Gloucester Saint

I thought Pop Cons was Popchips expanding into Love Corn’s segment of the snacks market…but no, it’s just a load of re-hashed Tory has beens from the deluded Tory right, in turn from the worst government in British history, if not Western civilisation in 2022 from one bonkers month. https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/liz-truss-and-the-popcon-attention-seekers/ Total humiliation and wipeout on the world stage, with Jeremy Hunt having to re-write everything you’d planned and clean up your vomit and wet farts would have persuaded most people to try a different career - see Matt Hancock. But no, Liz Truss, Mark Littlewood and Rees Mogg really don’t understand that their ideas suck, and trashed the economy in a month. Bit of an issue with ‘Popular’ too - a record -59 rating from a poll of those who voted Tory in 2019. It’s a bit like Nathan Jones taking Charlton into League 2 and claiming in the summer he deserves the Southampton job back if Martin took Saints up, and the Saints fans really rate him as their greatest manager, above Lawrie, Ted, Ronald et al. Clearly Liz doesn’t think Jeremy and Rishi have done a good enough job cleaning up after her projectile vomit. Another poll sees Penny the flying wardrobe with a clear 26 point lead in the leadership contest which already seems well underway. Mainly because of the sword at the Coronation apparently. Alasdair Heath will have to hide his stiffy at the launch event as the DT sale is still in the balance. Lord D might get tickets though - his hero Nige will be there https://dailysceptic.org/2024/02/04/liz-truss-to-launch-popular-conservatives-with-nigel-farage-present/

Meanwhile in the real world, more UK businesses incurring extra costs and bureaucracy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68126880 I don’t know this article will be visible, and what correlation there is to Brexit, or whether historically low productivity is more of a factor, but it’s interesting that the cost of major road and rail projects is nearly double the EU. The nearest most expensive in the G7 is the US and only Australia amongst the developed nations is higher. Doesn’t exactly make a further argument for Brexit benefits even if not the direct cause as there’s been a few years to drive project costs down https://www.ft.com/content/9cc19ce5-fbdb-4285-80ac-498f01f97dfd It probably says more about the shortcomings of economies driven heavily by the supply side and share capital but of course the advocates for that approach tend to also be loudly pro-Brexit.

1-0 Oxford after 57 minutes. Not so surprised by Luton, their home form has been improving and if Brighton were slightly off it - and they are more than that tonight - they could get battered up there. Throw in a few more points on the road and with Everton deduction, Forest possible deduction and a couple of other just above the drain, they could stay up. Which would be remarkable on their budget. I thought they might a Blackpool - tight ground, good at home where they shock a couple of the top 6, leaky away and just fall short, but they have a bit more about them as the season goes on.

Pre pandemic Mrs Trousers wasn’t the only one https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/falkland-islands-tourism-flights-raf-latam-war-sao-paulo-a9165736.html Previously you had to fly from Brize Norton but you could see if the Sao Paolo link survived the pandemic? Might be an opportunity - although pricey - to travel further south on the mainland over the Chilean border after a few days in the Falklands to see the Towers of Paine national park https://worldlyadventurer.com/torres-del-paine-national-park/ Alternatively https://www.swoop-antarctica.com/cruises/flights Falklands themselves look a lot like the Outer Hebridies or Shetland scenically, which is very pretty, natural and just as windy. Easy to get away from it all though.

Ryan Hedges the other side from Blackburn and with Benson, we’ll be smoking

Agree with you on all of the above but as Badger noted, Blair couldn’t do this either. Even the National minimum wage as a keystone in his platform, an accepted cross-party norm for a generation had all sorts of scare stories in the DT, Mail, Times, Sun about 1.7 m job losses (it’s created far more jobs since 1997 in fact). That what Labour has to do, introduce change in office, public sees the benefit and the media rage eases. People mobility is essential for health and social care but such a political hot potato and post-Braverman, the huge rise is visa costs and healthcare charges mean a fall in the numbers coming to train, which benefits their home countries further down the track. It’s better to let an election setback act as Ritalin for the most excited of the tabloids/non-doms, and the a) take them out of the net figures and b) close the non-dom loopholes on tax.

Deserves to be in jail, and not just a short sentence, 8-10 years at least for perjury on hundreds of instances, and no probation. Although ITV let Adam Crozier off the hook in an otherwise very good drama production, he belongs in the clink too. Plenty of others at the PO but those two stand out.

