Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

What number are you?



The billionaire brothers behind gambling giant Betfred have topped a list of the UK's 100 biggest taxpayers, which also features Harry Styles, Anthony Joshua and JK Rowling.

Fred and Peter Done, who founded the Warrington-based business in 1967, entered the annual Sunday Times Tax List, external for the first time, having paid an estimated £400.1m tax bill over the past year.

Manchester City's Erling Haaland is the youngest person to appear on the list - at number 72 - with a projected £16.9m tax payment, while Liverpool's Mo Salah is believed to have a £14.5m bill.

The list shows a total of £5.758bn was paid by the top 100 taxpayers, up from £4.985bn the previous year.

Harry Potter author and tax list regular JK Rowling ranked 36 with a £47.5m bill, musician Ed Sheeran came in at 64 paying £19.9m, while boxer Joshua, who is 100th on the list, paid £11m.

Styles, the former One Direction member-turned-solo artist, made a £24.7m tax payment and was among the new entries on the list.

Wetherspoon's founder Sir Tim Martin appeared eighth on the list with a tax contribution of an estimated £199.7m.

[RED-DOG]

Up until I joined blonde I had no real use for writing and I couldn't do handwriting. Well I could, but it was very crude and childlike. It still is, just block capitals that slope across the page.
Then, here came internet poker and I had a reason to have a keyboard. Here came blonde and I had a place with people writing about something that interested me and where I could join in. BOOM!

What's more, the letters I formed by pressing the keys were just as neat and legible as everyone else's.
As time went on I became a reasonably fast typist and my spelling improved no end. I still rely on spell-checker, but much less.

I used to write lots on blonde every day, this went on for years and it made me feel... Well I don't know what it made me feel, Normal? Included? Accepted? Whatever it was, I kind of liked it.

Then blonde sort of faded away, overtaken by Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter... Yada yada.

And that was that. I more or less stopped writing on blonde and that meant I more or less stopped writing altogether. The most writing I do now is a five or ten word message on WhatsApp. I don't even type questions into Google, I just speak to my phone and AI does the rest.

Meh! This is where I should come to an interesting conclusion, but I don't have anything.

As a good friend of mine used to say, "At the end of the day, it goes dark" 

[EssexPhil]

The World is always changing.

The internet gave us all an enormous opportunity to learn and to converse.

Then, sadly, people started yelling and causing stress. So people stopped conversing with everyone except like-minded people. Which is rather sad.

I enjoy discourse with people who disagree with me. Particularly when (as on here) people do so with reasoned arguments. I learn from people with different points of view. As should everybody

[Pokerpops]

Your writing on Blonde was exceptional.
The first post in this diary captured the imagination and the stories that followed were fascinating, moving, and educational.

[Kev B]

Your writing on Blonde was exceptional.
The first post in this diary captured the imagination and the stories that followed were fascinating, moving, and educational.

Exactly this.

[tikay]

100% agree. Utterly riveting & fascinating stories galore. How to make a cup of tea, how to take the dog for a walk, mixed in with less riveting tales.

[RED-DOG]

Thank you, but y'all are missing my obviously badly made point.

There are less and less, (or should that be fewer and fewer) reasons to actually write these days, and less,  (or fewer) places to do it.

People who would once have been writers are now vloggers, podcasters,  TIK Tokers etc, and those that were readers are now watchers and listeners.

I'm being hypocritical here because I'm a big podcast fan and I often listen to an audio book rather than read it.

Like I said, I don't know what I'm complaining about really but I just feel like I'm losing something.

Which brings me to something another good friend of mine used to say:

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

[Karabiner]

Mark Carney the ex-chief of the Bank of England and now Canada's Prime Minister made a similar comment recently about world trade.

He said: "If you're not at the table you're on the menu".