This a great idea and has shown to be a great success in Finland where it has been in place for sometime. We also need adult programmes as well. Education is the only way to combat this current world of chaos and misinformation.

We are playing geopolitical blackjack. We can stick and hope that the US ( and I extend this to Russia) play a bad hand and go ”bust.” Or do we twist- we may get a desirable outcome or alternatively be worse off than we are now. Can we accept the risk and face the possible consequences?

I understand the arguments made in the article.
Harsh reality is the public always complain about the licence fee as it is so raising the fee is off the table. The BBC needs to get strategically creative to stay afloat financially and still offer entertainment. So all ideas have to be considered.

Luckily my spaniel is fickle about the conditions he walks in and would rather cross all his legs for bladder control than walk in the dark, wet and cold of winter. Muddy puddles and wet hedgerows though- that’s a different story.

This is an essential inquiry and if done properly could be seismic across the political landscape.

But I’m wary that this will be like the Leveson or Covid Inquiry where wrong doing was unearthed but little was done to punish transgressors or action taken to change future behaviour.

The biggest concern this fact raises is that of influence. We rightly look to put in place restrictions on monetary budgets for political parties - but why do we allow weekly airtime to a major political player? We need media parity either through bans on tv hosting or equal airtime for all.

Is this a strategy to make US walk away? Pander to their egos, offer a deal which has no compromise- surprisingly it fails. It is clear Trump won’t punish the Soviets so his only path is to wash his hands of it. EU talk a good game but no action to back it up. So Russia can continue unchecked.

A great documentary

I don’t understand Labour’s need to mimic Reform. Stick to your own beliefs. Yes you may lose some votes and might not win an election based on what you stand for. But you’ll definitely lose a lot more by pretending to be something you’re not. Authenticity matters to the public.

The Great Escape. - not a Christmas themed movie but it holds fond Christmas memories as a child as every year the whole family would gather round the TV to watch it whilst drinking our Aadvocat snowballs.

Reform are backed into a corner with this. There is no one that can step up and create as much publicity as he can. Without him they will fold. It’s the same problem the Greens will have with Polanski if/when he oversteps the party lines.

Article says this currently is only for US. Really hoping they come to the UK. Combined with the original theatrical re-release of Star Wars I’m more excited to visit the cinema to watch these old movies than anything being released in the next year. This may be how we revive theatres’ fortunes.

Whilst Reform are rightly being scrutinised over their Kremlin connections, I do feel it prudent we conduct an investigation across the whole political machine. Reform aren’t the only party susceptible to persuasion from foreign governments.

I don’t disagree. But politics is too volatile a landscape to hope that Reform will run out of bluster. We’ve had too many reactive governments - time for strong arguments and decisive action. If we wait to see which way the wind blows it might have changed direction before we act.

The bold move by Labour might have to be putting rejoining Europe on their manifesto for the next election. Sure they’ll lose the “Reform adjacent” vote but if they can keep Greens and Lib Dem’s at bay it maybe the way to reignite their popularity.

If the merger goes ahead - technically it’s just moving to a different cupboard rather than leaving the house of Netflix.

I think there is some media hypocrisy going on. Reeves may or may not have been an U14 girls champion - outrage and condemnation. Farage accused of racist behaviour in his teens - nothing to see here, it was so long ago. Some consistency in behaviour/outrage would be nice.