sadoldgit

The other teams aren’t doing us any favours. It is going to be a tough second half of the season if we can’t rely on the teams above us to roll over.

Just reflecting on the state of British politics in my lifetime. I was 18 in 1972 and voted Tory up until Thatcher’s 2nd term. My parents always voted Tory and as I just assumed they knew best. I was also put off Labour by those nasty union types like Arthur Scargill. In the 80’s I realised what a divisive and unpleasant person Thatcher was and that was the end of the road for me and the Tories. The Liberals seemed to have the same set of values so they had my vote up until the point that Clegg sold their soul to the Tories. Since Brexit I seemed to have become radicalised to the point where I spend far too much time with politics on a football forum. I also seem to have embraced socialism, something I would never have believed in my 20’s. The point of my ramble is this. I now live in a country where child poverty is at an all time high and is growing. I spend time in Brighton to see my kids and the numbers of homeless on the streets is shocking. When I go to the supermarket there is a big container by the door to put food in for the food banks. The local arable fields are being concreted over to make way for thousands of new homes (not affordable for those at the bottom of the ladder) whilst brownfield sites lay undeveloped. I can’t get a doctor’s appointment for 2 to 3 weeks in advance. You can’t pick up a local paper without seeing the news of another stabbing or rape. The M20 has a 20+ lorry parking section on it ready for Brexit. The local hospital is at breaking point yet they are planning to build a massive new market town a few miles from it with no provision for an extension to the hospital. Our A&E which is 5 miles away in Ashford will be moving 20 miles away to Canterbury. I have already chronicled my wife’s problems with Universal Credit. A pint of beer costs £4.00. I don’t even think about going to football anymore as I was priced out of that years ago (yet used to go to Selhurst Park with my mates as a kid on my pocket money). I can’t see how my kids are ever going to afford to get on the housing ladder. All three are already saddled with debt thanks to the student’s loans. I worked in an environment for 8 years where resources were constantly cut yet targets remained the same. All of this happened under the watch of the Tory Party. I have no problem with the creation of wealth, but surely it is common sense that we use that wealth to look after everyone in our society? The gap is widening between the have and the have nots. It will widen still further when the full effects of Brexit kick in. People who work to make a fairer society for all of us get ridiculed in the right wing press, owned by billionaires with an vested interest in keeping the status quo. Posters on here get called pejorative names if they dare support an opposing view to the enforced austerity of the last decade. Something needs to change and that change must start with a voting system that gives a proportional voice in parliament to everyone who casts a vote. The current system does not work for you unless you are the party who wins and you voted for that party. We hear a lot about the will of the people, but it is only the will of some of the people. The losers get to put and and shut up and their opinions no longer count. We need all voices to be heard, yes that of Farage as much as I dislike his politics and we need to sort out an electoral system where everyone who casts a vote feels that vote has not been wasted. No one should have to vote tactically. You should vote for who you want, not to get rid of someone you don’t want. Perhaps then we feel that we are actually all in it together.

It isn’t the sales that is the problem, it has been the replacements.

And yet you don’t complain when a poster in here calls the centre party supporter LibDums?

Sorry missed the last bit. As he said himself there is no such thing as Corbynism. That is just another slur made up by the right wing media to weaken Labour. It is socialism. And yes, I know that the country has spoken. It is what they have spoken for that worries me, just as the result of the referendum did. Living in a democracy doesn’t mean you have to be happy or stay silent about the decisions made within it. You might be old enough to remember the poll tax riots when people took to the streets to overturn an unpopular decision made by a democratically elected (Tory) government. Although the political map has turned bluer, look at the voting figures. There are still millions who do not want Johnson and the dislike for him runs a lot deeper than it has done for a great many Tory leaders.

I have voted Labour twice in my life, in the last 2 elections, so I am not what Duckie could call a “lefty.” But I did prefer the Labour manifesto, mainly to reverse the damage done by a decade of austerity and to get rid of the unfit for purpose Universal Credit system. I do believe that Corbyn is basically a decent man and genuinely cares. He also has been a very ineffective leader of the opposition.I do believe that the LibDems fought a flawed campaign and should have worked closer with Labour to make it harder for the Tories, who, in the end rode roughshod over both parties. And yes, it does worry me that the people of this country chose Johnson over Corbyn just as it worried me that the Americans went for Trump over Clinton. Maybe I am deluded, but there are plenty more like me around the country.

