sadoldgit

Senior managers often know little about what goes on at ground level and take advice from those who do. He would have to sign off on the appointment and probably did so on advisement. It is good that he is prepared to share some of the responsibility rather than throw others under the bus.

If you know then why not just tell us what it actually is rather than play the same games you did last year telling us what is isn’t?

Is this one of your 9 pinters Duckie? As an aside, did you know that women weren’t allowed to perform on stage in Shakespearean times so men had to play the female roles? I guess that would have rattled your cage too.

I have been wondering about his team selections. If he did something radical in the last couple of matches and won the games he would make himself look foolish for not doing it so much earlier. By sticking to the (un)safety first, trying not to lose formula at least he knows what he will get and can let the players take some responsibility for not getting results. 🤔

You clearly have trouble reading English Duckie. Would you even pass Tebbit’s test for citizenship? Re your earlier post, perhaps try reading this… https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/black-out-night-theatre-stratford-east-b2346524.html

This is what you, people like you and the people you vote for and enable do constantly Duckie. You twist things and lie in support if your agenda. It’s a big rich for someone who supports Farage and UKIP to try and take any moral high ground. Still, given the fact that you still get on hard on for Thatcher there is little hope for you. Off to the Farage Arms ale house to see if you can pull a 9 pinter this afternoon? Say hi to Laurence Fox for me.

I wouldn't have a problem attending a Bar Mitzvah but find it amusing that someone who would be right at home at a Nuremberg Rally misses the irony of accusing another at being an anti-Semite.

We are told that the figure is too high by both the PM and the leader of the opposition so who am I to disagree? We are also told that these figures have been inflated by people coming from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Afghanistan. Understandable and obviously this has inflated the figures above what we would normally expect. The figures were much lower when we had freedom of movement within the EU and strangely, also we didn’t have such a problem filling certain vacancies. 🤔 In an ideal world I would prefer it if we could all live and work where we pleased. Sadly it is far from an ideal world and it is clear that each country has to have an immigration policy. Do you understand what ours is and how we went from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands? Can you explain why only 1% of asylum seekers claims have been processed in the last year? Can you explain why immigration has become so much higher now we have control over legal immigrates than it was when we had open borders with members of the EU? How do you explain the relaxed attitude to the Tory government’s attitude to legal immigration numbers when the far right/alt right Farageites claimed that immigrants were taking our jobs, sponging off the state, making a drain on our housing, driving down wages, overloading the NHS and other services etc? Would agree that before you arrive at a figure (like tens of thousands, where did that figure come from?) we should employ some joined up thinking and work out what we need, where we need them along with all of the other relevant variables so that we can arrive at a policy fit for purpose. Immigration and immigrants have been demonised for political purposes as you will know as a supporter of Farage and UKIP. The right wing media had decided not to be outraged by the constant failing of the Tory Government to keep to their supposed targets so watch them turn on other minority groups (benefit seekers, trans people) as the next election comes closer. The right need an enemy and seem to be cooling on immigrants now it is becoming more and more evident that we need them.

I think in the case of foreign students bringing in family members it is mainly spouses and children ( I may be wrong but I think it only applies to Masters students)? The problem here is that these students could now well look at going to America, Canada, Australia etc. instead of coming here. Countries need migration, always have done, always will. The truth is that it is a political hot potato and is constantly being weaponised (most effectively during the EU referendum). Instead of having a grown up conversation about how to manage it, it is used as a stick to stir up the electorate. The lady LibDem on the panel of QT was right last night when she said that there is no right or wrong figure, it needs to be managed according to the needs of the country. We have had Cameron and May talking about tens of thousands which has been dumped now in favour of the current figure is too high (this party has been in power for 13 years but apparently they still feel it is okay to call out Labour). The good news is that it isn’t such a big deal anymore as The Daily Mail feels that the bigger story yesterday was a few Eco Warriors causing a bit of a fuss at the Chelsea Flower Show. The PM gets that the figure is too high (no shit Sherlock) whilst the person in charge of immigration is no where to be seen. Whelk made the point about good migrants and bad migrants, sadly this Government drum up the belief that all migrants are going to peddle drugs, rape you and burgle your home whilst being responsible for record figures and failing to deal with those awaiting asylum decisions in a timely fashion when they could be allowed to work, add to the economy and be less of a burden to the tax payers. Of course it suits their narrative for migrants to be a “problem” as it becomes a means to distract the electorate to their failings in other areas. Trouble is even the most hard of thinking are beginning to see through the BS despite the ridiculous Mail, Express and Telegraph editorials and Braverman and the NatC member sound bites. There are particular reasons why last year’s figure is so high and it is not unreasonable to point out that it will fall. What is unreasonable is to trot out the nonsense that it will be “tens of thousands” or that our problems are down to migrants and once we “control” migration our problems will be over. It was always a massive ruse drummed up by Farage and fellow nationalists to forward their own Little England agenda - and it worked.

