Coffee–nose–keyboard–bill.
Times two. Only with Mountain Dew.
You’re 100% spot on. I think my rant is just about the dramtic sigh injustice of it all.
Did you know we have to pay a TV license - to the BBC alone? :dubious:
Every other channel has to use commercials for funding, but we are not allowed a TV unless we fork over £100 quid and more each year.
And the sneaky bastards have dozens of their repeat channels on satellite, absolutely peppered with adverts.
And as for inviting the Pope; I personally sent him 3 texts, a dozen emails and left a message on his machine, all telling him Britain wouldn’t be home that week. He turned up anyway.
Boy, was my face red.
NO ONE expects the … 
Do you know who ELSE England didn’t expect? That the Pope was a member of? The Inquisition, that’s what!
Piffle. A mere cash flow problem. What counts is what is has “in the bank”, so to speak. And, you can bet your last communion cookie that The Vatican has assets that make Bill Gates look downright middle class. My gawd, its art collection alone . . .
(And don’t forget to add in that splinter from His cross they’ve got sitting in the basement. That would bring a pretty penny on eBay, I’ll tell you for sure. And I can’t remember for sure, but didn’t the Vatican also put in the winning bid for the grilled cheese Jesus? That alone could pay for a new Popemobile.)
What if the Queen said she didn’t want to the Pope to come?
I know, I know - I learned in World Politics 101 that the Queen is largely symbolic, but still.
Dun Dun DUUUNNNNNNHHHH!
She’s symbolic as the Head of State. Even I know that.
How symbolic is she as the Defender of the Faith? Which I’m not so sure of.
Only slightly less so. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the de facto head of the Church of England. The Prime Minister appoints bishops from nomination lists prepared by the Crown Appointments Committee (technically, the PM “recommends appointments to the Crown”, but this is a polite fiction).
Doesn’t that committee only put two nominees on the list; someone totally unsuitable for the job, and the guy they really want? Or has Yes Prime Minister lied to me?
Why wouldn’t he eat local food? Or at least prepared by local cooks?
Are you confusing the Pope with Madonna? Hint: he’s the one with the cute hat.
Did he really? I wasn’t aware Glasgow and Edinburgh were in England.
Sorry hermette, I obviously meant ‘Greater England.’
I extended an invitation for the Space Pope to visit. I’m still waiting for him to reply.
It’s a very short list, typically. I don’t think it’s quite as short as YPM made it out to be.
The POTUS doesn’t eat local food when traveling either. Security.
Let’s face it £12m is peanuts in the grand scheme of things - given that our national debt is increasing at £18m per hour spending that sum on a one-off visit from the pope isn’t a big deal.
In terms of policing, if it’s OK for the police to spend £3-4m each year on Premiership football matches, spending £1.5m every 18 years for the pope’s visit doesn’t seem too unreasonable.
The classic dish for Birmingham is the balti curry, best enjoyed late at night with copious amounts of lager and a big group of slightly rowdy mates. Can’t really see El Popo heading down to the Taj Mahal for their Friday-night special 
And Glasgow’s local dish is the deep-fried mars bar, which may just represent too much sybaritic decadence for His Grooviness.
But football is entertaining and has the added bonus of violence. Nobody tries to take out His Holiness anymore. And can you imagine Catholic hooliganism?
oh yeah…
Let’s not forget, Premiership football matches host tens of thousands of fans. There’s usually 11 or so going off every given weekend. Per capita, that’s not bad value for money, protecting all those people at once. The Pope is one person (who hasn’t scored a goal all season). And he already has that fish tank on wheels to look after his wrinkly righteous hide.
Au contraire, mon petit filou.
Not quite up to the level of an Old Firm ruck, but I bet Herr Ratzinger has some kind of nazi death-grip he can unleash when it all goes off.
13m total Premiership attendance against £4m policing costs (acutally costs more but the clubs pay a proportion) is about 30p per fan per year.
150,000 papal attendance against £1.5m policing is about £10 per pilgrim, BUT amortized over 18 years that’s only 55p so it’s not too bad.
I think they should let The Stig have a bash with the Popemobile… I bet you’d get some righteous two-wheel action around Gambon.
He drops into my house in Dublin the odd time, uses my phone to call the big man up in heaven.
Of course thats a local call, so it doesnt cost too much…