David Peckham

Whisky Macs, like Harvey's Bristol Cream and Cinzano Bianco & lemonade, are a taste of Christmas past sadly lost to many. A little Whisky Mac and icing sugar whisked through whipping cream makes a festive accompaniment to stollen or Christmas pudding.

I thought August was one of the busiest times for the building trade. The clement weather makes it more reliable for planning jobs and shouting obscenities at passing ladies. Are you confusing brickies with hedge fund managers or the French? It's easily done and they basically disappear for August.

I've never got Christmas pudding. The only times I've managed to make it vaguely acceptable to people is thus: Buy a really tiny one when it's remaindered in Tesco's. They confound carbon dating, so the yellow labelled stuff at 75% off on Boxing Day will keep you going for years. Chop it up and soak it in Stones Ginger Wine and left over Scotch. Mix it in with a decent vanilla ice cream. It's like a festive Rum 'n' Raisin. Or: Stick a couple in a demijohn of Aldi vodka and serve it to guests, accompanied by 'The Party's Over' by Johnny Mathis when people simply won't leave your flat.

This reminds me of a situation a few years ago when a mate's Dad was coming down and fancied Franklin's for Christmas Day. He'd been there once, in September, and loved it. Obviously, they're far too tuned in to do it, so having looked around, £100 per head was pretty standard for fairly average pubs around here. That is ridiculous. I'd go with Penguin's idea; one of the best Christmas Day lunches I've ever had was at the Lahore Kebab House in Whitechapel. And it was BYO. After a couple of Guinness outside Franklin's, we decided £100 for four people was the absolute maximum, but it had to be done in the style of Franklin's and sourced within walking distance of The Gowlett. All the supermarkets knock themselves out on veg as a loss leader - particularly anything festive - and the Afghani lads on Rye Lane are brilliant for more esoteric stuff and spices, so it really doesn't need to be pricey. Here's what we came up with. It was considerably less than £100 for four. Bread & Butter (Lidl & Lurpak on offer at Iceland) Mersea Oysters (Sopers) Parsnip & Potato Soup ( I think they were both less than 20 pence a kilo at Morrisons) Smoked mackerel, Jerseys, watercress & radish (Sopers) Rolled turkey breast joint (£7.95 from Iceland) Roast Duck (two for £12 at Lidl) Mash Carrots, star anise, butter emulsion. Stir-fried Brussels, bacon, chestnuts and Worcestershire sauce.(Lidl) Clementine and limoncello granita (all from Lidl) Stollen (Lidl) Stichelton, Cornish Cruncher, Stinking Bishop. (Marks & Sparks) There was a couple of lessons to learn: Don't freeze mash. It breaks down the cellular structure and ends up more like a French pomme purée. I renamed it 'Pomme Mikael Silvestre' after my favourite French centre-half cum left back and got away with it, but if you're not amongst football fans you may not be so lucky. Tasted great, looked like shit. Don't take the clementine granita out of the freezer too early, particularly if you've overdone it on the limoncello. It melts quickly and someone will suggest snorting it. The sugar really sticks your nostrils together on Boxing Day. Speaking of 'lost' Christmases past, John Lewis have hijacked Alison Limerick's 'Where Love Lives' for their new advert. Bastards. But not a bad ad. Beansprout, I have a massive steel pot I bought from a Nigerian place on Choumert Road many years ago. It could do with a work out. I'm quite prepared to make a huge, spicy parsnip soup for anyone who fancies it and a few carols.

The Standard are reporting the rental home as being in East Dulwich. I hadn't realised she was that local. "Rachel Reeves apologises for London rental rules breach as Tories demand her sacking | The Standard" https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/rachel-reeves-rental-rules-break-east-dulwich-family-home-southwark-council-b1255584.html

There was quite an old clip on BBC4 recently where they were introducing yoghurt to the British public. They called it a 'Balkan Dairy Preparation', which sounded to me more like something you'd ask to speak to the male member of staff about in the chemist in those days.

I miss milkmen. It was the sign of a good night out if you met one on the way home. But could quality produce, in 100% recyclable packaging and home-delivered by zero emission electric vehicles really catch on these days? They should bring back the Corona pop man, as well.

