c4countdown

Rhys Benjamin

Then there is, of course, the Swedish argument that lockdown was not necessary at all... Sweden has a much lower population density than the UK and also the guy behind the policy admitted that too many people died . Well, my last line was very much a tongue-in-cheek "what if" comment - but it serve...

Rhys Benjamin

People need to stop arguing from hindsight, because it's ridiculous. "We should have locked down sooner" - when exactly did you call for lockdown, and why would you do so so early on? Do you not realise it's a weapon of last resort, because evidently you don't. "Stay alert is pants, stay safe is fi...

Rhys Benjamin

People need to stop arguing from hindsight, because it's ridiculous. "We should have locked down sooner" - when exactly did you call for lockdown, and why would you do so so early on? Do you not realise it's a weapon of last resort, because evidently you don't. "Stay alert is pants, stay safe is fin...

Rhys Benjamin

Forgive me if I'm missing the point here, because I haven't studied all of this, but when coronavirus was growing at a high exponential rate back in the spring, wasn't the estimate that there could be 500,000 deaths unless we were locked down? So if lockdown has saved over 450,000 deaths from coron...

Rhys Benjamin

How many 9-letter words have appeared on the show exactly once (both including and excluding as a conundrum)? I’m thinking of DIARRHOEA for a start.

Rhys Benjamin

At some point, the goalposts were moved from "lockdown to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed" to "lockdown until there's a cure" which may never happen and indeed is years off at the earliest. That is simply untenable. I don't understand why politicians, particularly those on the left, want lock...

Rhys Benjamin

Well, the first part is arguably your fault for following Sky News on Twitter. Secondly, there have been a lot of reports about people not being able to get tested, and that problem doesn't go away by pointing to other countries and what they're doing or not doing. What you say might not be accurat...

Rhys Benjamin

I have to say the entire thing, particularly at the moment, is being whipped up by the media into a huge frenzy. In the month of August, despite the situation generally improving Sky News tweeted 4 times as much bad news about COVID than good news. We're seeing it now with "NO ONE CAN GET TESTED WE'...

Rhys Benjamin

Some of the stranger words give appalling sentences...

"Since none of the above are going to happen, it therefore falls to one of the four of us to lead the Tories on to (cough, splutter) victory (mwahahaha - collapses under desk in mirth)."

https://www.lexico.com/definition/mwahahaha

Rhys Benjamin

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: ↑
Sat Sep 12, 2020 3:54 pm
How many times has an error been made in dictionary corner, whereby they allowed a word not in the relevant dictionary, or disallowed a word that was...?

44 times a word has been wrongly allowed, I know that much since I've just edited them all in the wiki.

Rhys Benjamin

Having spoken to the Ark, at the present time, the maximum number allowed for the Saturday event is 30 . No news on the Sunday event, I'm hoping to speak to the Memorial Hall tomorrow so will have news then, and will hopefully have some idea of prices by the weekend. Still trying to figure out how ...

Rhys Benjamin

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑
Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:48 am

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:16 am
I do worry that we’ll end up with Romesh Ranganathan and Nish Kumar, which may well be unwatchable.
Probably not since neither of them are black.

By the same token, Lewis Hamilton has a white mother.

Rhys Benjamin

Chris Kamara would be excellent in DC, as would Trevor McDonald in the host’s chair. I do worry that we’ll end up with Romesh Ranganathan and Nish Kumar, which may well be unwatchable. Angelica Bell (which I must admit was not my thought) would be ideal as host or “Rachel”. As would Michael Holding ...

Rhys Benjamin

Rather than highlighting the racial aspect of it, I'm more up in arms about changing the presenters rather than the racial element of it. If you were to replace them all with an LGBT+ cast for a day I would be equally as annoyed.

Rhys Benjamin

Suppose, as an experiment, Channel 4 announced that just for one day, Countdown and some other shows were going to change their entire presenting team for new people. Maybe it'll go well, maybe it won't, but whatever happens it's only one day and the following morning everything will be back as it ...

Rhys Benjamin

The Eurovision Song Contest : The Story of Fire Saga. This was a fun silly campy film. I'm not sure Americans will get it but if you like Eurovision you will like this Even Will Ferrell is not annoying , which is hard to achieve I think it was OK and picked up a lot when the action got to Edinburgh...

Rhys Benjamin

In Autumn next year, Countdown will be one of the programmes (which I'm guessing means this will be on a weekday) which will be presented by an all-black "presenting and reporting team". Presumably that means producers, directors, etc. of Countdown won't be moved (Damian et al) and it only applies t...

Rhys Benjamin

Once you play a lot of spoilage, typing pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and floccinaucinihilipilification are second nature to you, really. Still not quite there on supercalifragelisticexpialidocious (sp).

Rhys Benjamin

Perhaps I'm missing something - as far as I can tell only two of Conor 's prelim opponents returned (Jane Capie and Judy Bursford). Who's the third? Andrew Christley, but he went on on his 2nd appearance as Andy Christley. Don't think the wiki notes it. Are you sure? The image on the wiki looks too...

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.

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