Sheaf Saint

It's not quite as bad as some people are making out, but his actions were totally disproportionate to the level of 'threat'. He slammed her against a pillar and grabbed her by the neck. If he had used a recognised technique for restraining someone that he had been trained to use correctly, there would be no issue here, but the worrying thing is that he looked completely comfortable using that level of disproportionate force against an un-armed woman. Makes me wonder if he has previous form in that respect. If he does get sacked as a result, he should apply to join a US police force. He would fit right in.

I think the point being that if we had a better opposition, they would have buried the Tories long ago and not gifted them the power to put us in the position in which we now find ourselves.

You mean like opening his mouth and speaking to the public? Not that it will matter anyway. There are enough people in the Tory membership who are determined to vote for him no matter how blatantly unfit he is for office, because they think he is the one most likely to deliver their magical Brexit unicorns. And people call Corbyn's supporters 'cultists'! Imagine that. Imagine being so f*cking stupid as to believe that Boris Johnson is the most trustworthy man in the Tory party to deliver on his undeliverable promises.

On you're first point, I'm not trying to suggest that keepers are being trained to cheat. I'm just pointing out that when a keeper dives to make a save during open play, their instinct is to step forward slightly rather than diving exactly 90 degrees from their starting position. So to stop themselves from doing so at a penalty is not as simple as people might think. As for the suggestion that the penalty taker may have been put off by the step off the line, I have to disagree in last night's case. From the POV of the taker there's no way she can tell if the keeper is actually on her line or not. She had already decided which way to go and had begun her backswing, and in the split second between the keeper moving and her boot connecting with the ball, there is pretty much zero chance that had any influence on whether she hit the target or not. All in my opinion of course.

And while we're on the subject of the Electoral Commission... https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farages-brexit-party-told-16536061

In connection to alleged corruption relating to the Qatar 2022 WC bid. Who'd have thought it, eh? It all seemed so legitimate! https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/former-uefa-president-michel-platini-arrested-over-2022-qatar-world-cup-investigation_uk_5d089510e4b09532783978b0?ncid=tweetlnkukhpmg00000001

I'll say it again. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

I think the original VAR decision to give the penalty was spot on (no pun intended!) and when used like that I think it will be overall beneficial in the PL next season. It was a clear foul and the ref didn't have a good enough view of it to give it, so VAR got it right. As for the retake though, I worried about this when it was announced that this was part of the rule changes for this season. It's actually very difficult for a keeper to resist the instinct to step forward and narrow the angle, because that's what they are coached to do in normal play. In the scenario last night, the Nigerian keeper gained no advantage from stepping off her line. The kicker missed the target and the keeper being a few inches off her line at the moment her boot connected with the ball had no influence on that whatsoever. To then get a yellow card for it due to VAR is ridiculous IMO. If this is going to happen every time there is a pen in the PL next season then it will ruin a lot of games. If a keeper saves a penalty and VAR shows that they stepped off their line then fair enough, order the pen to be retaken and leave it at that. To start dishing out yellow cards for it is senseless.

You're wrong... https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/01/electoral-commission-new-vote-leave-investigation-not-in-public-interest How could they possibly know there was nothing illegal about it if they didn't even investigate it FFS?

The Electoral Commission also refused to even investigate the massive and very suspicious donation to the DUP on the basis that Vote Leave had already been fined multiple times for other breaches, and it "wasn't in the public interest". Which kind of negates this assertion doesn't it. And anyway, all your statement (and Ducky's) does is reinforce the notion that the result was unsafe. Multiple breaches on both sides in a non-legally binding referendum, with the organisation responsible for oversight refusing to investigate further accusations for political reasons, is not a solid base from which to claim a democratic mandate for such a massive constitutional change.

OK, poor choice of words. How about "When the official leave campaign was fined multiple times for breaking electoral law"? Does that work better for you?

Brexiteers when the Leave campaign was convicted of widescale electoral fraud in the Brexit referendum: "Ha! Suck it up Remoaners. We won, you lost - get over it. The people have spoken". Brexiteers when Farage fails to beat Labour in a by-election in one of the strongest leave constituencies in the UK: "Waaaaa! It's not fair! They must have cheated!" The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Maybe we shouldn't have given our nuclear secrets to Pakistan then?

Have we done the sweepstake for the date of Alpine Saint's annual summer meltdown over the lack of transfer activity yet?

It's not his positioning that's really the issue. It's his glaring lack of pace and unwillingness/inability to put in a tackle that makes him easy for oppo wingers to get past.

I'm not going to disagree with that, but as a LB whose primary duty is to defend, the ability to occasionally ping in a decent cross is no good if he is constantly letting opposition wingers get the better of him and produce some of their own. The amount of times Targett failed to stop crosses coming in from his side during his run in the team last season was horrifying.

Here we go again. There are plenty of reasons to criticise Corbyn, but not wanting a repeat of Iraq by blindly following the US into another oil war on the flimsiest of evidence is not one of them. The owner of the Japanese tanker that was attacked has outright contradicted the Americans' conclusions. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1017556?__twitter_impression=true

Though I am loathe to in any way defend the man, the two scenarios are somewhat different. The Tories are at least holding a proper contest and giving their members the chance to choose their new leader, which Labour didn't bother with in 2007.

An interesting if unsurprising insight into the world of Johnson... https://twitter.com/jonlis1/status/1139067505094402049

It's not just the height though is it. There is quite obviously a big difference in stature between the two of them. Shaw was/is clearly much more muscular and powerful than Targett, who is very lightweight and lets wingers get past him far too easily to be an established LB in the PL. As long as Bertrand is happy to stay as our first choice, with McQueen and Vokins as backup, I would be more than happy for us to cash in on him.

https://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1139140270614822912

Indeed. We had a largely depleted squad for both of those games, and Elyounoussi was on the pitch. Will be a different story with a few new signings and a fully fit squad after a RH pre-season.

That's a little pessimistic. We've got Bournemouth and Leicester before then, and I'd like to think we can be confident of beating at least one of them. And Chelsea without Hazard could be beatable too.

Really? well I got told by my mate's sister's friend's hairdresser's mate that our first game is at home to Accrington Stanley, so I reckon you're both talking b*ll*cks.

Be careful what you wish for. You'll get no argument from me about how dreadful May has been. But of the current candidates to replace her, it's entirely possible we will be lumbered with someone far worse.