#britain's next top model

[topmodelcentral]

Jade McSorley for Frow Magazine

~ Britain (5) ~

by John Rowley

[weaversweek]

Which game shows have the most episodes? Part 3, BOC-CAN

The latest part of my project to count all of the game shows.

This time, a Robert Robinson double bill, Brain of Britain and Call My Bluff.

A deep dive into The Brains Trust, the only game show to have episodes specially made for the cinema. (Unless they showed Eurovision The Movie in the picturehouse somewhere...)

And, on a slightly less intellectual level, Bullseye.

[cakesexuality]

Oh, The Swan is actually even worse than that!!

Most of each season is spent taking two women per episode and giving them a bunch of cosmetic procedures, putting them on an extreme diet, and making them work out frequently, all in the span of 3 months, with them isolated in apartments where there are no reflective surfaces (mirrors uninstalled, windows frosted, etc.) so you get to see their shocked reactions at the end of the 12 weeks

A lot of the women went into it bc they just wanted one or two things here or there or even things related to medical conditions and ended up pressured into getting way more than they originally wanted (e.g. someone with PCOS mainly wanting laser hair removal but also being pushed to get breast augmentation, a brow lift, veneers, and so on) and being framed by the show as uncooperative brats when they turn down any suggestions from the doctors

They also get treated as uncooperative brats when they try to turn down a session at the gym, bc yes, they still have to work out regularly and eat the bare minimum of calories while healing from having a fuckton of surgery!! There's a scene where someone has a compression garment around her face and is still at the gym

And while they're cooped up in that apartment, they have 1 person from their personal lives they can call for support -- sometimes it can be kinda wholesome, like a widow calling her teenage sons who adore her or a woman calling her sister who is an absolute cheerleader for her, but there's too many women on that show who call a grumpy bf or a husband who doesn't even pick up

And also in all of that, they get ONE hour per week of "therapy" that isn't therapy bc a) it's being televised and therefore lacks the confidentiality of real therapy, and b) iirc, it's just a producer talking to them about their feelings purely to create material for the show, with no benefit to the "client"??

The reason they do 2 women per episode is bc they pick one with the "worse" transformation to just go home and try to live her life like she hasn't just had ten thousand plastic surgeries and they pick one with the "better" transformation to compete in a pageant!! Half of the women shown to you are now competing for a title at the end of the season, which I don't think they were told about when casting for the first season?? I think I've also heard of "lost swans" who received the makeover but whose footage never aired, but I don't really know anything further than that

Luxeria on YouTube did a reaction/commentary series covering The Swan (girls!) if you wanna learn more!!

I do have to impress on anyone who wasn't around for it how batshit the reality boom of the 2000s could be. Especially on Fox.

Here are some 100% real 2000s reality shows:

Who's Your Daddy? A woman has to guess which of eight men is her biological father. One of them really is, and if she guesses right she wins $100,000. If one of the seven fake dads convinces her to guess them, he wins $100,000.

Black. White. A white family learns about racism by living a month in blackface, while a black family spends a month in whiteface. The black family was a real family, but the white family was just some actors hired to put on blackface to prove racism exists

Without Prejudice? Five strangers decide which of five strangers gets a cash prize based off clips and their answers to political questions. Cancelled when one of the choosers openly said he'd eliminate all black contestants

Welcome to the Neighborhood. Three conservative white families in a Austin subdivision decide which diverse family gets to move in. Unaired due to being literal housing discrimination

Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay. Two straight men try to pass themselves off as gay and whoever seems more gay gets $50,000. Unaired due to. Due to. Due to

Playing It Straight. A woman tries to find love among fourteen men, half of whom are straight and half of whom are gay, and she must eliminate two men she believes are gay each week. If she ended up picking a straight man in the end, they'd split a million dollars; if she picked a gay man, he'd win a million dollars

Boy Meets Boy. This was Playing It Straight but starring a gay man and he had to eliminate straight people

Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire? He wasn't a multimillionaire. He didn't even have a million dollars in liquid assets. He had a battery conviction Fox claims they didn't see. Because it was the 2000s, somehow this ended up with the woman he won being widely vilified and turned into a national punchline. How dare she complain about a massive corporation tricking her into marrying a lying abuser, good thing Matt Lauer's there to take her down a peg

The Swan. A "ugly" woman is given plastic surgery and wins a prize if she's the hottest at the end of the season. If she's not hot enough by the show's standards she's eliminated and called ugly on national TV

The Biggest Loser. Overweight people engage in competitive crash weight loss that often led to awful health complications. Studies showed basically everyone on the show regained any weight they lost once it was over and they didn't have abusive trainers demanding they take huge health risks to win a competitive weight loss competition. Like the others, this one was cancel-oh, it was a massive hit that ran for 18 seasons? Yikes!

Wife Swap and Trading Spouses. These were the same show and had a wife from one family go to another family that was different politically, racially, culturally, religiously etc. Most famous for the God Warrior

At the time people focused on the likes of Fear Factor but looking back it's wild how many of the worst shows toyed with politics. So many of these shows have a premise that's like "what if we exposed these conservatives to these people they hate?" or hyping themselves up as Important Experiments. Then they'd freak out when they got the kind of viral bigoted freakout they were trying to construct the whole time.

There were also a bunch of horrible reality shows, thankfully this time mostly unpopular, in the 2010s that based themselves around economic themes as a response to the market crash, but that's a story for another time

[gremlinmodetweeker]

What König Likes to Read

König is a big guy, but he's not just a muscle head. He's actually highly intelligent. See, when you're as socially ostracized as König was growing up, you learn to find ways to keep yourself busy. When your dad is a professor of agriculture and your mom's a vet tech (as discussed in this post), you learn a lot about animals. With all that time on your hands, you read a lot too.

