Norfolk SW is currently the 11th safest Tory seat so a good chance if she wins and with 'leader bonus' of it being one of the very safest seats in the country
Though Richmond isn't very far behind it in that respect. Truss and Sunak are both likely survivors of a Tory car crash; exactly how many colleagues they'll have left is another matter.
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
Sources supporting Sunak said that while party members would be able to vote from 1 August, they would be urged not to write him off until later in the contest.
“We all think she [Truss] is going to be so bad at the hustings that members will change their minds,” one said. Another predicted: “He will shine at the hustings, whereas Truss is mental and will be found out.”
If there's any good evidence that Truss is a nutter then right now would be a good time to share it.
I think she is a bit mad, and that's why I'll not vote for her. However what she's saying about economic policy is quite right, although I don't think she's done her homework.
Sunak is very dull and also somehow delivers dullness in a bad way. A 6% rise in corporate taxation is just nuts. It really isn't hard to ring-fence the cvoid spend. Fewer rules would be a good thing. How hard can it be?
Truss seems to be quite awful in her current role too. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this we need a person that will be taken seriously world-wide, and that's going to be a man, or a far better woman.
I still can't shake Queenie from my mind every time I think of Truss.
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
Sources supporting Sunak said that while party members would be able to vote from 1 August, they would be urged not to write him off until later in the contest.
“We all think she [Truss] is going to be so bad at the hustings that members will change their minds,” one said. Another predicted: “He will shine at the hustings, whereas Truss is mental and will be found out.”
If there's any good evidence that Truss is a nutter then right now would be a good time to share it.
I think she is a bit mad, and that's why I'll not vote for her. However what she's saying about economic policy is quite right, although I don't think she's done her homework.
Sunak is very dull and also somehow delivers dullness in a bad way. A 6% rise in corporate taxation is just nuts. It really isn't hard to ring-fence the cvoid spend. Fewer rules would be a good thing. How hard can it be?
Truss seems to be quite awful in her current role too. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this we need a person that will be taken seriously world-wide, and that's going to be a man, or a far better woman.
The rise in company tax is only for companies reporting more than £50 000 in profit, and only the full 25% at £250 000 profit, accompanied with very generous allowances for capital investment and a taper inbetween.
Clever companies will understand the incentive to invest in capital equipment, training and recruitment. SME companies will largely be unaffected. Indeed it is quite carefully structured to address Britain's longstanding problem of poor productivity growth.
I wonder if Keir Starmer will borrow it if Liz chucks the policy as leader.
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
Sources supporting Sunak said that while party members would be able to vote from 1 August, they would be urged not to write him off until later in the contest.
“We all think she [Truss] is going to be so bad at the hustings that members will change their minds,” one said. Another predicted: “He will shine at the hustings, whereas Truss is mental and will be found out.”
If there's any good evidence that Truss is a nutter then right now would be a good time to share it.
I think she is a bit mad, and that's why I'll not vote for her. However what she's saying about economic policy is quite right, although I don't think she's done her homework.
Sunak is very dull and also somehow delivers dullness in a bad way. A 6% rise in corporate taxation is just nuts. It really isn't hard to ring-fence the cvoid spend. Fewer rules would be a good thing. How hard can it be?
Truss seems to be quite awful in her current role too. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this we need a person that will be taken seriously world-wide, and that's going to be a man, or a far better woman.
I still can't shake Queenie from my mind every time I think of Truss.
To my ear though Truss's delivery has a lot in common with Miranda Richardson's mad Queen Bess.
Some of the stories about Truss's insistence on receiving what she considers the right level of deference (e.g. official flights) are very Queenie-like.
As well as using his final Commons appearances as prime minister to stress what he called “very remarkable” achievements in office, Johnson’s final pre-recess task was to publish a 2,500-word written statement to parliament, defending his premiership in painstaking detail….
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Excellent analysis. This can’t be easy for you HYUFD are you okay matey
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
It is possible but unlikely, pace Finland, that there is much new mud to be thrown after the MPs' round. There will be a televised head-to-head debate on Monday, and that might crown or dethrone one or other.
What is this 'Finland' please?
It is said there is an explosive scandal that will undermine the British government and civilisation as we know it, protected by superinjunctions, and known only to those who read Finnish social media.
Is it something that could finnish the government?
Nice.
Although I think this government is already effectively finished tbh.
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
It is possible but unlikely, pace Finland, that there is much new mud to be thrown after the MPs' round. There will be a televised head-to-head debate on Monday, and that might crown or dethrone one or other.
What is this 'Finland' please?
It is said there is an explosive scandal that will undermine the British government and civilisation as we know it, protected by superinjunctions, and known only to those who read Finnish social media.
Is it something that could finnish the government?
The heat on them will be like a sauna.
