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If Gareth Southgate was a party leader his ratings would ensure his party won a landslide – politica

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  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Imagine Italy winning Wimbledon, the Euros AND Eurovision in the same year!
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821
    kamski said:

    kamski said:

    Sandpit said:

    RobD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Sandpit said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi reveals the Govt will publish new covid guidelines this week to wear masks on busy trains. "There will be very clear guidance that you'll be expected to wear masks on crowded carriages". This appears to be a change of plan.
    @TimesRadio

    Except it’s not a “change of plan” at all.

    It’s re-affirming what the government actually said last week - as opposed to how the media reported it - that the plan was to replace legislation with guidance from 19th July.
    Did Boris mention replacing legislation with guidance in his press conference at all a week ago ?
    I don't remember it
    Yep:

    We will end the 1 metre plus rule on social distancing, and the legal obligation to wear a face covering, although guidance will suggest where you might choose to do so, especially when cases are rising, and where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet in enclosed places, such as obviously crowded public transport.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-at-coronavirus-press-conference-5-july-2021
    That’s not quite the same thing is it?

    There is a difference between “everyone should continue to wear masks” and “people may decide they wish to continue to wear masks”.
    They’re changing “You MUST wear a mask” with “You SHOULD wear a mask”.

    Maybe I’m used to aviation legislation, where there’s whole chapters on the difference between the words MUST, SHALL, SHOULD, MAY and MIGHT.

    https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/plain_language/articles/authority/
    That's the problem with English: it is far more nuanced than most other languages, although some may express similar distinctions with pitch and tone. I'm hoping tomorrow that Johnson will clarify whether wearing a mask when sitting alone in a car is eccentric, idiotic or barmy.
    Is English really far more nuanced than most other languages? I'd find that very surprising. Do you have a source for this?
    English is the language most foreigners find easiest to learn, so I'd guess not.
    Only "easy" because of exposure and motivation.

    The pronunciation is objectively far more difficult than say Italian. And the spelling is more difficult than any language I know of.
    Including French?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it

    The UK comes with an historical legacy and significant soft power. No English nationalist politician would voluntarily give that up.

    Soft power? Oh, you mean like all the Eurovision victories :D
    Yes, you’re right, we do do very well in Eurovision


    Last victory 1997.

    https://www.newstatesman.com/1997/2017/05/cool-britannia-where-did-it-all-go-wrong
    We haven't had a decent entry for Eurosong for ages - we aren't going to win by entering meh. OK so the recent collapse in points is a little unfair - this year's null points especially so. But its not like the song was robbed of an obvious victory - it was meh.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,353
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it
    “Medium ranked power” is not how English nationalists see themselves.
    Because it's not what we are.

    The UK or England is a major power. Of approximately 200 countries in the globe we are in the Top 5 by almost any independent metric for power: economically, defence expenditure etc.

    The UK considering itself a middle nation is like a surgeon considering himself a middle earner.
    We are not a major power and we have not been since the end of the British Empire and Indian independence, that is just reality.

    The only major powers in the world now are the US and China and at a push Russia and India too.

    We are an upper end medium ranked power, which for an island of our size is nothing to be ashamed of
    The UK is arguably more powerful than either Russia or India, but either way they're major powers too.

    We absolutely are a major power which is why we are America's most important ally and someone they always want on side when they go to war.

    Heck Ed Miliband managed to prevent Barack Obama from going to war. You think that would happen for almost any other nation on the planet?

    We are in the top 2.5% of countries on the planet for power. As I said claiming that's not major is like claiming that a well off lawyer, or doctor, or businessman is not "rich" because he's not Jeff Bezos.
    dream on Philip, we are well down the pecking order and would be no chance against Russia or India or France and probably a good few others.
    UK GDP $2.89 trillion
    Russia GDP $1.7 trillion

    Russia is beneath us.
    Changing the subject does not help, militarily was the question. They would whup our asses big time.
    That would depend upon where the fighting was taking place, with what arms of battle, and why.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    kamski said:

    kamski said:

    Sandpit said:

    RobD said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Sandpit said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi reveals the Govt will publish new covid guidelines this week to wear masks on busy trains. "There will be very clear guidance that you'll be expected to wear masks on crowded carriages". This appears to be a change of plan.
    @TimesRadio

    Except it’s not a “change of plan” at all.

    It’s re-affirming what the government actually said last week - as opposed to how the media reported it - that the plan was to replace legislation with guidance from 19th July.
    Did Boris mention replacing legislation with guidance in his press conference at all a week ago ?
    I don't remember it
    Yep:

    We will end the 1 metre plus rule on social distancing, and the legal obligation to wear a face covering, although guidance will suggest where you might choose to do so, especially when cases are rising, and where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet in enclosed places, such as obviously crowded public transport.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-at-coronavirus-press-conference-5-july-2021
    That’s not quite the same thing is it?

    There is a difference between “everyone should continue to wear masks” and “people may decide they wish to continue to wear masks”.
    They’re changing “You MUST wear a mask” with “You SHOULD wear a mask”.