Growing up, König spent his time reading. He loved reading more than anything else. He would read anything he could get his chubby little hands on. His parents were more than happy to encourage his interests (especially because they didn't destroy the house like Stephen's 'science experiments') and so he was showered with books about anything that caught his attention. When he was young, they gave him almost an entire library on wolves and bears, and then he got books on birds, then plants (his father was delighted by this), and then natural disasters, and the list goes on. All in all, König was a nature kid with an entire library of textbooks at the age of twelve.

König loved to read outside too. He could often be seen after school grabbing a survival manual from off his shelf and then scurrying out the backdoor. His mother eventually gave up on chasing him down into the wilderness and instead got a cow bell off a client to summon him back home before dark. His sister called him a bull. He called her a cow. He got an hour long lecture for that one.

König never stopped reading when he got older. Eventually, he branched out of nonfiction to read fiction and became enraptured by classical literature. When he was going through his goth phase, you could catch him outside twirling his long dyed hair in his finger and reading Edgar Allen Poe, a german-to-english dictionary on his knee to reference at every other line. His peers laughed at him and called him names, but he ignored them. The world of poetry called to him.

He got into Russian poetry when he left to the military. His grandfather told him nobody would take him seriously, but his bunk mate had him reading to him every night. In the morning, they'd break it down over breakfast.

When König joined the military to be a sniper, he became a gun nut. He knew all the models in the Austrian military and all the accompanying ammo and attachments. He was reading up skills and strategies every night to absorb as much as he could. However, reading didn't help him get in, so he turned his sights to the next best option.

By the time König was in the Jagdkommando, everyone flocked to him just to learn from him about surviving the wilderness. He was unused to the popularity at first, but he flourished in their company and soon became a core member of his class. He flew through the survival training, sometimes even outsmarting his teachers. Did this do him any favours? Not really, but it paid off in the end. He graduated at the top, and nobody could argue his abilities.

When he rose the ranks to becoming a colonel, he invested hundreds in books on warfare and strategy. He was a walking talking encyclopedia on the Roman conquest of Britain and the Secret Intelligence during World War 2. He was unstoppable. His overseers were impressed by his knowledge and he was rewarded greatly.

Now, since joining KorTac, he may have lost his rank officially but everyone around him reveres him for his skills. He's the closest you can get to an expert in his areas of interest. He likes having more time on the field, but he misses more time to read. Nowadays, he always has about four books on the go at a time. One nonfiction, one self help, one classical literature, and one silly 'potato chip' novel. He feels very guilty reading potato chip novels.

So, in the end, König has become extremely knowledgeable about animals, plants, survival skills, first aid, classical history, military history, classical literature and poetry. He also has a surprising amount of knowledge about finances, cooking, cars, weather phenomena, and agriculture/gardening.

He is also a reading snob. If you tell him you read romance novels in public, he'll scoff at you and tell you that romance is silly and overrated. If you ask him in private, he'll gush about the relationships in Les Miserables and Wuthering Heights. He may normally like horror, thriller, action, suspense and mystery, (oh, and military or historical ofc) but genuinely he'll take whatever he can get. He has a beautiful gilded set of Lord of the Rings in a deluxe slipcase that holds a prime place on his bookshelves. He also holds a special place in his heart for sci-fi. He even enjoys westerns, such as Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

All in all, König loves reading. It's his favourite way to spend his free time. If he can't sit down and read, he'll have an audiobook going. He's the type of nerd to set up a playlist to have going while listening to an audiobook. He's genuinely such a book nerd. At this point, the only person who will listen to him is Hutch, and they get along quite well (except for the one time that Hutch said Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was better than Dracula, which led to a month-long feud between the two). König is always looking out for fellow book lovers, but the last time he tried to join a book club he ate an entire plate of cookies within the first half and hour of the meeting and was written off the invites list.

[hptvnetworkfest]

Claiming and Prompt Ideas

Thinking about creating for the HPTV Network Fest and don't know what to write? You're in luck! The mods of the HPTV Fest have come up with some ideas for you. If something strikes your fancy, simply fill out the Claiming Form by 17 June! (Multiple people can write about the same reality TV show or trope! Each work will be unique!)

Pimp My Broomstick

Madam Malkin's Next Top Model

Made in Hogsmeade

Keeping Up With the (your favorite wizarding family here)

19 and Counting with (your favorite wizarding family here)

The Real Housewives of Diagon Alley (or Wizarding Britain!)

The Dragon Wranglers of Wales

Wand Wars (Robot Wars but for duelists)

House Elves' Kitchen (Kreacher is Gordon Ramsay)

Survivor: Forbidden Forest

The Potions Apprentice (Snape)

The Gringotts Apprentice (Griphook)

Who Wants to be a Galleonaire?