It was a bit of a jump by me from Cyclemonkey seeing a similar presence at London Bridge. Larnaca wouldn't have brought a huge amount of fans, but it was the first time Palace have hosted a competitive European tie. There's the issue of Northern Cyprus and heightened media interest around footy because of the Villa Maccabi game at the moment, so that may have had a bearing on the scale of the operation. It does seem unlikely if it was at four o'clock, though.

My apologies. The timing of your original post suggested it was after 6pm, which would fit with them herding away supporters onto the train at London Bridge and trying to get to Selhurst station to escort them to the ground.

Palace were at home last night, kicked off at 19.45. The timing sounds about right.

That sounds like a very short pub crawl.

The drivers generally have the same set area to cover every day, so they're fairly easy to follow - quite often on bike. They organise their drops to maximise how many they can do within a given time - there's actually software at the depot to do this before they set off - so they tend to follow the same route. Certain addresses are delivery hotspots, some have two or three drops a day from the various couriers. It all adds up doorstep deliveries being incredibly easy to target. I suspect Vladi's neighbour hasn't had their fake parcel nicked, not because of their security, but because the thief simply wouldn't have seen the driver stop there, so there's nothing to steal. The losses are factored in, driving prices up for everyone, and the drivers are treated abysmally. It's a dreadful business. It needs regulating. Sorry, cross post with Angelina and Alec1

Harry's polo ponies will be shitting themselves about whose bed their heads will be found in. I offer my friendship to Don William.

To be fair to Royalists, it didn't work out too well for anyone last time we canned the monarchy. I'd imagine quite a few French, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese and Russians had second thoughts after they' found out what you get in their place - those really didn't work out well. Maybe elected heads of state only work well where there's never been a monarchy. The countries I'd aspire to - the Scandinavian states, The Netherlands - have slimmed down monarchies, and that looks like the way we're moving. I'd take that and abolition of an unelected upper house, most particularly the hereditary element of it, as a decent starting point.

I've never been a big fan of the Royals - I used to think that their severed heads should be hung all along The Mall, but I've softened as I've got older. A slimmed down monarchy would be quite profitable for the UK, and a better option than an elected ceremonial president. Apparently, William has had quite a role in the uncompromising treatment of Andrew & Fergie and Harry & Megan - it reminded me of Michael Corleone's purge of the family's enemies at the end of 'The Godfather'. It was brutal, but at least Michael waited until his father, Don Vito, was dead to secure the future of the family business. William is putting his complications out of the picture now - I'd avoid massages or revolving doors if I was Beatrice or Eugenie. I think I'm developing a sneaking admiration for William.

Are you sure you were, to put it delicately, 100% upright at the time you took the photo? No cartwheels, handstands or anything like that?

Fair point, those do look pretty eye-watering for the average fan. Maybe the first tranche is aimed somewhat at the corporate hospitality market? FIFA did make a huge cock-up with the Club World Cup pricing and had to heavily discount even the semi-final, so there's still hope of some cheap tickets. I can't imagine Cabo Verde vs Uzbekistan on a wet Wednesday night would be a sell-out, unless New York or Los Angeles have a 'Verdeville' or 'Little Tashkent'. Of far greater concern is that Budweiser will be the only beer available in the stadia. That's reason enough to boycott the whole thing. FIFA seem deaf to any concerns about the quantity of football being played. There are going to be more inconsequential games, but for many 'elite' players, like Kane, Mbappe and Bellingham, this will be their third summer tournament on the bounce. They'll be knackered and that's got to affect the quality of the bigger matches.

I'd not really been keeping up on the National Guard situation, but having just had a quick Google, Portland is one of the cities where their use is pending. Obviously, anywhere inland is going to be much hotter than than coasts - even the Great Lakes cities like Chicago and Toronto hit very high temperatures when the Humidex is factored in - so I can't imagine what Kansas City could be like in high summer. Most of Kansas City is actually in Missouri, which is pretty strongly Trump country. The Mid West states tend to have higher gun ownership rates as well. Worth remembering if you're thinking about discussing politics in a bar. In general, if someone's wearing a Stetson and has a pick-up truck outside, they probably won't take well to talk about Democrats. And they probably have a gun. I'd stick to the Pacific coast. It's the most progressive part of the States, so at least you can open your mouth in a bar. The weather won't be as oppressive as the Mid West or the East Coast either. Vancouver, Seattle and Portland all have MLS teams - SF is getting one in the next couple of seasons - so the locals know something about football. It's worth driving the Pacific Coast Highway down from San Francisco towards LA, if you've not done it before. San Jose isn't really worth your time but Big Sur, Monterey, Santa Cruz and the beach towns like Capitola are well worth a visit. The National / State Park networks down the coast all provide decent campsites for next to nothing, and the whole area is really well set up for hiking, mountain-biking, canoeing and fishing.