I can grasp the nuances and have seen what he has to say about immigration. Wasn’t his figure 50,000? Does it really matter where they come from or what colour their skin is? 606,000 is 606,000. You are fine with that? Given that your crowd constantly blame the problems on the infrastructure, the NHS, getting a doctors appointment, getting a job etc on the high number of immigrants, surely you may be unhappy with the way the figure is going up? Yes I am. But I didn’t vote for it or continue to argue that it was the right thing to do and I don’t have a problem with immigration. As I said earlier, an immigrant is an immigrant. It people are putting such a strain on our resources what difference does it make where they come from?

Wasn’t reducing immigration a big selling point of the Brexiteers? As a supporter of Farage you will remember his rhetoric. Strange that you don’t find it a big issue now that the likes of Priti Patel and Suella Braverman are f**king it up. Batman has gone to ground as well as Braverman. Must be tough for you guys to see your brave new world turn to shit. More and more people who voted to leave are realising it was a huge mistake. Good to see that you are prepared to go down with the ship though. 🫡

Net migration figures for 2022 are 606,000 with immigration figures over 1 million. Are we going to see a backlash from the Gammons about this figure or are they happy that taking control of our borders has resulted in letting more Johnny Foreigners in than before?

👍 I was waiting to see how it played out. More below. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/23/civil-servants-have-to-fact-check-suella-bravermans-claims-to-cabinet

So then, Suella Braverman. Darling of the far right and would be next leader of the Tory Party in waiting. Apparently she doesn’t care for migrants because they don’t share the same values as us. This is the same Suella Braverman who asked if she could put a parking ticket on her expenses. The same Suella Braverman who tried to find ways of dealing with a speeding ticket so that no one would find out about it. The same Suella Braverman who failed to declare that she previously had dealings with the same people in Rwanda that set up the deportation arrangements with us. The list of government ministers found to have broken the rules is getting longer and longer. So then Suella, the question is what is the difference between migrants not sharing our values and the likes of yourself, Patel, Johnson, Sunak, Hancock, Raab etc. also not sharing British values of fair play and following the rules? Perhaps we should deport rule breaking cabinet ministers to Rwanda as well?

Sadly only one more episode to go but what a show this has been. A brutal take down if the Murdochs and others of their ilk, last night’s episode was particularly insightful into the way that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A regular poster on here once famously told us that socialism was “dangerous”. If you need any more proof of the dangers of capitalism then you need to binge watch this show. The acting, script writing, pacing and shooting are all first class. The subject matter is particularly pertinent at the moment with political shifts to the right aided by a media that is only too happy to propagate lies and misinformation to a gullible public. If you haven’t caught it yet, do. Probably the closest thing we have to a modern day Shakespearean epic with tragedy and dark comedy rolled into one. Logan Roy’s eulogy by his brother last night needs to be read out at Murdoch’s funeral when he dies. Priceless.

Therein lies the problem. With social media nowadays assumptions and conjecture get widely disseminated very quickly and before you know it, become “facts”. Misinformation spreads like wildfire thanks to the ease of communication and the huge public desire for information. You can’t blame any club for trying to keep their cards close to their chests and trying to control the narrative, but at the same time the huge interest to find out what is going on creates a vacuum that needs to be filled. As we know, much of what it is filled with invariably comes from someone’s vivid imagination. I don’t envy SR, or anyone else running a football club for that matter. They came in with great expectations after the doldrums of the Gao reign and not only have they failed to take us forwards, they have actually taken us backwards (the old adage be careful what you wish for springs to mind). I do not doubt that decisions have been made with the best of intentions and for reasons that have well thought through from their end. Isn’t that all we can ask of a management team, that they do their best to make the right decisions at the right time? I am sure that they didn’t deliberately get the recruitment wrong and would imagine they they are just as frustrated as we are over the poor performances and, ultimately, relegation. It is bad enough for us. If you are part of the team that made various wrong calls, I imagine it feels worse as the buck stops with you. That doesn’t make them immune to criticism, but at the same time, if you are not sitting in board room meetings you really do not know why various decisions were made and what other variables were at play. As has been said, we often hear, years later, of certain managers and players who were being considered at the time but didn’t happen for one reason or another. SR aren’t going anywhere anytime soon so we have to hope that they have learned lessons from this dreadful season and put measures into place to improve and take the club forward again next season. Every season three clubs find themselves in exactly the same position that we are in and there is no immunity for clubs like us. Yes, it sucks, but I believe that the owners, Ralph, Jones and Selles will all be feeling choked about this season too and whatever their shortcomings, no one deliberately set out to get us relegated.