Dance Moms for Purebloods

Undercover Boss: Barty Crouch at Hogwarts

The Simple Life: The Black Sisters

Gilderoy Lockhart's Wizarding Eye (fashion goes from tragic to magic)

The Bachelor, Bachelorette, Golden Bachelor with your favorite character

Storage Wars: Knockturn Alley Edition

Say Yes to the Dress Robes

Dancing (Quidditch) With the Stars

Cash in the Attic (but Mundungus is stealing)

Long Island Medium hosted by Trelawney

Wizarding Britain's Supernanny Meets Draco Malfoy

Finding Bigfoot/Crumple-Horned Snorkacks by the Lovegoods

Love Behind Azkaban Bars/Love After Lockup at Azkaban

The Real World: Hogsmeade

Aurors (Cops but Aurors)

Big Brother

Death Eater Wives (Basketball Wives)

World's Deadliest Prisons hosted by Sirius Black

Geordie/Jersey Shore (choose your family)

Hippogriff Dynasty (Hagrid family)

The Dragon Whisperer with Charlie Weasley

90 Day Fiancé (your OTP)

Catfish (your BroTP)

The Great British Bake Off hosted by Dobby

Who Do You Think You Are? pureblood edition

Trauma: Life at the ER of St. Mungo's

Dumbledore's Drag Race

Wife Swap (Narcissa and Molly, Petunia and Lily, etc)

My Strange Addiction with your favorite character

Sister Wives but it's Aberforth and his goats

Wizarding TMZ hosted by Rita Skeeter

Crufts (international dog show) but for kneazles

I Want to Marry "Harry" Potter

Haunted House Hunters: Riddle Mansion, Gaunt Shack, Wool's Orphanage

Borgin and Burke's Pawnstars

Married at First Sight: Pureblood & Muggleborn

Extreme Makeover hosted by Walburga's portrait

[vintage1981]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE MUNRO! 

Caroline Munro (born 16 January 1949 in Windsor, Berkshire) is a British actress and model best known for her many appearances in science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s. According to Munro, her career took off in 1966 when her mother and photographer friend entered some headshots of her to Britain’s The Evening News “Face of the Year” contest.

“I wanted to do art. Art was my love. I went to Art School in Brighton but I was not very good at it. I just did not know what to do. I had a friend at the college who was studying photography and he needed somebody to photograph and he asked me. Unbeknownst to me, he sent the photographs to a big newspaper in London. The famous fashion photographer, David Bailey, was conducting a photo contest and my picture won.” 

This led to modelling chores, her first job being for Vogue Magazine at the age of 17. She moved to London to pursue top modelling jobs and became a major cover girl for fashion and TV ads while there. Decorative bit parts came her way in such films as Casino Royale and Where’s Jack? (1969). One of her many photo ads got her a screen test and a one-year contract at Paramount where she won the role of Richard Widmark’s daughter in the comedy/western A Talent for Loving (1969). 

1969 proved to be a good year for Munro, because it was then that she began a lucrative 10 year relationship with Lamb’s Navy Rum. Her image was plastered all over the country, and this would eventually lead to her next big break.

Hammer Films CEO Sir James Carreras spotted Munro on a Lamb’s Navy Rum poster/billboard. He asked his right hand man, James Liggett, to find and screen test her. She was immediately signed to a one-year contract. Her first film for Hammer proved to be something of a turning point in her career. It was during the making of Dracula AD 1972 that she decided from this film onward she was a full-fledged actress. Up until then she was always considered a model who did some acting on the side.

A string of fantasy and horror roles followed, including starring turns in Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976),  The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), StarCrash (1978), Maniac (1980), The Last Horror Film (1982), Faceless (1988), and The Black Cat (1989).

By the 1990s Munro had decided to focus more on her family, daughters, Georgina and Iona, and husband George Dugdale. However, since 2003 Caroline has renewed her interest in acting and has appeared in a number of film and audio productions. Since 2021 Caroline has been presenting the hit television series The Cellar Club for Talking Pictures TV.

The title First Lady of Fantasy was given to Caroline by journalist Steve Swires, who wrote many Starlog and Fangoria (@FANGORIA) articles on the actress in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Official Website:  http://www.CarolineMunro.org

Representation: Thomas Bowington/Bowington Management

Some of her credits include: Dracula AD 1972 (1972), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), StarCrash (1978), Maniac (1980), The Last Horror Film (1982), Faceless (1988), The Black Cat (1989), Flesh for the Beast (2003), Turpin (2009), Midsomer Murders (2013), The Landlady (2013), Crying Wolf (2015), Vampyres (2015), Cute Little Buggers (2016), Frankula (2017), End User (2018), House of the Gorgon (2019), The Haunting of Margam Castle (2020), Ulalume - A Ballad (2023), The Pocket Film of Superstitions (2023), and the upcoming The Presence of Snowgood (2024).

[foxes-that-run]

The lovebirds! Harry & Taylor’s night of romance ..down the pub

Daily Mirror - 13 Dec 2012 BY CLEMMIE MOODIE

Harry and Taylor pop down the pub for a Swifty.. then feed the birds together on beauty spot trip.

THAT Harry Styles is certainly getting all lovey-dovey with his new girlfriend. The One Direction Romeo took American superstar Taylor Swift to meet his mum after treating her to a meal at his local village pub on Tuesday night.

And yesterday they fed doves and swans together on a visit to a Lake District beauty spot.

Harry pulled out all the stops to impress multi Grammy award-winner Taylor on her visit.

After treating her to a slap-up meal at The Rising Sun in Derbyshire’s Peak District, the pair made their way home to his mum Anne – via Tesco.

At the supermarket, 18-yearold Harry splashed out £3.89 on a tub of VO5 hair styling wax while Taylor wandered down the aisles looking at the vegetables.

Last night pub manager Sarah Walker revealed the celebrity couple met up with Harry’s sister, Gemma, and her boyfriend at their local in Hope Valley.

Pub regular Gemma strolled in at 7.30pm just before Harry and Taylor arrived in his Range Rover Sport. After ordering a round of soft drinks, they sat in the window, next to the crackling log fire.

'Taylor said she loved being in Britain .. she’s a real honey' CAROL WALKER

The showbiz pair polished off a Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy starter, followed by roast turkey with all the trimmings for Harry and a whole lemon sole for his size-eight girlfriend.

