I would make one serious point about this business. I don't think an MP who resigns mid parliament should be allowed to stand in the by-election caused by their resignation. I can't think of any legitimate reason for them to do so
Mum, did you just hijack FF43's account?
(Seriously, my Mum literally made the same point to me while we were watching Countdown!)
Do you know for sure that your Mum isn't posting as FF43?
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
I absolutely would for football. I would prefer a British team to an English team. For cricket, this is already kind of de facto the situation. In principle I would for rugby - though losing three of the top ten teams internationally would weaken rugby union as an international sport. The last time I looked - back in the pre-Sky era - we competed as Great Britain in rugby league, and I would obviously very much like to go back to that.
There's a Scotland cricket team. Doesn't play Test Matches, but does quite well in the second tier of the shorter forms of the game.
I would make one serious point about this business. I don't think an MP who resigns mid parliament should be allowed to stand in the by-election caused by their resignation. I can't think of any legitimate reason for them to do so
Mum, did you just hijack FF43's account?
(Seriously, my Mum literally made the same point to me while we were watching Countdown!)
Do you know for sure that your Mum isn't posting as FF43?
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
And France. New Caledonia made the inter-confederation playoffs for the World Cup.
Ireland. Includes Northern Irish players who elect to play for Ireland
Every country fields dual (or more) qualified players.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
Raducanu's qualified for at least three countries. IIRC.
I would make one serious point about this business. I don't think an MP who resigns mid parliament should be allowed to stand in the by-election caused by their resignation. I can't think of any legitimate reason for them to do so
Mum, did you just hijack FF43's account?
(Seriously, my Mum literally made the same point to me while we were watching Countdown!)
Do you know for sure that your Mum isn't posting as FF43?
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
I’d actually be interested in the evidence here. It feels like one those things where a widely held assumption is a bit wrong.
For a start, a lot of the cost is actually in the transport, and a large chunk of the population don’t have access to a large car or van. So a cheap, cash-only fly tipper is always going to be cheaper. And perhaps a large majority of it is actually commercial waste, not household DIY?
Maybe the solution is to charge a fee but have the council pick it all up.
On another topic (!) Trump is making threatening noises against Iran. Is the Khomeni funeral still on-going? Could that be a target?
There has been a number of ceremonies including one today. The final funeral ceremony will take place on Thursday in Mashhad. He will ll be laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza according to Iranian sources. So it seems Trump just wants to wind them up.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
He sounds English, rather than French. Poor old Greg couldn't if his life depended on it.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
He sounds English, rather than French. Poor old Greg couldn't if his life depended on it.
Its quite a sweet story really, moved to the UK to be with his girlfriend, they are still married 25+ years later and he seems a genuinely nice guy who unfortunately always got compared to and rather overshadowed by Tim Henman.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
He sounds English, rather than French. Poor old Greg couldn't if his life depended on it.
On another topic (!) Trump is making threatening noises against Iran. Is the Khomeni funeral still on-going? Could that be a target?
There has been a number of ceremonies including one today. The final funeral ceremony will take place on Thursday in Mashhad. He will ll be laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza according to Iranian sources. So it seems Trump just wants to wind them up.
I hope so. The pile of coffins, with the baby granddaughter's on top, brings out one's sympathies. Even for Khomeni.
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
Which means people are complaining about people profiteering from the lack of oil when they believe it’s readily available
Which means Putin has a problem - it’s too late to tel other truth but without a consistent flow of petrol / diesel everyone thinks he and his cronies are trying to screw them
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
He sounds English, rather than French. Poor old Greg couldn't if his life depended on it.
Its quite a sweet story really, moved to the UK to be with his girlfriend, they are still married 25+ years later and he seems a genuinely nice guy who unfortunately always got compared to and rather overshadowed by Tim Henman.
He does. I'm fond of him, and don't question his status.
Starmer says he is going to stay in touch with Trump.
I predict in a few months, Trump will be saying, Keir who, never heard of him, who is he is. Oh him, no, hardly know him, never close with him, terrible guy, loser.....
