c4countdown

Rhys Benjamin

I mean, every argument on Israel could equally apply to Pakistan, but it doesn't.

Rhys Benjamin

unless you're also denying the existence of Pakistan, established for exactly the same reasons merely with "Jewish" replaced for "Muslim". Well, I'm not actually denying the existence of Israel (it exists, right?), but sure, there's no reason why Muslims have a particular right to form their own co...

Rhys Benjamin

Elliott Mellor wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 30, 2020 4:14 pm
Wonder how C2 could only get a 3 from a selection, and also how absolutely nobody noticed the words weren't English before.

Well you know what ODO is like these days... certainly SONDAGE(S) has made it in since I was on the show.

Rhys Benjamin

British politics is not gagged of the right to criticise Zionism (Corbyn et al), but it ought to be. "Zionism" is the right of Jewish people of self-determination. Therefore, to deny the existence of Israel on the grounds of it being Zionist is antisemitic unless you're also denying the existence of...

Rhys Benjamin

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:53 pm

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 29, 2020 1:50 pm
I refuse to share that. You have Google, don't you?
You must have breezed through university. Referencing is for chumps.

It's not exactly the same thing as distributing racist material to a Countdown forum, Callum.

Rhys Benjamin

A very silly one: Throughout the game, there have been some very strange decisions by Dictionary Corner, with C1 offering RETOURNEE, ARRETEZ, and VOUS, all allowed. C1 wins the game by 5 points, 107-102. In all three cases, C2 had a valid but shorter English word. It turns out that Susie's (and the ...

Rhys Benjamin

I refuse to share that. You have Google, don't you?

Rhys Benjamin

And Black Lives Matter's UK branch have just ruined everything they've done for the last three weeks by posting the notion Jews don't have a right to self-determination on their Twitter feed, including the rather stupid assertion that British politics is "gagged" when disputing it.

Rhys Benjamin

I have, but I appear to be the only person in my circles who has.

Rhys Benjamin

I've just caught this on the Tuesday morning repeat, and I'd forgotten how much Phil Hammond's anecdotes were party political broadcasts.

Rhys Benjamin

Hopefully. I would probably go if it's on, I haven't been to a co-event in 5 years (!) and need to start going again. But I'm quite pessimistic about the whole situation. I can certainly understand the pessimism, but I’d like to hope that things will be better within the next 11 weeks...🤞🤞🤞 The thi...

Rhys Benjamin

Hopefully. I would probably go if it's on, I haven't been to a co-event in 5 years (!) and need to start going again. But I'm quite pessimistic about the whole situation.

Rhys Benjamin

Don’t know, but it’s from the same episode as Countmuck.

Rhys Benjamin

You log in.

You play a few Omelette 9 rounders, determined to get a 90.

You get the conundrum answer of CHOOSIEST.

You moan in chat about how on earth that's actually a word (like srs how can someone be more choosy, unless they mean this).

You log out.

Rhys Benjamin

The conundrum answer with fewest letters in common with the selection appears to be in the last round of a Masters game - FROTTIFY, which has two letters in common with the selection PRANGMAGI. No, I've got no idea what's going on there either. According to Mike Brown's notes, the contestant appear...

Rhys Benjamin

To be honest, I commented on CORONAS only because Damian had said this conundrum was going to get the chop. It's the other way round to what you think.

Rhys Benjamin

Amazed CORONAS was left in. Amazed? Really? So they should have bleeped it out as if it was highly offensive? Or pulled the whole programme? Presumably when everyone else thought people who stopped buying Corona beer were idiots, you were amazed that anyone was still buying it at all. I'm not one o...

Rhys Benjamin

Amazed CORONAS was left in.

Rhys Benjamin

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 12, 2020 11:35 am
C4c > twitter.

Change my mind.

Well given C4C doesn't have Owen Jones, Antifa, or Squawkbox trolls that flood your notifications whenever you say something, I'm inclined to agree.