Shunning the champagne, they stuck to non-alcoholic J2Os all evening. Taylor, who is 23 today, told pub-goers she was looking forward to the couple’s trip to Windermere in the Lake District and celebrating her birthday.

But it seems they will spend Christmas an ocean apart as Taylor revealed plans to fly home to Nashville to spend the festive season with her family.

Sarah, 37, said: “Taylor said she was loving being in Britain and she also seemed to like being in the country.

“And she was excited about her birthday and about flying home for Christmas. She said she didn’t mind the cold, but it will be a lot warmer in Nashville. They were both lovely and she’s a honey.”

After posing for pics and signing diners’ menus, Harry and Taylor settled the bill – which came in at just over £100 along with a handsome tip.

Yesterday, the tactile couple, who have now been dating for a month, enjoyed an afternoon feeding the swans and doves on Lake Windermere.

One swan even pecked at the brand- new £ 995 Burberry handbag Taylor was carrying – a birthday gift from her new beau – as the country singer gamely batted the creature away.

Giggling as they then fed the birds in the town centre, they were also spotted outside the Pandora jewellery shop by store manager Claire Dibbs.

Claire, 24, told the Mirror: “I was hyperventilating – I just never expected to see them.

“Taylor introduced herself – she was really lovely. She said they were just here for the day and I think they were there with his parents. She had a lot of bags from Beatrix Potter World. I saw some cuddly toys poking out of the top of the bag.

“They’d done a lot of shopping. Taylor said she loved the area and said it was really pretty.” Harry and Taylor first met in America i n April when Harry was on tour with One Direction.

After going on a couple of ‘secret dates’, they reportedly split up after the heartthrob was spotted kissing American model Emma Ostilly in New Zealand. But they were spotted dating in New York’s Central Park recently.

The date came hours before One Direction’s sell-out gig in front of 20,000 fans at the Madison Square Garden. The loved-up singers gazed into each others eyes, stopping to chat to some kids and to watch the sea lions at the zoo.

And last week the rumours they were an item were confirmed when she flew him in her private jet from New York to London to attend the Jingle Bell Ball at London’s O2 arena.

Harry ditched the rest of his bandmates to spend a few hours with her on the flight, while the others flew back to the UK on a domestic flight.

[tomorrowusa]

A Conservative politician is making millions off of slavery 190 years after slavery was abolished in Britain and its territories.

Tory Richard Drax comes from a filthy rich family notorious for having established the model for slave-based sugar plantations in the Caribbean in the 1620s. Even by the standards of a slave-based economy, the record of the Drax family was appalling.

The Barbados plantation was worked by up to 327 slaves at a time, with the death rate for both adults and children high. Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the 20-state Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) Reparations Commission and vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, estimates that as many 30,000 slaves died on the Drax plantations in Barbados and Jamaica over 200 years.

Thanks largely to their their ill-gained riches, the Drax family owns a 700 acre walled estate in Dorset which includes a deer park. And apparently they are getting even richer.

Despite threats to make Richard Drax pay reparations and seize his family’s plantation – described by one historian as a “killing field” of enslaved Africans – the government is now planning to pay market value for 21 hectares (about 15 football pitches) of his land for housing. The move has angered many Barbadians, especially those who say the Drax family played a pivotal role in the development of slavery-based sugar production and the Barbados slave code in the 17th century. This denied Black Africans basic human rights, including the right to life. Critics have called the planned deal an “atrocity” and said this is “one plantation that the government should not be paying a cent for”. Trevor Prescod, MP and chair of the Barbados National Taskforce on Reparations, said: “What a bad example this is. Reparations and Drax Hall are now top of the global agenda. How do we explain this to the world? “The government should not be entering into any [commercial] relationship with Richard Drax, especially as we are negotiating with him regarding reparations.”

It's baffling why the Barbadian government would enter into such a deal.

Drax, the MP for South Dorset, travelled to Barbados to meet prime minister Mia Mottley. It is understood he was asked to hand over all or a substantial part of Drax Hall plantation. If he refused, legal action would follow. Mottley’s spokesperson said the current Drax Hall purchase was not linked to reparations and the government “constantly acquires land through this process”. Mottley has pledged to build 10,000 new homes to meet demand on the island, where there are 20,000 applications for housing. A senior valuation surveyor said the market value for agricultural land with an alternative use for housing would be about Bds$150,000 (£60,000) an acre. At this price, the 21 hectares could net Drax Bds$8m (£3.2m). The land would be for 500 low- and middle-income family homes, which would be for sale.

I'd just grab the land and pay Drax a token £1 just so he legally can't claim he wasn't compensated at all for the transfer.

Barbados poet laureate Esther Phillips, who grew up next to Drax Hall, said the planned deal was an “atrocity” and a case of the victims’ descendants now compensating the descendant of the enslaver. “He should be giving us this land as reparations, not further enriching himself … at the expense of Barbadians. As Barbadians, we must speak out against this.”

And with the reported thousands of deaths during the 200+ years of slavery at the Drax plantation, how many people will be comfortable with the idea that their new home is built on what was essentially a forced labor camp which became a model for regional slavery? Isn't the Drax property on Barbados a large cemetery?

[hirocimacruiser]

Indy Racing League FLAT OUT Infiniti

IRL is a new series that started in 1997 after splitting from the CART series, but it has now become America's most popular formula car race. The IRL series is held 13 times a year (2001) on oval courses in North America. The IRL is represented by the world's largest motor sports event, the Indy 500 Mile, which is held as the fourth race in the series.400,000 people attend this race, which has a total prize money of 1 billion yen and a winner's prize of 200 million yen. A large audience gathers.