Fifa are discussing expanding it to 64 teams for the 2030 tournament South America, which would mean 128 games. That's mad. They're aren't enough hours in the day to watch that much football and I'd have to move house to find a place with enough space for my 'Super Sun World Cup Wall Chart'. There are games in Mexico and Canada in 2026, so that's an option. Mexico will be unbearably hot, Toronto will be unbearably dull - Leonard Cohen once described it as 'New York run by the Swiss' and he was spot on - so I'd say Vancouver. Possibly the most beautiful setting for a city outside Sydney and a great food scene. Nick over the border and there are matches in Seattle as well. The Amtrak train down from Seattle to San Francisco, another WC venue, through Oregon is staggering - and they have an observation car with a bar! Portland and Eugene are worth a couple of nights as well. That part of northern California and the Pacific Northwest is the most un-Trumpy part of the US, so I wouldn't worry too much and Vancouver is surprisingly interesting, for Canada at least. You've actually made me think about making the trip again.

I've got to disagree with your numbers there - you're comparing apples and oranges. Support for the scheme has reduced from 53% prior to Starmer's announcement to 35% after it, opposition to it has increased from 19% to 49%, but 35% of the public still support it, not -14%. That is impossible + the lowest it could be is 0%. Net approval has decreased from +34% to -14%. The Guardian story seems like a hatchet job on Starmer's popularity and it makes you wonder what their agenda is, given the rumours around a leadership challenge. Starmer has clearly done a f*cking dreadful job on articulating any benefits of the system - if, indeed, there are any - but he's not helped by unverified social media stories about the involvement of Blair's son, stories which have been denied by all parties involved.

If that £28 billion was spent on, I don't know, Guinness in the EDT, it would raise cash through VAT and alcohol duty. If it was invested, say in Diageo (the parent company of Guinness), those dividends would be subject to CGT. I have no wish to pay more tax, but it seems like a significant loophole, and one that wouldn't affect me, so I'm in favour of it.

But we're double taxed, and more, on pretty much all 'non-essential' spending anyway. As it's clearly 'disposable' income, a decent starting point would be to treat it as such and charge 20% on it, like VAT, then add in a number to factor in the lost multiplier effect from it leaving the UK economy. It could be the only tax which actually has popular support.

That's why I said 'in some form' - that figure increases to 57% when asked if they were in favour of a 'National ID Card', rather than a digital one on their phone. That suggests a couple of things to me: firstly that the majority of people aren't mad enough to rebel over a perceived Orwellian assault on their civil liberties and, secondly, that 20% of people are worried about someone sussing that they've been looking at 'BigTits.Com' or some-such on their mobile.

You, yourself, said that you were 'instinctively' against the idea. I'm just trying to get my head around why some people feel like that, and why they're the loudest voices. The majority of the country in favour of it, in some form.

But also Corbyn and Liberty. It clearly elicits very strong feelings across the board, and I'm at a loss to know why. I'm fairly ambivalent to it, but cynical about its benefits and implementation. I certainly don't subscribe to the idea that it's the tool of a police state, which some seem to think. Oh, give over. The NHS patient data project was a complete Horlicks, and that, at the time, was the world's largest civilian computer system. Surely all similar large public projects are outsourced to some extent? The government simply doesn't have the capacity or expertise to carry out this scale of work in house. And as everyone knows, there's no such thing as bad work, only a bad client brief. There are potentially a lot of benefits to actually sharing more data through the ID scheme, in terms of more efficient budget allocation to services for a start, but I doubt the debate will get that far because of the 'Big Brother' obsession of some people.