Brett-Butler

A Premier League match on Freeview, I never thought I would see the day. Is the crowd noise "live", or is there someone with a CD that changes the crowd noise based upon what's happening in the match.

As expected the Rolling Stones dropped like a brick in the space of a day. I doubt it'll stay in the top 40 come Friday, although hopefully it just about hangs in there. Quite surprised that Bob Dylan has held up surprisingly solidly in its second week, I though it would have dropped much further.

I think he'd end up hosting it, but not provide the commentary & pass it over to Rylan or someone else. Although it's very much a moot point, as I can't see the UK winning it whilst Graham Norton is the commentator.

I did notice that, but I believe the makers were able to get grants from the Scottish Film industry to film in Edinburgh, hence why that's where the final was. I believe it's also the reason why Fire Saga are Icelandic as they got funding from Iceland to film it there - I don't think the story would've been too much different if they were from any other country that takes part, bar the ex-Soviet ones & Australia. Anyway, I thought it was a nice tribute to Eurovision, parodying it whilst not stooping to the level of mockery, a bit corny in places and the storyline was highly predictable, but some great set-pieces and great fun.

The reissue of "The Sun Is Often Out" by Britpop band Longpigs is apparently top 10 on vinyl sales alone so far.

How many songs sung in Icelandic have made the UK Top 40? The only one that springs to mind is Hoppipolla by Sigur Rós (which is also sung in the made-up language Hopelandic). I think all of Bjork's singles were sung in English.

In other opinion polling news - @1276942999277178881 I can't think of anything notable that Starmer's done in the past week to see his approval rating soar so much, but Labour should be pleased with that. I can't think of the last time that a Labour leader polled better than the Tory leader. Probably 2013/14 with Ed Miliband/David Cameron.

"Would it not be be simpler, if the government simply dissolved the people, and elected another?” Going slightly off-topic here, but I would dispute the idea that social conservatism is individualistic, I would argue that it is very much the opposite, in terms of its support for institutions, social groups, etc. Also, as I've mentioned before, in each election the biggest group of voters up for grabs in each election cycle are the "communitarian" voters, those who are to the left of economics & welfare, and, for lack of a better term, culturally conservative, who are put off by Labour on cultural grounds, and the Tories on economic & welfare grounds (although the Tories have massively shifted culturally to the left as well) . Appealing to these groups, who are not going to go away, is the key to winning a majority, and it is much easier for the Tories to move left on economics, and nigh on impossible for Labour to move even a squeak to the right on cultural issues.

When the PR debate happened (I don't think it was a vote, just a debate?), I'd emailed my then-MP Nigel Dodds asking him to take part in the debate. Surprisingly, he emailed back saying that he would attend subject to other parliamentary business, although in the end I don't think he turned up. There's no point me doing the same with my current MP if a future debate was to happen given that he refuses to take his seat. As I've said before, PR is unlikely to happen through a parliamentary vote as it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas - if a party is able to rule having gained the majority of seats, then you're unlikely to vote for a system that would stop this from happening. I can only see it happening in Westminster if a coalition government comes into place where the minor party makes it a condition of coalition, or through a binding referendum. Although in the former case, I could see the minor party ultimately pull out of the coalition the moment the law changes in order to bring down the government to force a General Election on the understanding that the new system will bring them more seats very quickly, and I can only see the latter happening if a system was brought into place for referendums to happen within the Westminster system (perhaps something along the lines of a referendum being called if a petition signed by 10% of the electorate demands one).

I'd also be interested to know what the "Neithers" would prefer. Communism? High Kingships?

In other interesting polling news, a majority of people polled seem to favour PR - @1276533902098735104

The announcement would also suggest that the Big Brother Theme by Element 4 will also be going on the streaming services for the first time.

Keir Starmer has sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an article promoting anti-Semitic views. As far as going to show that this isn't the Labour Party of the last election cycle, he's done so in one clean swoop.

I was wondering if this week would be the first week that a YouTube channel had a top 40 hit. Then I remembered the existence of Ladbaby, and felt rather sad.

On a somewhat side note, it's interesting to note the differences between any call for a Referendum between Northern Ireland (for Irish reunification) and Scottish independence. For NI, there is specific legislation regarding any independence polls, which are to be held when the Secretary of State believes there is a majority in favour of it (noting that if such a referendum was to fail, it could not be held for another seven years), whilst I am not aware of any specific legislation regarding this for Scotland. I'd note however if it followed the NI model, then it wouldn't be able to be held until 19th September 2021 at the very earliest. I do think that there will be an indyref before the end of the decade, and I think that if it isn't given to Scotland by decree of consent within the next few years then I can see major civil unrest within Scotland until Westminister acquiesces to one.

Never underestimate the general public's general ignorance of politics. Unlike those of us who are up to date on the minutia of political goings-on, the vast majority only pick up on a tiny amount of the political discourse. I would say that the reason his trustworthiness rating has absolutely collapsed in recent weeks has been due to the Dominic Cummings saga, which is the one political scandal that really did cut through to the majority of the general public, even if it has falling down the news agenda due to one thing and another.

A lot of the countries that are currently being hit are in the southern hemisphere ie it is their winter rather than our summer, so that could have an effect on cases. It will be worth keeping an eye on countries in the Southern Hemisphere that had handled their response to the outbreak reasonably well (New Zealand, Australia) to see if the changing of the seasons has any impact.

Yes, a Lady Gaga collaboration is definitely the key to reviving a career that appears to be over. Like the time that she released that duet with R Kelly and his career took off again and...wait a minute...

I’m not sure of the exact details yet, but I imagine that they will be by appointment to keep less people in the shop, and keeping a mask on , except briefly to get at the sideburns.

Hairdressers are due to open in Northern Ireland from 6th July, so I can finally get my accidental mullet seen to. Places of worship are likely to open from 29th June as well, and social distancing has been reduced to 1 metre in a classroom setting.

I don't disagree, but whenever things return to near normality, and we're no longer in the middle of all this, the Tories are definitely going to Lord this over Labour at any point they can.

If my understanding is correct (I'm sure someone can Fact check this), then this is the first time ever that a UK government has provided free school meals to children during school holidays, particularly during the summer holidays. If that's the case, you better believe the Tories are going to put this spin on this in the days ahead, "We've done something that Labour never did" etc. Interesting to note - of the 20 seats with the greatest % of pupils requiring free school meals, only 3 of them are held by the Conservatives (of which 2 were only won in 2019), which might explain a) why it hadn't come up on their radar until now, and b) why they made the u-turn they did, in the hope of holding on to some of those seats.

She did - @1270053666423279622

Some of the graphs on that seem a bit suspect - how come Paraguay have been classified as "Winning" even though their cases seem to have surged in the past week (as as a lot of South America, unfortunately). Also not sure why Kosovo are "Nearly There" when their cases now seem to be at their highest. Will take Ireland's victory for sure.

Well this has given me the push to buy Sports Teams' album. Go Sports Team.