Sheaf Saint

Yes, I get that cui bono is a fallacy in scientific terms. But when you are trying to ascertain who carried out a particular crime, it is an essential question to ask when compiling a list of suspects who need to be investigated. However, what our government seem to have done in this case is to presume Russian guilt first before carrying out a thorough investigation, which itself is a very backwards way of beginning any investigation, unless you a) already have the concrete evidence you need (in which case there would surely have been no need for BoJo to lie about it), or b) know it wasn't them but are trying to frame them anyway. And when the only 'evidence' that the public has been given so far by our government - that we know it was the Russians because the guys at Porton Down told us so - is proven to be completely untrue, then is it really any wonder that people start looking for possible alternative explanations? Like I said, I remain skeptical without evidence and that applies to both the government stance and to any other alternatives. I'm certainly not going to blindly throw my support behind the government line when they are proven to be a bunch of liars and can't be trusted to tell the truth about anything.

You mean like how Bush & Blair managed to convince a whole load of other governments that Iraq definitely had WMDs?

Pleasure

Yeah but that was in the unforgiving environment of the PL. We would have much more scope to 'get away with it' in the Championship. And, to be honest, I would much rather take a punt on someone like him who is showing some real innovation and success somewhere than pick AN Other from the ridiculous failed manager merry-go-round.

Yeah very much enjoyed this. I love how he manages to skirt around the edge of bad taste without ever actually crossing the line. And in this one he actually explains very well how some 'offensive' jokes can't actually be deemed that way because of the target and the subject of the joke being fair game. The whole routine about Bruce/Caitlin Jenner was hilarious.

Agreed.

Simply not true... https://consortiumnews.com/2018/03/13/the-strange-case-of-the-russian-spy-poisoning/ Now I'm not saying that I believe everything in this report, as there is no firm evidence provided to support it so I remain skeptical, but it does demonstrate that Russia was by no means the only party with the means, motive and opportunity to carry this out. So please forgive me if I will not so readily accept the conclusions that our own toxic and deceitful government managed to jump to at such an alarming speed.

And yet we have denied their request to work directly with our own team of investigators, and they are now the ones calling for an extraordinary meeting of the OPCW to resolve the situation, which our foreign office has described as merely a diversionary tactic. Seems to me our own government is being just as uncooperative, if not more so, as they are.

Yes, but he has been available for selection for a while now. He's clearly our most experienced and most reliable defender, so it's criminal that he hasn't come back in to the starting 11 yet.

Point taken, but when the foreign secretary is doing TV interviews and claiming that our evidence is based on our chemical weapons experts telling him directly that there is no doubt the agent came from Russia, and those experts then go on TV to refute that, do you not see that as a cause for concern? Watch the video where Johnson made that claim, and look at him squirming and stuttering while he is trying to answer the question. You don't need to be any kind of psychologist or body language expert to deduce that he isn't being entirely honest.

Apparently, not as strong as Boris Johnson claimed last week, when he said that the guys at Porton down had stated 'categorically' that there was 'no doubt' that the agent came from Russia. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/salisbury-poisoning-russia-novichok-nerve-agent-porton-down-proof-evidence-mod-latest-a8286761.html

It's not just what Puel knew, perhaps Pellegrino knew it too. He often said that controlling the game was the most important element on which to build a platform to win games, and looking at the way we surrendered the midfield on saturday and let WHU roll over us, I'm inclined to believe he knew what he was talking about in this respect. Although I'm not suggesting we shouldn't have sacked him, because he was clearly out of his depth and lacking in awareness in many other areas.

Quite. And I find it astounding how those who are claiming that this group are the wrong type of Jews are themselves being openly and blatantly antisemitic. It's pathetic. The BBC news are running with this as their lead story today, as if there is nothing more newsworthy going on in the world right now, and are describing this group as non-mainstream Jews. WTAF? It is not the place of the BBC to decide what is mainstream and what is not, and to effectively de-legitimise a certain group of Jews. Their lack of impartiality on this issue is a f*cking disgrace.

Season 3 of The Expanse starts next week - 11th April. Really looking forward to this.

I saw this posted elsewhere the other day. Pie is brilliant. I went to see his live stage show last month and it was true genius. Coincidentally, he touched on what you mentioned in your previous post in response to suewhistle, by having a pop at the idea of mansplaining. He told the audience "If you ever find me talking to you in a condescending and insulting manner, rest assured it will be nothing to do with your gender and will most likely be because you're a f*cking cretin!"

Aaaah, so what you actually meant to say was 'There are some on' the far left that demand that all Jews take responsibility and apologise for the Israeli state's murderous behaviour against Palestinians. I'm not going to disagree with that, because it's obvious there are a few. My point was that you can't tar the entire far-left with the same brush because, well, that in itself is just as moronic as blaming all Jews for the actions of the Israeli government, which is what this is all about. While not sitting on the far-left myself, I know a few people who do, and I can tell you that your blanket generalisation absolutely does not apply to them. I have not at any point denied that there are some issues that the Labour party need to address. The Michelle Grant case, which I don't doubt is not an isolated one, was obviously handled very badly, but in the end they did the right thing and expelled the guy who she complained about, even if they went the very wrong way about it. It would be interesting to know the timeline of events in this case though. You are right in saying that Corbyn supporters now control many of the key institutions within the party, certainly since John Lansmann and two other Momentum members were elected to the NEC in January. But he hasn't always had the full support of the NEC - let's remember that they tried to block him from winning his second leadership election by changing the rules and banning new members from voting. So it's a little unfair to be chastising him for the actions of a group within his party who have actively tried to shaft him in the past.

