sadoldgit

I read a quote from a guy yesterday who said that he would rather pay £5.00 for a loaf of bread than rejoin the EU. Little wonder that we are where we are. The way things are going he might get his wish sooner than imagined.

If you haven’t been persuaded yet that Donald Trump has a 100% Narcissistic Personality Disorder then I suggest you watch the recent interview where he says that if a Republican candidate wins it is down to him and if they lost it had nothing to do with him whatsoever. He wasn’t joking. It is staggering to see that there are still relatively intelligent grown ups who still buy this shit.

We all know that politicians go out of their way not to answer questions but it was interesting to hear Matt Hancock talk about the process last night. It even has a name, the “pivot.” Perhaps now he has let the cat out of the bag, perhaps politicians can be directly called out for “pivoting” and made to answer the question put to them, not the one they chose to answer. This isn’t a game. We deserve better from our public servants.

Fair points but it isn’t easy operating on three posts a day. At least it gives Duckie some respite though 😉

The puppies quote was a glib, tongue in cheek response for which I apologise. My point is though that yes, there are things to be happy about and there is plenty to be thankful for, but that doesn’t alter the fact that things are shit at the moment. As I type there is a report that we could be facing the longest recession in history. It doesn’t depress me. What does depress me is the fact that so many people are accepting of the situation or continue to enable those who are responsible for the mess we are in. Of course the world will not change because of a few 6th form level posts on a football forum. But at the same time, why should those who support and enable those who cause this crap get a free ride? I see more and more people stick their heads up above the parapet on social media forums and hear more speak out against what is going on on radio phone ins. The tide seems to be turning and if those who take a few minutes out of their day to speak up for change help in some small measure to speed up the process then that is good enough for me. I have long since given up on the usual WUMs and trolls, but there are plenty of people who just read threads who might just consider voting differently in the next election.

Why “repurpose” farmland when you could use it for its natural purpose, providing food? There are enough brownfield sites to provide 70% of our housing needs. There are two new developments going up near us. The prices start at over £430k. How is that affordable housing? No one wants them in the village they are being built in. The local school is full. The local doctor’s surgery is swamped. The local hospital can’t cope. The local roads cannot deal with the extra traffic. What happened to the idea of levelling up? To me that doesn’t mean concreting over the SE of England. There seems to be little thought out into where these developments go. They are just hoovering up the farmland, building where they like to meet government targets and leaving details like the effects of hundreds more people suddenly appearing in villages to work themselves out later. Yes there are some positive stories around, but we cannot ignore the myriad of issues which are currently effecting us and our children. I have taken a few examples of things that no longer work, but if I had the time and space there would be a lot more. I was born 9 years after the end of WW2. As I keep boring my kids with, there was still sugar rationing here in 1954. I’ve lived through good times, average times and bad times, this is currently a bad time and it is not going to change by looking at pictures of puppies. it is easy to blame the Tories and Brexit for much of the malaise, but the problems go deeper than that. What allowed this to happen in the first place? When the effects of Covid kicked in there was a great deal of talk about changing the way we live our lives. That has been quickly kicked to the curb by events and most people are just now trying to get through the week. Nothing has changed. We still need to examine the way we live and the systems we use to live our lives. One of the reasons that government has failed the population so spectacularly is the huge majority they have. Throw in some corrupt, incompetent politicians and you have the recipe for a perfect storm. No accountability. No shame. No consideration for anybody but themselves and nothing we can do about it until the next election in 2 years time. The police chief from Herts was taking about the arrest of the LBC journalist on the radio yesterday. He actually suggested that it would be better if the media didn’t report these protests!! Where have we heard that before? We have water companies pouring thousand of gallons of untreated sewage into the rivers and seas because the fines are cheaper than spending money on upgrading their operating systems. Where ever you look things are unfit for purpose; transport, education, healthcare, governance of local authorities etc. Yes, my point is that the country has been badly run for some time and the last wheel had finally fallen off. What do we do about it? We can start by admitting it and then have those difficult conversations about how we go about deciding what the solutions are. As Orwell said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We need an electoral system that relects the amount of votes cast throughout the country. We need proper accountability so that any ruling party cannot get away with breaking rules and policing itself. We need greater devolutuon so that more decision making happens around the country and not just in London. We need a grown up conversation about the effects of Brexit and what we are going to do to deal with them but we need to start by agreeing that the country is broken and in urgent need of fixing. Yes, it is depressing, more so because it is reality and not some cooked up conspiracy theory. Anyone with children should be very concerned about the state of this country (and the world) right now. We need change, and not just a change of government.

Still plenty of brown field sites that could be developed but it is cheaper to build on green field sites. I see the Herts Police have finally offered a half hearted and begrudged sounding apology to Charlotte Lynch. He sounded very much like he had been told to make the statement. Civil Servants have now voted to strike. Happy days.

It’s one thing to come down hard on protesters, but why should that include law abiding people going about their daily business? Not only is it becoming harder to protest in this country (which is not illegal) but they seem happy to scoop bystanders up in their net too. There has been a distinct change in this country over the last few years and it seems that those in power feel it is okay to rip up the rule book and do what they want. The same has been happening in the US since Trump became President. What’s the old saying? A dead fish rots from its head downwards. Power is being abused on a daily basis and it is getting worse. More and more planning permission is being granted to build on what used to be Green Belt land. There are plans to build thousands of new homes on Folkestone race course which will also swallow up a lot of surrounding farmland, yet the local hospital and doctors surgeries are already swamped and there are no plans to expand either or to improve the infrastructure. But yeah, let’s not whinge and just let things go to the dogs eh?

