Latest news with #HalfManHalfBiscuit
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Cometh the hour, cometh the resentment
Is it just me who resents the pointless exercise of changing the clocks twice a year? And it's not just clocks – it's the central heating, the cooker, the microwave, the outside lighting, the CCTV, the home telephones and various other timers that are usually forgotten about. Then before you know it, the whole process has to be reversed. To what end exactly?Dr John DaviesKirkby-in-Cleveland, North Yorkshire The BBC certainly chooses its timing well ('I feel really, really cross at incredibly dumb decisions': Stephen Sackur on the end of HARDtalk – and leaving the BBC, 24 March). Precisely when there is increasing public dissatisfaction with politics and politicians, it ends HARDtalk – one of the few programmes that ensured key movers and shakers could not dodge questions or get away with simplistic MeadowcroftLeeds America has Doge, maybe Keir Starmer should set up Dobe – Department of Benefits Extraction, run by a British billionaire. Sir Jim Ratcliffe springs to mind, with his recent experience of implementing unpopular cost-saving measures. James LoganEdgware, London It's good to hear Hirundinidae passerines are returning to these shores (Letters, 24 March), but for most of us, the first swallow of summer is still the involuntary gulp that occurs when we get our annual council tax and energy HineKingston upon Thames, London There is nothing better than spotting the first Half Man Half Biscuit letter of spring. I feel doubly blessed, even before March is out (Letters, 23 and 26 March). Alan ReynoldsSmethwick, West Midlands Do you have a photograph you'd like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers' best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Bureaucrats' are just doing their job
While I agree with the thrust of John Harris's argument (In a town far from Whitehall, I saw how devastating Labour's cuts will be. When will ministers wake up?, 23, March), did he have to point the finger at 'spreadsheets drawn up by local bureaucrats'? Somebody in the much maligned 'back office' has to allocate inadequate resources as best they can and draw up rotas for care staff using some form of administrative technology. Could they not just be referred to as local government officers?David GriffithsHuddersfield, West Yorkshire So our cash-strapped government has still felt able to approve a £9bn road tunnel under the Thames between Tilbury and Gravesend (Report, 25 March), almost 12 months to the day since the centuries-old ferry ceased operation because Thurrock and Kent councils couldn't agree the modest funding required to keep it going. Funny old LarkbeyLondon The line 'Play one the drummer knows' (Letters, 26 March) is in fact from Half Man Half Biscuit's song Rock and Roll Is Full of Bad Wools, on their 2011 release 90 Bisodol (Crimond). I would get out more, but I've heard that there's going to be a riot in Trumpton AnzaniMusselburgh, East Lothian Please may I speak up for scatter cushions on behalf of short people (Letters, 24 March)? Ushered to a vast cushionless sofa, we are forced to choose between a priggish perch or an unseemly TillmanEgerton, Kent Beard transplants (G2, 25 March)? Are you practising for 1 April?Pete BibbySheffield Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer and the Skibbereen Eagle
When Keir Starmer declares that Vladimir Putin will face 'severe consequences' if he breaches a peace deal with Ukraine (Report, 20 March), I'm reminded of the 19th-century editorial in the Skibbereen Eagle, which warned that it would 'keep its eye on the Emperor of Russia'. If he actually read the warning, I doubt the tsar was shivering in his boots, just as Putin won't be today, especially with Donald Trump on his EdwardsStockport, Greater Manchester Will these consequences be as severe as those felt by Benjamin Netanyahu for breaching the Palestine peace deal?Adrian Betham London Does Adrian Chiles's big column (The world is getting noisier, and it's making us ill. I've certainly played my part, 19 March) not speak to his little column (Scatter cushions and bedspreads – can someone explain to me what they're for? 19 March)? Just bung your surplus soft furnishings in at your local echoing eatery. Sound absorbed, problem SkilbeckLondon Ever since I performed in the West Riding Youth Theatre's production of Julius Caesar in 1966 with John Duttine as Mark Antony, I remember John on his birthday on the ides of March (Letters, 21 March). I played the soothsayer, so I guess I would know if he were no longer with McPhillips (nee Shaw)Garstang, Lancashire Heard at a Half Man Half Biscuit gig. 'Does anyone have any requests?' 'Play one the drummer knows' (Letters, 19 March).Ian MaynardSheffield Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
