Jesus lads, 'tis looking like BREXIT!

[How bad boy]

A completely unserious country.

It's insane, isn't it?

Is it any surprise the UK is the first country to vote to impose trade sanctions on itself?

 

[jams]

the "no men in wimmin's sports" brigade must be fairly confused about which way to be outraged about this

 

[Bennyton]

the "no men in wimmin's sports" brigade must be fairly confused about which way to be outraged about this

There's nothing to stop women playing in men's chess leagues,
they usually lack the autism super powers to get into the tournaments though.

I had a chess phase around 10-12 years old, having adults get pissy with you when you win was an odd one, the whole game is powered by ASD.

 

[Bennyton]

wild.

 

[How bad boy]

View attachment 46133


wild.

That Average Weekly Average Earnings figure looked wrong, so had a check:

EARN01: Average weekly earnings - Office for National Statistics

Average weekly earnings at sector level headline estimates, Great Britain, monthly, seasonally adjusted. Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.

www.ons.gov.uk

Before inflation but seasonally adjusted, AWEs have gone from £585 in September 2021 to £733 in September 2025 (whole economy, weekly earnings, KAB9). Private sector has gone from £586->£736, Public Sector from £585 to £724.

That's a 25% increase, not -2.8%.


Now Real Average Weekly Earnings, which adjusts for all of those inflation items (because some things have actually gone down in price) is a very different story

X09: Real average weekly earnings using consumer price inflation (seasonally adjusted) - Office for National Statistics

Average weekly earnings for the whole economy, for total and regular pay, in real terms (adjusted for consumer price inflation), UK, monthly, seasonally adjusted.

www.ons.gov.uk

Sept 21 - £521, seasonally adjusted index is 107.9 (2015 is the base year = 100)
Sept 25 - £526, index is 108.9.

It's a 0.9% rise, albeit that's CPI. I suspect with CIPH or RPI, the figures are probably negative but not wildly so.
But you really can't compare the price rises of goods vs an earnings figure that takes account of those price rises, it's not an honest comparison.



This is that data on a graph though:


Real earnings are only now back to where they were before the financial crisis.
The trend over the past couple of years has been pretty decent following a pretty disastrous decade.

 

[How bad boy]

A Lib Dem 10 minute rule bill to rejoin the Customs Union has just passed in the House of Commons. Was a close run thing, 100v100, the speaker cast the deciding vote in favour. So about a third of MPs voted, a few Labour MPs voted against, but most either voted in favour or didn't vote.


Admittedly, it doesn't mean an awful lot. It means that technically, the bill has passed the first stage required to become legislation.
The government doesn't have to take it any further if it doesn't want to. Which it probably won't, but it's interesting that momentum is building.

 

[sigourney's knickers]

 

[Bennyton]

Exactly

 

[Henrys Fonda]

lolz

 

[Bennyton]

I mean, if ANYONE is too accommodating, it's Bonnie Blue.