    Maybe I’m used to aviation legislation, where there’s whole chapters on the difference between the words MUST, SHALL, SHOULD, MAY and MIGHT.

    https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/plain_language/articles/authority/
    That's the problem with English: it is far more nuanced than most other languages, although some may express similar distinctions with pitch and tone. I'm hoping tomorrow that Johnson will clarify whether wearing a mask when sitting alone in a car is eccentric, idiotic or barmy.
    Is English really far more nuanced than most other languages? I'd find that very surprising. Do you have a source for this?
    English is the language most foreigners find easiest to learn, so I'd guess not.
    Only "easy" because of exposure and motivation.

    The pronunciation is objectively far more difficult than say Italian. And the spelling is more difficult than any language I know of.
    Including French?
    I did wonder about POlish, but maybe Polish is logical if weird.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    Ireland only elected Westminster MPs from 1801 onwards.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,802
    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Leon said:

    Indeed, I suspect we could all be wearing masks, on crowded public transport, for the rest of our lives

    No we won't. I don't and won't. So you do what you feel you need to in your fear-laden life but I'm living free, ta.

    You only get one of these things. Enjoy it.
    I'm always polite but I'll make an exception if I see someone coughing and not wearing a mask on a crowded train/Tube. He's a selfish git and I'll tell him so. Doubt if I'll be alone and I can foresee some loud arguments about this. It's a pity that the Government has wimped out with their "advice", which lets the selfish infect everyone else. Either they think it's a significant health risk, in which case they should maintain the legislation, or they don't, in which case they shouldn't be bothering with the advice.
    I have had a very bad attack of asthma this last week. One of the consequences has been appalling coughing fits. I have not been out much in consequence. But when I have gone out I have not worn a mask because (a) I am exempt but (b) mainly because it is really quite horrible to wear when one is already struggling to breathe.

    You are in danger of making an assumption about a person without knowing why they are coughing. And, no, I am not wearing a lanyard about me. I'm not some sort of leper to be marked.

    People should not travel if they are ill. They should use handkerchiefs if they sneeze or cough. They would be wise to avoid places where there are likely to be highly vulnerable people. But we cannot live in hermetically sealed bubbles. And if you'd berated me I'd have used what breath I had to give you a piece of my mind!
    Presumably you can sympathise with the discomfort that fellow travellers unaware of the cause of your coughing would feel? How would they distinguish you from a selfish spreader of Covid or flu? No easy answers as we readjust manners and behaviour in public spaces.
    So someone who has got a lung condition that prevents them from wearing a mask but also coughs a lot is just shit out of luck in the new COVID world?

    If people want to protect themselves they should invest in FFP3 masks.
    Or cycle free could wear a lanyard showing exemption

    This isn’t forever. But while we are in the grip of a global pandemic of a respiratory virus, that could yet kill millions more, I don’t see it as a huge imposition

    The greater restriction by far is a return to lockdown. We must avoid that
    That isn't true in the UK. We're 100% of the way through the vaccine programme for categories 1-10 which account for 99.9% of all deaths in the pandemic. You're letting yourself be swayed by zero COVID scientists who are still holding a candle for eliminating it. That just isn't going to happen and we're now in a situation where 5-10k people from unvaccinated by choice cohorts die every year from it. We can't change how we live for that and we wouldn't for flu.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    Ireland only elected Westminster MPs from 1801 onwards.
    Er, "own",
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,557
    6 games all. Fantastic comeback by Berrettini.
  • Labour has charted a path through the Culture Wars, I like this new comms team
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,679

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it

    The UK comes with an historical legacy and significant soft power. No English nationalist politician would voluntarily give that up.

    Soft power? Oh, you mean like all the Eurovision victories :D
    Yes, you’re right, we do do very well in Eurovision


    Last victory 1997.

    https://www.newstatesman.com/1997/2017/05/cool-britannia-where-did-it-all-go-wrong
    We haven't had a decent entry for Eurosong for ages - we aren't going to win by entering meh. OK so the recent collapse in points is a little unfair - this year's null points especially so. But its not like the song was robbed of an obvious victory - it was meh.
    If you're an accomplished song writer you're not going to submit your material for entry into the Eurovision - it would be reputational death.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900
    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,557
    edited July 2021
    The lack of significant increase in these numbers is encouraging, as we wait for today's figures.

    6th July: 31,998
    7th July: 32,193
    8th July: 35,518
    9th July: 32,367

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    The Government had to wait for the opinion polls to come out so they could choose what position to take on masks.

    This Government doesn't make policies, it jumps on bandwagons

    For a week now PB Clown Apologists have insisted that any continuation of mask wearing for public health reasons is tyranny. Now that they have done a massive u-turn to have a clear instruction that the expect people to wear masks, will be fun to see the same people now support that policy. Its like watching Doddsy defending the England team https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6O0P74ALLM
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    Ireland was not a colony as the American colonies were for example, Ireland elected its own Parliament and its own MPs from 1800 when the American colonies never had MPs, hence there was an American revolution but no Irish revolution throughout that timeframe.