It could be because traditional Conservative values have been Tampered with.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
On the last thread @Driver gave me this explanation for why only 35% now believe Brexit was the right choice:-
"A combination of the scapegoat effect, May fucking up the negotiations, a lack of realism that Brexit wasn't a magic wand, and the opinion poll question being completely irrelevant"
In response:-
1. The "scapegoat effect" is only valid if Brexit is being blamed for something it is unconnected to. Most of the problems people are angry about have affected by Brexit.
2. May's negations are irrelevant. The decline in support has only really come since Johnson "got Brexit done". They were still enthusiastic for the Project at the 2019 GE
3. I can agree with the "lack of realism" point, although I would describe it more as voters waking up to the fact they were conned
4. How is asking voters whether they believe such a major decision was right or wrong irrelevant? I guess you probably don't want the decision scrutinised but, believe me, it's going to née for many years to come.don't wa
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
I thought there was an argument many people's politics moved rightward with age - were that not the case, the Conservatives would never win. Can we not argue Liz Truss now bitterly regrets the left-wing extravagances of her youth and has come to the light?
I struggle to conceptualise Rishi Sunak having any left-wing extravagances if I'm being honest though there are some who might argue he's gone the other way with his tax rises.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
It is possible but unlikely, pace Finland, that there is much new mud to be thrown after the MPs' round. There will be a televised head-to-head debate on Monday, and that might crown or dethrone one or other.
What is this 'Finland' please?
It is said there is an explosive scandal that will undermine the British government and civilisation as we know it, protected by superinjunctions, and known only to those who read Finnish social media.
Is it something that could finnish the government?
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Many people move to the right as they get older. Not many move as far or as fast as Truss.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
WSL pays on averge £30k a year.... women's tennis you are really good, you will be a multi-millionaire.
The lovely Emma will have earned more cash on the back of the US Open win than England Lionesses ever have (probably all put togethr).
Anyway, enough about the Rishi and Liz Show, I'm struggling with data and this site seems full of data analysts, analytics specialists, number crunchers etc.
I see there are 29.6 million payrolled workers currently and we are apparently to celebrate that - yet we also see labour shortages hither and yon. Am I also right in thinking the number of self-employed has fallen back due to the pandemic and other changes in legislation (IR 35)?
MY "crunching" of the numbers suggests the numbers under 25 in work continue to struggle while those aged 50-64 in work have increased (is this connected to rises in pension age meaning you have to work longer before you get your State pension?)
Are there consequential figures for economic inactivity? I seem to recall that was quite a barometer for a while and do the numbers in work in and of themselves not tell the whole story in terms of full and part time work and actual productivity?
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
WSL pays on averge £30k a year.... women's tennis you are really good, you will be a multi-millionaire. The lovely Emma will have earned more cash on the back of the US Open win than England Lionesses ever have (probably all put togethr).
I fear I am actually laughing at this sport on my TV. Lamentable
Wasn't it said that Serena Williams, in her prime, would lose to most of the top 1000 pro male players?
I feel that this Belgian women's football team would lose to the top 10,000 male football teams
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Many people move to the right as they get older. Not many move as far or as fast as Truss.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
First Liberal to be Foreign Secretary since Selwyn-Lloyd and the night of the long knives.
Although Ian Gilmour was Foreign Affairs spokesman in the Commons from 1979-81 as Lord Privy Seal while the actual Foreign Secretary was in the Lords.
John Nott was elected as a National Liberal to the St Ives constituency in 1966 and only became a Conservative when the National Liberals were absorbed into the Conservatives in 1968.
I don't think that's relevant but I thought it was worth sharing as a diversion from a debate about football.
Additional pointless fact, Nott, Major and Rifkind are the only three surviving members of Thatcher's last Cabinet who don't sit in either House (apparently).
Anyway, enough about the Rishi and Liz Show, I'm struggling with data and this site seems full of data analysts, analytics specialists, number crunchers etc.
I see there are 29.6 million payrolled workers currently and we are apparently to celebrate that - yet we also see labour shortages hither and yon. Am I also right in thinking the number of self-employed has fallen back due to the pandemic and other changes in legislation (IR 35)?
MY "crunching" of the numbers suggests the numbers under 25 in work continue to struggle while those aged 50-64 in work have increased (is this connected to rises in pension age meaning you have to work longer before you get your State pension?)
Are there consequential figures for economic inactivity? I seem to recall that was quite a barometer for a while and do the numbers in work in and of themselves not tell the whole story in terms of full and part time work and actual productivity?
I imagine there is a big "up" in payrolled 50+ not taking early retirement yet and a big "down" in young lowskill workers manning and womanning bars, tills and steering wheels.
Let me be more explicit, in my experience WFH has replaced early retirement for some.
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
It is possible but unlikely, pace Finland, that there is much new mud to be thrown after the MPs' round. There will be a televised head-to-head debate on Monday, and that might crown or dethrone one or other.
What is this 'Finland' please?
It is said there is an explosive scandal that will undermine the British government and civilisation as we know it, protected by superinjunctions, and known only to those who read Finnish social media.
Is it something that could finnish the government?
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss and dodgy Finnish puns, fair enough.
