hypochondriac

Elections are 100% a popularity contest.

Agreed. If we get promotion again then I'd bin him at that point. I certainly wouldn't be making him captain. Maybe club captain which is more of a ceremonial role.

Given that we won't be getting rid of all of our players and that IMO it's more likely that THB and Bednarek will leave, I would probably have Stephens in the squad. Wood, Edwards, Stephens and a new signing would do for our centre backs. Bree, Wellington, Manning and a new RB and that's the defence sorted. Will this Kayi Sanda bloke feature at all or is he more likely to go out on loan?

We gave them some games in the Championship is my point. As we should do here.

Not sure why. I'd have him in the fringes of the squad. We gave the likes of Edozie and Amo Ameyew a chance.

On a per capita basis? And if we pretend that what you say is true, why would you want more threat in the country to exacerbate an existing problem?

I'm prepared to see what Spors can do as long as he isn't off as soon as a bigger club shows interest. The fact that Smallbone and Stephens are getting regular game time in the premier league as an absolutely damming indictment of our transfer policy. If we see promotion next year for example and then a much more ruthless approach next summer I'd be satisfied. Could just as likely do a Luton at the moment though and go back down to league one.

Don't say anything. Prove competence with a good managerial appointment and signings.

New gk New rb Wood Edwards Charles New striker At least half the team will be unaffected by this season.

The best bit is any of them can go and I won't give a shit. Last time losing Lavia, livramento and jwp was a wrench but there's no equivalent now. Couldn't give two shits who leaves.

It's crap policies post brexit that have led to that not brexit directly.

It's a good point though. If you genuinely want something to be done about that then you're not going to be voting Labour are you. Seems a bit pointless of Labour to concentrate so much of their messaging on that. Particularly because they aren't actually going to succeed and it's going to be used as a stick to beat them with.

Labour only got into power because the Tories messed up so badly. Labour are going to have to find some way to make people like them and inspire people. That's going to be almost impossible in my opinion under Starmer. Maybe someone like Andy Burnham would have a better shot.

If they try to copy reform policies and actions it's not going to do anything because if you want those policies you're not going to go with Labour to get them. Similarly many are going to be repulsed if they go closer again to Corbyn type policies. I'm genuinely not sure what Labour can do short of war with Russia maybe or some other sort of grand unifying narrative that resonates somehow.

That's suggesting that Labour could have done nothing else and any choices they have made since last year would have resulted in the exact same outcome. That's clearly not true.

It's a cost benefit analysis. I'm not suggesting an alternative cut, but going all Keir Starmer granny harmer has made almost no money but pissed off a disproportionately large amount of people. Tactically it was clearly the wrong move.

They're not really the people Labour have to convince though are they. This is an historically significant loss for Labour of seats from 2021 where they already had a pretty bad showing. Even if you're a staunch Labour supporter it's hard to deny they've not done a good job over the last ten months considering the drop-off in support. Really failed to differentiate themselves much from the woeful policies of the Tories. They're a little bit stuck really. Push on to the right to head off reform and they will lose any last vestages of traditional lefty support and get open revolt from some who never liked Starmer but were temporarily silenced due to his success. Swing back left and become an unelectable protest party again with much of the red wall turning their backs on you. It's quite a conundrum for those at the top.

Ignoring the performance of all the other parties, a really remarkably poor set of results for Starmer. Seems he's pissed off both the red wall people and the lefties with his cuts on the poor, disabled and old and so far has failed to sell a positive vision to the electorate. Still work to do to get his messaging right and convince people to give him longer than one term.

Wouldn't be the first time on here. Original Bournemouth saint for example.

Hard to disagree with any of that no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.

I'm still not entirely convinced he's not the alter ego of another poster playing the part of a lunatic to discredit others.

Don't drag me into your spat with soggy.

I expect that in practice reform will largely be a disappointment and won't be able to do any of the things that most of the people who voted for then want. It's not like Labour or Conservative did what the electorate wanted anyway so I don't see much of a problem with giving someone else a term if that's what happens.

I would absolutely expect other countries to have similar policies of integration. Anyone moving to another country permanently should make efforts to integrate into that society which should include efforts to learn the language. I certainly would be against the Spanish tax payer spending their money on translation services on Brits who live there on a permanent basis and refuse to learn the language. Why should the Spanish tax payer fund that? I never said building of mosques should not be allowed. Go back and read it again dummy.

The main thing is to make coming here and not integrating more of a hassle to the point that it dissuades the wrong people from coming. That means massively speeding up deportations, getting rid of anyone who commits crimes, removing translation services for people who don't want to learn English, removing funding of mosques and certainly getting rid of giant ones in the middle of the countryside. Ban barbaric practices such as Halal slaughter and cousin marriage and no claiming benefits at all until you've been here for a very significant amount of time as a citizen. If you are patriotic, find worth in our culture and our values then you should be welcomed if we require the skills you have and you can contribute positively to this society and if you have a desire to integrate regardless of nationality or race. Otherwise it should be very clear that you aren't welcome here and you should be removed as quickly as possible. Small exceptions for fringe cases where people are actually persecuted but even then it should be a case by case basis and should involve no one who has entered illegally or who has a history of hating the country or it's values.