Gloucester Saint

I saw an interview with Paul Merson in parallel with MLT’s own about why he departed from Sky, and Merson reluctantly admitted that MLT had several warnings about the stuff he was posting on social media and starting to say in public. He seemed genuinely sad about it all as he’s friends with Matt and working with him was a big part of his time there. That’s not to say Sky wouldn’t have made the changes but it gave them a needless open goal. There’s more to it than MLT being a white guy in his 50s with strange views being replaced by ‘wokeness’. Thompson and Nicholas were a bit older, I think MLT would still be on there personally and not scraping the barrel at a festival with that cast of nutters.

Wow, Alan Cook, the PO Director at the time, claims he didn’t know the PO was doing most of its own prosecuting. I mean you wouldn’t expect him to know minutiae of counter processes and ops detail, but top level remit including powers should be an absolute minimum. Crozier up this afternoon. He has so far held a ‘nothing to do with me guv’ stance, being CEO of the Royal Mail umbrella at the time. Wouldn’t expect him to be in the detail but to write off all responsibility? Hmmm. As he’s only got an afternoon grilling and Vennells has 3 days next month (she was in the detail tbf) he’s probably going to get away Scot free (no pun intended). Nothing to do with his ITV role and connections in an election year….

Looks like it although not confirmed anywhere obvious. Vennells is in an increasingly difficult position, only a matter of time before a clear case of perjury arises and certainly fraudulent activity and claims https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68779080 and The arrest needs to happen immediately after she’s given evidence to the enquiry and her movements should be heavily monitored and assets frozen. Two Fujitsu UK employees already under investigation for it and that will be a custodial sentence. Enjoy the porridge Gareth and be careful around the showers https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/computer-expert-silent-post-office-scandal/

Sickening https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68760215 I don’t agree that the compensation scheme and robust prosecutions and asset confiscation of the suspected fraudulent parties can’t happen in parallel. It’ll need a cross-agency team to do it but it is possible. Here’s some arrests and confiscation of assets to kick things off on the Post Office side - Vennells, Cook, Greene, Smith, Roberts, Mills https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68452842#:~:text=Adam Crozier%2C Royal Mail chief executive 2003-2010&text=From 2003 to 2009 the,Crozier didn't sit on. Fujitsu can make good on its promise to fund a significant chunk of the £1bn fund unless they want their UK leadership team in a police car as well.

He’s in some equally grifting company: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abn33/dolores-cahill-covid-anti-vaxxer-big-pharma https://news.sky.com/story/katie-hopkins-criticised-as-sick-for-mocking-kate-garraway-after-husband-derek-drapers-death-13048850 And https://news.sky.com/story/katie-hopkins-australia-orders-far-right-british-commentator-to-be-deported-after-appalling-behaviour-while-in-quarantine-12358885 https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/this-mark-attwood-fella.1540168/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Shemirani https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clive-de-carle-speaker-dropped-from-conference-over-autism-cure-claims-2h2s7pj0t The only surprise is that Piers Corbyn, Andrew Wakefield and David Icke aren’t on the bill. East Stand Nic, Scally and KevDoh will be snapping up tickets.

Given past words between the two, bet the atmosphere was somewhere between lukewarm and freezing cold https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68767194 Nice quote from Marge the Fascist, that took all of her single brain cell to come up with that.

KWP is very popular with our fans and within the club, I think Martin knows he’s on the brink of getting the chop and no Wilcox to save him now. Plus pushing Bazanu under the bus (Bazanu is barely professional standard but just loan him out down the leagues, don’t kick him in public’, he seems a man under huge pressure. Win at Wembley or he’s gone, and if the form carries on, I’m not sure he will even make the WBA semi first leg without a clear improvement.

I think Lumley will start after Gavin got hammered by Martin after Monday’s game, although personally I’d use the next few games to get McCarthy fit for the play-offs. Other than that, if they won’t do that than it’s Charles and Downes in midfield to screen the back four better, there’s enough firepower in wide areas and with Che to win the game. Manager massively on probation now, win the play-offs or he’s gone, so stop the experimentation and concentrate on grinding out wins again.

Why not? Although as others have posted, signing Bazanu as a League One quality keeper at best for what £14m, when it should have been £750k + add-ons as a back-up, Lumley and making McCarthy a top earner, the club’s diabolical reputation for recruitment doesn’t inspire any faith. Although with a record of extortionate and inexplicable failure like Ross Stewart, Guido Carrillo and Paul Onachu in the striker department, it almost (I said almost!) looks an improvement. Lis would be cheap so would suit from that perspective.

