That's a fair point. But those who can't get from the gulf are going to be buying from Norway (and other suppliers) too. It's going to be problematic, for sure.

I'd say we're 10% or so up on petrol and 20% up on diesel, but that happened very early on, and really there's been very little movement since.

#bbcwatchdog Royal Mail saying they're going to move second class deliveries to every other weekday.

They've already done this, as anyone who actually expects "regular" post can vouch for.

Maybe eventually, but between here and there is underpants gnomes territory.

Sure, but we're becoming more and more likely to actually run out, because even if it starts flowing again, as you point out, those ships are still five weeks away. Prices just aren't reflective.

I have been fascinated by the prices of petrol in the UK... There's literally nothing coming out of the gulf and yet prices have basically remained the same for three weeks. I don't see what's keeping them stable other than hopium?

Side point - but I feel the BBC article should probably have mentioned why Prescott was suspended and some of the concerns around him - this from Prospect and @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com

Rather than just doing the 'John Prescott's son is now in the Greens!' thing

The guy who bankrupted Trump Shuttle airlines is going to take over Spirit with our tax dollars. What could go wrong?

ADOBE: welcome to photoshop. what would you like to do. here is an AI tool
ME: i would like to draw a rectangle. i am selecting the rectangle tool
ADOBE: did you say AI?
ME: rectangle please
ADOBE: sorry but i can only do that in an insane way now. here is a new layer and a vector for some reason

It is hard to imagine that any PM would be absolutely chill to have their public appointments rejected or delayed by the FCDO after they had announced them. It would look really bad! Of course there was pressure! To claim otherwise takes us into the realms of science fiction.

QUICK! While the Hungarian guy is out, but before the Bulgarian guy comes in!

They think you're stupid.

Still of the view that the biggest risk in this whole mess is widespread hunger in poorer countries leading to political instability.

"But I don't understand ... my can, it's full of worms!?"

It is impossible to separate the racism from the woo with these people.

Paved with good intentions, etc. etc.

Gordon

Yeah, I think having been through security vetting for minor connection to govt work in the past does mean you view the huge sweep of power and information that (frankly) unvetted idiots get to wield in today's politics with *a lot* of concern. But vetting process as-is probably isn't the solution.

Hence, I guess, the register of members interests, etc etc.

I was thinking more of vetting at the candidacy stage but I guess this disadvantages independents and smaller parties who can't just field a replacement, and actually even larger parties don't have endless lists of qualified candidates, look I've obviously not thought that hard about this lol

So far :-)
Sorry, that's flippant, I do see what you're saying.

Yes I guess that is true, but at the same time you do have foreign intelligence services grooming committee members...

I am team DV-for-all-MPs given that famously we've been compromised through this before, but then I'm also team pass-an-IQ-test-for-all-MPs and I realise that this makes me fairly extreme.

I just LOVE how he's more freaked out by the fact that it knew he was basically fishing for support for the theory of chemtrails.

Congratulations due to Reuters for managing to get a camera crew that far up Trump's ass to film this.

TFW you are so focussed on the profit motive you didn't dogfood your own systems with your "ultimate hacking machine".

These companies employ some of the smartest minds in the world and at the same time are run by some of the dumbest mother******s who ever drew breath.

Who could have guessed that decapitating Iran's existing leaders would create uncertainty about who on their side is actually empowered to negotiate?

Everyone.

Everyone could have guessed that.

I did not ask for this gift of prophecy, and in this case I did not need it.

Headline of the Day.

Trump's team were apparently quite happy with Karen Pierce, who was not the same person as Kim Darroch who had to be replaced in the first term.

She didn't withhold information.