First Liberal to be Foreign Secretary since Selwyn-Lloyd and the night of the long knives.
Although Ian Gilmour was Foreign Affairs spokesman in the Commons from 1979-81 as Lord Privy Seal while the actual Foreign Secretary was in the Lords.
John Nott was elected as a National Liberal to the St Ives constituency in 1966 and only became a Conservative when the National Liberals were absorbed into the Conservatives in 1968.
I don't think that's relevant but I thought it was worth sharing as a diversion from a debate about football.
Additional pointless fact, Nott, Major and Rifkind are the only three surviving members of Thatcher's last Cabinet who don't sit in either House (apparently).
Wasn't Heseltine also first elected as a National Liberal in 1966? I know he stood as one in Gower in 1959.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
WSL pays on averge £30k a year.... women's tennis you are really good, you will be a multi-millionaire. The lovely Emma will have earned more cash on the back of the US Open win than England Lionesses ever have (probably all put togethr).
I fear I am actually laughing at this sport on my TV. Lamentable
Wasn't it said that Serena Williams, in her prime, would lose to most of the top 1000 pro male players?
I feel that this Belgian women's football team would lose to the top 10,000 male football teams
Pure literary theory from a metro elite who prefers the finer things in life to the fandom of athletic activity. Probability of winning does not predict quality of play, otherwise we wouldn't need things like the backpass rule.
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
Is women’s athletics rubbish too, because the fastest woman at 100m would lose by a large distance against the fastest 1000 men in the world?
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
I think if anyone is a believer that the Tories are screwed whoever they elect at the next election then it has to come down to what is best for the country.
I think, and might be wrong, that two years of Sunak will leave the country in a not great place but with a platform that can be built on by a moderate Labour government.
I feel that if Truss enacts her ideas then the next govt is hamstrung by having to unpick the lunacy of short termism.
And if the Tories win with Sunak they still have a “not great” situation to rebuild from.
I find Truss a bit of a Daenerys Targaryen “let it burn” type and Sunak a Varys type.
By the way, I enjoy your new positioning. I get you were loyal and wanted to support Boris as leader but since the war is over you have been much more interesting (and as usual full of insight on what certain parts of the actual active party think) and actually amusing - still chuckling about you referring to Casino Royal as “meat cutlets” - no offence to CR but it made me laugh.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It says a lot about Truss that she has moved from a leftwing family, to LD, then A list Cameroon moderniser and Remainer resented by her more traditional local association to now hardline Brexiteer and diehard Thatcherite and the candidate of choice of Bill Cash, Rees Mogg, Mark Francois and Nadine Dorries.
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Many people move to the right as they get older. Not many move as far or as fast as Truss.
I know you are extremely loyal to whoever is leader of the Conservative Party, @HYUFD. I hope, for the sake of your conscience and mental health, that you aren’t put in the position of having to be loyal to Truss.
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
I thought for a moment you were talking about these Extinction Rebellion nutters.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
Is women’s athletics rubbish too, because the fastest woman at 100m would lose by a large distance against the fastest 1000 men in the world?
No, not for me. So that's a good point
I find women's athletics less appealing than men's athletics, because it is slower and weaker, but the gulf feels less than this gulf in football
Conversely, I would much rather watch women's gymnastics, the required suppleness and gracefulness seems to suit women more than men, and I would say women can often do more absolutely amazing things in the sport
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
Is women’s athletics rubbish too, because the fastest woman at 100m would lose by a large distance against the fastest 1000 men in the world?
Athletics is an example of where women's sport really shows how exceptional they are. Mere mortals of men could train morning, noon and night and you are will still get rinsed by the those women.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Let’s face it. There are no Brexit benefits. It’s just a total crock of shite.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Let’s face it. There are no Brexit benefits. It’s just a total crock of shite.
Virtually all political power has returned to our ancient democracy in Westminster, meaning we really can elect and eject those who govern us
THAT is the Brexit benefit. And it is the only one required
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Newhaven, Harwich, Hull and Newcastle would like to remind drivers and passengers that alternative routes are available.
I imagine there is a big "up" in payrolled 50+ not taking early retirement yet and a big "down" in young lowskill workers manning and womanning bars, tills and steering wheels.
Let me be more explicit, in my experience WFH has replaced early retirement for some.
Okay - let me think this through a little.
Do we know if, for example, we are seeing more older people working part time? I have a colleague in her mid 60s who only works two days per week to supplement/augment her pension.If she left, would we employ a younger person on a lower salary? Probably.
Are you suggesting some older people who might have decided to give up the commute earlier have been persuaded by its absence to carry on working longer? It's an interesting theory - I'd love to see some more empitical data on this - clearly, if you WFH and aren't spending 10 hours or more a week commuting with all the concomitant stress, it may well seem working isn't that bad.
So you have older people working on earning which helps their firms by retaining the knowledge and networks they have built up but are we also seeking people deciding to work on to build up a cash reserve to protect against winter fuel bills or other inflationary costs etc?