Rhys Benjamin

Without giving specific numbers, I'm way off in the bottom left-hand corner. Some of the questions aren't very well worded though and it's not always obvious how they should be interpreted, whereas some seem to be pushing for a particular answer. I think it's simplistic and not a very good quiz ove...

Rhys Benjamin

Since it's been 10 years since we actually all did the Political Compass (which I'm really losing faith in given its UK 2019 party positions), I'd be interested to see where everyone fits on there now, to see if your position has shifted from 10 years ago. https://www.politicalcompass.org/ I've move...

Rhys Benjamin

The question is: Do we want to ban the entire Ashton Hancock collective*, Or is it amusing / harmless enough that it doesn't warrant tough action? (*Ashton, Martin, Callum, Maureen, Mark Nial... and probably others I've forgotten about) Have you looked at the wiki lately? Not only have they had at ...

Rhys Benjamin

A friend of mine is now the Mayor of Bagnor (not difficult given he's one the about 80 members of Plaid Cymru). And they managed to do a socially distant protest very well.

Rhys Benjamin

I do think it’s a non-sequitur during a pandemic, though, that disproportionately harms BAME people.

Protest? Fine. During a pandemic? Not fine.

Rhys Benjamin

Anyway, to put this thread back on track, I have a phobia of dogs. All dogs. It's my biggest failing, really, I can't be anywhere near them.

Rhys Benjamin

Because you've now gone further than impersonation. You uploaded someone's private photos to the wiki. That is a misuse of private information and the police are now involved. Goodbye.

Rhys Benjamin

You will be.

Rhys Benjamin

Interesting that CDB is down, but the Wiki is up. I would have thought that since they were both [site].apterous.org, there would have been more of a correlation there?

Rhys Benjamin

Sounds like someone was watching the end of Casino Royale when setting that, with the rather ridiculous line “if you’d just been born, wouldn’t you be naked?”.

Rhys Benjamin

Turns out we won't be seeing Conor next week. Not sure how that got left in.

Rhys Benjamin

That is an incredible gesture from Phil and I only add to the voices above, it's brilliant.

Rhys Benjamin

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑
Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:16 pm

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:35 pm
it's almost certainly a case of when rather than if.
So many mixed up phrases used here.
"If rather than when" no doubt?

As in, "when [it is cancelled] rather than if [it is cancelled]".

Rhys Benjamin

Given that the Prime Minister today has explicitly stated that indoor gatherings shouldn't be held, it's almost certainly a case of when rather than if.

Rhys Benjamin

There is a pandemic, Sam. The leadership ratings are hardly in normal times, with mid-term blues effect etc

Rhys Benjamin

This didn't age well. An 80 seat majority would suggest otherwise. I think the 35-point drop in approval rating over the last month is more significant. We're British. Our politicians are usually hopeless with approval ratings. . And given his approval rating shot up two months ago, I guess the cur...

Rhys Benjamin

I don't think you can take Prime Ministerial decisions without the Prime Minister. And Boris is so much better than some members of the cabinet, so I feel much better with him in charge than I did with May, or would with Patel. You have someone to deputise when he's not available. What if he was il...

Rhys Benjamin

I don't think you can take Prime Ministerial decisions without the Prime Minister. And Boris is so much better than some members of the cabinet, so I feel much better with him in charge than I did with May, or would with Patel.

Rhys Benjamin

Phil Reynolds wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 01, 2020 1:57 pm
“Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” is an anagram of “Easily survives travel north to Castle”.

classic dom

Rhys Benjamin

Perhaps "leaned on" was a poor choice of words: the fact remains they regurgitated everything Hillary Clinton put out.

Rhys Benjamin

Susie's top is brilliant. I want one.

Rhys Benjamin

I've just had another play with this and there's now two new "islands" of Luke Johnson-Davies and Robin Johnson. Fascinating.

Rhys Benjamin

I just watched today's Have I Got News For You. Brutal. A must watch. Have I Got News For You hasn't been "brutal" in years. And hasn't been impartial since the referendum. Well it was brutal today. The panellists all come with their own opinions. How do you make it impartial? By not having Ian His...

