msc

from 2021: Thought this was done already but couldn't find it. Anyhow, longest droughts in the DL. (Not counting 1987-89 due to rumours there was no 1988 DL) 1. Jill Ireland to Jim Joel 1990-1992, 676 days 2. Papandreou to Xiaoping, 1996-97, 252 days 3. Sugar Ray Robinson to Ray Moore, 1989, 233 days 4. Clement Stone to Hardy Amies, 2002-2003 183 days 5. Bunny Austin to Stanley Kramer, 2000-2001, 177 days 6. Kitty Godfree to Dan Maskell, 1992, 175 days 7. Elia Kazan to Queen Juliana – 2003-2004, 175 days 8. Les Dawson to Bill Bixby, 1993, 165 days 9. Betty Ford to Harry Morgan, 2011 – 152 days 10. Mondale to Bouteflika, 2021, 150 days 11. June Brown to Gorbachev, 2022, 149 days 12. Deng Xiaoping to Jacques Costeau, 1997, 125 days 13. Arthur Ashe to Les Dawson, 1993, 123 days = since Beckenbauer, 2024, 123 days 15. Secombe to Longford, 2001, 114 days updated 9th May 2024

Yes, I know! Rural southern areas that think Labour is some form of witchcraft. Chalk is set to Defcon Fucked, as they say.

Nobody was really talking about them last week, yet the Lib Dems took about 100 council seats off the Tories whereas Reform won...2. The Lib Dem vote actually went down in 1997 but they more than doubled their number of MPs because they laser focused on about 70 constituencies and won 46 of them. History often repeats, I find.

Was in the last series of Father Brown in the pretty big role of Flambeaus dad. Second cast member from that episode of Fr Brown to die already and both were villains in Dr Who in the Moffat/Chibnall eras.

When my in-laws start moaning about the election taking forever, you know you've lost the country.

That Cecil Parkinson documentary @YoungWillzflagged up has brought up that Lord Sanderson of Bowden, then a Tory party big wig and who later wrote the report on why the Tories were doing shit in Scotland, is still alive aged 91. Retired from the Lords years ago.

And I thought I could stand to lose a stone or two...

Tbf I'm not exactly Kier Starmers best mate but I'd take his Labour any day of the week over this lot of Tories and by looks of it I'm far from alone there now.

I'm relieved too. I like Mark Steel and me liking modern comics is a rarity.

Now you mean you don't think 2O% of the population will vote for independents in an actual general election???

Press like horse races and listen to any gossip which suggests there is one. Khan just won an area Bailey won in 2021.

A sleep deprived Sir John looked like he was about to start beating up idiot politicians and pundits earlier. Alas, he refrained.

He was on my shortlist... for 2016! Lingered slightly.

I've lost four stone since last autumn (diet and exercise changes, trying to be healthier) and have gone down a trouser size and can safely agree I can't make head not tail of the various shops sizes. It's a matter of educated guessing and working from there

I stopped playing ages ago because certain people took the fun out but wanted to say the top five here are all excellent which is a rarity for post millennium music round for me.