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
One word answer: no.
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
One word answer: no.
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Re Austria-Hungary - looked it up, they had separate teams.
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
My old council introduced free bulky waste collections, in an attempt to reduce fly tipping, and while the collections proved very popular with the people who were willing to phone to book the collection and would probably have paid prior, they made absolutely no impact with folks who couldn’t be arsed to do anything other than dump their mattress at night at the end of their road. So the amount of fly tipping continued unaffected.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
One word answer: no.
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Re Austria-Hungary - looked it up, they had separate teams.
Though the World Cup only started in 1930 after the disbanding of Austria-Hungary.
No one seriously thinks Binface will do more than maybe hold his deposit, so to see at least one comment mocking it as though it were serious and centrist cope is an indication that, yes, centrist dads do not reflect on Farage without bias, but the attempt to counter that by treating jokes seriously, also becomes very silly indeed and can be contrarian for its own sake.
It's the same as when any party wins a safe seat then pretends critics didnt think they would win.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
One word answer: no.
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Re Austria-Hungary - looked it up, they had separate teams.
Though the World Cup only started in 1930 after the disbanding of Austria-Hungary.
There were Olympic tournaments. Austria and Hungary entered separate teams in 1912 .
An ally of Zack Polanski was allowed to stand as a Green Party councillor last year despite being cautioned by police for assaulting a teenager.
Matthew Broadley, a former Labour activist who was pictured arm-in-arm with Mr Polanski, the Green leader, last month, allegedly slapped two teenagers on the bottom and discussed his “sexual conquests” with them on a drunken night in 2018.
Mr Broadley was given a police caution for common assault against one victim after a complaint was made. He was also suspended from the Labour Party, of which he was a member at the time.
He later switched to the Greens and was allowed to stand as a candidate for Kent county council at last year’s local elections, even though the party had been alerted to both the police caution and the broader allegations against him.
4 years to resolve this and 2 years after the court case. The fact there was even any suggestion he should after the court case and all the evidence is ridiculous. A highly dangerous and often armed career criminal wanted for murder ignored all their commands, tried to run over police officers, and was ultimiately shot. This was no British George Flloyd incident or even Charles de Menezes. They acted with highlly professionally in a very dangerous moving situation.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
One word answer: no.
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Re Austria-Hungary - looked it up, they had separate teams.
Though the World Cup only started in 1930 after the disbanding of Austria-Hungary.
Sure. I was interested if they played matches as a one or a two. Turns out it was a two, which might’ve had some bearing in the early days of FIFA, as when England got round to looking to join in about 1906, I think FIFA initially said it had to be a U.K. membership, to which was replied words to the effect of bugger off we’ve been playing internationals for 35 odd years now and you’re an upstart organisation in our game, at which point FIFA partially folded and said ok to England and Scotland but not Wales and Ireland ( then one team of course), but having conceded to the first two quickly realised they couldn’t really deny Wales and Ireland separate membership without looking a bit daft. I suppose they already (?) had the Hapsburgs as a precedent.
Just checked Ladbrokes. They seem to think Binface has a significantly better chance than Fox. What a lark.
Hills have Reform at 1/7 for the Clacton Apprentice Handicap. Rumours of a strained fetlock? EIPH? Binface quicker on trial gallops? He's at 7/2.
As yet of course there can be no official runners and riders, as nominations are not yet open. Reform could run a pacemaker and then withdraw the main horse. Ante post betting is a dangerous game.
Josh Simons, okay to resign seat. Andy Burnham, okay to resign mayoralty. Nigel Farage, not okay to resign seat.
Josh Simons, resigning because he doesn't want job anymore Andy Burnham, resigning because he wants new job Nigel Farage, resigning just to get old job back
If you can't see which of the above three is not normal behaviour then you really are living in a bubble.
And Farage isn’t even resigning to protest against something he’s resigning so he can fight a by-election before his crimes are published in full gory detail.
