Paul the sparky wrote:

monkey wrote:

If you think new build houses are low quality with the existing red tape just wait until you step inside one in a couple of years. 

A Boris box.

They can save even more money and the environment by using the recycled cladding taken off all those high rise multis post Grenfell.

Have a little bit of history in your very own home! Will likely push the price up.

Diluted Dante wrote:

I'm honestly not sure why you would have thought he would have done. But this seems to be Johnsons talent. Get people to believe whatever they want to believe about him. "This proven liar wouldn't lie to me would he? Not about this?

It's not so much him as the opportunity. Barring another world war a chance to shake things up doesn't come along very often, and I thought he might have the ego to try and really stick his neck out.

Also, the planet is fucked so somebody needs to do something pretty sharpish.

Yeah but he does want a statue.

Bohnson wants to have the ambition to be 'Rooseveltian' or 'Churchillian' but has no fucking idea, apart from trying to come up with snappy slogans and making constant references to the imagined glories of the past, how to do any of it. He's a second rate journalist and entitled rich boy playing at being a leader.

Plus, as Dante says, he's too comfortable with the status quo and shaking things up to the degree that is needed would make him very unpopular with his current and future paymasters.

"Reptilian" amirite?

They captured most of Stalingrad tbf. Before the Russian's broke out, encircled the City and forced them to surrender.

The deciding factor was Hitler being a bit shit, but the Soviet Union certainly made a bigger contribution in terms of lives lost and casualties inflicted than anyone else.

Dominic Raab sounds too much like Greg Davies for me to take him seriously.

nick_md wrote:

Russia put a fucking shift in in ww2, without wanting to be flippant about it. Probably the deciding factor as much as any other.

Aye. The Eastern front was a huge resource sponge - took the sting of out them before the West got its act together.

Half way through vol.2 of Churchill's WW2 work. Just at the part when he sank a chunk of the French fleet to prevent it falling into German control.

In this part of the book his actual biggest fear was the idea of The British, French, German and Italian fleets merged into a super navy which could have royally fucked up the US who would then have been fighting on two fronts. The US were as ill prepared for war as we were - it took a good time for them to get going and they could have been caught with their pants down.

Paul mccartney is probably a bill by himself.

Personally I think live music will bounce back more readily than the other performing arts. Theatre needs more help in the long run. If those institutions fall, their buildings will be quickly lost to developers. Rebuilding a theatre industry without any theatres could be tricky.

poprock wrote:

I can see both sides. Yes, those individuals should put their money where their mouths are. But there is also a need for the Government to give a shit about the arts. Proper funding in future may be dependent on them paying a tiny bit of attention during this crisis period.

I disagree a little bit. Government should help but let's be fair, all governments are stretched very thin at the moment.

Wouldn't it be nice if all these hugely rich artists set an example to big business and gave back to the community. I'm not talking every singer but when you see the fortunes these guys have (in some cases) they could do the funding themselves.

Either that or let governments tax them appropriately. Looking at you Bono.

Jagger is down to his last $360 million.

Liam Gallagher? $7.5 million. What a bum!