More trouble at mill for Sunak with David Frost being pressed to reveal the no doubt very shady non doms who funded the £40k for the doomsday You Gov poll predicting a 1997 GE outcome 2.0, or be expelled from the Tories. Some interrogation into the questions. Even Portsmouth FC would probably even baulk at where that funding came from. Sunak’s camp making noises to the press (bar the DT who headlined it) that Reform UK behind it. If I was Rishi, I’d just expel Frost, Braverman, Caites, Prue Leith’s nipper, Simon Clarke and a dozen hangers on with a press release stating they are taking their seats (HoL for Frost) to Reform UK. Truss maybe too. Go full Kinnock and Militant Tendancy. End the fear which Cameron had leading to Brexit as they (Reform UK) fizzle out electorally. The Tory MPs know if they try to change leader again pre-GE they’d be finished for good. Meanwhile, a junior minister was laughed at on QT praising Sunak https://www.indy100.com/video/tory-slammed-sunak-question-time

Then used a chunk of the VVD on Ely in the summer. £16m wasn’t it? Stu was the only decent signing from the £85m recouped.

Beats a print of a train from Doncaster at least. Has to be worst signing ever, Onachu has succeeded in Belgium and Turkey at least, this guy had a very modest record before and after. £2m signing a lower Champ side/top half league one makes. Shows how dreadful the club had become by that point. Pellegrino was far worse even than Nathan Jones, ok had the VVD situation to contend with but that squad was still 8-12th calibre if there was a couple of decent signings in the spine of the side made by a manager of more substance (see R Koeman) that put Les back in his box. Not Wesley Hoedt, signed on a free by Lazio, and now at Watford, for an eye watering £17m (that’s not far behind Carrillo tbf). Storied playing career but looked terrified the whole time and should have been pulled out of the firing line in November 2017 for his own safety. Shame on the boardroom cowards at the time. And cowards also for not blocking this transfer. Mind you, Theo was in a downwards slope even then and Promes was a bag of trouble.

I will never understand what happened between the midweek cup win over West Ham where Ralph rotated a lot of first choice players, and the Saturday away hammering at Villa. It was a limited squad but they had been giving it their all, but at Villa they stopped tracking runners, the press dropped off a cliff. Rather than bouncing back from it, the sulkiness, slow, narrow shape and work ethic never recovered until relegation. Whether there was a dressing room bust-up where Ralph lost the squad and/or SR vs Semmens and Steele will maybe come out in the wash. The boardroom rift does seem to be true and Semmens was very cranky at the August 2022 fans forum.

Ukraine might, but still nutters behind Putin, same as there are behind Trump in the equally unhinged Republican Party https://metro.co.uk/2024/01/19/conscription-warning-nato-braces-all-war-russia-20139749/ Ben Wallace had previously predicted a major conflict by 2030. I hope your version is how the future actually pans out.

Yeah, this will be as another SWF poster used to say ‘all fart and no shit’. It’ll be uncomfortable for Sunak but I don’t think all of the 58 will go full rebel. Another very public example of how unmanageable and unelectable his party has become. That gloomy You Gov poll in the DT this week was analysed by the Guardian and it looked like an inside job by the Tory right, crowned with an opinion piece by David Frost. It’s why the Lib Dem’s need to learn from the weekend - if a right wing pile on does score a goal, it’ll be like Saints last season, the Tories celebrate a goal but you know the following week they’ll give away three soft goals at their own end unforced. Broadly share Whelk’s views on Lee Anderson, and some of his comments on food banks have let him down, but I kind of get it as well. Drinks, used to smoke, genuinely watches Mansfield Town, swears, a bit nationalist and socially conservative - basically looks and sounds like 30% of the male UK adult population. I wouldn’t vote for him but there are regularly comments that politicians don’t look or sound like normal people, but he does and Dennis Skinner, from a different standpoint, used to as well. Liked the way he made the error of following the Daily Mail herd on the junior doctor’s strike, got it right wrong, admitted it, and donated to the strike fund. Ed Davey should learn from that. Did I actually just say something favourable about Lee Anderson?

