Ashdown, Ming Campbell), outright lefties (Charles Kennedy), the Orange Bookers (Clegg, Davey, Cable, the latter of whom was more of a Brownite type), the Christian auton (Farron) and the lunatic (Jo "I could be Prime Minister" Swinson). They currently try to be the opposition to everyone at once, when their best periods since 1918 (hell before 1918 too of course) were as an anti-Tory alternative. (There are on the ground rumblings of Lib/Lab pact in target seats, so they may do surprisingly well at the next election, but not to Ashdown/Kennedy levels imo.)

- Brought in the 8 hour work day. - Advocated for free trade which became a Liberal (and later a Tory) pillar. - Backed education reform, protection of trade union members, and brought in basic sick pay/pension guarantees/compensation for work injuries. - Was pro-female suffrage. - Won a landslide by doing a deal with the Labour Party about not standing in each others target seats He was already an ill man when he took office, only lasted 2 years, and Asquith and Lloyd George took the credit for many of his plans after he died, but there is a genuine argument for Campbell-Bannerman having the most influential legacy of our less remembered PMs. Certainly his attempts to avoid WW1 (foiled by his disdain for the French!) and wishes to reform the House of Lords (seemingly ahead of its time in 2022, let alone 1906) were ahead of their time. And the last point is useful if say, you are a current leader wanting to get rid of a Tory government...

We'll still be debating him in 2030 at this rate. EDIT - Hah, was looking for something on the forum and there's just a near decade of posts by me going "Die, Tobin ya bastard". Can't mind if I mentioned it to you, Sean, but when Tobin was doing small handyman jobs, he used a friend of the familys name as an alias, they'd met through Glasgow churches where Tobin was posing as a recovering alcoholic trying to rebuild his life or some shite like that. So they had the police at their door for questions early in the murder case, and the shock of that did for them, they keeled over at work a few weeks later. It's way down his list of crimes, yes, but I'll be having a celebratory drink when this fucker dies.

Hmm, Tobias Ellwood as a John Major type leader isn't an idea I've heard mooted before (and who knows if he'd even consider it, he seems to have a sense of his own perspective, ujnlike most of those benches) and something like that might be their best shot right now. Jeremy Hunt, I think is only popular as an alternative right now because he's so out of the limelight the publics currently forgotten how much they hated the guy...

Here it is. I should have followed that advice. Still annoyed with myself tbh, I concur with the above views.

Emergency heart surgery for gravely ill Martin Roberts on Wednesday there. He's on the mend (got to the hospital just in the nick of time by sounds of it), but maybe one to watch long term.

I'm saving it for the weekend, but I'm surprised it's taken this long for Mark Gatiss to show up in the series. I guess he's often quite busy tbf.

I don't actually mind Charlie tbh. He's not Anne, but he's nowhere near an Andrew either.

Boris Johnson is currently out of the UK on business. Quick! Someone change the locks on the door while he's gone!

Was still acting on stage till just before the pandemic started too. Alongside Mad Men, he was good playing Dominick Dunne in The People vs OJ Simpson. Another name I considered for my Oldies team but he seemed a regular DDP pick, which is good news for Lullabye-bye of Broadway who get a DDP unique when the cert QO shows up!

tbh I was hoping for a Guardian reference nearer the World Cup, but I've been badly let down by the Swedish national team buggering up their playoff and not qualifying for the bloody tournament.

Ah harsh luck. My first sub for the Oldies side (Ralph Riach) has died which is even more annoying as allegedly one of the starting 20 died last year!

I remember you mentioning him, thought you'd pick him this or last year?