    You don't half talk ballox's. When did ordinary people get the vote.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    Ireland only elected Westminster MPs from 1801 onwards.
    Er, "own",
    Actually, my point is Ireland wasn't a colony from 1801.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Nervous that he might actually come back? yeah.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    Sean_F said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    But, you hate the English.

    I don’t know how representative of your countrymen you are, though.
    No I don't you halfwitted cretin.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,353

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    55% weren’t true Scotsmen.
  • The Government had to wait for the opinion polls to come out so they could choose what position to take on masks.

    This Government doesn't make policies, it jumps on bandwagons

    For a week now PB Clown Apologists have insisted that any continuation of mask wearing for public health reasons is tyranny. Now that they have done a massive u-turn to have a clear instruction that the expect people to wear masks, will be fun to see the same people now support that policy. Its like watching Doddsy defending the England team https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6O0P74ALLM
    Johnson fans are just the worst, it's like a cult, he can do no wrong.

    Mostly people aren't like that thank God
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,821
    Berrettini takes the first set 7-6 against Djokovic. He was 2-5 down at one point!
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Nope, don't give a toss.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,561

    Berrettini takes the first set 7-6 against Djokovic. He was 2-5 down at one point!

    Tie-break. It's a sign it's going to penalties, isn't it?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it

    The UK comes with an historical legacy and significant soft power. No English nationalist politician would voluntarily give that up.

    Soft power? Oh, you mean like all the Eurovision victories :D
    Yes, you’re right, we do do very well in Eurovision


    Last victory 1997.

    https://www.newstatesman.com/1997/2017/05/cool-britannia-where-did-it-all-go-wrong
    We haven't had a decent entry for Eurosong for ages - we aren't going to win by entering meh. OK so the recent collapse in points is a little unfair - this year's null points especially so. But its not like the song was robbed of an obvious victory - it was meh.
    If you're an accomplished song writer you're not going to submit your material for entry into the Eurovision - it would be reputational death.
    We need a band to do it as a gag. Big publicity, free booze, opportunity for shenanigans. Euro bands pop-up and do it, we should too.

    I'd have loved to have seen Alestorm enter with Keelhauled. Would have been brilliant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-Z_psXODw
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Get in.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    edited July 2021

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    RP, unfortunately the frothers on here are not interested in reality , they prefer their ignorant views to be portrayed. As you say apart from a few knobs people in Scotland like the English as much as anyone else.
    That does not fit the bigotted viewpoint fostered on here though.
  • They have really cocked up the masks. How does this keep happening
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    edited July 2021

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Andy_JS said:

    The lack of significant increase in these numbers is encouraging, as we wait for today's figures.

    6th July: 31,998
    7th July: 32,193
    8th July: 35,518
    9th July: 32,367

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

    Whilst better than the alternative uk covid new cases rises in weekly steps. People on here were fooling themselves in early June about "new case numbers not rising" of the week
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,557
    edited July 2021

    They have really cocked up the masks. How does this keep happening

    The policy hasn't changed. It's still up to people to make their own decisions, based on guidance. Government ministers are saying it's probably sensible to wear them on crowded trains, but if you're the only person in a carriage you probably don't need to wear one.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    They didn't want to leave the EU, for a start. They were promised that the only way to guyarantee that was to vote No.
    They wanted the promised federalism, for another. Ditto.
    Instead they got Brexit and EVEL.
  • sarissasarissa Posts: 1,993

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    The % of the electorate in those countries who identified with the existing ruling nationality being much smaller?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    In 2014 Scotland had asked for the right to determine its own future, voted to stay as they are - not a colony. In 2021 Scotland asked for the right to determine its own future, got told to fuck off as whatever they vote for they can't have it - colony.

    Things have changed. Now that democracy and self-determination no longer apply, and Westminster applies the tyranny of English voters choices onto nations like NI, we truly are colonies. We can vote however we like, but we can never leave.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Live stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    Thanks!!

    This seems to work better?
    #
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,557

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Yes, I remember reading about his near-death experience in a hot air balloon in about 1984.
  • NorthofStokeNorthofStoke Posts: 1,758
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Until 1997, it was not allowed to enact or modify its own laws except by permission of your nation. Poll tax, remember?
    Laws enacted by a joint parliament to which it sent a disproportionately high number of MPs.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,557
    Wimbledon commentator talking about pineapple on pizza.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900
    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,561

    Berrettini takes the first set 7-6 against Djokovic. He was 2-5 down at one point!

    Let's just hope Italy don't come back from 2-5 down tonight.....
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    malcolmg said:

    kamski said:

    Tres said:

    Tres said:

    Tres said:

    On the culture stuff, we do import - unthinkingly - the latest trends and fights from the USA, often within days, but what I like about the UK is that we look for compromise and common ground on most things. We also have a good nose for what represents fair play.

