Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

What's the socioeconomic/political breakdown of darts (and snooker for that matter) fans, if any? Being basically "pub games" I always assumed that it'd be salt of the earth, blue collar types, basically, but that's all assumption on my part.

That would be my guess as well - and the preferred term is pub athletics thank you very much

It won't be this year but I know that lots of banks, law firms, City places do a night at the darts as a big social thing because it's in the evening, it's boozy and it's very fun - a bit like T20 cricket.

Fair enough privatisation may not be the best term for what the tories are doing with their reducing it to a bare bones minimal service. But what better term is there for that?

I think it's more marketisation - the attempt to introduce market forces into the NHS (and education) since the 90s as a way of driving up standards/quality. Lansley's reforms were really an attempt at that with a leaderless system and patient choice, competition and clinical commissioning - and they utterly failed and just created a really unresponsive and complicated system (the opposite of what they were meant to do) - as everyone predicted at the time.

I find it really weird having come up in the 90s/Blair era how none of the parties talk about public sector reform any more. It's all just about funding levels.

I'll also note on nhs privatisation... That the EU planned to do this via the trade agreement with the US was a absolutely insane but commonly believed conspiracy at referendum time.

Fair but I think that just goes to the point that the NHS as universal healthcare free at the point of need is an absolute sacred cow in British politics. And those rumours are doing the rounds again - Sunak was in California recently and the amount I saw about how he was probably there to plot the privatisation of the NHS when he took over

[The Larch]

What's the socioeconomic/political breakdown of darts (and snooker for that matter) fans, if any? Being basically "pub games" I always assumed that it'd be salt of the earth, blue collar types, basically, but that's all assumption on my part.

That would be my guess as well - and the preferred term is pub athletics thank you very much

A true pub athlete, for sure. 

[Sheilbh]

https://youtu.be/vqxXNZcIdwM

[Richard Hakluyt]

https://youtu.be/vqxXNZcIdwM

[The Larch]

https://youtu.be/vqxXNZcIdwM

That is indeed part of the image I had. 

[Sheilbh]

It is very difficult to see Johnson recovering from numbers like this (which are about as bad as Corbyn's when he stepped down):



About 60% of Leave voters disapprove of him v 38% approval and even amont 2019 Tory votes he has an over 50% disapproval rating.

Haven't seen a good chart of it but there's also a poll of the parties on things like are they "in touch", "tolerant", "competent" etc. The Tory numbers have collapsed (on average by about 24%) - worst in strong (-37%) and competent and have a clear sense of purpose (both -30%).

Labour are not fully recovering/taking advantage yet. On average their numbers are only up by 4% but highest on being moderate (+10%) and trying to do the right thing (+10% that also sounds like a pity option). Overall Labour is ahead right now. But they still have more to do to win people over and be seen as an alternative government.

[mongers]

A reply claimed it was unsurprising given the event was in "metropolitan north London". I assume the implication that darts fandom is a thoroughly bourgeois metropolitan kind of thing is spot on?

Alexandra Palace is in metropolitan (well, more suburban - but very nice, posh, leafy suburbs) north London. But I wouldn't necessarily guess that it's a strictly local crowd

What's the socioeconomic/political breakdown of darts (and snooker for that matter) fans, if any? Being basically "pub games" I always assumed that it'd be salt of the earth, blue collar types, basically, but that's all assumption on my part.

Used to live there, Yeah Muswell Hill residents are not your typical dart fans. 

[Zanza]

Hopes that EU 'hangover' will be cured with pints of sparkling wine Ministers are pushing for a return of the imperial measurement for fizz favoured by Winston Churchill and vintners alike

Winston Churchill hailed the pint bottle of champagne as the "ideal size", declaring it "enough for two at lunch and one at dinner". Now the sale of the wartime prime minister's favoured quantity of fizz is set to become legal in Britain once more, as ministers prepare to scrap an EU ban on pints of sparkling wine.

Before the UK joined what later became the European Union in 1973, it is claimed that 60 per cent of all champagne sold in the country was in imperial pint-sized bottles. Upon accession to the Common Market, however, the UK was forced to fall into line with an existing Brussels ban on the glass container, as well as other uses of imperial measurements.