And he’s did that in the hope that he could avoid a second by-election after those gory details are published
And because everyone saw through him he now gets to spend 4 weeks campaigning against a joke candidate who will know how to wing him up and make Farage into a bigger joke than he already is
It will also guarantee 4 weeks of everyone talking about Farage/Reform's dodgy financial dealings.
By the time we get to the by-election there won't be a soul in the land who hasn't heard about Farage's dodgy £5m "gift" from the crypto guy.
Reform shying away from a long campaign in Clacton.
They want 6th apparently.
Only 6 more sitting days before recess so they better get a wriggle on. Agent Anderson needs to do his bit.
The motion in the House of Commons is conventionally moved by the chief whip of the party of the outgoing MP (so in this case Lee Anderson MP for Reform UK). The day after the warrant and writ are issued by the Clerk is day 1 of the official by-election campaign timetable
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
My old council introduced free bulky waste collections, in an attempt to reduce fly tipping, and while the collections proved very popular with the people who were willing to phone to book the collection and would probably have paid prior, they made absolutely no impact with folks who couldn’t be arsed to do anything other than dump their mattress at night at the end of their road. So the amount of fly tipping continued unaffected.
We have that, although the council's new posters do seem to have had some effect. I swear some people don't realise the council take away stuff for free. There was a bloke in the betting shop who would wake up to an extra couple of full bins each week on collection day. But the real fly-tipping scandal is on an industrial scale (thousands of tons) by what we now call organised crime groups.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
I was obviously joking. Not to go down the rabbit hole of nationality (which i find a bit boring tbh), but I think he moved to UK when he was a few months old, so its not exactly Greg Rusedski scenario. Or there was a really promising junior player who switched, then switched again, in fact I think even more times than that as he never really made it and bounced around whichever country would fund his training.
Raducanu's qualified for at least three countries. IIRC.
She can pull out injured under a variety of flags you mean.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
As discussed many times on PB identity is complex. I’d suggest Fery is far more English, having grown up in London round the corner from Wimbledon, than almost all the ‘residency’ qualified rugby players (such as van de Merwe) for example.
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
My old council introduced free bulky waste collections, in an attempt to reduce fly tipping, and while the collections proved very popular with the people who were willing to phone to book the collection and would probably have paid prior, they made absolutely no impact with folks who couldn’t be arsed to do anything other than dump their mattress at night at the end of their road. So the amount of fly tipping continued unaffected.
We have that, although the council's new posters do seem to have had some effect. I swear some people don't realise the council take away stuff for free. There was a bloke in the betting shop who would wake up to an extra couple of full bins each week on collection day. But the real fly-tipping scandal is on an industrial scale (thousands of tons) by what we now call organised crime groups.
The maddening thing is idiots such as one near here who drove further away from the local tip to get rid of some domestic rubbish. He actually made his life harder by fly tipping. Madness.
Sheesh, Twitter (sorry, X) is absolutely unusable these days, isn't it?
5 years ago, after a tweet like that you'd find a bunch of alternately erudite, amusing or informed responses underneath it, probably from a bunch of journalists, Twitter personalities and people who'd just said something funny.
Now the top response is "If you are going to use this election for self promotion and selling books, fine, make your silly points and have a good time. But if you start to stray into helping the Uniparty message, then in effect, you have become the establishment. Is that your legacy, government puppet?"
Josh Simons, okay to resign seat. Andy Burnham, okay to resign mayoralty. Nigel Farage, not okay to resign seat.
Josh Simons, resigning because he doesn't want job anymore Andy Burnham, resigning because he wants new job Nigel Farage, resigning just to get old job back
If you can't see which of the above three is not normal behaviour then you really are living in a bubble.
And Farage isn’t even resigning to protest against something he’s resigning so he can fight a by-election before his crimes are published in full gory detail.
And he’s did that in the hope that he could avoid a second by-election after those gory details are published
And because everyone saw through him he now gets to spend 4 weeks campaigning against a joke candidate who will know how to wing him up and make Farage into a bigger joke than he already is
It will also guarantee 4 weeks of everyone talking about Farage/Reform's dodgy financial dealings.