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
I take it you will be not missing a women's Hundred game on the BBC next month then ;-)
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
I know that energy prices have skyrocketed, but even so I find that ridiculous number very hard to credit.
The general point holds, however. A large slice of the population, encompassing the already hard-up and millions who were just about managing, are going to find it impossible to afford both sufficient food and sufficient fuel come the Winter.
What next? Bloody revolution - possibly not, but a mass movement refusing to pay gas and electricity bills has been suggested. Suppliers will struggle to disconnect a quarter of the population all at once.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
I take it you will be not missing a women's Hundred game on the BBC next month then ;-)
You would be correct - if I was going to watch cricket that wasn’t the highest level it would be a social thing watching a local match for fun. Otherwise I want to see the fastest bowling, the quickest spinning, the biggest hits if I’m watching on tv and it’s not the womens hundred.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
He wants to get rid of those kid things, i hear they are very costly...
First Liberal to be Foreign Secretary since Selwyn-Lloyd and the night of the long knives.
Although Ian Gilmour was Foreign Affairs spokesman in the Commons from 1979-81 as Lord Privy Seal while the actual Foreign Secretary was in the Lords.
John Nott was elected as a National Liberal to the St Ives constituency in 1966 and only became a Conservative when the National Liberals were absorbed into the Conservatives in 1968.
I don't think that's relevant but I thought it was worth sharing as a diversion from a debate about football.
Additional pointless fact, Nott, Major and Rifkind are the only three surviving members of Thatcher's last Cabinet who don't sit in either House (apparently).
Wasn't Heseltine also first elected as a National Liberal in 1966? I know he stood as one in Gower in 1959.
In the late 60’s I was a very inexperienced Liberal branch chair and made some reference, at a Regional or similar meeting to ‘national’ Liberal policy. Which earned me a rebuke from the Chairman for referring to the National Liberals. Fortunately I understood the reference and was able to laugh it off!
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are missing nothing. Like I wrote - if the BBC gave equal coverage to the levels of mens football of quality higher than womenswear international football then absolutely fair enough but it’s not actually about the sport for them and the Guardian. It’s a mission to make equality out of something that is fundamentally unequal.
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
I know that energy prices have skyrocketed, but even so I find that ridiculous number very hard to credit.
The general point holds, however. A large slice of the population, encompassing the already hard-up and millions who were just about managing, are going to find it impossible to afford both sufficient food and sufficient fuel come the Winter.
What next? Bloody revolution - possibly not, but a mass movement refusing to pay gas and electricity bills has been suggested. Suppliers will struggle to disconnect a quarter of the population all at once.
I can't verify his numbers of course - you'll have to take my word for it that that's what he told me. I think the heating cost for my (very energy efficient) house with two careful adults will be £600 pm in the autumn (was £90pm two years ago).
So... my gym man's less efficient, larger house with two adults and three blasé teenagers, combined with a request for a two year fix could lead to that sort of figure, I guess.
Your point about a 'can't pay - won't pay' protest is a good one. A very British way of revolting.
I imagine there is a big "up" in payrolled 50+ not taking early retirement yet and a big "down" in young lowskill workers manning and womanning bars, tills and steering wheels.
Let me be more explicit, in my experience WFH has replaced early retirement for some.
Okay - let me think this through a little.
Do we know if, for example, we are seeing more older people working part time? I have a colleague in her mid 60s who only works two days per week to supplement/augment her pension.If she left, would we employ a younger person on a lower salary? Probably.
Are you suggesting some older people who might have decided to give up the commute earlier have been persuaded by its absence to carry on working longer? It's an interesting theory - I'd love to see some more empitical data on this - clearly, if you WFH and aren't spending 10 hours or more a week commuting with all the concomitant stress, it may well seem working isn't that bad.
So you have older people working on earning which helps their firms by retaining the knowledge and networks they have built up but are we also seeking people deciding to work on to build up a cash reserve to protect against winter fuel bills or other inflationary costs etc?
I mean more that there are people who are done with doing a day's work, but can earn more from WFH than their pension, so they dial in and wait for someone to say "stop". I'm sure some actual workers are also encouraged to remain because they don't have a commute, but they annoy me less.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Sunak is definite value there imho because it always possible that a black swan bearing some massive skeleton comes winging across the sunday paper skies.
Sources supporting Sunak said that while party members would be able to vote from 1 August, they would be urged not to write him off until later in the contest.
“We all think she [Truss] is going to be so bad at the hustings that members will change their minds,” one said. Another predicted: “He will shine at the hustings, whereas Truss is mental and will be found out.”
So he is hoping people don’t vote early. And that anyone will pay attention to the hustings.
"Robert Hayward, a Tory peer and elections expert...
“not convinced” the result was a foregone conclusion."
I'm nibbling at 3.35 and I will go more if Sunak hits 4.
