Gloucester Saint

Chris Philip’s name also popping up here although no longer a member of some of these racist groups https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/tory-staff-running-network-of-anti-ulez-facebook-groups-riddled-with-racism-and-abuse They have some huge problems. More garbage this morning in the wake of Dr Poulter’s defection about a leadership challenge to Sunak if the local elections yield the expected 400-500 council seats lost. With the hope of persuading him to go apparently rather than actually winning apparently. July GE talk again in response - do it! Private Eye reporting that Steve Watson, Chief Constable at GMP looking into Rayner housing allegations spoke at the right wing Freedom Association session of the Tory conference (Campbell Bannerman Chaired it FFS). So no prospect of any prosecution when there’s clear political bias. It’s already backfiring on them in the wider media and public before this.

Certainly not holding back, but then he has speaking up on these issues for years https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/top-tory-mp-defects-to-labour-in-fury-at-nhs-crisis All the post-2016 infiltrated Tory Party cares about is culture wars in a lame attempt to distract from the disaster their economic policies eg Truss and the laughable Laffer Curve crap and including but far from exclusively Brexit has been. Unless you used to vote UKIP or BNP there’s not much there for you as a voter, and Reform is probably the alternative some will pick if you want a full fat option of the populist strand.

What a surprise (not) that Van Den Bogard is a People Services & Change Director eg operational senior HR. ‘Defending the Post Office line’, aggressive tactics 1-1, economical with the truth, happy to drive a coach and horses through the law, agitating for expensive restructures which halve efficiency, only interested in defending the exec’s backside and yet the memory of a 120 year old when challenged. Yet lots of nice talk about caring for people with mental health issues, EDI, celebrate this day, that day, whilst hundreds of innocent people were incarcerated, lives destroyed and tragically some took their own. It’ll be the same outcome it is always is with that profession (fully qualified in it but happier to not be in it any longer), lots of muscular upwards talk ‘yeah, let’s kick the crap out of those dishonest subbies/staff’, go totally OTT, ignore the processes and policies they are responsible for which even then are based on the worst expected view of people, be exposed as unreasonable (which has taken far too long with this scandal) and end up either having to settle a botched case for double what it should be if they’d been reasonable, or worse still like here, getting torn a new arsehole and found to be suppressing evidence at an enquiry or employment tribunal. https://news.sky.com/story/post-office-inquiry-latest-apology-meaningless-without-accountability-former-sub-postmaster-says-as-ex-executive-faces-questions-13122120 I’ll exclude the HR Org Development people from the above as they’ve got an independent brain and you can actually have a realistic conversation with them. The senior HR Ops people and partners have made so many fuck ups in the different places I’ve worked costing eye watering sums in all sectors and always defended the indefensible, this being an extreme on the scale but very similar behaviourally to what I’ve observed. They avoid me these days as they know I’m like Neil Warnock with referees!

They did recover, and slightly in front of the game on 123/5 to Hants 151. Key first hour tomorrow which will go a long way to deciding the game. Get Burns early, Steel and Clark quickly and could limit the lead to 20-30 runs. Can’t afford any partnerships to build though. Abbas brilliant bowling 13-7-7-1, Abbott 2-35 off 13, Wheal adding pace and kept it accurate 1-25 off 12. Fuller a bit looser but did get Pope out plus made vital runs in our innings. Must have been a real green one, even the Kookaburra would have swung let alone the Dukes which seams as well.