I was at that 4-3 too, brilliant game. Great moment of terrace humour - Ipswich had a striker, Bontcho Guntchev, and he blazed a good chance direct at goal over the bar at the Milton end. Lad behind us was doing the usual early teenage ‘you’re a wanker’ routine of shouting and gestures and a middle aged bloke standing near us said in a droll voice ‘He won’t understand you - he’s Bulgarian’ 😂 Ipswich definitely got the better version of George Burley the manager. The Robson/McMenemy peak teams were just before my time but would loved to see them play each other live, saw the 83/84 Saints side in my first season of being a supporter and the 84/85 one. Ipswich’s peak was probably 74-82. Wark, Talbot, Mariner, Brazil, Cooper, Beattie, Gates, Muhren, Thysen, Burley - some serious players there. There was an episode of Bobby Charlton’s scrapbook on Sky where it was another 4-3 at the Dell, might have been 1980/1, Keegan and Wark amongst the goals, my old man and his friends were at that one (lucky things). Regret is that the Pochettino/Koeman SFC sides more recently didn’t win a trophy despite being in and around top 6 and Europe, were certainly good enough.

Broadly agree, and can understand it at a personal level but it doesn’t say anything positive about the job he’s done at SFC or his belief in it. It smacks of running away from his own mistakes to going back to being a cog again in a huge wheel instead of a leader. Drops Martin right in it, no protection now if he doesn’t win the play offs, I think SR will sack him if he doesn’t as there’s clearly frustration at the trajectory of results all-round and sheer amount of tinkering and experimentation at this stage of the season. Norwich are likely to part company with Wagner even if they make the top 6 so I reckon Martin goes there. Wilcox has a mixed report card - good outgoing sales, especially Lavia and Tella, repaired some of Ankerson’s appalling catalogue of recruitment mistakes. The incomings have been more mixed, Stewart was a horrible mistake on a par with Carrillo and Tall Paul which is a damning endorsement on SFC mismanagement. Certainly too, Wilcox and Martin’s replacements need to bring in an experienced first choice keeper in the summer, along with two first choice strikers, and loan Gavin out in League One or Two. Looks like League One/Lower Champ is probably his maximum level if he gets more consistency.

Just had an SSN app update that Man U have approached formally. From Long Shot’s posting, doesn’t seem too much of a surprise and yes, may explain the drop off in form and Martin feeling comfortable returning to strange tactical decisions. Mixed views - got some good fees in eg Tella, Lavia, but the Stewart debacle has cost the club promotion via the automatics and probably play offs.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/trump-threatens-biden-with-image-of-president-bound-and-kidnapped-in-back-of-maga-truck/ar-BB1kMPAc?ocid=nl_article_link Classy from Trump and his Neanderthal followers

Can’t say I follow Tice and Farage much but yes, it does appear that Tice committed to that on 3 January this year. Looks like the One Nation Conservative movement and older generation era splintering away, voters under 50 won’t go for much of this and it’s as unsustainable and unlikely to pass the sniff test with global markets as Truss was. Tim Montgomerie labelled it barking mad on the £50bn of ‘wasteful public spending’ (yes, he does have an agenda but he’s broadly not wrong in saying that): https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-reform-party-is-too-wedded-to-the-free-market/ The Spectator missed this out on renationalising some utilities and limiting overseas impact in their overall tone of their piece which is the one headline Reform policy (there’s other micro ones like free Wi-Fi on public transport) I do agree with very broadly. However, it would come with a hefty up-front price tag, which is OK if you’ve left enough in the Treasury to absorb it and enjoy the longer-term savings it would make and free up household incomes. Their tax cutting policies make that very unlikely https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64464933 If Farage is correct and they want to cause a ‘Canada’, they certainly could play a disruptive role, more so than Goldsmith did in 1997. What happens after the GE would be interesting, although without electoral reform they will burn a lot of cash for little tangible political return eg seats or councils held (I can’t see them doing local government at that scale but hard to build a network for repeated success without) after settling the score at this GE. Depends what their medium term goal is - to swallow the Tory Party, infiltrate it, maybe push the One Nation group into an expanded Lib Dem camp like a moderate Tory Limehouse moment? Or do they see themselves if Farage takes a more frontline role as being a more effective pressure group in the media and online to a Labour government with what looks like being a material majority. You’re probably more in touch with Reform UK so open question I guess - what do you think they want to achieve 2025 onwards?

Tory right wing/ERG and Reform into a civil war death spiral - hard to see a pact happening https://news.sky.com/story/row-between-conservatives-and-nigel-farages-reform-as-tory-chair-calls-richard-tice-a-threatening-bully-13105273 Hence the latest poll https://news.sky.com/story/tories-could-be-left-with-fewer-than-100-mps-after-next-general-election-major-poll-suggests-13105117 Gullis’s appointment is another lack of judgement by Sunak. May’s local elections are not going to be pretty.

Good article in the DT https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/29/tory-advisers-desert-rishi-sunak-for-keir-starmer/ PS - whilst it wouldn’t be quite as big a landmark as 1997, keep an eye on the Sun. Eschewed politics for several weeks, then double page interview with Reeves, front page quotes by Starmer and Trevor Kavanagh’s assessment on the budget not saving Tory hopes.

