Archers thread #168: Near to the Maddening Crowd? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to hear more of Harrison's strange little moaning noises, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the title suggestion!

Over to you.

The Bartleby story has been very odd but it’s allowed us to see a side of George we don’t usually see. He isn’t great at relationships with people so it was nice to see his relationship with someone he trusts.

I agree with Susan. Alice isn’t just being supported, but indulged. She needs to hit rock bottom. We know it’s true she didn’t drink and drive, causing the accident, but if she continues to drink (possibly after the truth comes out), sooner or later she will drink and drive.

She has done already, even if not on this particular occasion, so why would she not do it again?

That's what I keep thinking. She was almost unconscious with alcohol. Unless she planned staying in the layby for a couple of days she would still be over the limit the following lunchtime.

Will the vindication she feels when she’s proved right make it all so much worse for her though? Will she decide drinking isn’t the worst thing after all

I’ve been thinking about how the Archers characters would vote in the General Election. In my head Ambridge is a Conservative seat, perhaps newly marginal in this election.

Mia is the easiest. Definitely voting Green. I expect she’s been a party member for a few years now and has been leafleting and canvassing around the village.

I think Mia has persuaded Brad to help her, however he’s planning on voting Labour but isn’t brave enough to tell her. He has a secret crush on Rachel Reeves.

Jazzer votes Labour (in England at least) and has strong views on using your vote and standing up for the working man.

Brian has always voted Conservative but is not voting this year. Justin is very friendly with the local Conservative MP and is a Conservative Party member, though mostly for the business connections it gives him.

Pat generally votes for the Green Party but will be voting tactically for whoever will oust the sitting MP.

George has been watching Farage’s TikTok clips and is tempted by Reform.

Love it @EmilyDickinson

Susan - reform
Grundies - no photo ID

Joy - Green
Mick - Reform

Lynda - knows the Conservative candidate personally and thinks them rather erudite with good intentions.

Kirstie - Green

Jill was always Labour, and viewed Mark's Liberal candidacy as a cop out.

Sorry, I've checked. Mark was SDP. Jill still thought it was a cop-out.

Kenton just might still be Labour. He has been found guilty of reading books for pleasure.

i thought I’d be able to escape the election here! May go on a tech detox as I just can’t bear the mess we’re in and the slightly different deck chair rearranging we are being promised

Haven’t all the older Grundys been abroad at some point, so in possession of passports, even if out of date?

From the Electoral Commission: ‘You can still use your photo ID if it's out of date, as long as it looks like you.’

And surely each of them, including George, has a driving licence?

It will all be over soon, @Bruisername. I remember all too vividly how quickly the euphoria of 1997 evaporated. It will be the same this time, probably worse.

[jaded old cynic emoji goes HERE]

Ambridge will rapidly forget that there has even been an election.

Unless Alice has failed a breathalyser we can assume but not know, so only have fact to go on, and I have not yet seen one objective post to prove she has ever drunk driven. Unless of course we just want to make things up based on our assumptions or prejudices.

See my response to another poster who made a similar comment to yours, Basically they posted a link to prove it would take 40 hours to get the alcohol out of her system.

1. That Figure was based on a 1 litre bottle of Vodka. I don’t recall it ever being stated it was 1 litre in fact in a village shop it is far more likely, I would have thought, to have been a standard 70cl bottle.
2. The poster failed to take account of the overriding condition in their own link, that a breathalyser can only detect alcohol between 12 and 24 hours after consumed. Now that is detect at all let alone at a level that they would fail a breathalyser.

So based on that posters own evidence it is quite possible the after 12 hours they may not have been able to detect alcohol at all, let alone in quantities sufficient to fail a breathalyser.

Now Alice bought the Vodka just as the shop was closing. Being a community shop I imagine that was quite early. Certainly before Joy went home to get ready for her concert that evening. Alice’s usual way was it seems, to drive to the woods, put her key in the glove box, then swig it back as quickly as possible, then sink into oblivion. So it is not improbable to consider she had knocked it back by 6pm. 14 hours before 8am the next morning.

Of course this is not a good thing to do, and always the possibility, that she would be over the limit the next morning (as I imagine many people have been without censure or ill effect). But even without a breathalyser the evidence on here so far is far from conclusive.

Is there any euphoria? I certainly don’t feel the same positivity about the impending change as I did in 97

I’m being harassed by my labour candidate - i must have had half a forest pushed through my door but the canvassers are too chicken to knock.

They did a blood test - not a breathalyser

I do hope this thread is going to be an election free zone. I dont care who make believe characters would vote for. There are plenty more sites that do politics.

If you are talking about the accident, she was not driving at that time, nor had planned to for many hours. But this is about posters claiming she had definitely drunk driven before, without conclusive evidence, or even with evidence that rebuts their own claims. Or would have definitely been drunk driving the next morning.

Although on the link that the poster put up I recall it gave the same 12 to 24 hours for blood tests to be still able to detect alcohol in the system. I had previously read only 6 hours for blood

I wasn’t listening at the time but I thought she had driven to the shop and they refused to serve her because she was drunk and she threw a brick?

But this is about posters claiming she had definitely drunk driven before, without conclusive evidence, or even with evidence that rebuts their own claims.

I keep reading and rereading this sentence - and wondering if I’ve been here too long …

Tell me more

Ah Yeah that was another one, I don’t think there was any blood test there was there. It was given as an example of her drunk driving.

I pointed out from the synopsis that there was no evidence that she had driven to the shop. In fact she was almost blackmailing them with the fact that she would have to drive to get alcohol if they would not serve her, and was so frustrated she threw the brick through the window.

Sure someone will say if I have any of that wrong, and happy to see any definitive evidence the she has definitely drunk driven before, but don’t seem to have seen that so far, so it seems rather unfair to use that to confidently state she would do it again. She certainly does not seem to have done since she was putting the key in the glove box, as she would have remembered her car being somewhere different when she came round.

Good point!

Posted too soon! On the balance of probability I am convinced by the posts asserting Alice has driven over the limit before. However I am prepared to accept that the scriptwriters may not be aware of this 😁

I like speculating about the characters but this election feels like a damp squib.

Asking will know, but I feel confident that Clarrie and Eddie went to Paris for some anniversary or birthday.

Wasn't Ambridge also twinned with a French village once and only once!

Adieu Bartleby, hurrah!

Meyruelle. It feels unfair that I should remember this kind of thing for all time, but be unable to remember why I got up out of my seat 10 seconds ago and crossed the room. Ah well.

I suspect that all Justin was saying is that he knows how to manipulate online adverse social media contact, or more accurately he has people on his staff who know.