Latest news with #SaturdayNight'sAlrightforFighting
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
MIKEY SMITH: I was there for JD Vance's air base speech - he did the most Donald Trump thing ever
JD Vance took an afternoon out from partying with Thomas Skinner and breakfasting with Nigel Farage to say hi to US military personnel stationed here in the UK. And I went along too RAF Fairford is honestly the closest you can come to being in America without getting on a plane. At least until they finally get round to building Universal Studios in Bedford. The cafe takes dollars. Many of the transports around the base are left hand drive. And oh yeah, the troops are American. So JD Vance took an afternoon out from partying with Thomas Skinner and breakfasting with Nigel Farage to say hi to US military personnel stationed here in the UK. And I went along too. Understandably, given the security concerns at both a military base and a Vice Presidential visit, we arrived several hours ahead of Vance's speech. So there was plenty of time to look up the massive plane he was to speak in front of - a U-2 spy plane, of the type currently flying surveillance missions over Russia. And plenty of time to enjoy the soundtrack of the day - a lengthy playlist taking in the Village People's Macho Man, Elton's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight). In fact the playlist was so camp macho that one wonders if it was put together by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth himself. Before the VP's arrival, a senior officer took to the stage to remind those present that serving personnel are not allowed to express political opinions while in uniform. A perfectly sensible idea - and to their credit, one stuck to scrupulously by every single person any of us spoke to. But she needn't have worried. There was very little politics to come from JD. Unlike his boss, Vance turned up for the speech precisely on schedule. And again, unlike the Donald, his remarks were brief and largely uncontroversial. Aside from that one line where he said peace in Ukraine would be possible because the "bad guys" are afraid of the American wasn't super clear about which side he considered to be the bad guys. And then I saw it. The most Donald Trump thing I've ever seen someone who wasn't Donald Trump do - and I've seen Lee Greenwood sing God Bless the USA live at a military parade. While Vance was happily - and generously - chatting and shaking hands with the men and women who lined up for a meet and greet, two or three senior officers showed up with giant boxes. And in those boxes were hundreds and hundreds of McDonalds burgers. If I'm not mistaken, Quarterpounders with Cheese. Get Donald Trump updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the world attempts to keep up with Trump's antics, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news from across the pond. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. There were so many free cheeseburgers being handed out by the VP and his guys that they could have fed every man woman and child in the room for at least a couple of days. The logistics of the seemingly unending stream of griddled beef alone boggled the mind. Presumably they were a bit cold given the nearest McDonalds is a fair old drive away - and there were more sandwiches on offer than a normal sized branch. But the troops seemed grateful. And so ended another weird day in JD Vance's increasingly weird trip to the UK. Presumably tomorrow he'll spend the day playing golf with the remaining Chuckle brother, or get a personal guided tour of Madame Tussauds. At this point, little would surprise me.
Telegraph
04-04-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Simple and speedy recipes for a cosy Friday night dinner
Friday night is the best night of the week. I feel such a rush of freedom that I sometimes don't do much with it, I just lie on the sofa going between all the options available. I pick up a novel, read a chapter but can't concentrate because I feel so happy. The same thing happens with streaming. I spend an hour on Netflix trying to decide on a film that will match my mood and, again, I give up. I start emailing friends and compose a few drafts that I won't finish until a week later. I'm like this with holidays too. On a weekend in Paris, I don't want to do anything except be in Paris. In my teens, Saturday night was the big night. Friday night was about fraying edges and feeling tired, tripping over the pile of school bags by the back door that our mother repeatedly told us to move. On Saturday nights you went to discos or parties, or had friends to stay and turned the music up to full volume (your parents were out). We danced, shaking our heads violently to Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. There was a recipe in an M&S cookbook – Indian chicken with peaches – that I made again and again on Saturday night even though we didn't have all the right spices and depended on tinned peaches. If your parents came home early, it spoilt the whole weekend. I'm not the only one who loves Friday nights. Swedes call it fredagsmys, a ritual that seemed to develop in the 1990s. The term entered the Swedish dictionary in 2006. Picking up your children from school on Friday afternoon, the teacher will say, 'Enjoy your fredagsmys tonight!' The food is supposed to be cosy – nothing grand, in fact tacos are very popular – and forms part of an evening of film watching, eating sweets, chatting and lounging. It has been suggested that the Lutheran concept of hard work is so prevalent in Sweden that Friday nights evolved to mark a break between the working week and the weekend. Here too, Friday-night cooking should be easy – nobody expects or wants anything grand. It can be a huge bowl of pasta. I make my old standby, spaghetti with garlic, parsley, lemon and chilli; or my latest love, pasta with fried prawns, 'nduja and little chunks of ricotta (the soothing coolness of ricotta and the burn of 'nduja colliding with each other). You want dishes you can make in your sleep: roast chicken, risotto, a big pilaf and nothing more than a green salad on the side. You can prepare some of the food – a braise that needs slow cooking, say – on Thursday night, but leave something to cook on Friday night itself. Being perfectly prepared doesn't create the right vibe. You want to get home, quickly sort out one dish, throw crisps and olives into bowls and get someone else to do the drinks. There's no need to have ingredients for six different cocktails, though one would be good, and wine, chilled if necessary. Pudding? It's not mandatory but most people like a little sweetness. When they're in season, raspberries or baked peaches or pears with cream is fine. Or you can go for indulgence and ease with tubs of ice cream. For me it has to be Hackney Gelato (no, they're not paying me), which you can get from Tesco, Ocado, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. Even bowls of jelly babies are good. You're with friends, remember. I'm lucky. Since I became a freelancer working from home – 25 years ago – I've never had the Sunday-night blues. But even when I have to work on a Saturday (you have many masters if you're freelance, and deadlines are deadlines), I still get the Friday-night rush. It's Sunday as I write this, but I'm already wondering what to cook next week, and who's going to share my Friday-night freedom with me.