More chance of seeing Rod Stewart this season in a Saints shirt PS - happy to eat humble pie if he scores the winner at Wembley!

One very immediate problem for a new government stemming from a failed 1980s policy https://www.standard.co.uk/business/thames-water-ofwat-crisis-bills-regulator-utility-debt-nationalisation-bills-kemble-shareholders-b1148304.html All very well Gove being annoyed - and what he says is true, but idiotic to have national utilities having billions taken out in dividends in the first place https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2024/mar/28/thames-water-crisis-sewage-rivers-funding-uk-recession-gdp-economy-sterling-business-live They clearly took a great deal of heed of his speech six years ago https://news.sky.com/story/michael-gove-water-companies-must-clean-up-their-act-or-face-tougher-regulation-11272867 As with the trains, not as if there’s a market for consumers to shop around in to make the imaginary free market fairy an option. Hope none of the rowers fall into the Thames during the race https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68674088

Some good articles here about why they are continuing to slide and out of touch beyond their very narrow and elderly membership base https://www.ft.com/content/88fbf5c4-828e-4552-948e-951475cf626c https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/frank-luntz-political-strategist-tory-partys-biggest-enemy-themselves-general-election Agree with Luntz, people predicting total wipeout won’t see that. They will still get at least 150 seats, anything better than 1997 is probably success at this stage as it is a far, far worse administration even with hindsight than Major’s.

That picture sums it up perfectly. Even by Red Waller and ERG standards, incredibly basic. Would have been perfect BNP local elections material mid-1990s, so ideal for today’s Reform UK. Sunak has totally lost the plot. Conservatives always talk up the areas they represent, erm not in this case https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jonathan-gullis-criticises-constituents-conservative_uk_63f3475ee4b0616708dc8626 Good news coming shortly though Kraken https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/seatdetails.py?seat=Stoke-on-Trent North Another to toast when he falls in the autumn.

And this bloke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Ferrari In fact that’s a balance as Johnson is Lib Dem/left wing Tory, Ferrari is right and O’Brien left. It’s not the journalist presenters with a slight angle on GB News, it’s the fact you’ve got current ministers and MPs from a single party presenting news shows. If they cut that out, there’d still only be 100 people watching but they’d be ok with OFCOM because it’s no different to Andrew Pierce and Kevin Maguire debating on GMTV.

Although Paul Marshall’s social media activity indicated some extremist activity, I don’t think GB News is far right per se from what I can gather. There’s some very wealthy people who want to sell certain policies and ideologies to a very, very small band of viewers who require partisan spoon-feeding. 99.9% of UK adults with joined up writing skills are quite happy to take their own views from the five terrestrial high quality TV news services we have. No need for a Fox News or The Momentum new channel - as the thumping losses by GB News and Talk TV show. The response from the next government is straightforward - don’t ban it if non doms are stupid enough to fritter hundreds of millions on 100 viewers, include it in the Tory Party donors envelope, and put the Tory Party tree logo in the top corner when it’s on air. Everybody knows full well what it is, but if they are going to have current politicians (soon to be shadow ministers) talking about the news then the label is fair.

I must admit the only time I’ve ever seen it was watching a play back of the infamous Laurence Fox and Dan Wooton segment. If that’s representative of their usual output then I’d rather ‘watch’ QVC frankly. I wouldn’t want to watch a channel produced by say the trade unions for Labour either. Not that they’d have the funding to do something like that, even Rupert Murdoch has cut his losses on Talk TV. The Private Eye figure of them losing £71m last year did lead me to look into who exactly was throwing bad money after even worse and why https://news.sky.com/story/broadcaster-gb-news-in-talks-to-raise-30m-from-investors-13026128 and https://www.thenational.scot/news/24139814.paul-marshall-gb-news-co-owner-centre-hope-not-hate/ When the DT calls you unfit to own them you’ve got serious problems https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/08/andrew-neil-opposed-uae-telegraph-claims-refused-job/ and https://deadline.com/2024/03/jeff-zucker-andrew-neil-gb-news-paul-marshall-the-telegraph-redbird-imi-1235850004/ Was surprised to see he was one of the Lib Dem’s biggest backers before 2015 but radicalised since by Brexit. Paul Marshall might as well have bought SFC if he wanted to throw away £100m. At least Dragan got a training ground, 32000 seat stadium and a brand for it!

They’re whining about OFCOM investigating Tory ministers and MPs presenting news shows. No-one wants to watch Fox News B String or BNP TV - hence £71m of murky non-dom losses in year one https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66086560 I don’t want to watch Lib Dem TV or Canary TV either. Sky, C4, BBC and ITV do a more than good enough, and impartial job. The partisan shit can fuck off back over the Atlantic. Murdoch has gotten the message and making Talk TV online only.

Look what happens when the orange Neo Nazi’s teleprompter doesn’t work properly https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/17/trump-verbal-gaffes-ohio-rally-bloodbath