Rhys Benjamin

Die Another Day was on ITV just now. Easily the worst Bond film. He has an invisible car ffs! Also, the scene where he windsurfs on a tsunami is embarrassing. This movie could have killed off the franchise. But again, that's in the naff second half... and the car chase is pretty good, since the car...

Rhys Benjamin

Die Another Day was on ITV just now. The first half is brilliant. The second is... not. Brosnan is brilliant in it, Halle Berry isn't (what's she doing nowadays? The sort of D-list celeb that would be ideal in Dictionary Corner, surely?), Toby Stephens is OK as a deranged North Korean general who's ...

Rhys Benjamin

Well Boris has made it clear he's prepared to increase lockdown back to where it was if things get worse again. The theories are that the virus doesn't like hot weather which is why third-world countries have been largely spared, and so what we really need is a huge, 40-degree heatwave across Europe...

Rhys Benjamin

You're right. Maybe I shouldn't offer any further glimpses into my subconsciousnesses.

Rhys Benjamin

Cummings's writings, however, do appear to back up some of his claims: in 2017, he wrote an article on why Leave won, during which he explicitly states his memory is rubbish. So when all the evidence is pieced together things do appear to stack up on his version of events. As well as this just bein...

Rhys Benjamin

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Fri May 29, 2020 8:32 pm
I just watched today's Have I Got News For You. Brutal. A must watch.

Have I Got News For You hasn't been "brutal" in years. And hasn't been impartial since the referendum.

Rhys Benjamin

I'd like to think Kirk would have seen those

Rhys Benjamin

For some reason, Maus, Matthew Tassier, and I were all allowed back on Countdown. And after 45 conundrums which went unsolved in our semi-final, they decided to just put Tass and I through to the very first 3-way final. Going into the conundrum Maus had 84, Tass 82, and I 80. The conundrum turned ov...

Rhys Benjamin

Durham Police have said he's not going to be fined, and what he did "might have been a minor breach" of the regulations. Going to Durham was within the rules.

Let's all move on now.

Rhys Benjamin

A lot of this lockdown easing stuff is stuff that wouldn't make any difference anyway and never needed to be restricted. Like meeting up with people as long as you're outside and stay two metres away, or sitting in a park - not even exercising! :o So I do wonder whether they overdid the lockdown ju...

Rhys Benjamin

I cannot BELIEVE the energy going into the Premier League compared to even international cricket. On the same day they announce the Premier League will be back on 17 June, they announce no domestic cricket before 1 August, pushed back from 1 July. What a piece of shit.

Rhys Benjamin

Ah, Countdown isn't in the first semi. I see.

Rhys Benjamin

I always hated Old 15s and have never changed my mind on this. They are horrid and you get almost saturated with letters rounds, and if you're better at the numbers like me they can be really taxing at times. The difference between 9 rounders and 15 rounders was you almost doubled the letters rounds...

Rhys Benjamin

The question now is how long does this story go on for before people actually move on - we're not going to get anything more out of the government on this, since they've clearly stated they're now trying to draw a line under this. Let's bear in mind we're 4 years away from a general election and th...

Rhys Benjamin

The way the media are camping outside his house, refusing to socially distance, and playing campaign videos at his house proves him right if anything that he shouldn't have stayed in London. Whilst I don't want to be whataboutish, the way this has received wall-to-wall coverage for five days straigh...

Rhys Benjamin

How does it decide which path to show if there are two (or more) paths of an equal length? For instance, Kate Ogilvie's "official" path goes via Richard Saldanha, Ross McKenzie, Chris Davies, then Kirk Bevins. Another path of that length would be the same root as Scott Mearns: (Mearns), Terry Knowle...

Rhys Benjamin

Sam Cappleman-Lynes got a bronze pencil for ROBBO in an English game.

Rhys Benjamin

Tom Harwood.

sorry not sorry

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