Currently, the machines used in the IRL combine a 3.5-liter V8 DOHC non-turbo engine with an open-wheel, open-cockpit, single-seat type car body similar to F1 and CART. The engine is equipped with a rev limiter, which limits the maximum rotation speed to 10,700 revolutions per minute, and the maximum output is approximately 650 horsepower. Currently, the car bodies are produced and marketed by Italy's Dallara, Britain's G-Force, and America's Riley & Scott, and engines are supplied by Nissan and Oldsmobile, named Infiniti and Aurora, respectively.

Through IRL high-speed oval track racing, the ultimate performance testing ground, Nissan In order to prove its technological capabilities and reliability as a high-performance car manufacturer, the company has been competing in the IRL since 1997. In 1998, it took the lead against an overwhelming majority of cars equipped with Aurora engines, and finally achieved its first victory in the IRL in June of last year.

Riding on this momentum, Nissan introduced a newly developed engine to the front this year and began dominating the series. The new engine is the ``35A'' type, which is the same type as the Q45 (Cima)'s power plant and is a detuned version of the VRH50 that was entered in the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hour Race. It is the latest weapon that is lightweight and compact, with a lower center of gravity and improved fuel efficiency than last year's model. This engine was supplied to two teams, Cheever Indy Racing and Dreyer & Rhine Bold Racing, and competed in the 2001 season with Eddie Cheever and Robbie Buhl driving.

The new engine spent the first half of the season undergoing initial maturation, and in the fifth race of the series, Cheever recorded the fastest lap time, quickly proving its high potential and becoming a regular contender for the top positions. Then came the eighth round, a race contested over 200 laps around the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. This was the first victory for the new engine. Cheever, the winner, said: ``Today I had a powerful weapon in my hands, the most powerful weapon in the form of an Infiniti.This engine is available to everyone, because it is installed in the Infiniti production cars that everyone drives.'' It was developed based on the engine ``Kara''.

After this first victory, he was unable to achieve any results, retiring in the 9th race due to an accident, and in the 10th race he was in the lead until just before the finish, but fell back due to a mistake in refueling, but in the 11th race, Buhl finished 5th. With Cheever finishing 3rd in the 12th race, Infiniti is closing out the season with a bang. Infiniti's goals for next season are, of course, winning the Indy 500 mile race and winning the series championship.

[hjohn3]

The Tory Migration Catastrophe

How Conservative Immigration Policy Will Destroy Its Thatcherite Model

Source: The Financial Times

By Honest John

LIKE A desperate gambler deciding to bet his shirt on one last turn of the roulette wheel, Rishi Sunak has staked his entire political reputation on the latest iteration of the Tories’ Rwanda bill. This is a piece of legislation which has been declared illegal by the British Supreme Court; which has so far cost the British taxpayer £240m with a further £50m due to be paid to Rwanda next year; which is considered as impractical as it is morally questionable and which has seen precisely zero asylum seekers so far sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed. This sad wheeze is going to be dragged before the House of Commons once more, while Sunak desperately claims black is white and that Rwanda can miraculously become a safe country for asylum seekers by the passing of a law in Westminster. The Prime Minister’s determination to turn Tuesday’s vote on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill into effectively a vote of confidence in his leadership is simultaneously reckless and absurd. Sunak’s desperation to quieten the increasing insurrectionary noises from his party’s right wing in the wake of the dismissal of Suella Braverman, has led him to to invest all his hopes in a piece of legislation for which there is no evidence will succeed in deterring the “small boats” (its stated claim), which will place the U.K. once again in breach of international law and will succeed only in enriching the government of Rwanda, incredulously receiving millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money for its civic infrastructure, gifted by a country whose own infrastructure is falling apart. It is actually hard to find anyone outside the fevered confines of Sunak’s inner circle who supports the plan or thinks it will work. Apart perhaps from the government of Rwanda itself that is.

It is easy to laugh at the infantile antics of a government that, in any real sense, has ceased to function and to treat this latest act in the Tory psychodrama as the piece of absurdist political theatre it undoubtedly is, but the Rwanda bill is simply the congealing icing on the top of a poisonous cake that the Conservatives have been serving up for years, masquerading as migration “policy”. This is legislation that is as contradictory as it is cruel; as performative as it is populist. For the Conservatives, migration is their key emergency break glass area of public policy. When everything else that they and the succession of hopeless lightweights they have foisted on the country as Prime Ministers, has turned to dung at their touch, they still believe that the prejudice and hatred of “the British People” toward foreigners and immigrants has no bottom level: for Tories you simply cannot go too low on immigration. The Rwanda scheme - when it was first cooked up in the days of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel - had nothing in reality to do with deterring asylum seekers from trying to cross the Channel to Britain; it was all about trying to appeal to a mythical “Red Wall” voter for whom no amount of cruelty, illegality and contempt was too much when it came to migrants. As their polling figures slumped and by election and council election results confirmed their worst electoral fears, the Conservatives still believed that victimising the victims could yet turn it around for them - no matter the dark forces their racist and bile-filled rhetoric might unleash: if they could just once again gaslight the electorate into believing that all the catastrophes of the last fourteen years of Tory rule are, in fact, the fault of incoming foreigners, all may yet be well.

This dismal flirting with the fascist playbook may have resulted in the headline-catching idiocy of Sunak’s latest Rwanda wheeze, but beneath that blather James Cleverley has announced planned measures that are far more significant, far more damaging, and far more frightening than any amount of ludicrous assertions about the Rwanda scheme. Tired of being taunted by Labour and others about the huge rise in legal migration (its net increase topped 600,000 in 2022) despite all the Tory promises to bring the numbers down over the last fourteen years, the Conservatives’ response is to quite literally attack, and potentially destroy, its own Thatcherite economic model.