    I've found the last 12 months extremely stressful because I detest the quasi-marxist attacks on our culture, history and heritage but I've felt at risk of being painted for racism if I speak out against it, so have quietly fumed in the background - instead trying to work out how to best combat it anonymously. I've also hated the framing of equality debate around the relative positions of "groups" in a hierarchy, with the eye of suspicion on all of us in the wrong place, and have felt under criticism just because of who I am.

    However, at the same time, I have tried to reach out to colleagues to try and see if I've missed something in the past and ensure they feel more included and as patriotic as I am. Invariably I've found those opinions reasonable, measured and varied and nothing like the Woke activists portray - I've tried to find areas of common ground (be it in Christianity, sport, engineering and history) and build on that instead. To me, that's Britishness. We are not Americans.

    I know that some people will try and exploit any England victory politically today, there are already signs of it in various parts of the media, but it shouldn't and won't be about anything other than national unity, so I know they will fail.

    Why? Because we won't let them - we're British.

    I think the first and last paragraphs are what let's you down. There is nothing uniquely British about seeking consensus and fairness.
    Oh, I'd say it's absolutely a British trait.

    Your comment lets you down.
    Not just me. My wife has just fallen off her chair laughing at you.
    You can both laugh all you like. My views are supported by polling on this.

    There's a certain form of Lefty who likes to decry any form of national culture or character because they see it as a segue to anachronistic and chauvinistic attitudes. Thus, when you say "this is a British trait" or "British values include this" they love to say, "like most other nations" or "no, I don't agree with that one".

    It's all rather pathetic really. A culture is defined by the mores, attitudes and spirit that characteristics it in aggregate and gives it its essence, in conjunction with its geography, weather, and heritage. Each nation has a unique cocktail of those. And they are always definitely a Thing - recognisable and definable. This is ours.

    You can sledge it but you don't get to wipe it.
    I agree that most of the rest of the world would certainly identify pomposity and arrogance as a definite British Thing.
    In my experience Britain is famous for three things around the world, none of them particularly justified although all may contain a grain of truth:
    Terrible food
    Miserable weather
    Good sense of humour

    Are the British seen as especially arrogant? Lots of people do think that British believe they are superior to everyone else, so maybe yes.
    I think you mean English
    Scottish Nationalism is so much better than other nationalisms.....
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,353

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    In 2014 Scotland had asked for the right to determine its own future, voted to stay as they are - not a colony. In 2021 Scotland asked for the right to determine its own future, got told to fuck off as whatever they vote for they can't have it - colony.

    Things have changed. Now that democracy and self-determination no longer apply, and Westminster applies the tyranny of English voters choices onto nations like NI, we truly are colonies. We can vote however we like, but we can never leave.
    Tyranny? Get real.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Until 1997, it was not allowed to enact or modify its own laws except by permission of your nation. Poll tax, remember?
    Laws enacted by a joint parliament to which it sent a disproportionately high number of MPs.
    But which were mostly enacted by non-Scots mps. Even wehen they applied to Scotland alone, for instance its legal system.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319

    They have really cocked up the masks. How does this keep happening

    you seriously ask that question?
  • NorthofStokeNorthofStoke Posts: 1,758

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,715

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,991
    Andy_JS said:

    Wimbledon commentator talking about pineapple on pizza.

    Apparently the Italian are more upset that many Brits put cream in their Carbonara sauce....rather than the odd weirdo putting pineapple on pizzas.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Live stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    Thanks!!

    This seems to work better?
    #
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
    It is on Aljazeera as well, only news programme that is not talking about England.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Pumping up the air into the water in the rocket, I expect.

    Things seem to be happening here ...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    In 2014 Scotland had asked for the right to determine its own future, voted to stay as they are - not a colony. In 2021 Scotland asked for the right to determine its own future, got told to fuck off as whatever they vote for they can't have it - colony.

    Things have changed. Now that democracy and self-determination no longer apply, and Westminster applies the tyranny of English voters choices onto nations like NI, we truly are colonies. We can vote however we like, but we can never leave.
    Almost no other nation on the face of the Earth recognises the right of secession at all. According to your definition that makes almost every country of any size in the world, save perhaps the UK and Canada, empires holding collections of colonies under the yoke.

    I mean, don't get me wrong, I wish the Government would let Scotland have another vote and that it would go. The 2014 decision was a catastrophic error of judgment. The Union can and will never work again, because too large a fraction of the Scottish population wants rid of it for it ever to be stable. But that much said, if you're sitting in London and genuinely believe in and are trying to make the wretched, pointless, clapped out arrangement work, then would you allow an endless sequence of plebiscites to take place every time Scotland elects a nationalist parliament? Because this is precisely the outcome you are arguing for: an endless cycle of referendums, on demand, every five years, until one of them generates the correct result.

    If you vote to make yourselves a sub-national entity then you can't then complain if not everything revolves around you all of the time.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386
    edited July 2021

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,912

    Roger said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    Why do you think England winning will help on the road to the dissolution of the Union? I should say that nothing would please me more than a dissolution of the Union if you could rejoin the EU. I'd become Scottish in a heartbeat. I loathe the ugly isolationist country we've become. They're even talking about Liz Truss for PM!
    Track record. 1966 was fantastic for both Plaid and the SNP, a gift that kept giving for over half a century.

