Gloucester Saint

Didn’t Jason Puncheon have issues with an insistent tortoise at the Everton home game and had to leave the pitch temporarily?

That’s rather cruel H&W - surely a man can be permitted some of his own, fine, home made chutney, fresh from the cooking pots of Romney Marsh?

Gaza is a bit more problematic in the Midlands, as people probably gathered from the GE, more along divided lines, whereas very strong support for Ukraine still.

It’ll fuck their economy, there’s very little Youngkin can do https://www.washingtontechnology.com/companies/2025/02/virginia-governor-pressed-support-federal-workers-and-contractors/403116/ at that scale to mitigate the level of lunacy. 27% of businesses in Fairfax County, the most affected region, rely on competing for federal tenders so private sector decimated, and 30% of federal role going held by military veterans. Wasn't quite in the brochure was it? Virginia state elections are in November https://thedispatch.com/article/virginia-governor-doge-spanberger/ With wafer thin majorities in the House and Senate, only takes a couple of rebel GOPs sticking up for their states and deadlock on the national budget, which affects all 50 states.

Seen plenty still around here and in the Midlands, jacket lapels quite common. Can’t speak for other areas. With public opinion strongly against Trump and Vance’s behaviour I suspect more will pop up again.

It’s incredibly haphazard but in Musk’s case he’s well aware of the asset-stripping he and his team of acne-ridden munchkins are doing. It’s vile but the American electorate are going to have to wear it. They’ve not realised how many Trump voters in poor districts rely on Medicaid, which could be an issue when they finally realise because one thing that lot do save money aside/go robbing for is gun ownership. And plenty of them. When those voters refer to socialism and hating it, they’re not referring to themselves and their own historic provisions which will go under DOGE. Combined with inflation from tariffs pushing up their everyday goods it’s going to get ugly quite soon. Main thing we can do is stop that shit spreading here and to Europe.

Whilst there are many decisions this current government has made that I don’t agree with, a lot of the morass is down to short-term economic experiments like hers which cost tens of billions in a few weeks pushing interest rates further, as well as taking a hard Brexit in 2019 which has cut 6% off the whole economy. So yes, I agree, going back into the Single Market is absolutely essential. We simply don’t have enough money to fund the services the overwhelming majority of voters of all parties expect. Truss knew it as well, which is why she wouldn’t balance the books to make the level of tax cuts (even then they weren’t remotely affordable).

On polling, in 1981-2 the SDP were polling over 50% and leaving a very unpopular Conservative government and conflict-ridden opposition with an unelectable leader batting for 2nd in high teens/low 20s. National Front were active on the streets and predicted to win seats. Then check out the 1983 GE result.

Not at CPAC there weren’t, Truss got shunted into a lunchtime fringe slot when most people were eating/hadnt anrrived and only a handful attended. Even they think she’s a headcase with bollocks ideas. What a waste of aviation fuel - and oxygen.

Beverley Turner is a total moron. James Cracknell is well out of that marriage. Nutter. Anyone will say anything for a few quid. What a track record as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bev_Turner

You could say exactly the same about other posters on here though. Simple for me - behaviour of the extremists in both movements is wholly unacceptable and unlikely to lead any solutions either of the populations can get behind. Hamas and Zionism are not doing them any favours.

Yeah, can’t see a very senior politician posting wind-up stuff like that. I reckon Gio was formerly of Bournemouth/Glasgow.

Not after 3 years of not playing first team football effectively.