There’s some truth in this, and some expectation management, I still remember (and laugh at) the Smith and Jones Intershitty sketch. The one big improvement which can made if gotten right is on cost and the ticketing system. It’s horrifically expensive under the current mess of a ticketing framework to travel any distance on the faster lines which is also where the environmental benefits stack up in getting people out of cars. I drove to work for years because of this (through some dreadful traffic) but in moving here have found a way of commuting to the Midlands using a free car park and split tickets on fast rail routes. Takes planning and organisation, far more than it should, but it works. The local franchises such as West Midlands Rail I’d probably leave be tbh, but the nationals and biggest regionals - LNER (which makes surpluses and runs better in public hands and loses money in commercial), Cross Country, Arriva, SWT and GWR work better nationalised as their margins are so much tighter than the local ones and maintenance bigger, more complex staffing. The key is to be able to invest strategically on upgrades when needed which where BR fell down a bit. And they’ll be competing with defence, education, local authorities etc, all of which have been hollowed out in recent years. The case for renationalisation is strongest in water because that has never really worked and to invest in the infrastructure and sewerage needed means the margins aren’t there. Hence the Thames Water debacle and also it’s unfair that for example millions visit Devon and Cornwall every summer yet the bill for keeping some of the beaches clean falls on the water ratepayers there via SWW. In rail, it’ll be popular and not as expensive (I don’t agree it will be cost free but it will save the commuter some much needed money). Overall I support it as at least there’s more accountability potentially and like water, it’s not an obvious profit generator like telecommunications where investment, innovation and good margins go in hand in hand.

Maybe not the right place for this but a giant of a politician who worked cross-parties all his career from the 70s at CPAG to Thatcher, Minister under Blair (fell out with Gordon Brown), and finally a Conservative-nominated cross-bench Peer. https://news.sky.com/story/labour-veteran-frank-field-dies-12914087 They don’t make them like that any more

How many goals conceded this season now? Must be 60 or getting on for it. I know we’ve had a Tyro League goalie for much of the season who Rasmus wasted £14m on, but if Maresca, McKenna, Farke, Corberan, or Wagner have the quality at this level of Bednarek, KWP, THB in a back 4, they ain’t conceding 60 odd goals. Thanks S-Clarke - 66 conceded so far. That’s disgusting. What happened to basic organisation?

Whoops - not a good day for Trump and his legal team https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-68848464

Hideously expensive too for what, 1% of cases - one figure circulating of £230k per asylum seeker https://www.ft.com/content/3a8e4b8b-1e30-4423-83a0-818f2b7dec05 Some of the figures are eye watering here https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-stalled-rwanda-asylum-scheme-could-soar-to-500m-watchdog-says-13083968 Four times the cost of accommodation whilst processing appeals. Far better to invest that extra funding to speed cases up and put extra venues on for hearings. As Daniel Finkenstein says in The Times, the main USP of the Tory Party was that although public services wouldn’t be everything you want to be, there would be fiscal caution as a trade off. Now that’s gone out of the window over the last 14 years, the national debt doubled even from the credit crunch highest point under Brown before Ukraine war and even Covid, there’s no point in voting for them. He thinks Truss in particular will be the same millstone the IMF 1976 and Winter of Discontent was for Labour in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. This outrageous waste of taxpayers money for a publicity stunt does nothing to solve what is a very difficult issue. Can you hear the Taxpayers Alliance complaining? Only about aid given to groups appealing against it https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/millions_given_out_to_groups_campaigning_against_rwanda_plan £3m vs £500m. Hmmm, looks like their maths is as wonky as the Tory Party. No wonder the Truss 44 days was such a disaster with Matthew Sinclair their former research director (ha ha) a core part of Truss’s team as economic advisor.

No sign of Priti Patel on that list then… Denials from a few of the names at the time https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5039385/Two-ministers-condemn-dirty-dossier-claims.html but Bob Stewart (now without the whip…) was then cited for using the phrase ‘totty’ to a female reporter the previous year, which hasn’t been used in the workplace since 1990-something. No response there on being allegedly ‘perpetually intoxicated’ either. 2017 wasn’t the best year in the Stewart household https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4257998/Claire-Podbielski-Stewart-banned-drink-driving.html

Ukraine aid bill finally passed, along with a further package for Israel and Taiwan. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68848277 Never thought I’d type the sentence ‘well done Mike Johnson’ but real guts there to get that through, and a heap of skill across the aisles. Greene is a Putin puppet, in his and China’s pocket as much as Trump. Comrade Marj. Vote Trump, get Putin https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/republicans-ukraine-aid-package-congress -

Tidy but Warks attack even more toothless and slow than Hants. They’ve got some height but the pitches are too slow early season to come into play or to help the spinners as any turn is easily covered and not much bounce around. 85mph minimum to get anything out of it and neither of the XIs has a bowler of that type without Wheal and Turner. Good first drop partnership. Orr doesn’t look any better technically than Organ so far, both fish outside off but at least Organ had to deal with the Dukes on wet pitches.