    We’d love to have you Roger. You are in good company as we take in refugees fleeing from England’s ugly Brexit revolution.
    Point of info: Carmarthen by-election (14 July) preceded the World Cup final (30 July) and inspired the England team to try that little bit harder to preserve the union.
    Radio 4 has just said that no country has won the Eurovision song contest has won the European cup in the same year.

    I wonder if any country who came last has?
  • malcolmg said:

    They have really cocked up the masks. How does this keep happening

    you seriously ask that question?
    I was being ironic
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
    Taken oiff now on this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,083
    justin124 said:

    I have asked a few soccer fans in recent days how a referee would be likely to react to being told by a player to 'F... Off.' There appears to be some uncertainty here. Were I the referee , I would not hesitate to issue the Red Card.

    Most refs know the clubs and fans would not have their back if they did that, even if it was/is a cast iron rule that you give a red in such situations. They'd be screwed over pretty quick.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,175
    Apparently the England team tonight is:

    Pickford

    Trippier
    Walker
    Maguire
    Stones
    Shaw

    Rice
    Phillips
    Mount

    Kane
    Sterling
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    live on Al Jazeera and in the air live
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
    Taken oiff now on this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
    COunting down on VG feed now
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,083

    Andy_JS said:

    Wimbledon commentator talking about pineapple on pizza.

    Apparently the Italian are more upset that many Brits put cream in their Carbonara sauce....rather than the odd weirdo putting pineapple on pizzas.
    Can't see what it matters if it tastes good. We can callit British Carbonara Style Sauce.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
    Taken oiff now on this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
    COunting down on VG feed now
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y
    .. and commercial break!
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
    I think NOS is just not very bright, he obviously never majored in geography and seems to know as much about coastline/ports as Raab.
  • https://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1414233808606478338

    Yeah, I don't like this kind of thing my friends
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,991
    Stephen Colbert will do anything for the reddies.....and not funny.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Why do I get the feeling there’s a delay on this VG programme?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,083

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    You seem to be a big fan of extrapolating individual experience into a diatribe against an entire national culture - that's what gets peoples' back up, as you treat your conclusion as proven fact not opinion.

    I've never seen or heard any such abuse in my town in 30+ yearts, but I did see one incident when I was in Leicester for 4 years - should I decide Leicester is a more bigoted place from that? Certainly not.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,386
    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
    I think NOS is just not very bright, he obviously never majored in geography and seems to know as much about coastline/ports as Raab.
    Or indeed, those people who say Scotland would find trade with the EU easy as an independent nation.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,083
    tlg86 said:

    Apparently the England team tonight is:

    Pickford

    Trippier
    Walker
    Maguire
    Stones
    Shaw

    Rice
    Phillips
    Mount

    Kane
    Sterling

    Criticising team selection is completely normal behaviour from fans, but given the man's gotten to the final I don't think many will critique whoever Southgate picks.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
    Taken oiff now on this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
    COunting down on VG feed now
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y
    .. and commercial break!
    Totally Live on Al Jazeera , no breaks so far , made a great job of reporting it. BBC should have people watching how NEWS is done.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    About 2,500’ higher than the stream.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900
    Sean_F said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    Of course your love of the English comes out here so regularly Malc, nothing but rays of sunshine for those south of the border
    Only as tyrants , I have no beef with ordinary people, however imperialists I hate. We are their last colony and their last vestige of glory, insecure , immoral , thieving , lying wasters.
    If Scotland was a colony it would not elect MPs let alone have its own Parliament
    Ireland had its own parliament when it was a colony 1297-1800.
    OK, I shouldn't do this but I'm going to anyway. If Scotland is a colony, then why did it vote to remain a colony in 2014? Amongst many others, Malaysia managed to become independent. So did Belize. So did Malawi. Several of them, including Ireland, resorted to armed insurrections in an effort to get rid of the hated empire. And then we come to Scotland, which is not a dirt poor island somewhere off the coast of Africa or in the middle of the Pacific, but one of the great ancient states of Europe with a powerful parliament, many other long-established and respected separate institutions, and that is very rich by any reasonable assessment.

    "Would you like independence? Look, here is an open door, all you have to do is walk through it."

    "No, thank you."

    It's absolutely laughable. The vote resolved nothing, and arguably made the situation worse rather than better. Everything that has happened in Scottish politics since has revolved around or been influenced by this notion that the nation and its people are abused and hard done by in the relationship that they voted freely to maintain only seven years ago.

    So, what went wrong?
    In 2014 Scotland had asked for the right to determine its own future, voted to stay as they are - not a colony. In 2021 Scotland asked for the right to determine its own future, got told to fuck off as whatever they vote for they can't have it - colony.