By the time we get to the by-election there won't be a soul in the land who hasn't heard about Farage's dodgy £5m "gift" from the crypto guy.
Sheesh, Twitter (sorry, X) is absolutely unusable these days, isn't it?
5 years ago, after a tweet like that you'd find a bunch of alternately erudite, amusing or informed responses underneath it, probably from a bunch of journalists, Twitter personalities and people who'd just said something funny.
Now the top response is "If you are going to use this election for self promotion and selling books, fine, make your silly points and have a good time. But if you start to stray into helping the Uniparty message, then in effect, you have become the establishment. Is that your legacy, government puppet?"
There's too many people who have had a sense of humour bypass, like on PB.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
As discussed many times on PB identity is complex. I’d suggest Fery is far more English, having grown up in London round the corner from Wimbledon, than almost all the ‘residency’ qualified rugby players (such as van de Merwe) for example.
I'd say that makes him a French Londoner, if anything
Interesting to see Tory supporters almost perfectly split on the polling question. Still a lot of warm feelings for Farage among Tories, even in the core vote that hasn't yet switched support.
Frenchman Englishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....
Educated at King's Wimbledon. He's English.
As discussed many times on PB identity is complex. I’d suggest Fery is far more English, having grown up in London round the corner from Wimbledon, than almost all the ‘residency’ qualified rugby players (such as van de Merwe) for example.
I'd say that makes him a French Londoner, if anything
When I post doc’d in NZ in the late 1990’s I met a chap who was born in the U.K. but who had moved to NZ as a baby. You would not find a more ardent Kiwi. Even to the point that he couldn’t eat hot curries or drink beer.* Being born in a stable does not make you a horse, although having horses for parents might make it more likely.**
*This is true. kiwi curries are generally really mild and they find U.K. versions really spicy.
**The Duke of Wellington was fond of the first bit, but I’ve embellished the second….
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
Apart from athletics, where is 'Great Britain' still a sporting concept?
Rugby League.
Eh? We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades! Do you actually follow the sport?
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
Apart from athletics, where is 'Great Britain' still a sporting concept?
Rugby League.
Eh? We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades! Do you actually follow the sport?
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
Apart from athletics, where is 'Great Britain' still a sporting concept?
Rugby League.
Eh? We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades! Do you actually follow the sport?
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
Apart from athletics, where is 'Great Britain' still a sporting concept?
Rugby League.
Eh? We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades! Do you actually follow the sport?
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
That’s a Lions tour - equivalent to a Lions tour in Union.
It no way contravenes my point.
I know exactly what it is, and it is an exception absolutely (as it is with Union) but we still technically competed as GB then, which is more recent than two decades ago. So it contravenes the line "We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades!" We did in 2019, as a Lions tour, but still as GB.
Josh Simons, okay to resign seat. Andy Burnham, okay to resign mayoralty. Nigel Farage, not okay to resign seat.
Josh Simons, resigning because he doesn't want job anymore Andy Burnham, resigning because he wants new job Nigel Farage, resigning just to get old job back
If you can't see which of the above three is not normal behaviour then you really are living in a bubble.
And Farage isn’t even resigning to protest against something he’s resigning so he can fight a by-election before his crimes are published in full gory detail.
And he’s did that in the hope that he could avoid a second by-election after those gory details are published
And because everyone saw through him he now gets to spend 4 weeks campaigning against a joke candidate who will know how to wing him up and make Farage into a bigger joke than he already is
It will also guarantee 4 weeks of everyone talking about Farage/Reform's dodgy financial dealings.
By the time we get to the by-election there won't be a soul in the land who hasn't heard about Farage's dodgy £5m "gift" from the crypto guy.
Josh Simons, okay to resign seat. Andy Burnham, okay to resign mayoralty. Nigel Farage, not okay to resign seat.