I never understood the hatred for Puel. Ok, it often wasn’t entertaining but this is a results driven activity not a night at the opera. I think Ralph is ok but he looks a beaten man. Our home form is atrocious and will send us down. As we know, January is not a good time to buy players, but somehow we have to find two or three gems. I’m not holding my breath. The alternative is to take a punt on youth. Trouble is, there isn’t much there at the moment. Things are not looking good.

If that is the case, why does it happen? You don’t think that there was some deal done between the Tories and the Brexit party? As for being patronising, when people in the poorest parts of the country vote for the party that has been the driver of austerity for the last decade, then yes, I think it is a case of turkeys voting for Christmas. Unless of course you think that Johnson and his party give a **** about the underprivileged. Corbyn was never going to get a landslide. Swinson was never going to get anywhere near no 10. Why not work more closely together? The best Labour was going to get was power through a hung Parliament.

It was quite pitiful reading this morning that Corbyn feels proud to have won the argument. No he didn’t. He may have had better policies and more decency in his little finger than in the whole of the Tory front bench combined, but he was solidly wiped out by a used car salesman with a dodgy second hand slogan. That is not winning the argument. The opposition had one job and that was to prevent Johnson getting a working majority and they failed miserably. It wasn’t just the Labour Party that screwed it up, the LibDems played right into Johnson’s hands too. The opposition in this election were akin to Southampton’s defence. No teamwork. No cohesive strategy. Just let the opposition, no matter how poor, score soft goals. But at the end of the day it is the people who vote who make the decision, and it is very worrying that the people of this country have chosen Johnson over Corbyn. In the same way as the Americans went for Trump‘s populist, nationalistic guff, we have chosen to go down the same route. Well, some have chosen that route for the rest of us. Who said that turkeys don’t vote for Christmas?

The sooner Johnson announces his front bench the sooner we can get back to taking the **** out of the Tories.

Never under estimate the power of nationalism.

Came on for Ramirez after 75 mins and got the winner 10 mins later.

Toe still injured

It seems that Rees-Mogg’s grossly insensitive comments about Grenfell have been forgotten already. He even managed to increase his vote.

To be absolutely fair, they weren’t All thick. Let’s face it though, when you hear some of the people collapse when they are asked what they mean about taking back control etc you have to wonder about how they arrived at their decisions. We all know about the bus and how that suckered people in. Perhaps thick is the wrong word? But the lack of desire to look beyond the crowd pleasing sound bite is very worrying. I don’t think it is stretching it to say that there are plenty of people out there who believe that Brexit will be done and dusted by the end of January.

It is a shame but image is everything now, not substance. What do you do to get elected? Do and say anything that you think the people want to hear (get Brexit done - make America great again) or stick to your principles and hope that you can win the people over with your arguments? It didn’t work for Labour and the LibDems here and it didn’t work for the Democrats in the US. It seems the best plan is to get yourself a performing monkey and give it a simple sound bite to repeat ad nauseum. I heard one political commentator say that Labour had too much on the table and that their message got diluted because there was too much to take in. It doesn’t say much for the British public if they can only manage to absorb three words in a couple of months. I know we are not allowed to call the British public thick, but when you hear some of the reasons that some of the undecided finally decided on voting Tory, it does make you wonder. One lady said she was impressed by the plan to put 20,000 police back on the streets, completely missing the point that it was the Tories that removed them in the first place and that the figure would still not reach the numbers of 2010. Whilst the Tories on here are crowing and gloating, I have friends and neighbours who work in the NHS, local schools and public services who are all absolutely gutted. How is the country supposed to reunite when you have people clearly rejoicing in the misery of others?

In this election to get 1 seat in Parliament you needed this number of votes - Green 864,743 LibDem 334,122 Labour 50,817 Plaid Cumru 38,316 Conservative 38,300 SNP 25,882 Brexit polled 642,303 votes but did not win a seat

Probably. The bladder has been playing up for a few years. Ah yes, the watered down proportional representation. I’d completely forgotten about that.

Did I miss a referendum on the electoral system?

Yes there will, but I don’t think it is about accepting reality. It is about a proportional representation in Parliament. Anyway, enjoy your pint!

Ok we get it. You are ok with millions of people’s votes meaning nothing.

It’s got nothing to do with winning or losing elections. It is to do with having a system that doesn’t disenfranchise the majority of the electorate.

You keep raising the same point but it really doesn’t make Johnson any better. Do you think he would have done so well without his “Get Brexit done” mantra?

Nope. Sorry to disappoint you.

When are you going to stop stalking me? It really isn’t something a grown man should be doing.