    Things have changed. Now that democracy and self-determination no longer apply, and Westminster applies the tyranny of English voters choices onto nations like NI, we truly are colonies. We can vote however we like, but we can never leave.
    Tyranny? Get real.
    From your perspective in England? I hear you. Now go over the water to NI. Quite a lot of people on both sides of the political divide think its outrageous what is being done to them against their will. Not only are their votes ignored, but their local politicians were directly lied to by the PM...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    https://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1414233808606478338

    Yeah, I don't like this kind of thing my friends

    Looke dit up while waiting on the rocket. I noticed this para in Wiki:

    "There are songs that use the same tune with different words. For example, teams playing against Welsh teams use the words "10 sheep shaggers" and "And the farmers of England shot one down". It has also been sung as "10 Northern Monkeys" against teams in Northern England.

    Northern Ireland supporters also sing the song replacing England with Ulster, and this song is usually followed by "The Dam Busters March".[citation needed] Fans of Rangers also regularly sing "Ten German Bombers", replacing the word "England" with "Britain"."

  • BoJo vs Starmer ratings are fascinating.

    They are disliked almost equally but BoJo is slightly more favourable than Starmer - how do Starmer's don't knows look these days?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    malcolmg said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    nothing seems to be happening. Has the streaming broke?
    Stream hasn’t started yet. CNN appear to be covering though, the plane’s taxiing at the moment.
    Taken oiff now on this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI2_cpR9Ek
    COunting down on VG feed now
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y
    .. and commercial break!
    Totally Live on Al Jazeera , no breaks so far , made a great job of reporting it. BBC should have people watching how NEWS is done.
    https://www.aljazeera.com/live
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it
    “Medium ranked power” is not how English nationalists see themselves.
    Because it's not what we are.

    The UK or England is a major power. Of approximately 200 countries in the globe we are in the Top 5 by almost any independent metric for power: economically, defence expenditure etc.

    The UK considering itself a middle nation is like a surgeon considering himself a middle earner.
    We are not a major power and we have not been since the end of the British Empire and Indian independence, that is just reality.

    The only major powers in the world now are the US and China and at a push Russia and India too.

    We are an upper end medium ranked power, which for an island of our size is nothing to be ashamed of
    The UK is arguably more powerful than either Russia or India, but either way they're major powers too.

    We absolutely are a major power which is why we are America's most important ally and someone they always want on side when they go to war.

    Heck Ed Miliband managed to prevent Barack Obama from going to war. You think that would happen for almost any other nation on the planet?

    We are in the top 2.5% of countries on the planet for power. As I said claiming that's not major is like claiming that a well off lawyer, or doctor, or businessman is not "rich" because he's not Jeff Bezos.
    dream on Philip, we are well down the pecking order and would be no chance against Russia or India or France and probably a good few others.
    UK GDP $2.89 trillion
    Russia GDP $1.7 trillion

    Russia is beneath us.
    Changing the subject does not help, militarily was the question. They would whup our asses big time.
    No they would not.

    Militarily they won't face us or vice versa due to MAD. We have Trident.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,958
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Whatever the result, it is going to explode tonight

    ‘Midday at Wembley Stadium...fans on top of busses, clearly pacing themselves eight hours before kickoff #ENGITA #England’

    https://twitter.com/ewither/status/1414216397371084803?s=21

    Violence if we lose, good natured violence if we win

    And plenty of COVID to go around....
    I really do hope not - but not much hope. That lot looks as if it will make the Rangers fans in Glasgow and the Scots Euro fans look like a kindergarten crocodile in Morningside. And look what happened in Glasgow and Edinburgh pox wise.
    BBC seem to have stopped their ‘Scotland is Europe’s Covid Hotspot’ catastrophising, though haven’t informed us which country is now Europe’s Covid hotspot. An oversight soon to be sorted out I’m sure.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
    I think NOS is just not very bright, he obviously never majored in geography and seems to know as much about coastline/ports as Raab.
    Or indeed, those people who say Scotland would find trade with the EU easy as an independent nation.
    As an independent country we could have our own ports and trade routes rather than being forced to use or despotic tyrant masters ports.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
    I think NOS is just not very bright, he obviously never majored in geography and seems to know as much about coastline/ports as Raab.
    Or indeed, those people who say Scotland would find trade with the EU easy as an independent nation.
    As an independent country we could have our own ports and trade routes rather than being forced to use or despotic tyrant masters ports.
    Brussels?
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    Ok Victor.

    No need to be miserable. The US has long defined 80km as the boundary for astronaut wings.
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    edited July 2021
    Sandpit said:

    About 2,500’ higher than the stream.
    If you zoom in you can see both aircraft - VGX01 & VGX03
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,715

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Whatever the result, it is going to explode tonight

    ‘Midday at Wembley Stadium...fans on top of busses, clearly pacing themselves eight hours before kickoff #ENGITA #England’

    https://twitter.com/ewither/status/1414216397371084803?s=21

    Violence if we lose, good natured violence if we win

    And plenty of COVID to go around....
    I really do hope not - but not much hope. That lot looks as if it will make the Rangers fans in Glasgow and the Scots Euro fans look like a kindergarten crocodile in Morningside. And look what happened in Glasgow and Edinburgh pox wise.
    BBC seem to have stopped their ‘Scotland is Europe’s Covid Hotspot’ catastrophising, though haven’t informed us which country is now Europe’s Covid hotspot. An oversight soon to be sorted out I’m sure.
    Newcastle and Middlesborough?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585

    Sandpit said:

    About 2,500’ higher than the stream.
    If you zoom in you can see both aircraft - VX01 & VX03
    Good spot. 01 is the one with the rocket.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,958
    A tribute to Branson and his ego trip?