Well, we know from past elections that even things that in retrospect appear to have been quite certain often get a bout of uncertainty as the close of poll approaches - so it’s quite likely that’s a good trading bet even if the membership is set on electing the female Boris
Jason Groves @JasonGroves1 Environment minister Zac Goldsmith says Extinction Rebellion & co are right to cause mayhem. Tells the BBC's Week in Westminster that 'we're not doing enough' to tackle climate change, adding: 'That kind of pressure does work, it may be annoying but it works.'
You know, I thought that Zac Goldsmith could not actually fall further in my estimation.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
There’s not a lot of live sport on normal telly. 7-8mln watched that QF against Spain. Quite a big audience out there for women’s football obvs.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
It's fascinating how willing US juries have been to convict Trump's accomplices.
And remember, it only takes one juror in the US to prevent a conviction. I think people like Bannon assumed that there would always be at least one Trump supporter who would cover for them.
It's a good question, but there must be something there because you don't get to be in the Cabinet under three so very different PMs unless there's something there.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
Because the last firm that tried to do that was ITV Digital and look where that got ITV, it nearly bankrupted the entire company.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
You missed England’s decider against Spain, then.
You missed the league of Wales championship decider on the final day of the season. Two teams playing the best they could, trying everything to win a vital match. Decided in extra time with a goal which the other side was based on a foul in the build up.
That didn’t happen but the point is, just because there was a lot at stake it’s no different to any other league - but the quality is way below most professional mens leagues so you are being served a lower quality product for a reason that is not about the actual sport.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
There’s not a lot of live sport on normal telly. 7-8mln watched that QF against Spain. Quite a big audience out there for women’s football obvs.
View from the US:
Club women's soccer is a graveyard. The TV rights are worth nothing. Nobody cares.
But when the Women's World Cup was on, and the US was winning, it was everywhere. I was in a sports bar in Atlanta, Georgia for the US v England, and it was heaving with people who suddenly gave a shit about soccer. And women's soccer too.
If the BBC or ITV wants to show England v Whoever in the European Championships, then good for them.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
It's a good question, but there must be something there because you don't get to be in the Cabinet under three so very different PMs unless there's something there.
Loyalty, flexibility, and lack of principles?
Sounds like the woman I want!
For a wife?
I was referring specifically to my ex I’m trying to fix things with but frankly if that doesn’t work then a wife or girlfriend like that will work fine….
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
Not sure. I can imagine people will want to follow England, and then you would get loyal support, and a proper subscriber base - it might easily be profitable if they keep the overheads cheap
3m people watched the Women's Tennis Final at Wimbledon in 2019; 9m people watched the men's
Not as popular by any means - but still really big crowds
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
This guy is cooking, heating the house, running a washing machine and a dishwasher and the hot water for baths and showers. Why the fuck try to translate that to cups of fucking tea? I have never seen a less helpful benchmarking exercise.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
A lot of men's international football is dire to watch. Combination of because every men's game that gets more than a one man and his dog is now captured and analysed down to the level of how many times the goalie picked his nose per 90, and that even small nations have a standard where they are able to use this information to put together a plan to "park the bus".
Combine this with the fact most of the elite players are buggered after a hard season (or worried about injury for EPL / Champions Legaue etc)...plus actually quite limited time together to really smooth out the sort of complex tactical play required to break down well organised opponents.
You can't implement the sort of highly fluid complex structure that the likes of Man City have perfected in a couple of weeks before a major championship. Liverpool I believe basically say it will be a year after a new signing before they actually really got their system down.
Anecdata: Talking to the guy who runs my gym today, his supplier has just quoted him £1,450 per month for a fixed-price gas and electricity 'deal' for his modern 4 bed detached house.
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
Is he running a jacuzzi 24/7 ?
Er, I doubt it. It's a big detached house and he's got 3 teenage children so I don't imagine they have been super careful until now. Obviously the fix is priced to protect the supplier and of course he's not taking it (he's just bought £500 of logs and plans to rely on the woodburner much more this winter). But it's indicative.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
How much energy in kWH is £17,4000 in a year. Just to get an idea of how many cups of tea this person is making.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
Does he have solar panels? If not he should be hurriedly looking to buy them. At that price they would save him a fortune.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
Because the last firm that tried to do that was ITV Digital and look where that got ITV, it nearly bankrupted the entire company.
And that’s the point - people only really want to pay up for the best quality sport and only the BBC can show womens international football because it doesn’t have to be a commercial decision.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
That's only a small part of why the BBC hypes it. A much bigger part is that they can afford the rights.
Good point but the reason they can afford the rights is because nobody is desperately fighting them for the rights to show shit quality football.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
Not sure. I can imagine people will want to follow England, and then you would get loyal support, and a proper subscriber base - it might easily be profitable if they keep the overheads cheap
3m people watched the Women's Tennis Final at Wimbledon in 2019; 9m people watched the men's
Not as popular by any means - but still really big crowds
Women’s tennis does itself a disservice by only having best of 3 in the slams. These ladies are pro athletes, they are quite capable of doing best of 5. The trouble with best of 3 is that it makes it much harder for the narrative to swing this way and that.
