Whitey Grandad

If that. All we can bank on is one more season from him before he gets put out to stud or whatever they do with old footballers these days. If he were to sign a new contract with us it would be expensive and still not be enough for us.

I don't like penalty shootouts and lose interest as soon as they happen. I suppose they're ok for the earlier knockout rounds but for me, not for the final. If it's 0-0 after extra time then don't bother with trying to decide a winner. To say that italy 'won' the title is too ridiculous.

It’s good to see the club standing by ‘one of their own’. It also might be one of the aspects that persuades some other promising youngster to join us.

It’s a big arse so it would need a lot of covering.

There are reports of people calling in ‘pinged’ so that they can have a few days off in the nice weather. Is there any way that an employer could check?

I don’t think that the current system works in an environment of high vaccinations and widespread recovered people. What’s the point of isolation for these categories just because they might have come into contact with a possibly infected person?

Yes. It has all got out of hand and out of control. As long as the numbers of deaths isn’t too dramatic then just carry on with our lives and don’t look at the numbers.

Can’t they have McCarthy instead?

He is a typochondriac

But would Sue be bothered? There’s a simple answer. Stop the sales of beer on the concourses. Easy for me to say because I don’t imbibe.

I agree. There are other factors too. Not having to wake up to an alarm and leaving your house for a commute reduces the chances of getting ill. A good sleep works wonders for the immune system.

To the rodent or to someone called Rashford?

What is the aim of all this? We can’t control the virus and all that lockdowns do is spread it out over a longer period. Nobody would even dream of suggesting a lockdown if this were a flu epidemic with the current number of deaths. There must be vested interests somewhere. Get as many people as possible vaccinated or infected as quickly as possible. And please don’t talk about Long Covid because such we just have to live with it all. The reported effects are relatively minor and not necessarily down to post viral fatigue. Prolonged lockdown cause many of the same symptoms.

Yep. By midnight on Monday 19th.

An update this evening straight from the force’s mouth, https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2021/july/south-manchester-mural-vandalism-investigation-continues/ “While the content of the vandalism is not believed to be of a racial nature, officers are keeping an open mind as to the motive behind defacing the artwork.” So. No nearer identifying the culprits. It’s always possible it was some young kid or group of kids. We don’t even know what colour they/he/she/it was.

Personally I don't see that confrontation will change many entrenched views. Unfortunately it is going to take several lifetimes of integration and accommodation before people can be accepted for who they are rather than what they are. I have seen many changes in my lifetime but there is a long way to go. In my view the BBC is as racially provocative as any organisation. I have listened to radio programmes involving interesting and distinguished guests but it is only a matter of a short time until the subject of their colour is brought up. On the radio this is Why?

Didn't he also invent Tipp-ex?

Because they think that they should based on their guidelines.

Just because the police are treating it as such does not of itself mean that it was done by a racist. Jus that someone, anyone, anywhere, has considered it to be such a thing.By their definition such person could be anywhere in the world, of any political persuasion, and could be seeking to foment disruption.

On a wider perspective, do you think that bringing such debates onto the 'front page' is going to improve matters? Or will it be counter-productive?

I'm afraid that's not enough. If anybody anywhere thinks that thsi defacement was racially motivated then truth or evidence goes out of the window.

The plod don't need any eveidence they just need to find some opinion from somebody. Anybody. Even one of their own officers. Welcome to the modern world.

There doesn't have to be any evidence for it to be considered a hate crime. The definition below is from The Metropolitan Police and was controversial at the time this policy was introduced. What is Hate Crime? Hate crimes and hate incidents In most crimes it is something the victim has in their possession or control that motivates the offender to commit the crime. With hate crime it is ‘who’ the victim is, or ‘what’ the victim appears to be that motivates the offender to commit the crime. A hate crime is defined as 'Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.' A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but it is equally important that these are reported and recorded by the police. Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. You do not need to personally perceive the incident to be hate related. It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related.

From the Evening Standard link that I posted above. A mural in honour of Marcus Rashford was defaced within hours of his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final in what police are treating as a racist incident. The word “F***” was scrawled over the huge artwork of the England footballer, painted on the side of a cafe in Copson Street in Withington, south Manchester. The words “shit” and “bastard” were also graffitied beside the word “Saka”, the 19-year-old player whose final penalty miss gave Italy victory.

I never said that it was and I have condemned the action. but to assume that it was racist is no better. Since skin colour wasn't mentioned then why do you bring it up in your question?