Gloucester Saint

They all do it, they wouldn’t get elected otherwise. Maggie on doubling VAT, the party I vote for on tuition fees to get the ministerial cars, Brown on pensions. Farage has told loads and now he’s elected it’ll be harder to shrug them off.

👏 Quality and well deserved for a ‘poster’ who is a true WUM. Love and Light

The NI contributions weren’t and that’s a major earner to repair the damage. I’ve got a very wealthy friend who will be moaning about the VAT on public school fees but with hundreds of schools failing under aero concrete, it’s easy to understand why. He doesn’t like it but I understand it. We also needed to stop the rail strikes to save the huge hospitality industry and health ones to get productivity up and sick back to work. The border force needed boosting and that costs money. Personally I’d have reversed the NI cut we clearly couldn’t afford and rejoin the Single Market, because Slovenians and Finns aren’t coming here via boats, and we wouldn’t have a £40bn economic black hole every year. But unlike Labour, I don’t have to worry about re-election or political optics, I can pick the common sense solutions. Do those two and we’re not even discussing farmers.

Funnily enough thriving under a good manager who plays non-ponderous higher energy football (although anything slower than Russball is like the WBA fan who fell asleep in the away end last year).

Fair enough, they’re having to make some unpopular and difficult decisions as the Coalition did in its early years. We probably both disagree and also agree on some of the measures they’ve respectively taken and whether the burden should have fallen elsewhere or not, but the burden was made clear by the IFS pre election whoever won, as it was in 2010.

In that right wing bubble, probably, although most of the country felt the same about Boris after partygate and Truss wrecked what was left of the economy after him, we resented both of them having access to oxygen. Still do actually. Preferably they just emigrate to America and kiss Trump’s arse for 4 years and give various empty speeches at the Heritage Foundation. Whatever Labour does, it’s factually impossible to fuck the economy more than those two did. The tabloids can’t run away from their own shit they advocated for (Mail, Telegraph and Truss and all of them on Brexit). They got their Disneyland and it was a fucking disaster beyond any current or future comparison. Taking economic lectures from Truss and Kwarteng is like Nadine Dorries telling people drinking is bad for them.

Best (top flight) Manager: Lawrie Shilton Dennis VVD Wright KWP Armstrong, Morgan, MLT D Wallace Moran Beattie Subs: Flowers, Lambert (Beattie just pipped him), Case (close run with Morgan), Steve Williams, M Svensson, Pahars, Fonte, Bertrand, Rod Wallace, Lallana, Tadic, Mane, S Davis, Pelle, Monkou, Bridge, Niemi (two keepers on the bench but you can’t leave Antti out), Glenn Cockerill (80s), Statham, Ostenstad, Dean Richards, Clyne, JWP Worst (top flight) Manager: Russell Martin Bazanu Bernard, Hoedt, Jakobsson, S Baker Mccann, Quashie, Lesley, David Lee Carrillo BBD Subs: Blayney, Lemina (should have been a shoe in but Lesley nicked his spot by looking like he’s won a prize to play), Dixon (half pissed and addicted to gambling but just slightly better than BBD), Steve Wood(hoof!), Moody, Todd, Ely, Kenton, Ross Stewart, Speedie, Cherednik, Lyanco, Davenport, Van Damme (never has a name been less apt, just as bad at Wolves), Ray Wallace, Nilsson

Super Sunday has never been a more inappropriate title for the programme - super if you live in Merseyside and/or Cornwall/Devon/Somerset/Kent

Broadly, you make a fair point. Farmer Saint does as well in the sense plenty didn’t and it’s the far more affluent end around here, Devon, N Yorkshire, E Anglia making the bulk of the noise through the usual tabloids. They got mugged by Boris and Farage along with the fishing community and most of them need to access key public services, even Clarkson. The Farmers Alliance made all sorts of trouble for Blair over fuel duty and it didn’t make a blind bit of difference. Empathy with the vast majority of farmers who have had a shit deal from supermarkets and various governments, but if the Tories ever got a US trade deal in a decade’s time, bye bye farming and the Health Service. Come on, eat up, savour your hormone-injected beef and chlorinated chicken. Bye bye food standards.

Good work Dark Munster starting this thread - the focus is not just on Martin now but on Rasmus and SR https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southampton

I didn’t realise Paul Marshall, owner of GB News, had pulled out of buying it. Instead it’s a British born American owner in pole position. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/daily-telegraph-sale-dovid-efune-new-york-sun-b2625225.html It sounds like a local bogstandard neocon response to the New York Times, on a fraction on the circulation. Sounds like a bid is quite a bit more than anyone else which makes you wonder what he wants with it. Possibly to boost the NY Sun’s appeal beyond it’s compact centre-right suburban footprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Sun#:~:text=The New York Sun is,well as occasional arts content. Interesting little link to the DT’s past - Conrad Black was also involved with the NY Sun’s revival in the 00s. No obvious red flags as to being approved politically, it’s old school DT fayre, I just can’t see where he’s getting the money from as it’s like the owner of Poole Town buying Saints https://pressgazette.co.uk/north-america/telegraph-bidder-dovid-efunes-new-york-sun-is-obscure-even-in-home-city/ Rumours that he’s seeking other investors, and he should, because the DT runs an annual loss of £240m, which is too much for even offshore tax dodgers the Barclays, plus their very costly family dispute.