In terms of game play, women’s tennis is entertaining to watch. Fewer aces, more mid rally recoveries etc… The matches are just too short is all.
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are missing nothing. Like I wrote - if the BBC gave equal coverage to the levels of mens football of quality higher than womenswear international football then absolutely fair enough but it’s not actually about the sport for them and the Guardian. It’s a mission to make equality out of something that is fundamentally unequal.
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are definitely not alone.
I think women's football is uniquely bad. I don't know why. Something about the nature of the game, or perhaps because we watch much more men's football and are too used to the pace of that?
Most women's sports are fine, if sometimes lacking in depth of talent, presumably due to a lack of opportunity if you aren't in the top few.
If you are a golfer, you should definitely watch the women to learn how to play, and not Bryson DeChambeau...
I have to agree with others here that the standard of women's football is undoubtedly poor, compared to the men's, as expected, although greatly improved from a few years ago.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
When there is a lot more money at stake, it is very difficult to convince people to put beautiful play first.
I totally understand that, at the end of the day i don't entirely blame the players, any advantage you can use, you will of course utilise.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
Not as much money at stake in rugby. And yes, more social penalty because rugby union is socially selected in a lot of countries.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Highways England warn drivers that Operation Brock contra flow/ lorry park on the motorway being altered, M20 closed to non freight traffic at key junction 8 heading for Channel… warns drivers heading for continent to “pack food and water” … https://twitter.com/highwaysseast/status/1550568120154308608
Let’s face it. There are no Brexit benefits. It’s just a total crock of shite.
Virtually all political power has returned to our ancient democracy in Westminster, meaning we really can elect and eject those who govern us
THAT is the Brexit benefit. And it is the only one required
And we always could. The fact that we could brexit proves that.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
You know naff all about football. Discuss.
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
You just fancy the players
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I know you're just trying a wind-up. But if it gets us off discussing Sunak v Truss, fair enough.
I'm half trolling but half truth-speaking. I DO find it surprisingly bad, and unwatchable
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
It’s shit quality football. If the BBC pushed lower league football as hard as they pushed Womens football then fair enough but it’s excruciating the prominence they give to it.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
Thank God I'm not alone
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
You are definitely not alone.
I think women's football is uniquely bad. I don't know why. Something about the nature of the game, or perhaps because we watch much more men's football and are too used to the pace of that?
Most women's sports are fine, if sometimes lacking in depth of talent, presumably due to a lack of opportunity if you aren't in the top few.
If you are a golfer, you should definitely watch the women to learn how to play, and not Bryson DeChambeau...
This is a crucial point e.g. women's tennis, the top 5-10 are bloody good (no need to caveat for a woman). They going to smash most average male players, but the drop off is quite steep. Where as 250th ranked male player in the world is still an absolute monster, your average club player probably never even get a serve back.
Re DeShambles (as I call him)...he believes the way everybody else swings is fundamentally wrong. He might in the future be seen as a pioneer in the way Hogan was.....or maybe not.
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
Don't throw shade on my first computer with games like Nifty Lifty, Millionaire and Fun To Learn
I'm actually shocked by how bad it is. I'd heard it was massively improved
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
I have a friend who is on the board of Starlizard and on the board of Brighton FC. (Both are owned by Tony Bloom.)
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
Just to add: that means that the gap between men's and women's soccer is vastly bigger than between men's and women's tennis. That's 11 of the top 100 British women soccer players playing 11 people who are probably in the million to five million mark for British men's soccer players.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.
Comments
Some may say she is a weathervane doing whatever it takes to win. However Sunak is probably the safe pair of hands we need even if Truss has probably done enough to win over the Tory membership and get the leadership and become PM
Makes the slow over rates in Tests even more annoying.
To my ear though Truss's delivery has a lot in common with Miranda Richardson's mad Queen Bess.
Some of the stories about Truss's insistence on receiving what she considers the right level of deference (e.g. official flights) are very Queenie-like.
Still, if others can't see it, maybe I'm wrong.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/22/unfocused-boris-johnson-adds-to-image-of-a-government-giving-up
… Those who have worked with Johnson say he is less lazy than unfocused. And he has been busy in recent days, but mainly with an almost Donald Trump-like battle to burnish his record.
As well as using his final Commons appearances as prime minister to stress what he called “very remarkable” achievements in office, Johnson’s final pre-recess task was to publish a 2,500-word written statement to parliament, defending his premiership in painstaking detail….
Happy Finnish Day
It's really good that they are getting airtime, it's totally great that people want to see it, it's marvellous that etc etc, but it is rubbish. Slow, weak, feeble, ponderous
It's like watching computer chess played by a ZX Spectrum
"A combination of the scapegoat effect, May fucking up the negotiations, a lack of realism that Brexit wasn't a magic wand, and the opinion poll question being completely irrelevant"
In response:-
1. The "scapegoat effect" is only valid if Brexit is being blamed for something it is unconnected to. Most of the problems people are angry about have affected by Brexit.
