Gloucester Saint

In his final 12-18 months that was rumoured and after the West Ham FA cup rotation and hammering at Villa became painfully obvious on the pitch. Earlier on the players bought in - look at Ings’s form, JWP growth after Hughes nearly sold him to Watford, Redmond in RH’s first season.

All the print media are in the shit financially to different extents. Telegraph is leaking £240m pa - that’s after rounds of redundancies, with a fairly obscure New York buyer coming in. Observer’s travails known about from those who read Private Eye hence the Tortoise buyout but Guardian has stabilised and in profit. Mail’s losses not as heavy as the DT’s but not good at £44m https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/losses-balloon-44m-daily-mail-091347288.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACRJM_iadAB1PiBSVNqM6ezWqBIQd3k8UiHrYGOqz1ZWsff9bf0AJTtH-swoxDyuXqlHwCwnaIssescrUrAgAoLwin83qbttPCanhx3skMpBBr3-HqrzznVWV91uAuqChnmtGl18veAVsizyY0VzmvMNEwM0e5Z-oShcRCYNoOsd It’s the sharp decline in both in print and online traffic that is spooking them. Mail on Sunday effectively gone as a separate brand and all edited by the Conservative Party’s own personal bot Ted Verity. MOS used to be far better than the Mail, pity.

Biden getting as much hammer from Dems as the GOP. Rightly so https://www.newsweek.com/list-democrats-criticize-joe-biden-pardon-son-hunter-1994237

When the club has an experienced manager and backs them within reasonable limits, good things happen - Woodford and Lawrie; Lowe and WGS; Reed and Koeman. If SR had early Ralph as manager, I reckon he’d have been in the same bracket, money would have been invested better and RH would have told Rasmus to fuck off out of his space before he got worn down later on. It’s when the Directors or Chair start thinking they know better than the seasoned industry professionals when it goes horribly wrong. See Lowe/Wigley/Gray/SCW/Grow our own, Reed and Pellegrino, and Rasmus/Jones/Martin as examples.

Russia’s biggest issue is domestic inflation caused by Putin’s loopy war. They have been laying mercenaries and others crazy sums to fight in Ukraine with the result that Russian employers have had to keep pace on pay settlements. Putin isn’t keen to stop the war because it’ll all unravel the moment he does and the next act will be him falling from a balcony on a Moscow skyscraper once the economic harm becomes clear, allied to Western sanctions.

Not for long they won’t be.

You can’t say things like that Soggy, Elon is on the side of working class people. No, he really, really is.

He makes Carlton Palmer look accomplished - that’s how rough his touch and close control is. At least Carlton had a decent motor on him (cue Vauxhall jokes) as did Victor (Vauxhall again..) Wanyama later on. Lesley by contrast runs in treacle. The sporting director who mugged Chelsea off for £22m for a bog standard League 2 big lump CM needs watching to replace Rasmus though. Very shrewd selling.

Paul has been beyond help for some time, although Lawrie should have grabbed the microphone to stop him telling Norway to fuck off.

I smell agent although Rasmus is stupid and gullible enough.

It wasn’t just Stewart either in recent memory, Puel and Reed made a similar dickhead blunder although not quite as bad as the Stewart purchase on Sofiane Boufal - wasn’t fit until October and never really caught up. At least he had ability in flashes. Whether Ross Stewart is SFC calibre or not I don’t think we will ever know.

I meant literally in the sense of the Labour MP suggesting any further episodes featuring him aren’t screened in case it proves triggering. Not very fair on the professional contestants who have worked so hard to reach the latter stages. I mean he is a dick, and deserves the sack as his behaviour is well below minimum standard. And not very wise what he said yesterday showing the character flaws. It’s not in the same league as Savile though where all old TOTP aren’t shown. More allegations might emerge which escalate things eg groping but not yet. Hints of the issues very coded from John Torode https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/john-torode-exposed-gregg-wallaces-34233502 but it was what Lisa Faulkner said (Torode’s partner) said at the Cheltenham Literature Festival last month which seemed to take the lid off what has been simmering for some time. Wallace unfollowed them both on Instagram today apparently, stoking up for a pop at those two.