For over forty years, Tory politicians have extolled Britain’s “flexible” workforce; its deregulated system; its low wage/low unemployment economy and its marketised society. Indeed, for years we were told by politicians on the right and the left that in a globalised world, mobile and non-unionised workforces, cheap production costs, outsourced supply lines and minimal regulation was essential to the easy access, low price, and plentiful supply digital capitalism that has taken hold in Britain. Key to the success of this model has been migrant labour, first from the EU and now from a swathe of sub-Saharan African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries whose residents have been offered visas to replace the low wage flexible European workers that post-Brexit Britain apparently no longer wants. The legal migrants that the Conservatives are now in such a lather about are an essential component of the Thatcherite economic model they have all been promoting to us for decades. If, as Cleverley maintains, the government wishes to reduce net migration figures by 300,000 in 2024, then that is 300,000 workers not available to drive lorries, deliver Amazon parcels, pick our crops, clean our offices, valet our cars, serve in our restaurants and, crucially staff our hospitals and care homes. By creating a shortage of deregulated low wage labour, the Tories will simultaneously damage large parts of the service economy and drive up wages, and with it inflation. In their desperate belief that hatred of foreigners will somehow save them from oblivion at the next General Election, the Conservatives are prepared to throw overboard an approach to employment and wages that has sustained them for nearly two generations and was one of the driving ideological impulses on the right that drove Brexit. The revolution has truly begun to eat itself.

Apart from the casual abandonment of what has been the essence of right-wing Toryism for years, Cleverley has also managed to introduce the class-based nastiness of the Sklled Worker minimum salary threshold of £38,700 pa that legal migrants and their dependents must meet. This is a measure that will drive families apart, possibly force British citizens, married to foreigners but earning below the threshold, to emigrate to be with their loved ones and cause untold damage to the university sector (one of the few growth areas of the British economy) and the NHS and care sector, already on its knees after years of austerity and disproportionately reliant on migrant labour. It is as if the Tories are not content with the calamities that austerity, Brexit and Trussonomics have already wrought on British society: with this latest episode of ill-thought through prejudicial nonsense, they seem to want to finish it off altogether. I have predicted for some time the implosion of modern Toryism - its Thatcherite ideology a busted flush and its Brexit nationalist makeover lacking in depth or practical solutions; but what I hadn’t bargained for was that the Tories would try to take the whole country down with them.

Never has a government looked more threadbare, pointless, desperate and unlovable. All they have left to offer is hatred, racism and self-defeating vindictiveness. If Sunak’s absurd posturing over his doomed Rwanda bill results in his resignation before Christmas and a January General Election, the “British People” that this band of charlatans and incompetents keep claiming to speak for, but who in reality they do not understand, will breathe a sigh of relief, because we the people will at last be given the opportunity to cast this catastrophic version of Toryism into an electoral oblivion it so richly deserves and from which it will, hopefully, never emerge.

Migration may yet be modern Conservatism’s epitaph.

10th December 2023

[klc-archive]

“I almost cried with laughter when I read the first script and then I met Keith-Lee Castle, who plays the Count and just looks like a rock star, and I knew it was going to be cool.” -  Donna Grant (Magda)

Daily Record interview with Donna Grant (Magda) By Samantha Booth.

Sinister, calculating and scheming is how Scots actress Donna Grant describes her character in the BBC’s new kids’ show Young Dracula. In fact, vampire mum Magda sounds quite despicable - but that’s exactly why the 30-year-old actress from Inverness was so desperate to play her.

The mum-of-one said: “I just couldn’t resist playing her because she is such a fantastically nasty character. She is a vampire and like all vampires she thinks she is better than everyone but Magda really does take it to another level. She is just so brilliantly evil.

The show is about Count Dracula’s move to Britain with his two children after his wife, Magda, has run away with a werewolf. And in tonight’s episode Magda returns to her family - although I am not saying if they welcome her back or not because, not only is she not the best mother in the world, she also broke the Count’s heart.

"But he loves her for her evil - so in a way she can do no wrong.”

Donna was intrigued by the role of Magda from the minute she heard about it and as soon as the show’s producers set eyes on the Scot, the role was hers.

She said: “I think it was a combination of me getting into the part  and because they thought I had the right look. They offered me the part on the spot.”

Since then Donna has been filming the show in the Brecon Beacons in Wales and has thoroughly enjoyed every minute if it. She said: “I almost cried with laughter when I read the first script and then I met Keith-Lee Castle, who plays the Count and just looks like a rock star, and I knew it was going to be cool”

"And it really has lived up to all of my expectations.

"The show has been great fun to film and some of my outfits have just been fantastic - I have a wedding bouquet with dead bird skulls in it.

"I know it is meant for children but I really think some adults will love it too.

"It is incredibly well written and because the whole Goth thing is pretty cool at the moment I think it could be a huge success.”

Growing up in Inverness with her mum and grandparents, Donna always wanted to act. She had an idyllic childhood, spending a lot of time out riding on her family’s horses, but when she left school as a teenager she was desperate to get out into the world and, in particular, she had her sights set on London.

She said: "I absolutely loved growing up in Inverness and, if I could, I would bring my own daughter Scarlet up in that way too – but I have to be in London just now for my work.

"But when I was 17 I was just desperate to get out and get started living and working. "I didn’t even want to go to university. I just wanted to get stuck right in.”