Difference is that we are passing and moving, able to switch the tempo up and down. When the tempo goes up, few teams at this level can live with us. Fourth goal was a piece of art but all the goals were well worked. Downes superb at winning it back and re-starting moves. Defence solid and KWP such a threat coming forward. AA would prefer to play centre forward but this season and Blackburn shows he is so much more effective cutting in from wide. Che picking it up again after his autumn lull. Great to watch after six years of dire, slow home displays, bar Ralph’s first season.

Lib Dems mistake has been to react to the GB News sections with the OFCOM complaint, which has shown CCO that they are rattled by it so CCO has demanded that Ted Verity at the Mail piles onto Davey as part of the Mail’s debt from the WFH hostility to stop their media group going pop. Whereas Labour has simply said that it was 000.1% of CPS cases out of 4m - why would the Director have had special awareness? It’s the difference in resources and professionalism between the LDs and two main parties who are better able to whip up a storm or shrug it off untouched. It’s how this GE year is going to be, so they have to wise up and be prepared to counter attack tactically. There’s plenty there to attack with the Tories with rape allegations all over the place, corruption which is rampant, woeful economic performance the worst the UK has experienced and civil war over the Rwanda policy as a starter for a million. Trying to stand up to GB News when it only has 300 watching in Mansfield or Dagenham ranting incoherently after the seventh can of Banks Bitter from Home Bargains is not a hill to die on. Davey should have just apologised last night and it would have blown itself out in a few days. Anyone with a brain knows the PO leadership and Fujitsu were lying en masse - Blagden due to give evidence to the enquiry next week and given his entangled relationships with the Tories they are fearing their turn to get a hammering. Added to that is that senior DCMS and UK Government Investment civil servants were non-Exec members of the PO Board during the coalition after Davey’s time as Postal Minister - what did they know? One is a current permanent Secretary now and depute to give evidence too.

Has hit Davey’s ratings but not those of the party. Sections of the press in the pocket of Brine, Baker, Redwood and others who are at risk defeated by Lib Dem candidates in their seats. Davey has shown a lack of empathy which doesn’t look great but there’s plenty of other ministers, including Priti Patel (see below) who didn’t dig deep enough. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/13/ed-daveys-approval-rating-takes-a-big-hit-from-the-post-office-scandal As for Patel’s snipe in the Sun today, if she had such a keen interest and awareness of the scandal, why didn’t she badger around the cabinet table about getting the convictions overturned and compensation underway? Boris promised on taking power to get to the bottom of the saga, Home Sec and Justice Sec work closely together, nothing stopping her taking action. Blames Lib Dem and Labour but it was the Conservatives who approved the flawed tender in 1996 and Labour failed to cancel it, even after the Benefits Agency part of the tender was decoupled. If you’re a Tory donor, it’s OK to be rewarded for failure at Fujitsu with another lucrative suck on the public teat, with our money https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/fujitsu-post-office-scandal-building-digital-uk/ Whats worse, Blagden has acted as a large scale parasite on the NHS too https://www.vice.com/en/article/59x7wz/fujitsu-uk-sues-department-health-simon-blagden-tory-donor Reality - PO and Fujitsu conned all parties, good summary here https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/12/post-office-it-scandal-politicians-blame Pile on from the right will switch to Blagden and Fujitsu next week, in fact if you look online, DT, Mail, Sun and non-right Mirror and others already well underway. Calls to suspend those large scale public contracts awarded by the Tories, which is what the distraction tactics and Davey pile on is really about.

It’d be a problem only if anyone actually watched the grubby little non-dom funded freak show. OFCOM should force them to put the Tory tree logo in the top corner of the screen. Who the fuck would want to watch politicians of any persuasion marking their own homework live on air? Lee Anderson show apparently tomorrow. Must be like a rollercoaster for the producers terrified that he’ll tell someone to fuck off at any given moment live on air.

https://inews.co.uk/news/fujitsu-lobbyist-post-office-scandal-tory-pressure-group-mps-2846557

Merging with McDonnell Douglas was the worst thing that happened to Boeing, taking on their McKinsey-clone managers who had killed MD in the first place, and losing the engineering-led geeky approach that had served them so well and given them a strong safety record. Compare it to MD’s disastrous DC10 which fell out of the sky killing hundreds because they were too stingy to design a decent cargo door or put the hydraulic lines somewhere less likely to be easily severed so the plane was uncontrollable. When Boeing fucked up a tail repair for the JAL disaster in 1985 they just put up their hands up, no excuses. No blaming the operatives at the airport as MD seemingly tried to do. Mirrors the decline of America’s greatness in a lot of ways, shareholders over quality and customers every time.

