So which beer brands are actually brewed there now?
Hobgoblin, McEwans, Brooklyn, but I don’t drink any of those anymore.
I’m hearing mixed messaging about cask beer. Beer writers, podcasters etc are saying it’s an exciting time for Cask Ale - but every metric shows it’s declining.
EDIT: is cask Bass brewed in the Marstons brewery?
Where I live in Manchester the cask ale I’m served is usually in decent condition, this could be down to Manchester being a bit of a stronghold for cask or a biased sample because I know the pubs with good beer. But I was down in Wiltshire last week and went to a pub with the Cask Marque sign, and two of the three cask ales they had were way beyond drinkable condition.
There have been quite a few posts on here recently along the lines of “the weather app said X and it was completely wrong”, usually accompanied by a screenshot of an app showing a little sun/rain/cloud icon several days or even a couple of weeks into the future.
I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what those apps are actually showing.
A weather app is not really a meteorologist. In many cases, what you’re looking at is automated model output turned into a neat little table for a particular location. Some services combine multiple models and apply statistical processing, but the important point is that the app is presenting you with an output, not necessarily an actual forecast written or interpreted by a forecaster. The Met Office itself says that many weather apps and websites use automated data from weather prediction models without meteorologist input.
Weather models don’t predict “rain on Thursday” in the same way that an app makes it look. They calculate the future state of the atmosphere from its current state, using enormously complicated numerical models. The atmosphere is chaotic, so tiny errors in the starting conditions can grow into much bigger differences several days later.
This is especially obvious when you’re looking more than a few days ahead. You might see an app showing something like 21°C, sunny, 10% chance of rain for next Saturday, as if somebody has actually looked at the atmosphere and decided that Saturday will be sunny. They haven’t. That particular outcome may simply be what one model solution currently happens to produce. Run the model again six hours later and you might get something quite different.
The little weather icon completely hides all of this. It also hides the actual weather situation. There might be a deep low pressure system approaching from the Atlantic, a cold front moving east, a ridge of high pressure building behind it, or a developing area of instability producing showers. Where those features are and how quickly they move can make a massive difference to what happens at your location.
That’s why I think the Met Office video forecasts are vastly more useful if you actually want to understand what the weather is going to do. You’re getting an actual forecast rather than just looking at model output. The forecaster can consider multiple model runs and ensembles, decide what outcome is most likely and explain where the uncertainty lies. The maps also let you actually see the pressure systems, fronts and weather patterns moving across the UK.
It’s also worth remembering that the further ahead you go, the less specific and less certain a forecast can be. Beyond about a week, forecasts are much better interpreted as possible trends and patterns rather than “the weather on Tuesday will be 23°C and sunny”.
I’m not saying don’t use weather apps. They’re brilliant for checking whether it’s probably going to rain in the next couple of hours, checking the temperature, looking at radar, or getting a quick indication of what’s expected tomorrow.
But if you’re screenshotting an app’s forecast for ten days’ time and then coming back to complain that it changed, that’s not really the app failing. You’re asking it to provide a level of certainty that the atmosphere doesn’t allow.
For actual forecasting, especially when you’re interested in the weather pattern rather than just whether your phone has displayed a sun or rain icon, watch the Met Office 10 Day Trend videos. You’ll get considerably more information from five minutes of a forecaster explaining the situation with a synoptic map than you will from scrolling through ten days of emojis.
https://youtube.com/@metoffice?si=XpT4Vw\_wW2hGCseL
TL;DR: Weather apps often turn complex, uncertain model output into a deceptively simple forecast, especially beyond a few days. A rain emoji 10 days away doesn’t mean it’s actually going to rain.
The Met Office YouTube videos are better because a meteorologist interprets multiple models, explains the uncertainty and shows the weather systems on a map. Much more useful than trusting a row of emojis.
England fans generally don’t have the best reputation abroad. A history of hooliganism from the 1970s-1990s has stained our reputation. We’re seen as arrogant and entitled.
Prior to the Mexico v England game in the World Cup there was concern about violence, but all the reports I’ve seen have said it was very respectful between different fans.
England fans have said it was the best fan experience of the World Cup, not just because it was an exciting match but they loved the passion of Mexico. And watching on TV the matches at the Azteca felt like they had a proper football atmosphere.
People are now asking the FA to invite Mexico to Wembley for a return friendly. Since the match I’ve seen a few people wearing green Mexico shirts in England. There seems to be a love for the Mexico team and their supporters.
Has your opinion of or feelings towards England changed?
Unlike the old days when more people would watch the forecasts on TV. You don’t get the same insight and context from a single symbol on an app compared with a map showing how fronts and pressure systems are moving across with country with a meteorologist explaining what it means, where the uncertainty is, what to expect.
The Met Office YouTube channel has multiple forecasts updated every day with weekly 10 day trends and Deep Dives, and even their forecasters regularly mention the limitations of relying on a your weather apps.
The world snooker championships are currently ongoing. Typically snooker was a British sport, and when I was growing up in the 90s the majority of players were from England, Scotland, Wales with a few from ex-British colonies like Ireland, Australia or Canada.
This year 11 players from China qualified for the last 32 (up from 3 in 2026). Zhao Xingtong became the first Chinese champion in 2025, and currently Wu Yize has reached the Semifinals as well speak.
Is it a popular sport, or still a foreign curiosity?