I don't know what's happened to you Verbal. I used to enjoy reading your posts, but this is one of the most ridiculous and dismissive loads of total codsh!t I have ever seen anybody post. And I'm not just saying that out of personal offence because I don't consider myself to be far-left.

Yes, on watching that video it seems this lady had a horrific experience and the whole complaint was handled in an appalling manner which reflects very badly on the NEC, and I'm not going to try and defend it. The guy in question was expelled from the party last September though. As to your claim that the Labour party is in danger of becoming institutionally antisemitic, how do you explain the results of a yougov poll which show that antisemitic attitudes have actually decreased since Corbyn became leader in 2015? https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/921pn4p2fh/CampaignAgainstAntisemitismResults_MergedFile_W.pdf https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/bs0i5dmt7s/CampaignAgainstAntisemitismResults_170803_JewishOpinions.pdf Yet more actual evidence, rather than hearsay and rumour, that antisemitism is a bigger problem in the Conservative party than it is in Labour. To add to the long list of provable instances of overt racism and discrimination among their ranks in the last week which, for some very strange reason, aren't having front page headlines printed about them. Why isn't this story getting splashed all over the front pages of the tabloids like it would if it was about a Labour MP, for instance? I've been reading a lot of debate and comment about this whole story recently, trying to cut through the hyperbole and find some actual facts to make my own mind up, and one thing I have noticed a lot of has really troubled me. When the fact that numerous studies and evidence show that antisemitism is a bigger problem in the Tory party than it is in Labour gets highlighted, I'm seeing a lot of comments in online circles defending this by stating that it's because Labour are being hypocrites by claiming to be the party of anti-racism. What people who use this defence seem to be willfully ignorant of is that it is essentially saying that racism and antisemitism in the Tory party (you know, the ones who are actually in government) is perfectly OK because they never actually claimed to be against it in the first place.

He's not been great all season. He's certainly not what I consider to be captain material.

If we're going to give a player like Arnautovic that much time and space in our box then we deserve to be relegated. F*cking pathetic defending.

So do you think Boris Johnson should be deselected then? ?

Well well well, what a surprise... Turns out that Jonathan Goldstein, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council who orchestrated the anti-Corbyn protest on Monday, is listed as a director of M&C Saachi, alongside Maurice Saachi - the FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY! But I'm sure that's just a coincidence

So why haven't the Tories set up their own internal inquiry after the findings of the home affairs select committee in 2016 that the issue of antisemitism was no more or less prevalent in the Labour party than in other parties? I fully acknowledge that the Labour inquiry could and should have been handled better, but at least they carried one out. Did the Tories? No, they just swept the report under the carpet and ignored it, probably with their fingers in their ears going "LA LA LA!!!". Corbyn has obviously f*cked up big time by accepting Chakrabati's findings then climbing down and admitting that there is still an issue within his party, but that doesn't exonerate the Tories. God help them if they ever actually did hold a full and thorough inquiry into racism in the party; on the available evidence they would probably end up having to expel half the party. How the actual f*ck can a serving foreign secretary get away with describing African people as "Picaninnies" without being sacked? Again, can you imagine the outrage in the press if one of Corbyn's shadow cabinet did that? Oh and if you want to bring up the issue of having racist friends and keeping the company of people with questionable views, then does this not count?... I can't be certain that she ever actually used the word 'friends' to describe them, but inviting the Saudi royal family to Chequers for dinner and doing an arms deal with them that enables British firms to profit from the murdering of civilians in Yemen is still pretty tasteless IMO. These people are about as antisemitic as it is possible to get (Jewish people aren't even allowed into the country), so it's pretty hypocritical for the Govt to be complaining about Corbyn associating himself with unsavoury types while cosying up to one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world. But I'm sure this can all be dismissed as just whataboutery

I know this will attract more claims of whataboutery but I'm going to post it anyway because it is relevant to the current discussion about media bias... In the last few days, an aide to Theresa May has publicly outed a gay man against his will in revenge for blowing the whistle on potential breaches of campaign spending during the Brexit referendum. And instead of apologising to the victim of this outing, May has issued a statement giving the aide her full backing and confidence. Where is the media outrage about the PM endorsing homophobic bullying in her party? Can you imagine the field day they would all be having if it were Corbyn who had done this?

Oh come on. The EDL isn't even a political party. It's just an irrelevant bunch of hate filled thugs who somehow seem to get a lot more attention than they deserve. "Right wing parties" also includes the Tories. They got more of the vote in the last election, which makes them currently the biggest party in the UK, so why is racism in their ranks not more newsworthy than it is in Labour?