2. May's negations are irrelevant. The decline in support has only really come since Johnson "got Brexit done". They were still enthusiastic for the Project at the 2019 GE
3. I can agree with the "lack of realism" point, although I would describe it more as voters waking up to the fact they were conned
4. How is asking voters whether they believe such a major decision was right or wrong irrelevant? I guess you probably don't want the decision scrutinised but, believe me, it's going to née for many years to come.don't wa
I struggle to conceptualise Rishi Sunak having any left-wing extravagances if I'm being honest though there are some who might argue he's gone the other way with his tax rises.
Really???
The gulf between men's and women's football is greater than the gulf between men's and women's tennis. Discuss
The lovely Emma will have earned more cash on the back of the US Open win than England Lionesses ever have (probably all put togethr).
I see there are 29.6 million payrolled workers currently and we are apparently to celebrate that - yet we also see labour shortages hither and yon. Am I also right in thinking the number of self-employed has fallen back due to the pandemic and other changes in legislation (IR 35)?
MY "crunching" of the numbers suggests the numbers under 25 in work continue to struggle while those aged 50-64 in work have increased (is this connected to rises in pension age meaning you have to work longer before you get your State pension?)
Are there consequential figures for economic inactivity? I seem to recall that was quite a barometer for a while and do the numbers in work in and of themselves not tell the whole story in terms of full and part time work and actual productivity?
The England Spain game was a cracker. Great ball skills on both sides, good pressing, some lovely passing and an exciting fightback from England, who rode their luck at times.
What's not to like?
Wasn't it said that Serena Williams, in her prime, would lose to most of the top 1000 pro male players?
I feel that this Belgian women's football team would lose to the top 10,000 male football teams
It's fucking terrible. Pat ball by 14 year old boys
I don't think that's relevant but I thought it was worth sharing as a diversion from a debate about football.
Additional pointless fact, Nott, Major and Rifkind are the only three surviving members of Thatcher's last Cabinet who don't sit in either House (apparently).
Let me be more explicit, in my experience WFH has replaced early retirement for some.
I think if anyone is a believer that the Tories are screwed whoever they elect at the next election then it has to come down to what is best for the country.
I think, and might be wrong, that two years of Sunak will leave the country in a not great place but with a platform that can be built on by a moderate Labour government.
I feel that if Truss enacts her ideas then the next govt is hamstrung by having to unpick the lunacy of short termism.
And if the Tories win with Sunak they still have a “not great” situation to rebuild from.
I find Truss a bit of a Daenerys Targaryen “let it burn” type and Sunak a Varys type.
By the way, I enjoy your new positioning. I get you were loyal and wanted to support Boris as leader but since the war is over you have been much more interesting (and as usual full of insight on what certain parts of the actual active party think) and actually amusing - still chuckling about you referring to Casino Royal as “meat cutlets” - no offence to CR but it made me laugh.
You have been freed by the end of Boris!
HOWEVER I guess if you got into it you could forget about the dismal lack of power, force, speed, punch and aggression, and the lack of really superior skills, and the lack of atmosphere and physical competition, and you would get into the players, and the games, and the stories, and then you'd have a team, and some of the skills are graceful and different - and you'd probably enjoy it
Not for me tho. Life is too short to watch women's football
I find women's athletics less appealing than men's athletics, because it is slower and weaker, but the gulf feels less than this gulf in football
Conversely, I would much rather watch women's gymnastics, the required suppleness and gracefulness seems to suit women more than men, and I would say women can often do more absolutely amazing things in the sport
He was paying £192 pm on his last fix.
As he said: 'forget the leadership race, if they don't sort energy prices out there's going to be a bloody revolution'.
I watch Premier league football, international Rugby, the Olympics because I want to see sports played by the absolute best it can be played at.
I had to endure the BBC radio 4 wankfest about Dina Asher-Smith all morning for coming third in the world championship 200m, it was bad enough during the Olympics how they ramped her but this morning took the piss.
The BBC seem to have lost the ability to understand that sport at the highest level is not some political social issue but people wanting to watch things that give them a visceral excitement from seeing amazing athletes doing things they cannot ever do on the greatest stage.
THAT is the Brexit benefit. And it is the only one required
Do we know if, for example, we are seeing more older people working part time? I have a colleague in her mid 60s who only works two days per week to supplement/augment her pension.If she left, would we employ a younger person on a lower salary? Probably.
Are you suggesting some older people who might have decided to give up the commute earlier have been persuaded by its absence to carry on working longer? It's an interesting theory - I'd love to see some more empitical data on this - clearly, if you WFH and aren't spending 10 hours or more a week commuting with all the concomitant stress, it may well seem working isn't that bad.
So you have older people working on earning which helps their firms by retaining the knowledge and networks they have built up but are we also seeking people deciding to work on to build up a cash reserve to protect against winter fuel bills or other inflationary costs etc?
I was sitting there, mouth open, in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, thinking: is it really this bad? What am I missing?