The Government now has its sights set on lifting the ban, alongside other unwanted EU legislation that has lingered on the UK statute book beyond Brexit. An ongoing review into "hangover" EU laws has been taken on by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, following the resignation last week of Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister. It is hoped that pints of sparkling wine could become legal again as soon as next year.

Before joining the Common Market in 1973, imperial pint-sized bottles of champagne were popular in Britain. They held 56.8cl of liquid, a significantly larger quantity than the half bottle of champagne, which holds 37.5cl. Pleasingly for sharing purposes, the imperial pint held four glasses, compared with a half bottle's three.

A Government source told The Telegraph on Thursday night: "Pint-sized bottles were a victim of the EU's war against imperial measurements, which are widely used and understood in this country. "Now we've left the EU, we can rid ourselves of rules like this. Work is underway in Government to make this change happen."

The development is good news for Rathfinny Estate, which produces sparkling wine in Sussex and laid down 800 pint-sized bottles in the wake of the UK voting Leave, although the winemaker had been campaigning for the return of the "modern pint" long before Brexit. Rathfinny hopes to release this batch of its Classic Cuvée late next year if the ban is repealed in time. Mark Driver, co-owner of the winemaker, said: "If this change in legislation is forthcoming, this is great news and something we have been lobbying hard for." He argued that the pint bottle is the perfect size for two people to share, as it offers four glasses, which is more easily divisible than the three glasses offered by a half bottle.

'Insufficient to tease my brains'

It is also two glasses less than the six glasses contained in a standard bottle, which may be considered too much for a couple to share before lunch or dinner in an increasingly health-conscious society. A standard bottle was certainly considered excessive for a lone drinker – at least by Churchill's wife. He once remarked "Clemmie thinks that a full bottle is too much for me, but I know that half a bottle is insufficient to tease my brains." The compromise of the pint "pleases everyone, even the producer", he concluded. The latter assertion remains true, since the modern pint, which holds 50cl, can be made in the "traditional method", which means that secondary fermentation takes place inside the bottle. This avoids the pitfalls of the half bottle, which contains 37.5cl, that is often filled by transferring the sparkling wine from a larger bottle, losing pressure in the process and producing what many vintners consider an inferior bottle of wine. Brexiteer MPs have also welcomed signals that the Government is preparing to scrap the EU ban, suggesting that English pints of English wine would have a marketing advantage and could become a best-seller worldwide as well as at home. Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group, commented that "if you are an optimist, you go through life believing the glass is half full, rather than half empty", but urged ministers to allow British vintners to go "even further and offer to make the pint glass full to the brim" with sparkling wine.

Finally free of the Brussels yoke, the UK can now realize its comparative advantage to regulate on the bottle sizes. A true Brexit benefit. I am sure the producers of Champagne, Cremant, Prosecco, Cava, and Sekt are trembling in fear of the advantages of using a different bottle size for sparkling wine.

The Torygraph is not a serious newspaper but satire, right?

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is petty of course; but so is banning 568ml bottles in the first place.

[Sheilbh]

It is petty of course; but so is banning 568ml bottles in the first place.

It's also explained something for me, because I'd read a few Victorian novels where a character would go to wait in an inn and order something like a pint of sherry. Until now I'd always thought it was just a pint-glass of sherry

[Josquius]

Who cares about all the problems in the country. Culture war nonsense. Yay.

[Zanza]

Too bad Cameron did not ask for a pint exception and different passport colors for all EU regulation. If we had known that this was all that's needed to keep the British in, a compromise could have been found.

[Tamas]

Too bad Cameron did not ask for a pint exception and different passport colors for all EU regulation. If we had known that this was all that's needed to keep the British in, a compromise could have been found.

Indeed. Hungary got an exception for poppy seeds surely pint bottles would had been in the realm of possible.

[Duque de Bragança]

It is petty of course; but so is banning 568ml bottles in the first place.

75 cl > 56,8 cl

Does not even hold like the metric pint vs imperial debate in 1984. 

Not to mention magnum (still pretty common), rehoboam jeroboam, mathusalem, nabuchodonosor etc.

[Richard Hakluyt]

At a personal level I despise those 330ml bottles of beer....one just doesn't cut it and if you order another one where will it all end?

Though i did manage to contain my anger and vote remain anyway 

BTW pint(568ml) bottles of beer were legal throughout our EU membership; I presume an exemption was agreed.