Apparently Johnson has banged up Carrie for a third time. At a time when there are concerns about the level of migration to this country, perhaps we should consider forcing this one man population explosion to have a vasectomy ✂️🍒

I heard an interview with him recently when he was asked about how he felt about losing in three different ways by the interviewer and on each occasion he managed to answer the same way while managing, parrot fashion, to shoehorn in working day and night to deliver for the country along with his 5 pledges. Reminds me of the meaningless “strong and stable government” mantra under May. The Tories have completely run out of ideas and gas. Sunak is so far removed from knowing what “normal people” want and need it is embarrassing but they can’t get rid of him before the next election so the lame duck party is stuck with an AI programmed parrot and now, hopefully, their goose is finally cooked.

Another day, another vile report that demonstrates the complete lack of humanity displayed by our current Home Secretary and would be next leader of the Tory Party. And some would have us believe that this is a bunch of “pinkos”. Another step towards the move to becoming a NatC party. I can imagine her physically signing every letter herself with one hand whilst smirking and stroking a fluffy white cat with the other. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/16/afghan-families-yorkshire-eviction-letters-from-suella-braverman

When Nigel Farage says this it is pretty clear that the rats are heading for the lifeboats. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/brexit-has-failed-nigel-farage-b1081352.html

Whilst the right wing media ignored The Haunted Pencil’s admission of Gerrymandering because they were too busy slagging off Starmer for future Gerrymandering by looking at lowering the voting age and giving the vote to settled foreign nationals. Meanwhile we have a small bunch of right wing nut jobs (NatCons) looking to undermine Sunak and the odious Suella Braverman making her pitch for the leadership of the Tory Party. Fair play to Starmer (so far) for rapidly dealing with any sniff of Momentum disruption within his party. Sunak on the other hand does nothing whilst the nasty faction of his party get the same news coverage as Sunak does with Zelensky. If he had any balls he would sack Braverman but he won’t so she will continue to embarrass him and continue to lose more floating votes. Starmer knows what Blair knew. For Labour to win elections now days they have to appeal to the centrists. What Sunak needs to understand is that is where the votes are and the more media attention the far right of his party get, the more he is on course to get destroyed in next year’s election.

It seems that I made a cock of myself by arguing that my vote in a true Blue constituency is wasted in the first past the post system (if I vote for any party apart from Tory) whereas it will not be wasted in a PR system as it will be included in the way that the seats are proportionality allocated according to votes polled. If I remember correctly I think the usual suspects argued that the vote could still be wasted if the party I vote for don’t poll enough to win a seat. Nonsense of course because the vote has been positive and in play during the whole electoral process. I have lived in dyed in the wool Tory constituencies all my voting life and it is a cast iron certainty that the Tory MP will win no matter which box I tick. That is a wasted vote. If I cast a vote for a smaller party and they don’t poll enough to win one seat, to me that is not a wasted vote as it has been included in the electoral process right up to the final distribution of the seats in the House. The fact that I don’t consider that as a wasted vote is apparently, making a cock of myself. https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/

You make a right cock of yourself every time you post. Perhaps you should take your own advice? Starmer has said this morning that it is not a priority for Labour (whilst looking at voting rights for EU citizens and lowering the voting age in England???) so it will down to the LinDems to get it on the table if there is a hung Parliament.

Ideally they will both ignore this thread (you don’t need a button Duckie, you just make a choice not to click on it) and leave it to the grown ups. Whilst PR is not the most pressing item on most people’s agenda at the moment, it does needs to be addressed if we are ever going to have something approaching a proper democracy in this country. It makes no sense when one party can poll significantly fewer votes per seat than another and it is high time that each party is given a number of seats in the House commensurate with their share of the poll. It could well lead to more coalition Governments in future but to my mind that is no bad thing if it prevents the abuse of power that we have seen from various Tory administrations in the last few years. I stopped voting for the LibDems when Nick Clegg foolishly gave power to Cameron and have seen very little from them since to entice me to vote for them again. They are not going to win a majority next year, but they could well hold the balance of power and Ed Davey has a golden opportunity to put right what Clegg cocked up. Given what happened in many of the local election results there is every chance that there will be more tactical voting next year. It is possible that Labour will get a working majority, but Starmer would be wise to keep the other opposition parties onside just to make extra sure that we get the change of government this country needs. We shouldn’t have to vote for a different candidate/party in order to get a desired outcome, but until the voting system in this country is overhauled so that the seats in Parliament actually represents the number of votes cast, we need to vote tactically (unless you want more of the same of course).

If you read my post my Eurovision tip came second 👍