Today the big talking point on LBC was the arrest of their reporter who, despite showing the police officers her press card, was arrested and detained for 7 hours for just doing her job and reporting on a climate change protest. A number of other journalists have previously been arrested under similar circumstances. Despite promising to bring integrity back to government, our latest PM has given top jobs to someone who has only just lost her position for leaking official documents and another person who is a serial bully and has already been sacked from 2 cabinet jobs. Gallons of sewage are being poured into our rivers and seas. Nurses have just voted to strike. Good luck if you want to get a doctors appointment quickly. Schools are reporting a dire shortage of teachers and teaching assistants. Waiting lists in the NHS are off the scale. WTF is happening to this country? We have had a succession of PMs and cabinets who couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery. The Met, supposedly the flagship police force in the country, is an embarrassment and other forces seem to be following suit. We seem to be moving closer and closer to becoming a police state the more they become incompetent and ineffective. The current PM doesn’t give a shit about climate change and only pitched up in Egypt because he didn’t want to be upstaged by Boris Johnson. The most depressing thing is that there seems to be absolutely no sign of things improving. If anything they look to be getting even worse.

He had one good shot but other than that looked like a poor man’s Sam Gallagher. Poor match overall but Stoke looked the better team. Luton worked hard but lacked any quality anywhere. They had a couple of chances that were finished in Che’esque style. Okay, it was only one match and perhaps it doesn’t reflect the way Luton usually play, but there was certainly no sign there of anything to get excited about from our prospective new manager. Watching him chew his fingers was not a good sign. As has been said, if he does come here his arms will be stumps by the Spring.

If he does end up coming here I hope that he has a word with the big fella upstairs about getting his son in as a keeper, if only to hear a commentator say at last, “Jesus saves” when our goal is under attack. Again, could be complete bollix but read elsewhere that Jones was a second choice behind the Argentina guy so, if true, perhaps he turned us down?

Christ, you are so obsessed by Trump that you would play him up front?

The not getting a striker in during the summer was strange. I could understand them busting a gut to get Delap in if he was the answer to our goal scoring problems but it seems they wasted their time on someone who can no longer even start for Stoke. 1 goal out of 5 against on Saturday against 4 goals out of 4 says it all. You can’t compete in this league if you can’t put the ball in the net. I don’t think we have a bad squad but as has been said over and over, we made a big mistake in not finding an adequate replacement for Ings. Che’s finishing has not improved and Adam A hasn’t been able to step up to the EPL standard. The new guy will have the same problems if we fail to invest in improving our firepower in January. Wishing Ralph all the best for the future. He isn’t a bad manager and probably should have found himself a club with the money to match his ambitions and ability.

Read elsewhere that River Plate manager Gallardo on his way here.

I was never a fan of Quality Street as a kid but as they were the only thing around on special occasions I made the best of it. The only ones I could remember properly without google (probably the last time I had any was back in the 70’s) were the green triangle, the penny shaped toffee and the finger. I’m much happier with Heroes or Celebrations but whoever thought it was a good idea to remove the Bounty should be fired! Thinking back, there often used to be a box of Black Magic around which is probably where I got my love of dark chocolate and marzipan from and I much preferred their different choices. Going off at a tangent, I really don’t like Cadbury’s Crème Eggs. They are just way too sweet and it makes my teeth go on edge just thinking about them. I don’t know if they still make them but there used to be something with a similarly super sweet filling, Fry’s Chocolate Cream, which was also on my avoid list.

I started getting into football properly in 1966 so was lucky enough to watch England win the first World Cup competition I had seen and Saints were promoted that season too. It’s been pretty much an anticlimax ever since! Losing to Germany after being 2-0 up in 1970 was an incredible downer. I remember my younger brother in tears. There have been so many more disappointments over the years, the draw with Poland when we could have scored a hatful, the dreaded Hand of God goal that never was, the penalty shoot out failures, I guess it just wears you down. Not sure what to do this time round. Like others I am not remotely excited about it but as I will be home most of the time I expect I will watch some games. It’s such a shame that it just seems to sum up the professional game nowadays, it’s just about the money and not the glory of taking part in the biggest competition on the planet any more.

Is it still “the will of the masses” though? It sounds like more and more people are realising that they have been sold a pup. If there was a referendum tomorrow how confident are you that Brexit would prevail again?

I am relatively new to LBC but like Shelagh Forgery’s show in the afternoon. O’Brien is a bit full on but given the paucity of media support for the left of centre and the amount of crap fed to us from the right wing media we do need a heavy hitter like him to try and redress the balance. It has been a joy to listen to him eviscerate some of the Gammons who phone in, but after several weeks of it I could do with a less confrontational approach now.

So you have managed to see the 7000 “migrants” shipped over from Albania for criminal activities but somehow have managed to miss the 33,000 genuine refugees who have arrived this year? For someone who says they are balanced that does seem a very selective statement.

A fortune is spent on firework displays every year celebrating his demise. You haven’t seen the Easter merch in supermarkets in the Spring?

Yvette Cooper has just skewered Leaky Sue big time in the Commons.

Or they could just disband, all join UKIP and be done with it?

Lavia played the first half for the B team today and a number of 1st team squad featured. Mara scored 4 and Walcott 3 in the 8-1 defeat of Middlesbrough B team.

Christmas - commercialised Easter - commercialised Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot - commercialised St Patrick’s Day - commercialised Remembrance Day - commercialised Every New Year - commercialised Mothers Day - commercialised Fathers Day - commercialised Isn't this what capitalism is all about? Why should Halloween be any different?

I don’t know why people get so wound up about it, it’s just a bit of fun for the kids and the not so grown ups. We went to a Halloween Quiz Night last night and had a great evening. The local also put on a Halloween party and it was packed out. You don’t have to join in if you aren’t bothered by it. It’s also the only time of year nowadays that Mrs SOG will wear fishnets! 🎃👻😈