Speaking of Cameron Green, similar stint at Glos to help him get fit for the Ashes in the winter https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cwyjlmp30klo

Yep, I’ve had my own business as well, and I would’ve reversed the NI employee that we couldn’t afford, rather than put it on employers NI. Worst decision they’ve made. I agree with some of that but I don’t think are especially woke, Starmer has really cracked down on the harder left and kept away from issues like transgender which is a snakepit of an issue that gets a very vocal minority worked up on either side of political extremes. The Democrats by contrast fucked up in the Presidential election by still majoring on that stuff fuelled by the likes of AOC. The culture war is so much bigger over there because of evangelicals. By contrast, listen to Ben Bradshaw and Caroline Noakes here about how often culture war issues ever came up on the doorstep - answer zero

Sounds like Vince suggested this one. Good stats in a stronger domestic competition than ours. Given Green and Marsh’s injury records a good spell might get him on their Test radar https://www.cricketworld.com/australian-all-rounder-jack-edwards-signs-for-hampshire/101349.htm

In your bubble on X maybe but the Lib Dem’s did far better in terms of seat capture and that’s who I vote for. If Labour loses its majority which is a big if then we’re just as likely to have a say in the outcome than Reform, factually more so with FPTP. Tories are fucked after choosing Badenoch, their support has slipped ever further, and she bangs on about culture war shit like this all of the time. I just want an economy that enables me and wife to put bread on the table, same as 95% of the electorate. Trump only got re-relected outside the 40% who are obsessed with him because enough people thought he was more likely to do that than Harris. They didn’t consider tariffs pushing prices up but that’s by the by. Heard all of the same earthquake stuff from Corbyn and Momentum and they were winning social media etc. 2017 GE was a false dawn when they couldn’t beat May who boxed herself in a corner and inevitably got the hammering they were always going to in 2019. Same will happen with the far right, once Trump’s economic policies and DOGE hammers their lower middle class and the mid-terms change the Senate and House. The ties to Trump will be a millstone around the neck.

Of course you can’t, what validity would it have anyway? Trump is a reactionary and thin-skinned dickhead, the worst sort who along with his idiot little redneck VP give it out but can’t take anything back. If Zelensky holds one in peacetime and loses, I bet unlike those two fascists in 2020 he accepts the democratic result.

Good player 10 years ago but averaging 34 is less than his age of 37 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cy05l5x2r2zo

Personally I’d have legal routes to apply from nations that are acknowledged as being in conflict, the rest like Albania and Turkey it’s about having the right skills for an economic visa. Take student visas out of the net figures and dependents though, that was just Braverman being a cunt and stirring the pot. That’s not to say it’s an automatic the applicants get accepted but at least it would be listened to fully and we don’t have the demos we’ve seen over the last 4 years or so outside hotels. Combine that with returning a higher % of boat arrivals and the higher levels of smuggler arrests and destruction of boats and facilities we’ve seen this winter, it’ll reduce it. It’s an ongoing task whoever is in power with climate change though which will exacerbate the impact of bad regimes in the global south.

I agree (in jest) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-b2701297.html

It also ignores the fact that America is a nation 99% built on immigration and the treatment of the communities who have always been there is dreadful.

If you’re from India, or Moscow, that might be a correct but in Europe it certainly isn’t https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/poll-minority-of-europeans-are-optimistic-about-trump/

On the graph you posted, Albania is an interesting outlier - mostly female seeking asylum and over 50% acceptance rates in 2022 because of being suspected victims of the people trafficking trade https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/albanian-asylum-seekers-in-the-uk-and-eu-a-look-at-recent-data/ Deemed a safe country overall though, and a candidate nation to join the EU, so I can see that being a low hanging political branch to cut boat numbers by sending them straight back on the plane as a deterrent. The UK has a return agreement negotiated IIRC by the last government. Albanians can legally apply for visas to visit, live and work here so it shouldn’t be somewhere asylum seekers are coming from illegally. That said, the visa scheme should be better used and communicated for legal routes https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/83/home-affairs-committee/news/195596/no-case-for-routinely-offering-asylum-to-claimants-from-safe-albania-home-affairs-committee/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-63473022

But you have a base where you can add those players in at £20-30m each and compete. Not having that base and adding bits and bobs from the Lidl bargains aisle for £6-15m gets you 9 points by mid-Feb.