I know Adams and Brooks missed chances that would have been sitters in the Tyro League but even so, tactically he is every bit as bad as Nathan Jones, Pellegrino and Branfoot. Cannot cope mid-match with the opposition changing formation and personnel. Obvious Charles needed to solidify midfield today and stop the runners, it was obvious to anyone with any kind of football knowledge or even an alien landing from Mars. If Ankerson wants to keep him as a figurehead for their hipster project, it’s SR’s club not ours, but at least put Calderwood in charge of subs and tactics on match days because Russell Martin hasn’t got a fucking clue organisationally. Feel sorry for the folks who travelled today, mugged off royally by the club’s experimental crap, basic professionalism sees 3 points. Be glad when he and SR are gone.

Wasn’t laughing at your post but was laughing at the SNP and Sturgeon. Whoops. Meanwhile Bannon and Trump’s influence evident on Liz Truss https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68853672

This post needed a soundtrack

Buttertubs Pass became a really supreme drive after the TDF, even Fleet Moss which wasn’t on the route got done too. Not Park Rash though, the double hair pin was as rutted and lethal as always. Good segment here on Times Radio about Truss and what they think will be a continuing campaign of disruption to Sunak in the run-up to and probably during the GE campaign. Hoping James Bagge can give us all a ‘Martin Bell Tatton’ moment on election night.

That’s another damning verdict on player recruitment and the issuing of new contracts. To have three keepers that poor on what is probably a combined £75k per week in the Championship is serial ineptitude especially when the first choice all season has been bottom or near bottom of the league stats in some categories. That’s before we even think about signing a player injured for the best part of a year (Stewart) with his contract running out for £10m.

Great moment in the HoL - the front bench Tory peers trying not to laugh (and failing) https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/lords-erupts-in-laughter-as-member-makes-dig-at-liz-truss-after-un-criticism/ar-BB1lJsD2?ocid=nl_article_link Any opportunity to mock Liz Truss is a good one. Daily Star’s front page is great again today. Why Sunak didn’t expel her after she sat on a platform with Bannon, and Trump, allowing Bannon to eulogise about Tommy Robinson is beyond words, and will cost him and his party dozens of seats. That’s without taking into account the latest MLT-level delusional rantings in her book serialisation. If they’d announced she was joining Reform they’d have sunk them to boot. She really does belong on that platform at Workington on a panel with MLT, Katie Hopkins and the other nutcases.

You’d think so..but Martin is very stubborn. Or brave as he would call it. Chance for Alex to have a solid night and go on to finish his Saints career on a high playing to his strengths of saving and claiming balls which Baz is hopeless at. Worse with his feet but be clear with the back 4 that it needs to go more direct and forward.

Private Eye reported that on Radio Exe the presenter asked a question on a morning quiz segment - ‘If it’s your birthday today, 8 March, your star sign is a fish. Name that sign’ Caller: ‘Tuna’ ITV Tipping Point - Ben Shephard ‘How many sides does an isosceles triangle have?’ Contestant: ‘Five’