Luckily for Donna, some photographs she’d had taken by an Inverness photographer found their way into the hands of a London talent scout. The next thing Donna knew, she was being invited down to the city for a meeting with a top agency.

She said: “It was always acting I had wanted to do but modelling found me, so what could I do? The agency liked me and before I knew where I was, I had moved down to London and was thrown into this mad world of modelling.

"At the time it was the easy option but I quickly discovered it also meant I could make lots of money, travel and meet really interesting people so I wasn’t going to walk away from it in a hurry.” Donna did every kind of modelling, from catwalk to billboards.

She worked for a time in Japan and Germany, shot ads for Agent Provocateur and Baileys and appeared in several television commercials. BUT just because she was finding a certain level of success as a model, it didn’t mean Donna had forgotten her dream of becoming an actress.

And in 2001 she finally got her first acting job in a film called Is Harry On The Boat?, following the loves and lives of a group of young holiday reps in Ibiza and co-starring Danny Dyer and Davina Taylor.

Donna said: “It was brilliant fun to film and I’m still friends with a lot of the people I met out there in Ibiza.”

It wasn’t long until Donna found herself having to take time out from acting to have her baby daughter Scarlet, who is now three years old.

A bit of a rock chick at heart, she met Scarlet’s dad Chris McCormack, guitarist in hard rock outfit 3 Colours Red, when his band at the time, Grand Theft Audio, were supporting The Cult in concert at the Brixton Academy in London.

The pair had a whirlwind romance, married and had baby Scarlet. Donna said: “I have always been into my rock music and through modelling I did hang about with a lot of rock types at the time. So I was instantly attracted to Chris and we ended up having a whirlwind romance. Sadly, things just didn’t work out and we are now in the middle of divorce proceedings. But we really are still best friends.”

Donna now lives a much quieter life with Scarlet in north London and loves nothing better than the chance to return to Scotland to see her family and get out into the hills.

She said: “I love coming back up to Scotland and I am so excited because I just booked my tickets for Christmas so I’ll be spending the holidays at home.

"Drinking wine, eating lots of nice food and going for walks in the hills - it will just be wonderful. My life is a lot quieter now than it was a few years ago but that’s the way I like it. Where I live in London is a bit like a village so I do get the best of both worlds down there and I do like it, but nothing beats coming home.

However, I don’t think I would have settled down as well now if I hadn’t had my wild time when I was younger. It was a load of fun at the time and I met loads of amazing people. I even met some of my heroes, such as Joe Strummer from The Clash, although my most star-struck moment came when I met Chris Morris from Brass Eye. I really admire him and think he is so funny and clever but when I met him I just didn’t know what to say. I mean, because of my modelling, I am quite used to meeting famous people but when I came face to face with him all I could do was make a bit of a whimpering sound. I just thought that he is so witty and cutting he’s just going to chew me up and spit me out whatever I say. Can you imagine what he would have said to me if I had said I really liked his work? And I know I said I lead a quieter life now but my uncle has just opened up a new venue in Inverness called The Ironworks and we have Dirty Pretty Things playing there at New Year - so I might not be able to resist digging my rocker gear out once again. Especially as I will have my mum on hand to babysit.” A rock ‘n’ roll loving mum in rocker gear … Magda would be proud.

[rowinablx]

Wrestling's Next Top Model!!! Contestant list written by Violet Giliath and her boyfriend Finn Balor, the casting directors and head of makeovers. Just note they're exhausted from casting and are snarky as fuck

@atiny-angel @swifteforeverandalways @lynsrosegarden @sargentbarxes @axelwolf8109 @retro-rezz-the-est @moxxieswitchblade @the-iridescent-phoenix @katries

Seth Rollins: From Davenport Iowa, this "emo" wannabe model plans to take over the industry. Has long brown hair that leaves him looking like other model Aragorn.

Austin Theory: Youngest person here from Atlanta Georgia who looks like he belongs in a CW show with brown blond hair he has in a man bun.

Rhea Ripley: From Australia, this young woman looks like any other pretty blond girl.

Sammy: I don't know how to spell his last name and he's annoying. Kind of pretty, kind of an ass

TJ Perkins: From California and raised by a Filipino family, covered in tattoos that call way too much attention from his handsome features.

Saraya and Ruby Soho: Twins that look nothing alike except for their long black hair and brown eyes.

Sasha Banks: This woman from Boston has an attitude that will go nowhere in the industry but admittedly is beautiful

Charlotte Flair: This girl from ironically Charlotte North Carolina, is another plain blonde woman.

Bayley: I have nothing to say other than her side ponytail is a crime against humanity.

Elton Prince and Kit Wilson: Boyfriends who scarily remind me of the power couple Aragorn and Legolas Greenleaf, this two hail from Britain.

Jordan Devlin: Another with an attitude problem and a pretty face who happens to be my little brother, help me

Damian Priest: Tall and handsome, yet quite terrifying to look at!

Roman Reigns: Looks like Jason Mamoa with a horrible man bun as well! Is this actually in now or am I going crazy????

Becky Lynch: With mousey hair and a hell of a wardrobe, Steph and Chyna may need more help. Also my little sister CHRIST.

Zachary Wentz: Our last contestant who missed out of last year's competition, he happened to be the boyfriend of previous contestant's Wes Lee and Trey Miguel, his long hair also is basic!

[blorbocedes]

Couldn't find the post that the previous ask was referring too, but in case it hasn't come up: throughout the entire season of gntm the boyfriend was only referred to as "honey" by everyone. Too this day i don't know his real name.

