Hassaan

Also, after Liz Truss' recent comments about the state trying to bring her down or whatever, I don't think she can be taken remotely seriously.

Better than nothing. :D I think apart from anything it scuppers the social element. Hard to really chat with a friend when you don't like being around it, and they go for a smoke every 15 minutes or whatever.

I'm only on Instagram (and Reddit) presently but Threads seems okay. I say that, it might have the same problem as Twitter.

I should say that they did ask (mid-way through) and I said yes, tentatively so admittedly. I had very little concept of boundaries back then to the point I was even afraid of voicing things like that to friends. Thankfully that wouldn't happen now.

Fingers crossed for the UK next...

I'm with Lindsey on this one. I was afraid of properly saying it because I thought I'd get lynched but I hate being around people who are smoking. I had a friend who was a smoker and it wasn't something I felt comfortable with, but how do you politely tell someone that you don't want them to roll a cigarette in your car...

Have you even given him a chance? He's been in power for longer than Liz Truss and still hasn't made the mess that she has.

This isn't the only thing he's going after.

Anything he does will be unpopular with someone. I don't know if "nobody" is applicable here. I don't smoke nor go to pubs so have no strong opinions on the matter, but I can see it from both sides.

How much change could we have feasibly expected by now? August is a bit of a dead month for politics anyway.

Without being massively all over it, I feel Starmer is getting some unfair flack. Perhaps his speech today wasn't very positive, but he's still having to clean up the mess made by the previous government. That's going to take time.

Forgive me if there's a thread like this already. I'm talking songs that shot up the charts directly after usage in a TV show or film. I was wondering if I should include artists who performed on things like X Factor, but usually artists performed on there in the week of release anyway. Birdy's Wings reached the top 10 thanks to being used in the Lloyds TSB advert. Both "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls and "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman reached the top 5 in 2011 after covers on X Factor and Britain's Got Talent respectively. Running Up that Hill is a more recent example.

I'm glad what was looking like prolonged unrest has pretty much entirely died down, with the focus now being on the arrests. It's barely been two weeks but it feels like some fever dream.

They've just announced on their Instagram that they're back.

I still find it weird that Ed Sheeran brings up these visceral reactions though. I tend to not post in threads about artists I don't like, but maybe I'm just weird.

He can if he wants to. Same with Taylor.

Yeah the holiday thing would be a weak thing to attack him for. If he was in power it'd be different but if he was doing what he needed to do even while there, then fine. There seemed to be no fuss in Birmingham today, so I think the riots are over now.

I'm guessing the thinking is to warm up the schedule, so to speak. Audiences will be out of the habit of tuning in on Saturday nights. I think they intend to use Alan Carr's Picture Slam into Strictly. Let's not forget that they used to start The X Factor in mid August for a while!

Seeing as so many of them wept in court (as they say), I think the former. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if many fell into the latter.

From what I can find: 1950s - 1,253,000 (Sep 2017) - Paul Anka: Diana 1960s - 1,524,000 (Sep 2017) - Ken Dodd: Tears 1970s - 1,234,000 (Sep 2017) - Art Garfunkel: Bright Eyes 1980s - 1,965,000 (Jun 2019) - Stevie Wonder: I Just Called to Say I Love You 1990s - 4,951,000 (Sep 2017) - Elton John: Something About the Way You Look Tonight / Candle in the Wind 1997 2000s - 2,000,000 (Aug 2021) - Will Young: Evergreen / Anything Is Possible 2010s - 3,600,000 (Jan 2023) - Pharrell Williams: Happy

I'm planning to meet up with a friend in Birmingham on Sunday when it'll be potentially 27 degrees. We're obviously planning to see how we feel on the day, but I really hope they're bored by then.

It would have been a full year, would it not? Autumn Variations was released last autumn.

It is heartening to see far right protesters massively outnumbered.

I think Starmer's been in an unenviable position myself. I think his messaging has been good, but I think it became quickly apparent that it needed to be something more proactive. But they're learning. I doubt anyone actually expected it to get this bad.

Farage knows exactly what he's doing. Not sure what their end goal is, apart from stopping people from being able to go about their lives safely.