What really comes across from all of the sordid correspondence within PO is the second class (no pun intended) attitude towards the sub-postmasters eg ‘subbies with their hand in the till’ compared to long-serving PO employees in Crown Offices, as effectively the former are/were self-employed franchise holders, albeit with a grotesquely one-sided contract which was used as a blunt instrument to say ‘Horizon is perfect, these are your losses and you need to make them good’. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/post-office-horizon-it-scandal-b2527686.html If you are following the enquiry, I recommend Nick Wallis’s book the Great Post Office Scandal - £6.99 on Kindle currently. Nick was one of the first journalists to take the story up. No, I‘m not him! Some of the detail is staggering, and how long this has taken to come to the surface due to the PO’s stalling on evidence requests, blocking and outright lies. By the time Jo Swinson was Minister, the truth was starting to come out with increasing pressure from a cross-party group of MPs including Arbuthnot, Bridgen, Kevan Jones, Mike Wood, Albert Owen and Mike Wood. Her responses were pathetic, she was as useless as she was a Lib Dem leader. This led to the BIS enquiry of 2015 - where the POs lawyers and brown-nosing NFSP (subbies National Federation) tried to claim that a 500 page manual without any in-person or even online training was sufficient to be deemed certified to use Horizon in just one day. Alan Bates and Mark Baker ripped this apart, making clear the PO’s unwillingness to drill down into each and every kind of discrepancy. The Branch Focus manuals which came around branches Bates also exposed as inadequate, and when the PO’s lawyer tried to hit back by saying that losses only seemed to happen in sub-master controlled branches and not Crown Offices (that bias coming out again) Bates came back with a beauty of an internal report showing that Crown Offices lost £2.2m across their counters during 2007/8 at the peak of Horizon issues. The Second Sight review, which was highly critical of Horizon’s reliability and PO leadership and middle management, was being undermined politically. A system which had nearly 20000 fixes to its codes by the way so the system was different each time you used it. How the PO Board went in September 1999 from saying Horizon was miles off being operational to approving it the following month I will never understand but the enquiry must find that out from those still alive. I’m at the point in the book at the BIS hearing where Zahawi is tearing Vennells a new one about the PO stalling on giving Second Signt access to the legal files, which might ring a bell from Mr Bates v the Post Office and her colleagues are tripping themselves up about who had/hadn’t given Second Sight what had been requested and continued denying Parliament details of all of the other wrong prosecutions which had happened.

Getting the thread back on track…NSW Police believe the driver was misogyny but from a very disturbed mind. His family have to some extent backed this up and also confirmed he stopped taking his medication recently which does hint at paranoid schizophrenia https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-68814395 The authorities really do need to move away from the purely care in the community model, and blend that personalised support model for independent living with some monitoring, tracking and enforcement where needed. Not everyone with PS will be diagnosed so not 100% foolproof but a lot more can be done to help PS diagnosed folks, their families and significantly reduce the risks of fatal attacks. The one man of the six killed was a Muslim migrant from Pakistan trying to shield/save women and children from the attacker.

Killers’ family acting with dignity, saying he’s had severe MH issues since age if 17, unreservedly condemning his actions and saying that the female police officer had no alternative but to clean him out. All the hallmarks of paranoid schizophrenia. Most people with it can lead a normal life if they take their meds and have a decent support network. A lot of debate in the UK following the Nottingham murder trial recently and other cases where people with it haven’t or haven’t been able to manage their symptoms properly, plus delays in diagnosis and assessment https://news.sky.com/story/jacob-billington-mother-whose-son-was-fatally-stabbed-by-paranoid-schizophrenic-reacts-to-inquest-verdict-13089778 This is controversial, but I’ve always believed in better funding and use of secure units for people with PS who can’t manage a semi-stable lifestyle, with heavily supervised visits to family and trips out if there’s positive progress. There should also be monitoring where stable patients circumstances change. Another example here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/belfast-police-service-of-northern-ireland-more-newry-southern-b2463513.html and here https://www.stewartslaw.com/news/high-court-says-schizophrenic-man-who-killed-three-people-can-bring-damages-claim-against-police-and-nhs/ Up front cost of extra support workers yes, but it would be more than covered by people with PS who can be supported to manage and have networks realising their potential, paying taxes and avoiding expensive police investigations and enquiries costing millions, and most of all reducing the high profile and tragic cases of violence to innocent people.

The IRGC may be over-reaching here, dangerous times. If the IDF can damage them further, it might weaken their role in the Russia-China-North Korea axis and if going further still, weaken the IRGC domestically.

Nothing to do with it, Crouch was cheered after some initial stick, Fuller I’ll possibly give you. Gavin is wholly unsuited to his job and SFC is well beyond his level, as is the Championship let alone the PL. He might make a League One keeper and did show some promise with Pompey but still had a few horrors and they weren’t a patch on the outfit they have now winning that league. Martin ditto, another tactical horror today and he’s never been at Fratton. I don’t know what it is with shoehorning Jack into a DMC role but it must have cost at least 15 points now. Edit - Flynn got both of them out of jail there