En Passant

Quality post. It's a fine margin between 'Edit Removed' and 'I'm not in this pool'. It is however a needle you have threaded with remarkable accuracy sir. I salute you.

Your emotions radar needs a damn good servicing .

You've missed the costs of the Aircraft Carriers. Add 6 Billion. And the F22 planes, another 6 (13 over their predicted lifetime, don't have that handy for the carriers themselves). Mind you, that should be considered a plus in your bid to replace the chancellor, divert attention away from these sums, don't want that discussion. Running total? <> 25-30 years of a Cpn Tom. Every. Single. Day.

Zeitgeist. And promoted populism, grab the proles with a story they can relate to. /offtopic rant best ignored. As to a 'lot' of money.... I read today that we are behind with our new Trident subs all 31 billion quids worth. A whole other can of worms you may say but hang on bear with me it's not really that part, it's the fact that apparently it's going to cost 200 million to refuel an existing one (Vanguard) because it'll have to go 30-35 years instead of the planned 20-25. Let that sink in. Two Hundred Million Pounds to 'fill 'er up please'. Yeah I know Uranium is a bit trickier than petrol, but blimey. Never mind the multi-billion quid aircraft carriers the Chinese have reportedly called 'floating target practice' either, because it'll bore everyone who missed the warning. Money for NHS is down to Tom, school meals down to Rashford and nobody at all is taking responsibility for the cladding disaster. But we got to have our subs and aircraft carriers. (Why? most of the rest of Europe doesn't bother 'cept the French to a degree) We obsess about the wrong things, partly because we are led to obsess about the wrong things. /end boring rant. Ooh look, a butterfly!

or because we find the whole concept of the 'biggest death' that hit you the hardest a subjective minefield that causes endless squabbling hereabouts*. *even if some of said squabbling is somewhat entertaining.

Scottish University finds international travel likely the biggest impact on increasing death rates. Ok, ok, 1) It's a study, not yet peer reviewed and so on. 2) Well, it's Scottish *. *This is merely for my own amusement, poking things with a stick as it were because I know there are very few on this forum that aren't Scots (tempted with 'Scotch' just to push it, but decided against) or gay or obsessed with death or indeed all three. Well, ok maybe not me but I've always been odd and I have been to Scotland several times and there was this thing at school once during a detention...but you really don't want to know about that.

It was a generalisation GUN. Even I appreciate that clearly some travel is necessary. It's where that line is drawn. I'd hazard your engineers and their compadre's from similar industries are a tiny percentage of the people still flying all over the place. It's the same as the speeding or drinking jokes - Anyone slower than me is a roadhogging old fool, faster than me is a maniac - drinking less than me a party pooping bore and more than me an alcoholic etc. The govt(s) should have stopped all un-necessary flights, but they (mostly) haven't. I've probably mentioned it elsewhere but I was laughing heartily* at the woman getting off a flight from some Greek holiday island and immediately going on national television and lambasting her fellow passengers as covidiots for not wearing masks. Seriously, take a look at yourself. I hate Little Richardjohn, but you couldn't make it up. *this may be a euphemism.

Ok, shot them with a surprisingly large calibre...

Nor mine and good job. Bloody virtue signalling it is anyway. More about making sure you are seen to be supporting good causes than just quietly doing so. Typical of BoJo to promote it, populism.

Sub-title to thread probably needs changing...

I'm up for Kushner getting a posthumous prize.

Really? I listen to the lyrics of that which is odd enough in itself.... It moves me to tears every time, the simple lack of humanity, I cry over my breakfast cereal, over my bacon sandwich elevenses, lunch, dinner....oh I can't be fucked...

He wrote 80% or all of Eleanor Rigby depending on whose version you believe, but any proportion gets a pass from me. Mind, he also wrote Mull of Kintyre and Pipes of Peace....so maybe.

Tbf You could put that on a macro as a stock response to anything Iain says.

At least somebody with a team of, you know, actors, will be giving @gcreptile a run for his money.

Oh it's not restricted to child actors.... Just this last week I decided that a snowball fight with the kids from the house opposite was eminently more satisfying than dealing with being transferred to the execrable Scottish Power because my lot, Yorkshire Power (A money saving expert recommendation), went bust.. And no, I don't live in either Yorkshire or Scotland.

Two people have already promoted him to Major, one thinks he is getting a state funeral, I'm not sure a knighthood and beatification will be sufficient.

Oh come now, it's been called tasteless, perhaps with some justification, but actually causing deaths? Surely not.

Harry Beal the Navy Seal Bridge? Too good to pass over....(or perhaps under).

Well bugger me mate, I never knew all that . Learn something every day and sometimes something you wish you hadn't. The original was just a throwaway really, Blackburn used to bore me when stuck somewhere in the car, which was often, as this was in North London, and he oozed a bit whenever it was a female call-in, or did to my mind. Damn. But thanks.

What I thought was a dismal 34. Looked a few up, ah....soap. gotit.

Nobody should be flying anywhere, nor should they have been since the start of this. If you leave those corridors open, the physical distances are entirely irrelevant. Anybody who can't forego a foreign holiday for a year is a self centred twat. 80% of flights are taken by 20% of people i.e. those who have the funds AND the time, so not only well off, but not well off because they are working 24/7. Business travel? My arse, do it on the phone or zoom videoconferencing. Nobody who runs an airline is poor, a load of them are state owned anyway, other businesses are going bust left right and centre, yes they provide some jobs, so do a lot of other things. It's not like we shouldn't be cutting it out for climate reasons anyway.

John Peel. Omnivore (probably). Proof that the good (as opposed to banal and slightly creepy), die young.

You're welcome, I'm available to not help on a wide range of topics.

/VictorMeldrew I don't belieeeeve it. When Gooseberry isn't bumping this thread you pop along. Gah. \VM Can't help, never heard of him/her/it. And no, probably don't want to. Also bored, pretty much the same four walls for nearly a year now so it's not exactly a sneaked up from behind you and caught you unawares boredom, it's the full blown you saw it coming a mile off boredom and it didn't disappoint.