Gloucester Saint

Agree to a large extent. That said, he’s said so many racist things as an adult this month let alone over the last 15 years that there’s no need to travel back to his childhood when we all say daft/offensive things.

Someone needed to, Starmer ruling out the Customs Union again this week was brainless. One of the BBC’s better pieces recently by Mason and Kuenssberg’s successor when they clear off to the Daily Mail/Telegraph. UK could go back into the Customs Union without having to trigger the immigration issues of the Single Market. Easiest way to stimulate growth and factually far more likely to enable it than large tax cuts https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9e8nyq5zo

Keeping Joe Aribo away from the all-you-can-eat post-training buffet might be a good start. Even better not bringing him on in the first place.

Which is where lack of practice comes in under pressure. Endless rounds of golf don’t help. Appreciate it’s a long time away from home but the balance is wrong.

Don’t think it’ll be an innings but it proves what I thought yesterday that England were 100-150 runs light seeing that they had the advantage - and it should have been an advantage - of batting first. All their batters made decent contributions. Only Crawley, Root and Archer turned up in the England innings. Doesn’t help that the likes of Brook, Duckett, Pope, and Smith shit their pants as soon as Starc comes on. Dread to think how they’d cope with Cummins and Hazelwood as well. White ball flat track bullies.

She’s a cockroach - disease ridden and widely reviled, but hard to finally stamp out altogether.

The leaks are a good point. That’s where I have some empathy with Reeves, even though not a fan overall. Need to see some culprits outed and sacked for that. Whoever was doing it should have a permanent ban from government and/or policy roles a bit like the disqualified Director rule. The leaks were simply not in the public interest. If it is found to be politicians, expel them from the Labour Party, Speaker expel them from HoC if he has the power, and hold an immediate by-election. All governments leak but the likes of Black Sheep Brewery are in administration because spending stalled and business anxiety built up in the weeks before the budget because of the constant daily barrage of kite flying which was despicable.

Mail should be told to STFU about any budget statement and have that ‘At Last, a True Tory Budget’ headline thrown back at them for the next 100 years. Stick to culture war nonsense. I’m not quite as effusive about the budget but some hyperbole from the non doms with dodgy prostates in the red tops has been OTT to say the least.

Correct, and he already made a £6m donation to the Brexit Party which didn’t get a lot of publicity at the time and probably the same figure in the value at the time. Only reason its publicised now is that Farage has been at war with some of Laura Kuenssberg’s colleagues about his Glasgow speech with the racist dog whistle, plus the legal threats with his mate Trump, and she’s kissing his arse (or being told to). Donation isn’t particularly newsworthy but it does prove what a piss poor journalist she is. Wish she’d clear off to the Mail or Telegraph and Beaverbrook group pay her wages rather than us.

Farage says he doesn’t want anything in return - his previous track record - £1m donation to Boris’s office and a £80m Qinetiq contract awarded in early 2023 says otherwise very loudly. Given £6m to one of Farage’s Brexit-related scams before so not entirely surprising he’s given £9m. Wheels still coming off for Reform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Harborne

Brook in particular craps himself against Starc on their pitches with more bounce and pace hence the kamikaze shots. He’d claim it’s way he plays, but it’s more Mitchell Johnson v Trott at the moment. Not sure Harry likes facing genuine fast bowling. Prefers batting medium pacers and slow bowling. Delighted for Root though, silences a lot of nonsense, nice congratulations video from Matt Hayden who now won’t be walking around the grounds wearing only a cowboy hat. Crawley miles better, pity about the nothing shot he got out to as a hundred beckoned. Archer good cameo at the end.

Recovery to 98-2 at lunch. Crawley playing well at last with a 50, Root lucky early on but still there at least. Duckett needs dropping if he can’t leave deliveries every so often and Pope bottled it with a chop on with a wide one.

The leaking is doing my head in - find the culprits, sack them and if there’s anything classified leaked, prosecute them as well. That was way more harmful than anything that was actually announced in the budget, the kite flying was appalling https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9e7wp79zo

Not again surely, wheels coming off the clown car in another of the councils they ‘lead’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk726m7j73o

Against Murali as well. Does challenge the idea he couldn’t play spin. If he’d had Duncan Fletcher as a coach five years before he got the gig I reckon he’d have sorted that out with the forward press method. Instead, England in the mid-90s had dinosaurs like Keith Fletcher, and Ray Illingworth (appreciating Illy was a fab England captain late 60s/early 70s but was well into his 30s even then).

Think that was another poster - CL by the looks of it.

He’s certainly lost his bearings…

It’s here https://www.facebook.com/100063703086121/posts/nigel-farage-sparks-fury-over-chinky-slur-row-️nigelfarage-has-ignited-a-storm-o/1419439373522819/ I have less of an issue with her - she apologised without excuses, taken training and education, and served her punishment. It is Farage. Under the Coalition one of the Tory MPs said something foul in a committee. Whip removed, training and education, full apology and reinstated. Farage - ‘She’s a victim, everyone was using it 20 years ago’. Only the racist and ignorant were by 2005 Nigel. If the cap fits..

Agree with this, and looking at the Ashes first test, you could say this about Brendan McCullum and the batting approach of the England test team. When it looks good, it’s really good but when it doesn’t, it’s horrific and looks brainless.

Where’s @trousers with a fishing reel gif?

Farage is a cunt for trying to downplay this though - the word, and we all know what it is, hasn’t been acceptable at all in public use for far more than 20 years at least, more like 30, the same as other ‘colloquial’ words used for British Asian and Black people at that time. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvd298wxvro

TBF Tonda can hardly say ‘yeah, he’s a lazy fat layabout’ even if he thinks it. The likes of Redknapp used to but only after a long career. Not at the start they didn’t.

Echoing the banner over the East Stand at the infamous Port Vale cup game (Branfoot’s last): - Mr Blobby In - Aribo Out

Far Right and Lefties are way over-used as a term of colloquial abuse unless you’re talking about Ken Livingstone, or say Tommy Robinson (Oh God, I said it now…) because they are lefties and far right respectively. But that’s the benchmark.

Ditto, it’s on a bat from Nigel Cowley’s testimonial. My old man played golf with him a few times for societies, apparently Judgey was a great guy and great cricketer. Pretty good golfer too, his driving off the tee was as almost as crisp as his square cut in the cricket pitch.