trousers

Tusk: "May's request for a short extension will be acceptable on condition that the Withdrawal Agreement is approved by HoC before 29th March..." Assume that means that Bercow can't now block MV#3 as that EU condition constitutes a significant change in circumstances....?

Et voila....? Edit: report being denied by French government

If the Scots had voted for independence in 2014, then it was a certainty that they would no longer be a member of the EU at the moment they left the UK. Of course, that reality doesn't stop the SNP continuing to pedal the "Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will due to Brexit" mantra whilst drawing a veil over the fact that a different result in the 2014 Scottish referendum would have resulted in the same outcome. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scottish-eu-independence-referendum-scotland-join-queue-membership-apply-a7627201.html

Given that she believes the deal she has struck is 'good' rather than 'bad', I guess she could argue there's nothing contradictory in that article? i.e. in her eyes, there's no bad deal to be walking away from...?

Precariousness

If you squint hard enough, those buttocks in the foreground can be made to look like they belong to a lady. (No? Just me then. Maybe I should get out more)

The flagrant hypocrisy aside, that's not bad going for a football club that's merely 7 years old and which has spent their entire existence languishing in the 3rd and 4th tiers of English football.

Rings a bell. I guess we could argue it wasn't in bad faith but a necessity in the circumstances. All a tad subjective perhaps.

What are the EU rules on re-triggering article 50 a further time, having previously revoked it? I've got a feeling there's a "one time only" clause in there somewhere which prevents a country triggering it more than once? Although, maybe that's conditional on the circumstances. (For example, perhaps a country can revoke then invoke again if the basis on which they want to leave is fundamentally different to the first time?) If it's technically possible for a country to invoke article 50 again in the future, after a revokation, then maybe that's the way May sells it in the end. i.e. "I'm reluctantly pressing the revoke button at the 11th hour as it's better to pause and possibly reinvoke it later than go out now on no-deal". In other words, it could be sold as just an alternative method of delaying Brexit (if the EU veto our request for a delay) rather than canning it altogether, in order to get enough MPs onside. Dunno. Usual thinking-out-loud stuff from yours truly.

Given the EU don't want the UK to leave, isn't it obvious to them that their best tactic now is to engineer a veto on an extension to article 50? That will just leave 'no deal' and 'article 50 revocation' as the only two options left on the table before 29th March. Given that scenario, isn't it more likely the Commons will vote for revocation, citing it as the lesser of two evils?

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-03-18/monday-briefing-18-march-southampton-football-club

Lol

Confirmed that the semi-final will indeed be held at St.Mary's: https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-03-14/premier-league-international-cup-semi-final-draw-southampton-dinamo-zagreb Saints drawn against Dinamo Zagreb btw (who we beat 1-0 in the group stages)

How about this for a possible chain of events...? Tonight: Parliament votes to avoid no-deal on 29th March Tomorrow: Parliament votes to extend Article 50 Next week: One or more of the the EU 27 veto an extension Tuesday 26th March: May brings a slightly tweaked version of her deal back to parliament to vote on for a 3rd time; she fails to get a majority again Sometime before Friday 29th March @ 22:59: May revokes Article 50 and resigns May/June: General Election

I didn't catch Southgate's team selection press conference livem but apparently he said the reason for leaving out JWP is because "He’s only recently got back into the team at Southampton"... hmmm.... interesting definition of 'recently'.... https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=60449 Whereas Delph, for example, has featured in 1 (one) of Man City's premier league games in 2019 (in January).... nothing contradictory there then Gareth....

Peston reckons a no-deal Brexit in May/June is on the cards... https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/were-now-heading-for-a-no-deal-brexit-but-not-just-yet/

If Lemina has fully recovered from his operation, and now just needs to get 'match fit', I'd be tempted to give him 45 minutes in this game.

Form table since Ralph took over

This

I missed the first half. I assume the match thread will make amusing reading courtesy of the usual suspects...? Great win. COYR!!!

This

Fratton Park

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17484785.southampton-manager-ralph-hasenhuttl-on-yan-valery-and-loaning-out-cedric-soares/

I'm not seeing where he's explicitly saying that the aim is to bring the wages down to match league position? My interpretation of what he said is that they anticipated finishing higher with the players we had/have. As such, I reckon he believes that we can close the gap between wages and league position by finishing higher up the league next season, rather than reducing the wage bill, per se. Yes, there's a debate to be had as to whether our poor position the last two seasons is a blip due to poor management rather than poor players, but from what I've seen from Hassenhuttl so far, I'm pretty confident we'd finish in a more comfortable position next season with a similar wage bill (should we stay in the league of course!)