I don’t think Ukraine would see it that way and neither do others - see front page of Independent https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-67878546 Hopefully we never find out but much of the world would much rather take the risk.

Very dangerous year coming up if he can’t be stopped - biggest threat to western democracy since the 1930s and the Nazis. America would be a rogue state aka Russia, China, Iran, N Korea https://www.theguardian.com/us

Another win, mixed bag of a display. Great first 20, did everything but score, hit the post, Che scuffs one that should go in, AA nearly a worldie. Could’ve been 3-0 early on. Bit one dimensional after that and got caught on the counter 3 on 3 a couple of times, but they didn’t always have the final ball to hurt us. Lino is the worst I’ve ever seen, really was, Saying Sunday League is offensive to that level. How you can reach that level and not know offside rules/see them with lines on the pitch is staggering. And dinosaurs still moan about VAR at PL level…it ain’t the technology…mind boggling. Edozie and Che both given off in the first half when a yard on and a portent to a shocking disallowed goal. Charly’s stunner 40 seconds later must have rubbed one of those big tubs of Saxa salt in the wound. In total control after that, get the second and close several times to the third. Finishing not quite at the levels of Blackburn or Swansea games but comfortable. Horrible and needless blooper from Baz, who had little else to do all night. Shea then equally stupidly nearly gifted them an equaliser farting around with no idea what was around him. Plymouth had more offensive threat than the last two teams with forwards who press with pace and can score. Something to eliminate in training. Positives - Charly excellent, changes of pace and the most threatening offensive player. Close behind Edozie, also brilliant defensive intervention at the end of the first half. Mara - good, energetic cameo. KWP - classy although should have been booked. THB and JB good. Challenges - Smallbone mixed, Charles not one of his better nights, Manning absolutely terrible again and at fault for the goal that should’ve been. Stupid booking too caught out of position wrong side of the ball. Bree/new signing needed there. Argyle will be fine, hard run of away games they’ve had and with a new manager bounce they’ll be 12-16th no issues. Keeper was hit and miss, couple of great saves but kicking terrible and glue foot for Che’s goal. Overall deserved the win, finishing more wayward than last two home games, and some things to work on in training. Hopefully QPR can nick something off Ipswich.

Juniper Berry re-opened and then shut again https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c252l0gylx4o and https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23979920.juniper-berry-pub-closes-just-weeks-reopening/ That pub has traded under a few names and had a lively reputation in the 1970s/80s (before my drinking time). Asbestos is a pain in the arse commercially and/or residentially. Depends on the extent and type of the asbestos but Admiral Taverns should be able to afford to have it removed by a specialist firm per se unless the other repairs needed make it uneconomic, probably the roof which can be very pricey. Surprised it was offered for lease in that condition tbh. Usual calibre of comments on the Echo page! Long list here of S Hants/Soton area pubs shut/closed that I’ve used over the years including the Platform (didn’t know about the fire), Waterloo Arms (was a lovely Hopback pub with a summer beer festival), Yacht Tavern (was in there after Sheff Utd great escape game 2008), and Roll Call in Butlocks Heath which is a large site. Variable pub. https://www.shantscamra.org.uk/beer/pubdata/survey/closedpubs.php Albion closed opposite Winchester station, that used to be a good pub. Anchor in Test Lane shut this year too, did decent food early 00s.

Good to see proper use of VAR at Brighton v Spurs - clear shirt tug and denial of getting a shot on goal away, which corrected the obvious error from the ref and Lino in originally not giving the penalty.

£15m is the record signing at this level I think? So that should get a very good player. £10m is a lot too, which is why this would be a £50m fuck up in the current PL. If Adams goes, he’ll need to be replaced as well but would expect that to be a loan signing (not Ings level, but someone too experienced for u23 stuff at the top 10 level in the PL who needs a chance to play senior football). The two lads at Aberdeen could be an option, although they’ve not shot the lights out in a poor league this year unlike last season. Hardie would be good but he’s a bit like AA, we need someone who can hold it up at times as well. I doubt if their new manager tbc will want to sell him. Whittaker would be better I agree. Needs swift action though and the club might have to pay a bit over to get them quickly.