Josh Simons, resigning because he doesn't want job anymore Andy Burnham, resigning because he wants new job Nigel Farage, resigning just to get old job back
If you can't see which of the above three is not normal behaviour then you really are living in a bubble.
And Farage isn’t even resigning to protest against something he’s resigning so he can fight a by-election before his crimes are published in full gory detail.
And he’s did that in the hope that he could avoid a second by-election after those gory details are published
And because everyone saw through him he now gets to spend 4 weeks campaigning against a joke candidate who will know how to wing him up and make Farage into a bigger joke than he already is
It will also guarantee 4 weeks of everyone talking about Farage/Reform's dodgy financial dealings.
By the time we get to the by-election there won't be a soul in the land who hasn't heard about Farage's dodgy £5m "gift" from the crypto guy.
Sheesh, Twitter (sorry, X) is absolutely unusable these days, isn't it?
5 years ago, after a tweet like that you'd find a bunch of alternately erudite, amusing or informed responses underneath it, probably from a bunch of journalists, Twitter personalities and people who'd just said something funny.
Now the top response is "If you are going to use this election for self promotion and selling books, fine, make your silly points and have a good time. But if you start to stray into helping the Uniparty message, then in effect, you have become the establishment. Is that your legacy, government puppet?"
People are either entirely unserious, or entirely too serious, with no middle ground.
Trump back on about Greenland even as the Iran war restarts.
Two more years of all this.
Infantini really needs to reverse that Belgium result before the nukes are wheeled out.
Greenland, oddly, is part of Denmark (#22 world rankings) when it comes to internatal football, even though the Faroe Islands (#123) get a separate team.
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
Apart from athletics, where is 'Great Britain' still a sporting concept?
Rugby League.
Eh? We haven’t competed as GB in rugby league for two decades! Do you actually follow the sport?
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
Quite a few sports that are bigger abroad than here are - GB compete at a reasonable level internationally in baseball, ice hockey and to a lesser extent basketball.
Comments
FrenchmanEnglishman Arthur Fery 2 sets up in the tennis.....For a start, a lot of the cost is actually in the transport, and a large chunk of the population don’t have access to a large car or van. So a cheap, cash-only fly tipper is always going to be cheaper. And perhaps a large majority of it is actually commercial waste, not household DIY?
Maybe the solution is to charge a fee but have the council pick it all up.
Poor old Greg couldn't if his life depended on it.
https://democracy.gloucester.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=1933
https://x.com/mikegalsworthy/status/2074841060031787124
Points out that if the good people of Clayton don't want to risk two by elections on the trot, there's an obvious remedy.
Vote Count Binface rather than the Count of Dodgy Crypto.
https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social/post/3mq5ioavnjd2f
Which means people are complaining about people profiteering from the lack of oil when they believe it’s readily available
Which means Putin has a problem - it’s too late to tel other truth but without a consistent flow of petrol / diesel everyone thinks he and his cronies are trying to screw them
https://x.com/CountBinface/status/2074848010937258221
Jenrick refuse-d.
Definitely not French.
Always worth knowing when bin day is.
https://x.com/andyburnham/status/2074800707346067911
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/trump-zelensky-putin-gaffe-nato-37404657
I predict in a few months, Trump will be saying, Keir who, never heard of him, who is he is. Oh him, no, hardly know him, never close with him, terrible guy, loser.....
But a few thoughts.
There are a bunch of non fully sovereign FIFA members like the Faroes, Gibraltar, and I’m sure various Dutch, French , and U.K. islands dotted about the Carribean and Pacific so it’s not a unique situation. Does this really matter to the football world? (Question did Austria-Hungary a team at all before 1914 and was it one or two? I’ve not googled it)
Unifying the four UK teams would lead to endless bickering about whether X Scot was better than Y Welshman or Z Englishman. Nightmare.
