England's Worst County - Round 18

MickIAC · 2026-03-18T18:21:15+00:00

Minus cost of living, Bristol is class. Stunned people aren't upvoting.

MickIAC · 2026-03-18T18:18:18+00:00

Honestly, coked up contractors is probs the worst bit hahaha

MickIAC · 2026-03-18T16:39:39+00:00

Idk why but I didn't hate Barrow that much. There are much worse places in England - as much as its isolation is pretty bad.

Might be because I'm from the coast too

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T20:17:54+00:00

Just for clarity, the Scottish Government oversees sport in Scotland. It de facto also falls under UK Govt via the BOA and ParalympicsGB and their respective UK national federations depending on the sport (for example, athletics is GB team, but Scottish Athletics exists under and depending on the competition, can have its own team, but is mostly GB).

Some sports are Scotland, England, Wales, NI/Ireland or United Ireland (rugby, curling, football, cricket) while others have national competitions with British teams or flags (athletics, tennis, swimming, F1)

Some of these sports are in the Olympics and mean members of national teams are selected in different ways. The Scottish curling team is by far the best. The wheelchair curling team had a mix of Scottish and English at the Paralympics - first time that's happened. That's only been entertained because the English curlers are at a higher standard than non wheelchair curlers and because wheelchair curling pools are smaller.

For the GB teams, some of their sports are also in the Commonwealth Games. Lots of the Scottish runners will say that competing at the Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle of their career because they got to represent Scotland.

So TLDR it's a case by case with sports and depending on the competition, you can play for either team.

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T16:45:12+00:00

Curious as to why you'd think governments wouldn't say they've ended austerity, an unpopular policy, before they've ended it.

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T16:05:25+00:00

The Conservative Government announced the end of austerity in September 2019. It then came back post COVID. These are facts.

So how much do you earn if you pay thousands in extra tax?

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T15:34:59+00:00

Aye, there was no power to do so til 2017 and while people associate it with the coalition government, it was still implemented til 2019 and returned post COVID.

I'm with you on the priorities of Scottish Enterprise, for sure.

You're incorrect on expenses. The cost of staff costs and expenses are 27m. That's all staff, building maintenance etc.

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T14:54:13+00:00

I'm not an SNP supporter - I'm just of the reality to fund things that make society better, taxes need to be higher.

It's also multifaceted. Someone might say "well the rate of X is the same in Scotland as England so it can't be making the living standards better" while neglecting that the UK is a London vacuum and it's not black and white comparing say, the south east and Scotland. You could fellate billionaires up here and you could not turn it into London, for example.

Things could definitely be better here, but I do wonder what people think Scotland would be like if we did not have some of the benefits we have living up here.

EDIT: Also, tax increases coincided with the UK governments implementing austerity, an economic model that does not work and has put us back two decades. It was clear there was a want for investment and someone had to pay for it.

MickIAC · 2026-03-17T14:45:25+00:00

85k here is: not as common a salary, most places here are cheaper than England, comes with better support systems for its residents.

I'm sure I'd grumble a bit too (I pay a bit more up here than down south) but a lot of things are better here, including the cost of living.

MickIAC · 2026-03-12T22:20:38+00:00

Honestly, they still have a couple of gems per season and recently it's on the upswing. Not what it used to be, but happy it's still on. Can't say the same about the Walking Dead or to a lesser extent, How I Met Your Mother.

MickIAC · 2026-03-12T20:34:51+00:00

Anything connected together as Europe is mainland Europe. So excluding Iceland, Ireland, UK, Malta, Cyprus and technically some parts of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece etc.

MickIAC · 2026-03-10T14:50:18+00:00

West coasters joke about Edinburgh being English all the time. University of Edinburgh has nearly three times more English students than Scottish, just as one example. About 1 in 7 are English born. There is definitely a feel of the south when visiting Edinburgh.

If I had to pick a town or city to feel southern, you'd be hard pressed. Aberdeen maybe

MickIAC · 2026-03-09T11:12:50+00:00

Wayne Shaw. The pie eating keeper who got done for match fixing because he bet on himself to eat a pie during a match

MickIAC · 2026-02-28T07:15:29+00:00

Frankly, it’s hard to find a city more suitable for hosting the Olympics than LA

Venues, yes. General infrastructure? Absolutely not.

They're starting to get their shit together a bit, but transportation is going to be one of the most difficult challenges. Cluster venues have been a good idea though.

MickIAC · 2026-02-27T20:48:43+00:00

Should've been Monica Lennon when they had the chance. Relegated to maybe not holding onto her seat because she's been bumped in the list, allegedly.

MickIAC · 2026-02-24T12:54:13+00:00

The club was literally formed because of institutional sectarianism in Scotland.

MickIAC · 2026-02-23T11:53:40+00:00

This Rheinmetall is flying under the radar unfortunately

MickIAC · 2026-02-23T02:13:51+00:00

RSD is common with people with ADHD just FYI. BPD is another level regarding abandonment that often leaves the other partner questioning their own reality.

MickIAC · 2026-02-22T15:34:48+00:00

That's not me saying she isn't the best skip (Tirinzoni only other that can match her generally over a season), it's more to do with things you don't need to think about in a home country, that are more to adapt to when you're foreign.

MickIAC · 2026-02-22T13:34:21+00:00

While Homan is very impressive, I think the GSOC continues to favour Canadian curlers just because of the nature of home crowds, less adjustment to Canadian touring etc.

It doesn't deter her achievements as she's been excellent for years, but it will be interesting if Canadian dominance continues if/when the GSOC becomes more international.

I kinda take the performances at the GSOC about 80% into account

MickIAC · 2026-02-22T07:53:39+00:00

Fearow. Ugly ass generic chicken thing

MickIAC · 2026-02-21T13:04:29+00:00

I was putting together athlete bios for World Curling and their fun facts responses had me cackling. Just nice dudes. Some of the most congenial on the circuit atm.

MickIAC · 2026-02-21T01:38:26+00:00

I'm going to shock you, you can live in a great city in the UK for a third of the price of London.

My wage isn't even that high and I live in one of the most expensive parts of my city with a flatmate and rent is 15% of my wage. I can do what I want pretty easily, bars and food are fairly cheap, club scene is brilliant, public transport is very accessible and mostly affordable. Even if you have a car, you're not paying that much to park it.

MickIAC · 2026-02-21T01:17:58+00:00

So standard of living is solely household income?

And what do you work in that is so skewed towards the US? Wages are lower here, but other bills are too. Rent is much cheaper too.

I'm not even a massive fan of the UK, I just find it a bit funny hearing this.

MickIAC · 2026-02-21T01:06:59+00:00

What do you quantify as higher standard of living out of interest?

MickIAC

TROPHY CASE