It’s behind a paywall on the Mail’s website but it sounds absolutely foul. Her book is currently being serialised via them. It was never going to be high on intellectual content but Mad Nads is going for the shock factor.

With a Glaswegian hint, via Bournemouth and Kenya. Love and Light.

Business to business fraud isn’t taken seriously enough, yet another example https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yg3y0qgexo It is fraudulent to withhold key segments on any contract but the enforcement is more lax B2B. Needs changing and much larger fines/HMRC fast-track asset confiscation orders to root out crooked firms.

They’re just following logic that a better resourced border control (left wretchedly under-resourced after Brexit) and a quicker processing system will result in more and quicker deportations. No need for eye watering expensive fig leafs in Rwanda or elsewhere. They’ve also worked well with France, Netherlands and Germany to arrest and hobble some of the biggest smugglers. It‘ll be an ongoing and expensive battle with the surge in smartphones in Africa and beyond but they’ve made more progress than I thought they would. Reform are more of a danger on this issue to them than the Tories, busted flush on this issue.

Yes, he is, counterproductive and a distraction issue. He’s about as accurate about that as he was at football. Probably trying to get Stuart Gray or Steve Wigley a seat.

Far more regulation is needed around national builders - yet another example amongst hundreds https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c624528pjr7o We bought a new build where we lived before, had a better experience as went with a regional builder and close to their HQ so some pride of place, unlike the nationals. Fair bit of snagging still and some sloping shoulders about the plumbing but very good compared to now. No excuse for many of the national builders (less so Redrow these days and Bloor from my experience amongst the bigger nationals, not thinking of Cala who are smaller) to throw up rubbish though, not for what they are selling their properties for. I’d give the NHBC a lot more teeth including right of veto over executive bonuses on boards until quality and standards massively increase to mutually agreed targets and backed up by customer research.

A limited edition tonight for Hook Norton’s 175th anniversary. The brewery, about 40 minutes from here across the Oxfordshire border, is famous for its tower design (second page) and visitor centre, well worth a visit if you’re over that way. The beer itself poured a golden amber, soft fruit notes on the nose, mandarin, mango, and the palate, which is very soft in texture like a cask draft or Perfectdraft, follows that with more mandarin and tangerine 🍊, the malt gives a strong backbone and balances the fruit beautifully so it never becomes harsh. Very gentle bitterness but this beer is about aromatics over muscular hops.

There was an extended piece on BBC Points West tonight about the trial and verdict. Included a segment with the mothers, one of whom lost their middle aged husband to COVID in early 2021 as well. Two lads in the wrong place at the wrong time, dreadful and inexcusable violence.

Stroud Organic Big Cat Stout for a cold, ark night in the Cotswolds. Chocolate ice cream, burned toast and espresso coffee on the nose, taste is chocolate liqueur, espresso coffee, sharp red fruits, a savoury note and notable alcohol for only 4.5% ABV, with a tangy and lingering finish. Ideal for watching the Grand Slam of Darts quarter finals.

The only way to crack economic growth is to tackle productivity- this is a long-term issue with roots in the financial crisis, worsened by austerity and a hard Brexit poured petrol on it and set it on fire. https://www.productivity.ac.uk/news/what-explains-the-uks-productivity-problem/ This explains the issue in simple terms - we’re the worst in the G7 for productivity. We work the longest hours but with the least outcomes https://www.economicsobservatory.com/how-can-the-uk-revive-its-ailing-productivity Education, skills and training, transport, all of those variables are why we are 10-25% behind France, Germany, USA.

Starting to undo some of the worst of a disastrous hard Brexit will repair a bit of the damage from 2019 by the next election. NHS waiting lists down, trains running and with Gray stepping out the backstabbing in public has stopped. Outside of the small Conservative bubble, most people are enjoying the lack of public drama. Added to the fact the opposition has selected Badenoch with Mr Corrupt Nits Haircut already undermining her (not that she needs that to fail). The only parties who will gain much ground in 2028 or 29 will be Lib Dem’s and Reform.

Andrew Bailey stating the flippin’ obvious https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5m7mp96l8o

😂https://x.com/MufcWonItAll2/status/1856799588293763244?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

You can only think there was a serious issue somewhere with him or Wilson, because nobody sane or sober is listening to an interview by Pellegrino and thinking we are getting up-tempo pressing football. More likely to ask all sharp objects in the vicinity at a safe distance. Carrillo was a dreadful mistake yet the Danish dunce makes the exact same mistake four years later with Jones and Onachu. They won’t spend over £20m on a striker but they’ll piss away £40m combined on those two. Add in Sulemana at £22m, Ely at £17m, BBD £7m, Archer £14m (who I think will be alright actually). Quality over quantity has to be the learning. Mane, Tadic, they are £30-35m now at their 2014 development.