sadoldgit

You would think he would get some credit, but given the negativity from some quarters about the India deal I wouldn’t hold your breath. God knows where the Brexiteers thought we were going to do trade deals with after leaving the EU? The Tories had plenty of time to come up with these deals. Good to seem them finally happening.

Just returned from a session at my Thursday lunchtime watering hole. They sell freshly made pizza on Thursdays. On the menu today were VE Day specials comprising of - spam, tomatoes, onions and peas. Sadly no dried egg!

Sounds like you have been through it. Glad to hear that you are being well looked after and all the best for a full and speedy recovery.

Clearly we are not Manchester United, but we are still a draw for many managers who are on the way up. The trick is to find one that actually is, rather than thinks that he is.

Hammer on head. Sadly the same people who were responsible for giving us Brexit are probably going to be responsible for giving us Reform of the ruling party at the next election. Joined up thinking just doesn’t work for them which is why Farage gets air time. The immigration figures are coming down but you won’t hear a peep out of them about that. They will just focus on the small boats because Farage has taped into the “give them an enemy to blame the fact that they have a shit life” on. You just have to look at the way that they have swallowed Farage’s misrepresented view of the India trade view to see that they are not bothered about the truth. They just want their prejudices reinforced. It is what Trump does in the US. It is what Farage does here. And people still swallow it despite their lies being exposed daily. Thick as mince, the lot of them.

I think you meant infants rather than primary MLG?

So immigrants are going to have to demonstrate an A level understanding of the English language. That will delight a few posters on here but should we export those indigenous Brits who don’t have A level standard English as well?

How would that work in women’s football though? Some would be disadvantaged. 😉

Or you could have a line x yards from the goal line which you have to behind when the ball is played to you to prevent the game from becoming too stretched. My fear about no offside is that you will end up with 20 players spread from one end of the pitch to the other. If you reduce the area that will at least compress the area of play.

For a tall guy he is very poor in the air and his positional sense is appalling. We really should have sold him on years ago. Passion and being ok at blocking occasionally is all well and good on a Sunday morning on Hackney Marshes, but it really doesn’t cut it in professional football nowadays.

For a man who prides himself on “the art of the deal” he doesn’t seem to have the slightest idea of how business and trade actually works.

Of course you are struggling Batman. Both sides have brown skin.

The coastal Kent areas are full of London/cockney accents. The locals call them DFLs (down from London).

Surprise, surprise. The Brexit trumpeting right wing media are giving the trade deal with India a kicking, despite it being an actual “benefit” of leaving the EU!

I think people have a reasonable idea if they look at manifestos but my point is, again, many people just listen to the soundbites and if a certain message resonates with them, like stopping the boats, that is what will ring their bell (even if untrue). Look at the Brexit vote. A lot of people voted for things that were never remotely likely to happen, or chose to ignore the clear and obvious downsides. According to the feedback, many of the people who voted leave before would now vote remain. Rupert Lowe made the point that Reform has no clear policies other than on immigration. Does anyone really know what their new councillors are going to do locally I wonder? Protest votes are all well and good, but not so much if they make matters worse. This is (was) a strong Tory ward for local government. The votes went - Reform 2471 48% Independent 1047 20% Tory 859 17% Labour 459 9% LibDem 356 7% From what I hear there wasn’t a great deal of canvassing outside of Ashford. Just mainly leaflet drops. We only had leaflets from the Tories and the Independent candidate. If my neighbours voted to the Refirm candidate, the only firm commitment was about stopping the boats. Something the councillors have no control over. As you say. Democracy is a bitch.

You made this point before about why there was so much coverage about the POTUS and US politics over on this side of the pond. Given what is happening with Trump I am surprised that you are still banging this particular drum. Do you really need it to be explained to you again?

I think the point is that any manager worth his salt is going to see what his options are before making any hasty decisions. We may well already have made an offer to his agent but if his agent is not as dumb as Trump he will wait and see what his options are before he and his client make any decisions. Will he want to come if he has better options on the table?

No one is saying that they did. My point is, again, that I wonder if all of the people who voted for them knew what, exactly, they were voting for (apart from stopping the boats, which they can’t do anyway). As for the banning flags from council buildings other than the Union flag and the flag of St. George. I get that they are against diversity and want to be seen as against “woke”, but surely taking down the Ukrainian flags sends the wrong message? Unless Farage doesn’t want to upset Putin of course.

I was thinking more about the people who voted Reform that wouldn’t normally go that far. I agree that there are those who are very happy with their choices.

It starts. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-ukraine-flags-farage-b2745470.html#

Those who pretend that we are not witnessing a genocide will not have a problem with Netanyahu’s latest moves. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/may/06/israel-gaza-war-latest-live-news-benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-palestine

Sadly the people who need to watch this won’t.

For those worried about what happened at last week’s polls, this is worth reading. For those still popping champagne corks, don’t bother. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/05/reform-minorities-labour-british-public-keir-starmer

Nothing to worry about here, eh guys? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14679281/amp/Putins-spies-Parliament-Three-Bulgarians-convicted-spying-Russia-pictured-sitting-Westminster.html

I’m glad you don’t live here either, although I think they would welcome you in Dover. If the local population wanted the person they voted for to stop the boats they are going to be very disappointed. It is quite worrying that people vote for councillors yet seem to have little idea what they are actually responsible for. On the Reform flyer for the local councillor it talked about stopping the boats. The Home Office are responsible for immigration, not the local councillors.