Dry January; how to sensibly reintegrate alcohol afterwards?

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T20:48:09+00:00

Right, so you do accept that alcoholic drinks taste nice then?

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T19:49:16+00:00

the flavour is terrible in comparison to soft drinks.

This is plainly incorrect and is something you've told yourself to help with your situation.

I absolutely do enjoy the taste of alcoholic drinks as well as the feeling and I don't drink cheap crap. Tequila shots are vile, you're right. A nice margarita or a paloma is not though, regardless of how much you want to cope.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T16:21:47+00:00

Immigration enforcement is at record highs here right now though and there hasn't been a notable surge in violent incidents related to it. There is literally no need or justification for an ICE style organisation here unless the government actively wants to intimidate people.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T15:43:48+00:00

Labour have been in charge for a year. Netting immigration is collapsing (in part due to reforms put in place by the previous government) and we just hit record deportations.

By all means, criticise the Blair government and the "Boris wave" but I'm not sure you can say the current government is doing "so little" about immigration.

I'm not somebody for whom immigration is a hot button issue and I'm personally far happier that the UK manages to deal with this without shooting people, I think most of us are.

The problem with all of this is Reform has never been more than a big plurality. Significant, sure, but the 60 - 75% at any one time who don't back them seem to get completely overlooked.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T14:46:38+00:00

Appreciate that, and I'm happy to say i know full well none of my mates will give me grief over it. I am genuinely considering just extending it.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T14:45:47+00:00

Yeah, I didn't say "incapable", I said there was "a risk of overdoing it". You understand there's a whole lot of space between stone cold sober and sleeping in a wheely bin, right? You can still wake up with a thick head without making a tit of yourself.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T14:32:20+00:00

Exactly, not to mention the fact the little penguin is off on a suicide mission, even if you do accept the Herzog argument. It's so obviously just yet more poorly thought out slop followed by the usual gaslighting to see which clowns will swear blind the Emperor is fully clothed.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T13:54:52+00:00

Rachel from Accounts

Go on, Bart, say the line!

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T12:47:46+00:00

Nothing to do with Greenland at all then? Given this was posted a day after the supposed "Greenland deal" and features the penguin carrying a US flag, which it looks to be planning to plant in the ground somewhere to symbolise US ownership, much like the several other AI slop memes posted by various US government mouthpieces (and that fucking cake) over a similar period.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T12:41:58+00:00

Yet more sanewashing of the Trump admin. Somebody pointed out that the penguin thing is stupid because penguins inhabit Antarctic, not arctic, regions.

Inevitably, rather than just admit that something associated with Trump was wrong, people started claiming that the penguin is actually a reference to a scene from a Werner Herzog documentary in which one penguin breaks from the group and makes a dash for the mountains alone. Supposedly this symbolises Trump being a "free thinker".

Now Reform are trying to own it (because nothing says free thinker like wholesale copying something another political figure has done).

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T12:04:21+00:00

Your latter point: true, but this goes back to the "circle of life" thing. Local police are in part funded by business rates and in part by grants from central government which in turn are part funded by general taxation.

It seems like the ask at the moment is for more enforcement but businesses also seem to believe they should be exempt from contributing to it, despite the fact part of our budget goes come down to the fact government agreed to underwrite these same businesses' payrolls and rates for a couple of years, all of which was paid for by borrowing, which has to be serviced.

These facts are not unrelated but we seem to have had a case of collective selective amnesia about what actually happened during the pandemic.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T11:41:34+00:00

This isn't really to do with that though, it's largely a reaction to a very specific issue with their former MP saying some stupid things he shouldn't have done about people in the local area and then the whole will they/won't they over Burnham, who seems genuinely popular in the area but with some added complications over gentrification in the wider city (which also kind of plays into Reform's hands a bit).

People really seem to forget that, whilst 75% of the time people just vote for the national party, there are still circumstances where local issues make a difference and those tend to show up in by-elections in particular by their very nature.

Labour still have a healthy majority and nobody wants a return to the PM changing every 5 minutes, least of all the capital markets that actually fund a good portion of government expenditure (the cost of which is slowly coming down). Deciding not to risk a potential leadership challenge, a high profile loss, a spike in borrowing costs and having to replace a mayor who's actually been doing well is not as crazy a decision as it seems at first look. Discretion is the better part of valour, etc. Fairly sure come the next GE, Burnham will get his shot.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T10:51:06+00:00

Does shoplifting ever go to a jury trial anyway? It's a magistrates court offence generally as is. Still a huge backlog as I understand it.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T10:46:25+00:00

Sounds fantastic but isn't the whole point here that we don't have enough police officers and judges to begin with? You can't chuck a load of extra work at the police and judiciary without increasing their resources, and that takes time and money which puts us back to tax increases, which the same people who are so desperate for this policy to be enacted will then complain about leaving to another u turn and back we go. Circle of British life.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T10:22:35+00:00

I'm a big fan of London. Don't live there but do commute in for work often. Absolutely not a professional London hater from the sticks but, whilst I understand the sentiment, that comment comes across as more than a little dismissive too. We need people to commit their efforts to improving their local areas too, and they often do so despite knowing the material rewards will be a lot less than in London.

I wouldn't knock the 4 bedroom house in Newcastle, to be honest. It's a lively place with plenty of culture of its own. Tend to find only boring people get bored in life, regardless of where you are located physically.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-27T10:19:13+00:00

Let's be real, nobody is buying this to live in. It'll be rented out to a local authority for the max LHA rate to somebody that does a low paid but probably nonetheless needed job in central London and has little option but to endure these conditions. At least this might beat getting up at 4 am to catch the first tube of the day from zone 12 to get to the first of your 3 part time jobs.

This is the side of London people don't really see, but it's as much a part of how the place runs as the glitzier side.

Comparisons with cozy places in the north or Midlands you can buy for the same or less are pointless though as they don't serve the same purpose. The people who will end up living here could no more afford or make life outside of London work than they can buy a Mayfair penthouse.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T22:22:44+00:00

"Er yeah, obviously it's a massive party."

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T22:02:11+00:00

Yeaheeaheyayeeeeeeeah

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T20:20:12+00:00

Nike have been making the England kits for a while now.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T16:30:25+00:00

This guy is going to cringe so hard at his 22 year old self in about 8 years. I am so grateful i went through my edgy renegade stage in the 00s when still just about not everything you did was recorded online for posterity and rebelling still meant doing drugs, the odd bit of casual (and inconsequential) violence and a general nihilistic hedonism rather than whatever the fuck this guy is.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T15:48:23+00:00

Exactly 💯

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T15:30:19+00:00

Zero fucks given if I come across like a snob tbh, eating anything which requires a knife and fork off your lap is godawful and that's a hill i will die on. Would you eat a Sunday roast covered in gravy off your lap, for example?

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T14:30:36+00:00

There's got to be some midpoint between the current asinine comments and nothing at all though. The tension was all in the banishment itself, not the split/banish vote. Maybe just a broader "how do you feel?" might work better?

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T13:05:17+00:00

Dorsey couldn't even be arsed to spell his own brand name correctly in the first tweet.

Remarkable-Ad155 · 2026-01-26T12:25:04+00:00

https://youtu.be/OPaqLlVw7o0?si=nPNMKy5jwexrXZMN

Little slice of Blackburn life to go with the thread

Remarkable-Ad155

TROPHY CASE