So even if your argument was true, it still doesn't fucking work.
Apart from that, great work...
The general point holds, however. A large slice of the population, encompassing the already hard-up and millions who were just about managing, are going to find it impossible to afford both sufficient food and sufficient fuel come the Winter.
What next? Bloody revolution - possibly not, but a mass movement refusing to pay gas and electricity bills has been suggested. Suppliers will struggle to disconnect a quarter of the population all at once.
Mrs P's hairdresser said her (small) salon was being charged over £1000 pm variable for electric and gas.
This is going to hurt.
HMG should force a sharp reduction in the energy cap and slash fuel duty. Fund it from borrowing if necessary. Treat it as a national emergency, which it is.
Which earned me a rebuke from the Chairman for referring to the National Liberals. Fortunately I understood the reference and was able to laugh it off!
It’s like they want to equate the Turner Prize to Drew Jug (my old school art prize) and twist themselves into justifying why it should be viewed the same way and everyone must accept it.
I honestly think that by taming it down peoples throats it probably turns most male football fans off it as it’s making them take a position rather than saying that it’s a great addition, no baggage attached, and let people learn to love it rather than making a massive issue of it.
So... my gym man's less efficient, larger house with two adults and three blasé teenagers, combined with a request for a two year fix could lead to that sort of figure, I guess.
Your point about a 'can't pay - won't pay' protest is a good one. A very British way of revolting.
How wrong I was.
A quick google search suggests about 100,000 kWH. So that's running about five kettles continuously for an entire year.
The BBC can afford the rights for any division under the Premier league - why don’t they also show their matches live?
Sky, Amazon etc know that they have thirty thousand people who will subscribe for Womens football - it’s not going to cover the coverage.
And remember, it only takes one juror in the US to prevent a conviction. I think people like Bannon assumed that there would always be at least one Trump supporter who would cover for them.
It refreshes ones faith in humanity.
(Price in brackets this morning)
60-65% 3.5 (4.7)
55-60% 3.55 (3.8)
50-55% 5.1 (4.4)
45-50% 5.6 (5.5)
40-45% 13.5 (7.8)
65-70% 14 (10.5)
Over 70% 20 (14.5)
Under 40% 20 (9.2)
That didn’t happen but the point is, just because there was a lot at stake it’s no different to any other league - but the quality is way below most professional mens leagues so you are being served a lower quality product for a reason that is not about the actual sport.
Club women's soccer is a graveyard. The TV rights are worth nothing. Nobody cares.
But when the Women's World Cup was on, and the US was winning, it was everywhere. I was in a sports bar in Atlanta, Georgia for the US v England, and it was heaving with people who suddenly gave a shit about soccer. And women's soccer too.
If the BBC or ITV wants to show England v Whoever in the European Championships, then good for them.
However, one thing which i have been rather pleasantly surprised about, it how refreshing it is to watch a football match without the terrible diving, constant disrupting the flow of play and the crowding around the referee ever 2 minutes.
While the men's game is obviously a much higher standard, I do so wish that elements could be transferred over to the men's game to make it more watchable.
3m people watched the Women's Tennis Final at Wimbledon in 2019; 9m people watched the men's
Not as popular by any means - but still really big crowds
Combine this with the fact most of the elite players are buggered after a hard season (or worried about injury for EPL / Champions Legaue etc)...plus actually quite limited time together to really smooth out the sort of complex tactical play required to break down well organised opponents.
You can't implement the sort of highly fluid complex structure that the likes of Man City have perfected in a couple of weeks before a major championship. Liverpool I believe basically say it will be a year after a new signing before they actually really got their system down.
In terms of game play, women’s tennis is entertaining to watch. Fewer aces, more mid rally recoveries etc… The matches are just too short is all.
If only FIFA or the FA retrospectively punished diving, that would kill it almost overnight. Also look at the difference with Rugby and Football, a muttered insult under your breath against the referee in Rugby will seen the ball advanced 10 meters and a possible sin bin, football 10 men can crowd round the referee screaming and shouting and nothing happens.
ffs - if you don't want to watch it don't.
I think women's football is uniquely bad. I don't know why. Something about the nature of the game, or perhaps because we watch much more men's football and are too used to the pace of that?
Most women's sports are fine, if sometimes lacking in depth of talent, presumably due to a lack of opportunity if you aren't in the top few.
If you are a golfer, you should definitely watch the women to learn how to play, and not Bryson DeChambeau...
Starlizard (a 150 person company of mostly young-ish blokes) has a scratch football team. It played Brighton FC's Women's team, which plays in the Women's Super League.
Starlizard won, and realistically none of their team would have gotten anywhere near a semi-professional team's squad.
We have gained nothing so far and lost lots.
Re DeShambles (as I call him)...he believes the way everybody else swings is fundamentally wrong. He might in the future be seen as a pioneer in the way Hogan was.....or maybe not.
If you put the 20th best woman in Britain at tennis against the millionth best man, the woman would win 6-0, 6-0.