  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    We already have an English nationalist government in Westminster

    No we don't.

    If an actual English nationalist administration ever came to power in London then item one on the agenda would be the dissolution of the Union.

    Given that we do have an English nationalist government we can see that is not the case. For all kinds of historical reasons, the Union gives English nationalists a level of international weight, prestige and significance its dissolution would remove.

    Actually it doesn't, we ceased to be a superpower when we gave India independence.

    England would still be a medium ranked power in or outside the Union, it is Scotland and Wales who would go from medium ranked power to small, largely insignificant power (albeit the Scots at least might try to regain that by rejoining the EU, in which case they would not be seeking full complete independence anyway).

    However even England would still fall from about the 5th to 7th largest economy if the Union ended so we are all stronger with it
    “Medium ranked power” is not how English nationalists see themselves.
    Because it's not what we are.

    The UK or England is a major power. Of approximately 200 countries in the globe we are in the Top 5 by almost any independent metric for power: economically, defence expenditure etc.

    The UK considering itself a middle nation is like a surgeon considering himself a middle earner.
    We are not a major power and we have not been since the end of the British Empire and Indian independence, that is just reality.

    The only major powers in the world now are the US and China and at a push Russia and India too.

    We are an upper end medium ranked power, which for an island of our size is nothing to be ashamed of
    The UK is arguably more powerful than either Russia or India, but either way they're major powers too.

    We absolutely are a major power which is why we are America's most important ally and someone they always want on side when they go to war.

    Heck Ed Miliband managed to prevent Barack Obama from going to war. You think that would happen for almost any other nation on the planet?

    We are in the top 2.5% of countries on the planet for power. As I said claiming that's not major is like claiming that a well off lawyer, or doctor, or businessman is not "rich" because he's not Jeff Bezos.
    dream on Philip, we are well down the pecking order and would be no chance against Russia or India or France and probably a good few others.
    UK GDP $2.89 trillion
    Russia GDP $1.7 trillion

    Russia is beneath us.
    Changing the subject does not help, militarily was the question. They would whup our asses big time.
    No they would not.

    Militarily they won't face us or vice versa due to MAD. We have Trident.
    PMSL, so if we ensure we get totally wiped out we still get beat as we could not target every part of Russia or India etc.
    You don't think these things out much before posting do you.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900
    kle4 said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    You seem to be a big fan of extrapolating individual experience into a diatribe against an entire national culture - that's what gets peoples' back up, as you treat your conclusion as proven fact not opinion.

    I've never seen or heard any such abuse in my town in 30+ yearts, but I did see one incident when I was in Leicester for 4 years - should I decide Leicester is a more bigoted place from that? Certainly not.

    No, I treat my anecdotes as anecdotes, as I'm sure yours are.

    My point stands. England is passing a law to make it illegal to assist migrants. To stop the lifeboats pulling drowning kids out of the water. Do I think that England is a more bigoted country towards migration than pro-migration Scotland? Doesn't the policy make that reality?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,991
    When the mathematical modellera are doing their work to estimate things like hospital admissions...i bet they don't have a parameter for this such behaviour!
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,580
    Sandpit said:

    About 2,500’ higher than the stream.
    I wish beardy all the best, but really, this plane is utterly pointless. When it comes to sub-orbital hops, I'm definitely in the Bezos camp.

    Worse, four people have died in its development-including one during flight. Sadly, whilst Virgin at least deign to remember the pilot who died, the three engineers who died back in 2007 due to Virgin/Scaled Composites incompetence seem to be forgotten.

    Space Ship One was an amazing achievement - back in 2003. It was also very hard to scale, and it has taken them 18 years and four lives to get to this stage. I hope it does not claim any more.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,817
    tlg86 said:

    Apparently the England team tonight is:

    Pickford

    Trippier
    Walker
    Maguire
    Stones
    Shaw

    Rice
    Phillips
    Mount

    Kane
    Sterling

    So defensive. Really dependent on Sterling and Shaw to create anything for Kane.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Playing at Red Arrows.

    If he gets third degree burns and covid the outlook will not be a happy one.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,319
    edited July 2021
    Sandpit said:

    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    ydoethur said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    Funny thing is that so many migrants (legal and illegal) head for racist England rather than its neighbours.
    TBF, it’s not easy to get to Ireland illegally and bloody difficult to get to Scotland legally or illegally without going through England.

    Meanwhile, Kent is literally within swimming distance of France.