We know where the money is coming from though. And Reform UK have been clear that they think climate change and especially net zero is a load of bollocks, so a £100m donation from an electric car maker is total hypocrisy, but that is Farage for you. It’s no accident that the current government is under pressure around electric car subsidies, charging facilities and the 2030 target to end production of petrol/diesel vehicles (which I think they’ll have to u-turn on btw).

Ditto, heard exactly the same. Loads of accounts online if people who have also met Wallace out of Masterchef and found him equally arrogant and offhand. Still doesn’t mean he should be cancelled.

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I’d rather no large overseas donors tbh, it’s bad enough with the influence and access the large domestic ones get. Not just the Conservatives, look at the summer and issues Labour had. And Musk would make Frank Hester look like Jeremy Corbyn. Then people moan ‘they don’t do things for us’ and are surprised as to why not. Reform certainly aren’t doing it for the people of Clacton and Great Yarmouth.

As inappropriate as Labour sending activists to the US Election. Although it’s the Tories it will really squeeze because the anti-Musk and hard right funding from centre right and One Nation firms will flow to Labour plus the TUs. I’m concerned in that instance about Liberal Democrat funding, although we don’t tend to win seats where Reform is a likely winner.

Wallace is a twat and Masterchef will be fine without him in its new location. His behaviour wasn’t very good on other shows as well. He hasn’t helped himself by being so sensitive about himself eg spelling on his name but not applying to others. All that said, he is a basic bloke who hasn’t progressed socially from a working class background despite the fame and affluence his roles have brought. Not suitable behaviour for those roles but not worthy either of being cancelled entirely and vilified by a media pile on.

Enjoyed our day in Great Malvern - after the Christmas Market buying presents, we had lunch and then a couple of hours in Weavers Ale and Craft beer micro pub on the high street. Tried four halves - starting with Pomona Island Mondays Irish Stout from Manchester https://untappd.com/b/pomona-island-brew-co-mondays/5774241 That was good but it got better with Ossett/Oakham Enchanted Pale Ale. Very aromatic but not the overpowering grapefruit finish that can get sometimes https://untappd.com/b/ossett-brewery-enchanted-pale-ale/6072427 Then Brew York Maris the Otter Bitter, which mixed biscuit, caramel with fruity hops https://untappd.com/b/brew-york-maris-the-otter/1530376 then finishing more local with Fownd from Kidderminster’s Cosmic Santa Breakfast stout with coffee and chocolate https://untappd.com/b/fownd-brewing-company-cosmic-santa/6066287 We headed for Gloucestershire before tomorrow’s weather rolled in off the Malvern Hills (and before that from the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains)

This outburst was brought to you by Harvey’s of Lewes, fine Sussex ales.

Kwak is a great drop, certainly strong but a Belgian classic. One of the most distinctive glasses in world beer when you have it in its native Belgium https://www.beerritz.co.uk/belgian-beer/kwak-glass_bosteels_1-x-330ml-glass The glass is called the Koetsiersglas and was designed to circumvent snooty bar owners who wanted to stop coach drivers from drinking in their establishments. So this way, the beer came to the drivers in a top heavy design to not spill any whilst they were driving the horses https://belgianbeers.co.uk/beer-blog/why-is-kwak-beer-served-in-such-a-unique-glass/ With the strength of Kwak, I wouldn’t want to drive anything afterwards! Triple Karmeliet is also available on Perfect Draft. Highly recommended too.

Allied to Coote’s coked up comments about Klopp, fair to say PGMOL are as unpopular in Liverpool as Kelvin McKenzie.

This is the crux - the technology is meant to assist and avoid the obvious error. But it doesn’t and Stockley Park duplicates.

Great point. English football officials hide away because it would be obvious in plain sight and sound they don’t know their arses from their elbows. Unless they’re trying to snort marching powder from one of them.

If they used it for the obvious error on field it’d be fine but English officials always have to be the star.