Suedehead2

James Earl Carter, arguably the USA's greatest former president (his actual presidency was less successful) has died aged 100.

Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over Duran Duran - Notorious

Bleachers' greatest achievement remains their BJSC victory in 2017 :D

Leicester 1-1 Man City Crystal Palace 1-1 Southampton Everton 1-2 Nottingham Forest Fulham 0-2 Bournemouth Tottenham 3-1 Wolves West Ham 1-3 Liverpool Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton Ipswich 0-1 Chelsea Man Utd 2-2 Newcastle Brentford 1-3 Arsenal

So the richest man in the world supports a policy that will make him even richer. The number of people surprised by this must be about the same as the number of people who think Liz Truss was the greatest PM ever.

That bit seemed particularly odd as it came just two days after a colourised version of Patrick Troughton's last story was shown, the story that ended with the Doctor (soon to be Jon Pertwee) being exiled to Earth. He then spent a long time living from day to day. Of course, Moffatt may not have known that was coming when he wrote the episode, but the timing did rather emphasise the inconsistency.

I loved it. As ever, the mix of visual gags and witty dialogue was great. The Norbot was a great addition to the regular cast.

Producer Richard Perry died on Christmas Eve. His best-known song as a producer is probably You're So Vain but I'm sure we've had that more than once. Therefore, I nominate Ringo Starr's Photograph instead.

Best a-ha - Take On Me Dire Straits - Money For Nothing Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World George Michael - Careless Whisper Worst Lionel Richie - Say You, Say Me USA For Africa - We Are The World Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You

Manchester City 1-1 Everton AFC Bournemouth 3-1 Crystal Palace Chelsea 3-0 Fulham Newcastle United 2-2 Aston Villa Nottingham Forest 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur Southampton 1-1 West Ham United Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Manchester United Liverpool 4-0 Leicester City Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 Brentford Arsenal 3-1 Ipswich Town

Trump has renewed his desire to claim Greenland for the USA. Denmark has responded by increasing funding for the defence of the territory. He isn't even President yet, and he has cost each Dane £200 per year.

The increase in NI has nothing to do with growth in Q3 as it wasn't even announced until the end of October. Not that the Tories will let that minor detail stop them using it to blame Labour. Next year is likely to be pretty difficult, particularly if Trump imposes hefty tariffs willy-nilly. Businesses will blame the government for causing them to reduce recruitment, without considering whether they could cut executive pay rises or dividends instead. Starmer didn't get off to a great start as Leader of the Opposition (even allowing for the little matter of Covid), but grew into the job. If he does the same as PM, things should be fine, but the press will continue to be brutal with little regard for the facts.

Growth in the third quarter had next to nothing to do with this government. It simply confirms that Labour inherited a stagnant economy. Growth in the fourth quarter of this year will also not be much to do with this government. Blame the Tories for their scorched Earth policies.

Shops would have been closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day (St Stephen's Day) and Sunday, leaving just four days of sales.

A lot of the songs that would have been replaced would simply have been released a week later, thereby still being the Christmas number one.

When a party can win a massive majority with one-third of the vote, that argument makes no sense.

Glenn Frey - The Heat Is On Philip Bailey and Phil Collins - Easy Lover

After Amy Winehouse's great cover of Zutons' Valerie, the band finally return the compliment with a great version of back To Black gewFGlZ5_Rs

Best David Bowie - Let's Dance Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters Duran Duran - The Reflex Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Worst Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You Lionel Richie - Hello Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes - Up Where We Belong

The Tories had given the impression that they supported paying compensation to Waspi women. They said nothing about how they would pay for it. I would love to see Labour supporting PR. Their members support it, but the leadership is less enthusiastic when they can get a hefty majority with one-third of the vote. Yes, Farage's fascists would potentially get a larger presence is parliament. However, it is arguable that Farage gained popularity because his extreme views wee not represented in parliament due to FPTP. If they had been represented, their views on a range of subjects could have been exposed as extremist nonsense.

Saturday 21st December Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester City (12:30) Brentford 0-2 Nottingham Forest Ipswich Town 0-2 Newcastle United West Ham 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Crystal Palace 1-3 Arsenal (17:30) Sunday 22nd December Everton 0-2 Chelsea (14:00) Fulham 2-0 Southampton (14:00) Leicester City 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (14:00) Manchester United 2-1 AFC Bournemouth (14:00) Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Liverpool (16:30)

This year's festive ramblings in chartland can be found from the latest news box or the front page.

No, you're missing the point. How were the Tories proposing to pay for it?

What promise? There was nothing in the manifesto. Almost all of the promise to pay compensation date from before Covid. Since then, the public finances have been far worse. The Tories suggested that they would pay compensation when in power, but made no provision to finance it. They did the same with the victims of the NHS blood scandal. In both cases, they left it for Labour to find the money to pay for it. Victims of the NHS blood scandal were entirely blameless. They accepted donated blood in good faith. It is not their fault that many of them have died while others are living with life-altering conditions. OTOH, as others have already said, changes to the pension age were widely reported at the time. When I started work, my state retirement age was 65. It is now 66 1/2. I never received a letter telling me this, but I am not demanding compensation. There are stories of women leaving their jobs at 58 expecting that they would be able to claim a state pension two years later. Did they really not notice other women of a similar age working beyond 60? The same papers now hammering Labour for not paying compensation are the same papers that also criticise governments for treating people like idiots by spending large sums of public money telling people what they should already know.

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark Nena - 99 Luftballons