Circa 1975/80 a UK team would’ve been a lot better than England (Dalgleish/Jennings/ late Best/Jordan etc) but since about the mid 80’s, hand on heart only a relative a handful of non English are making a U.K. team consistently. Rush between Lineker and Sharer? Giggs and Bale get 100 caps each sure, beyond that ? Ramsey? Robertson? Scotland’s best player is probably McTominay but he’s not playing at the Azteca the other night when he’d be behind Bellingham, Rogers, Gibbs-White, Palmer and Foden in the queue.
We codified the bloody game. One of our great gifts to the whole world, the greatest show on earth that truly unifies the planet, would not be taking place in the same vein right now unless some tweedy ex public school boys decided to draw up some rules on two bits of paper over 160 years ago. I think we deserve a bit of special status for that from the rest of Earth.
Apparently, "Nigel is ready for the mother of all fights".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CliwVOjoULs
"Actually, I should be in the Lords."
My old council introduced free bulky waste collections, in an attempt to reduce fly tipping, and while the collections proved very popular with the people who were willing to phone to book the collection and would probably have paid prior, they made absolutely no impact with folks who couldn’t be arsed to do anything other than dump their mattress at night at the end of their road. So the amount of fly tipping continued unaffected.
It's the same as when any party wins a safe seat then pretends critics didnt think they would win.
Matthew Broadley, a former Labour activist who was pictured arm-in-arm with Mr Polanski, the Green leader, last month, allegedly slapped two teenagers on the bottom and discussed his “sexual conquests” with them on a drunken night in 2018.
Mr Broadley was given a police caution for common assault against one victim after a complaint was made. He was also suspended from the Labour Party, of which he was a member at the time.
He later switched to the Greens and was allowed to stand as a candidate for Kent county council at last year’s local elections, even though the party had been alerted to both the police caution and the broader allegations against him.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/07/08/polanski-ally-cautioned-assaulted-teenager/
https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-officer-to-face-no-further-action-after-fatal-shooting-of-chris-kaba-in-south-london-13561688
4 years to resolve this and 2 years after the court case. The fact there was even any suggestion he should after the court case and all the evidence is ridiculous. A highly dangerous and often armed career criminal wanted for murder ignored all their commands, tried to run over police officers, and was ultimiately shot. This was no British George Flloyd incident or even Charles de Menezes. They acted with highlly professionally in a very dangerous moving situation.
He's now definitely English.
https://youtu.be/V8lT1o0sDwI?is=183LuWGa4mL0qDyM
It's like the "in my pants" game. There is nothing that isn't made amusingly absurd by adding a bloke with a bin on his head on the end.
As yet of course there can be no official runners and riders, as nominations are not yet open. Reform could run a pacemaker and then withdraw the main horse. Ante post betting is a dangerous game.
They want 6th apparently.
They want 6th apparently.
Le Comte de Bin now 4-1 on Willam Hill.
By the time we get to the by-election there won't be a soul in the land who hasn't heard about Farage's dodgy £5m "gift" from the crypto guy.
Panic or desperation? Take your pick
https://x.com/RuthFox01/status/2074554620844605537
5 years ago, after a tweet like that you'd find a bunch of alternately erudite, amusing or informed responses underneath it, probably from a bunch of journalists, Twitter personalities and people who'd just said something funny.
Now the top response is "If you are going to use this election for self promotion and selling books, fine, make your silly points and have a good time. But if you start to stray into helping the Uniparty message, then in effect, you have become the establishment. Is that your legacy, government puppet?"
12% do
https://x.com/YouGov/status/2074744857218675072?s=20
*This is true. kiwi curries are generally really mild and they find U.K. versions really spicy.
**The Duke of Wellington was fond of the first bit, but I’ve embellished the second….
The Olympics is the weird outlier. No idea why as Hong Kong and I believe Aruba also have their own Olympic teams.
No team sport is organised on a GB basis outside the Olympics as far as I know. And nor should they be.
(Tennis / Davis Cup okay but not really a team sport or a good example)
It no way contravenes my point.
Connah's Quay Nomads 0 Ballkani 0 halftime at the Blue Turtle Arena.
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