    This is of course one reason why the Little Scotlander vision of splitting themselves off from England and putting a massive border apparatus in place would be problematic.
    I think NOS is just not very bright, he obviously never majored in geography and seems to know as much about coastline/ports as Raab.
    Or indeed, those people who say Scotland would find trade with the EU easy as an independent nation.
    As an independent country we could have our own ports and trade routes rather than being forced to use or despotic tyrant masters ports.
    Brussels?
    As we have found out through unionist stupidity , they don't make stupid rules , it is the plonkers down south that have no clue how to do things. You do not have to send all your money to Brussels and they do not control you 100%.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    kle4 said:

    malcolmg said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:

    At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.

    Indeed.

    * Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.

    I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.

    Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman.
    Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
    What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.

    However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
    The problem with you FUDHY is that you understand neo-Unionism (and are an invaluable source of information on that movement), but you are utterly clueless about all other important blocs:

    1. traditional Unionism of the sort that has kept the Union clinging on this last half century, ie the SLab/SLD/civic-Scotland axis

    2. the Scottish independence movement

    3. and most importantly, ordinary Scots
    The 55% of Scots who voted No in 2014 are not that bothered either way whether England win or lose tonight but will politely wish them well.

    It is only the 45% of Scots who voted Yes like you who absolutely despise the England team and are praying for an Italy win, as demonstrated by the headline in the National
    Ahem...

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/7347681/scotland-fans-england-euro-2020-poll/

    My own guess would be that the Scottish population falls roughly into thirds.

    -One third still thinks of itself as either primarily or secondarily British, is broadly friendly and will wish us (the English) well
    -One third thinks of itself as only Scottish and, whilst not actively hostile, regards England as its main rival and will support anyone but England in anything
    -The final third hates us
    My father belonged to that first third you name: proudly British, pro-monarchy (one of his proudest possessions was a press photo of him showing HMQ round his workplace), did his bit during the war. He couldn’t stand any English sports team or individual sportsperson. The air was blue when an England football or rugby team took the field. He also detested what Margaret Thatcher did to the civil service and NHS (despite voting for Malcolm Rifkind as his MP).
    Folk are funny.

    A lot of die-hard Unionists will be supporting Italy tonight.
    A lot of Scottish sovereignty supporters will want to see an English victory.
    Typical of the pathetic attitude that they actually believe a third of Scottish people hate the English.
    So blinkered and ignorant of reality in their little jingistic bubbles.
    I've lived here in my little Buchan village for 5 months now. I haven't exactly hidden myself under a stone and have heard literally one single anti-English comment, and even that as much anti-woman as English.

    There are nobbers wherever you go. But whatever visceral hatred of me there is for not being born here, I haven't seen or heard it. Unlike the abuse that was so ingrained into the "parochial bigotry" of my former small North Yorkshire town against anyone who wasn't born and raised there.

    Without wanting to reopen this morning's quite funny "attacks" on me (bless), there is a definite compare and contrast between my new country who has a pro-migration policy and my old country now making it illegal to rescue a drowning migrant child.
    You seem to be a big fan of extrapolating individual experience into a diatribe against an entire national culture - that's what gets peoples' back up, as you treat your conclusion as proven fact not opinion.

    I've never seen or heard any such abuse in my town in 30+ yearts, but I did see one incident when I was in Leicester for 4 years - should I decide Leicester is a more bigoted place from that? Certainly not.

    No, I treat my anecdotes as anecdotes, as I'm sure yours are.

    My point stands. England is passing a law to make it illegal to assist migrants. To stop the lifeboats pulling drowning kids out of the water. Do I think that England is a more bigoted country towards migration than pro-migration Scotland? Doesn't the policy make that reality?
    Seriously? Such a law?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900

    Sandpit said:

    Anyone else slightly nervous for Richard Branson?

    Stream goes live in 5 minutes.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTpWYWIfP7Y

    Half a million viewers waiting.

    He’s either going to make history as the first man to privately send himself into space...
    He isn't going into space. However he markets his decade late white elephant it isn't going high enough to be in space.
    Ok Victor.

    No need to be miserable. The US has long defined 80km as the boundary for astronaut wings.
    Oh ok then. Its just that the prototype for Virgin Galactic had to clear the Karman Line to win the X Prize. If the line was 20km lower then perhaps it would have been easier.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,900
    Did Branson design their uniforms? Fabulous... :o
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,991
    edited July 2021
    31,772....26..... admissions don't seem to have been updated (might be my computer caching).
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835

    Did Branson design their uniforms? Fabulous... :o

    Bering escorted by long-haired ladies in jumpsuits - impossible not to recall 007's baddies.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,585
    Wow, the Captain of Branson’s rocket ship has 140 different aircraft types in his logbook!
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,835
    Carnyx said:

    Did Branson design their uniforms? Fabulous... :o

    Bering escorted by long-haired ladies in jumpsuits - impossible not to recall 007's baddies.
    PS Of course he would be - they're going in to a rocket/plane, sorry. But there's something about the whole Gestalt.
This discussion has been closed.