And I think the Saxons would disagree about having ‘no State’. Saxon England was heavily centralised.

It’s a good job Mary Beard didn’t see this first. Ancient Rome did actually have a welfare system it had two main programs: the cura Annonae, a state-sponsored grain dole and the Alimenta, which provided financial support for poor children.

I thought it was a Jamie Foxx mask

What the media has done is shifted away from the current figures and started to obsess about the ‘Boriswave’ the implication being all those hard working foreigners who came since Brexit can’t be good for the country or something.

If it’s a big house the maintenance costs and heating must be massive. If the first case she is as frail as they say surely it’s not safe for her to be left alone in such a big house?

Cancel Netflix. Cut back on Starbucks. Shop at Asda instead of Waitrose.

If they can’t afford it right now. Budget better. Cut back on something. If it s still too expensive well the house. If someone on benefits is expected to sell assets to survive why isn’t someone who owns a £2m house also expected to sell their property?

I always find it curious James that those on the lower end of social scale or on benefits are expected to budget but people with wealth and assets are somehow expected to be given a break or a favour. The press needs to apply the same criteria to someone on benefits to someone with a valuable house

Jurors can make decisions sometimes not in line with the law though. Clive Ponting case for example.

It was based on exceptionalism.That U.K. would once again become a global leader in trade. I still remember Leavers saying in 2016 the world was crying out for U.K. leadership It was based on EU capitulating to U.K. demands and everyone giving special treatment to a country with 3.5% of global trade

I said way back in 2016 David that Brexit does give the U.K. freedom.

The freedom to be poorer.

Trump doesn’t have the ability to empathise. He expects everyone to see the world to see it as he sees it. Transactional. He cannot understand the concept of people wanting to fight to preserve their national identity. Because he cannot empathise with any side this is why he’s so bad at making peace

Reading this I was immediately reminded of the gotcha on Columbo’s Ransom for a Dead man
“Mrs. Williams, you have no conscience and that’s your weakness. Did it ever occur to you that there are very few people who would take money to forget about a murder? It didn’t, did it? I knew it wouldn’t.”

For the promises to kept he would have had to break other promises to keep them. The inherent problem we have is that we have U.K. politicians insisting better funded public services is possible on minimal taxes and so failure is inevitable. Politicians refuse to be honest with voters on trade offs

I seem remember at the time there were studies showing evidence of T Cell exhaustion with COVID?

Interesting response from Yusef which is worth remembering and rolling out again for the future when they start criticising other politicians behaviour. Also for the last 2 years Reform has been attacking ALL asylum seekers and Muslims solely based on actions from individuals.

This is undoubtedly down to how badly the proposal has landed with everyone including quite a few Republicans. The leak was a clear case of fishing for a reaction.