Also seeing blorbocedes talk about gntm, specifically honey, is not something i would have expected, love the crossover! Can we also talk about how leni klum is the most disappointing nepo baby? How are your parents heidi klum, who has about 18 years of GNTM war crimes to her name, and fucking flavio briatore, and you're still boring??? go girl give us nothing

this is prev post context ^—^

i watched a ton of America's and Britain's next top model. (Allison Harvard should've won!!!!!)

not too familiar with the German version but is Heidi Klum as much of a menace as Tyra Banks??? I'm pretty sure that show violated Geneva conventions.....

flavio and heidi war criminal 4 war criminal... also let's be Real flavio deadbeat dad bc he's too busy his real babygirl fernando alonso. this new crop of nepo baby models aren't just giving like the hadids did...

[thebadwitch]

girls will say they want to live a healthier lifestyle then lay on the sofa watching britains next top model all day

[electricbikeshopsnearyou]

Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole Bicycle store in Poole

Discover Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole: Your Local Poole, Electric Bike Shop Looking for the perfect place to buy electric bikes or explore eBikes near you? Welcome to Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole, your trusted destination for all things eBikes in Poole . As a premier electric bike shop, we offer a wide range of Bicycle Shop, Bicycle repair shop, Electric bicycle store, Road cycling, tailored to meet the diverse needs of our customers. Whether you're a seasoned rider or just starting out, we have something for everyone. Located at 183 Bournemouth Rd, Poole BH14 9HT, None, 183 Bournemouth Rd, BH14 9HT, our shop is easily accessible for residents of Poole and surrounding areas. Stop by and discover why Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole has become a top choice for eBike enthusiasts in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With a focus on Bicycle store and Bicycle Shop, we’re here to help you find the perfect ride that combines comfort, performance, and sustainability. Our knowledgeable team is ready to guide you through our extensive collection of electric bikes, ensuring you find the model that fits your lifestyle and preferences. At Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole, we pride ourselves on excellent customer service, expert advice, and a commitment to quality that sets us apart. Whether you’re commuting to work, tackling off-road trails, or enjoying leisurely rides, our eBikes are designed to make every journey enjoyable. Get in touch with us today at +44 1202 749674 to learn more about our offerings or schedule a visit. From Bicycle Shop, Bicycle repair shop, Electric bicycle store, Road cycling to , Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole has it all! Make us your go-to electric bike shop for everything from the latest models to expert repairs and maintenance. Don’t wait—explore our collection of eBikes near you and start your next adventure with Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole! Don't believe our word only....check out Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole's reviews online Primera Sports | Bike Shop in Poole Bicycle store in Poole    

[anemoiawithatouchofobsession]

Kdrama script idea : Episode 3 - 4

The next day, Ja Yeon is ready to book a flight to Great Britain, she gets some of her important stuff from her assistants and bids them a teary goodbye, and a heartfelt thanks to Ae Kyung and the girls. She tells them to giev Ae Kyung double her monthly income, the girls some of her handbags and jewellery, and that her clothes should be redistributed to second hand shops. She steps into the Taxi, and on the way to the airport, hears on the radio that the "Shin Ja Yeon dissapearing case" is now a nationwide search. It seems like the assistants ddin't realise that Seung Ho would use all forces to find her, and the car that was floating in the Han River was found empty, and the investigation changed into a kidnapping investigation. Her photo is now published everywhere as she is a missing person. Ja Yeon knows that even if she goes into witness protection, her husband will find her due to his connections to the police and law. She knows his anger and will to kill her knows no bounds.

Panicking, Ja Yeon phones Ae Kyung, who is also following the news. Unable to see a way to get out of the country without being turned in to the police, she asks if she can come back to the house.

Ae Kyung thinks for a second, because this means she is also on Seung Ho's hit list once he finds out where Ja Yeon is. She tells Ja Yeon she can stay in the house as long as she pays the rent and is ready to share a room. Yu Jin and Julie aren't really enthusiastic, but Meera, who handled Ja Yeon's panic attack, agrees to share the room with her. Ja Yeon turns around and goes back to Ae Kyung's house. Her assistants keep phoning her to tell her to not go outside and not contact anyone new who would snitch on her. She needs to stay put until they find a way to smuggle her out of the country or they find a better way to put her out of Seung Ho's mind.

The girls welcome Ja Yeon back into the house, but unbeknownst to them, the mysterious man from the top floor is also watching from his porch. Meera catches a glimpse of his face, thus confirming that someone indeed lives there. While Ae Kyung and Julie take care of Ja Yeon, Meera shares this with Yu Jin. They are now sure a man lives in the place where Min Soo Ji lived, but they decide to tell Ae kyung later on after the whole Ja Yeon fiasco calms down.

Ja Yeon moves into Meera's room, and they start talking a little with each other. Ja Yeon, still having trust issues, does not really know how to reciprocate Meera's openness and kindness, but secretly plans on leaving her physical gifts such as luxury makeup, bags, jewellery and gift cards.

Yu Jin meanwhile gets an offer from a modeling agency named Seong Hwa Models to join their roster after seeing her pictures on Instagram. Being a very reputable agency headed by Ji Seong Hwa (Kim So Yeon), a Miss Korea winner and model, Yu Jin is excited and shares this. Ja Yeon also adds that she has seen Seong Hwa in real life and that she is a very kind person. The women are overjoyed, and Ae Kyung tells Ja Yeon that now that the girls and her are in charge of hiding her, she has a responsibility to help them not just with her money but also to guide them in the society they're about to enter.

The episode ends with the girls eating dinner and Meera barricading the window of her room. Ae Kyung asks her why she is doing that, given that she chose the room because of the window, and Meera replies that Ja Yeon's safety is worth giving up a little of her freedom for.