btb

I have no problem with players going where the money is, just that moving to DU wouldn't be my advice for the reason given.

Didn't they cut their players wages by 20% in January, I'd be wary about going there for money.

I could see the logic you expressed in your previous post that the DUP would've been best suited to "suck it up" and put on a show of, erm, unity. It just seems to me that compromise isn't their strong suit and like their founder their favourite word is "NO"! Bit of trivia from the Beeb, Poots & Donaldson share an office in Lisburn - awkward...

It appears not and that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wants to lead the DUP from Stormont...

Tuned in briefly to GBNews,, was less than impressed by the male/female gammon combo - if you met them in RealLife you'd be making excuses to go within 30 secs. Can't see why anyone is getting excited by their Day 1 viewing figures, will be surprised if they're not a distant third behind BBC & Sky within a month.

I expect him to announce his retirement after Wimbers. 16 years and the thread'll need a new title...

According to the BBC Givan only had the support of 4 out of 28 of the party's MLAs, so who knows? I suspect Poots was hoping that givan (sic) the circumstances he could bounce the party into backing his decision, the DUP are in a very weak position now and I suspect will do anything to avoid going to the polls in the near future.

Definitely not mad for it...

The benefits of BJs "oven ready deal" just keep on a-coming... British food and drink exports to EU fall by £2bn in first quarter of 2021 | Food & drink industry | The Guardian

I don't think they would've let Oscar in the DUP.

All going pear shaped for Poots with his appointment of Givan not hitting the spot with fellow party members...

Watched approx 15 mins of GBNews this morning while I had a coffee & some cheesy biccies, won't be repeating that particular viewing experience - back to Radio 6 or Classic Rock for me!

On a personal level I don't buy a ST because I work every other Saturday and if there are to be restrictions on the number of people able to attend then I guess it'll be uncertain when I'll be able to get to a match. On a group level I can see the frustration of paying full price after missing the post-Obika games in 18/19 and the reduced service last season - another season (potentially) of not being able to attend every match would be, as I say, frustrating especially given the current level of progress in dealing with the pandemic.

Breaking the bank in June - breaking the contracts next January...

The Brexit problems feed on each other, Britain is in a weak position and signing a Trade Deal with Australia where food standards are a worry will make the EU unlikely to concede anything on the sosijes issue.

I'm not normally one of those "obsessed by the stats" guys but my brief perusal of them seems to show that the number of cases is plateauing at between 7-8 thousand cases a day and deaths at around 10 per day, I feel the governments should have held their nerves and followed their initial plan to open up - and I say this from pox-ridden South Ayrshire.

I didn't realise the Lovejoys were in charge ! In your scenario the world is basically fucked as everyone should be double dunted so zero for any Lovejoy to cling on to. We might even be firing it into the school kids by then too. Maybe it's not my place to jump in here but my interpretation of Pedro's post was that any further relaxation of Lockdown rules would have to be done soon to avoid accusations of repeating last years' mistakes and that the assorted administrations would stick where they are at end-September throughout the winter.

Government down south already briefing/leaking that the June 21st easing of restrictions are likely to be delayed by "up to 4 weeks", can't see us not following suit.

Ian Paisley Jnr & Van Morrison get together to chant "Robin Swann is very dangerous" after Van's gig was cancelled...

1. I did and presumed that short of turning the changeover into a Three Stooges sketch the object for us was to go as slowly as possible - turned out I was in a minority. 2. Yeah but increasingly people won't join or are leaving making the union progressively weaker - conditions (that were hard won) are being given away due to a mixture of fear & indifference.

Crazy situation @ work about 5 years ago - a Time & Motion study was made into how long it took to do a product changeover. We have 4 x 12 hour shifts running continuously so each shift was timed on said changeover, we were last and the other guys took a "let's be quickest" decision while I bumbled about however we were the quickest & the decision was made if we could do it in 20 mins all the shifts could - a rod on our backs that we have borne ever since.

I saw some of the Hancock deposition earlier today - at one point he made a claim that the govt. was ready to introduce Lockdown1 earlier than it actually happened but decided against due to scientific advice. I guess there may have been some scientists holding out against said Lockdown but if flies in the face of what has been reported for over a year that the government has, in general, been reluctant to implement majority SAGE advice promptly. No doubt the Independent enquiry (when it comes) will sort out whether the political decisions were made on the best contemporaneous scientific advice throughout the course of the pandemic - or not.

Already hand-waved away by the argument that decisions had to be made quickly at the start of the pandemic.

Um, I don't think it was incompetence, there were quite a few polls showing gammons would be happy to see NI (and Scotland) go if it meant they could secure Brexit - IMO it was a calculated gamble that paid off handsomely in the 2019 GE. You're right about him shafting the DUP about a fortnight after saying there would be "No Surrender" at that years Tory Conference, how the DUP laughed at the time, as the saying goes, they're not laughing now. I think BJ is quite happy in his role as the Lord of Misrule, safe in the knowledge he'll be gone when the brown stuff hits the fan...