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BoJo’s “vaccine bounce” seems to be over but Starmer remains in negative territory – politicalbettin

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  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited July 2021
    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Normally, you go to Boots and ask for it and they charge you £10-15.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,266
    edited July 2021

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to be pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,766
    TOPPING said:

    @HYUFD in your unthinking relay of the Elphicke tweet you have highlighted an interesting point.

    It was a totally fucking stupid thing to say, as we all pointed out to you last night. But your response is "well the Tories love it and agree with it".

    And there you have a great example of what we have been saying wrt the Conservatives right now. The Tories are justifying policy simply because it is popular. Not because it is right and even, in the Rashford example, when it is manifestly, obviously wrong.

    That is where you have taken the Conservative Party to and you should be ashamed.

    It is not HYUFD's finest moment, but I think to blame him for how the Conservative Party is today is a bit harsh as he strikes me as pretty moderate normally. There are plenty of other posters on here that I would say are more representative of the folk that have turned the broad church Conservative Party into a narrow minded populist cult.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,772
    Leon said:

    Cookie said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    This is what happens when people's only news sources are the Guardian and the BBC.
    That’s long been the case for metro luvvies. This new insanity is special

    I’m pretty sure it’s Brexit - plus the echo-chamber of Twitter

    The process is: Brexit sends you mad, for a while, and in the past you would generally recover. But these days Twitter rewards you for your nuttiness, with the dopamine hit of ‘likes’, so you persist
    The irony of giving that a like is just impossible to resist. Which is part of the problem really. Each side feeds on the other causing ever greater division and all round madness.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,013
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    FPT

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign as that Yougov polling data shows
    Lets be clear. 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids. A significant number of whom are the same WWC they complain are discriminated against by taking the knee.

    Same with the education committee Tories horrified at the poor attainment of WWC pupils yet seem to think that repeatedly voting to reduce funding for the schools they go to, repeatedly attacking teachers and exams (too easy) and voting to keep them dirt poor (no we won't keep feeding them in the holidays, we can't afford it).

    I would have more respect for them if they were open about it. We don't like poor people and won't pay for them. The likes of Ben Bradley get mocked when they say poor people will spend handout cash on drugs but at least he is open. the rest are frit.
    It was only free school meals in the holidays they opposed not free school meals in term time when at school, I support that but in the holidays parents get benefits to feed their children if out of work or on a low income
    They get the "benefits" in term time as well. And yet the schools still need to feed them and sometimes clothe them. Blame the parents if you like, but the people who suffer are the children. Who then do poorly at school causing you and yours to then pretend to care about the consequences of your actions.

    Just be clear with everyone, it makes like much easier. You and yours don't care about these kids, don't care about their life chances, and don't think you should pay for them.
    If it is the school holidays then by definition they are not at school.

    As I said I agree with free school meals during term time when they are at school
    Yes, they're not at school. Turning term time the schools need to feed them. Who do you think is feeding them in the holidays? It isn't the parents, that's the whole point.
    Unless they are orphans, living with another family member or in care then yes their parents will be feeding them and in the holidays they get benefits for that if on low incomes or out of work
    Indeed! Their parents "benefits" are sufficient for them to all survive on which is why we need breakfast clubs and free school dinners and teachers giving out snacks, sanitary items and even clothes! So of course they're all fine in the holidays.

    Clueless. Aloof. Selfish. Yup, you;re a Tory Association Chair alright.
  • glwglw Posts: 9,535

    glw said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    Two famous and intelligent writers. A pure example of Strasbourg Syndrome. 10/10
    Nothing to do with Strasbourg, just your typical leftwing luvvies being deranged and hating Tories.

    The Tories want to kill the poor and destroy the NHS has been a meme of the far left since long before Brexit.
    People having been saying "Tories are going to privatise the NHS" my entire life. Well they are taking their bloody time about it.
    The Tories have been destroying the NHS since before I was borne.

    The first destruction of the NHS I remember was when, in the 80s, the government allowed micro-surgery (small incision, fibre optic stuff). I remember a very irate surgeon explaining on Radio 4 that a real surgeon needed a proper incision and this stupid American idea would destroy the NHS.

    Then there were generic drugs. Apparently, the people of the UK *needed* the most expensive drugs available.

    And so it goes on....
    Mind you I don't really understand why "privatise the NHS" gets such traction with the public. Last time I looked the NHS, like all health services, is extremely dependent on private companies for equipment, medicines, construction, services, etc. So there is now, has been, and likely always will be a major role for private companies in providing healthcare.

    People seem to associate the phrase "privatise the NHS" with being being run for profit and not providing universal healthcare, but you can have not for profit private companies providing healthcare, and you can have universal healthcare with private provision. The phrase really seems to work because it evokes fear due to change, but the NHS does need to change and evolve to keep up with advances in medicine.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    That last line is very good! Are you a novelist?
    Apparently there is a novel in all of us. Some of us have the good sense to keep it there.
    "Legin Niamerof knew something was up when Tilly didn't come home that night..."
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,266

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    That last line is very good! Are you a novelist?
    Apparently there is a novel in all of us. Some of us have the good sense to keep it there.
    Yes, I’ve often thought how awful it would be to write a novel, make a million quid, then spend the rest of my loafing about

    Thank god I have the daily grind - literally! - of the flint knappers, to keep me grounded
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,772

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Fantastic quote.
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    HYUFD said:

    At the moment the polling suggests we are heading for a 1992 style result, the Tories would be re elected but with a smaller majority than in 2019

    That might be true of an election being held today , but we have little idea as to how the polls will look 18 months or 2 years from now.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    I think you could make a fairly cogent argument that the NHS has, actually, collapsed anyway. 13 million forecast to be in line for treatment. Wait weeks for a photocall with your GP. A&E overwhelmed because there are no alternatives.

    If we locked down to save the NHS, in fact we failed. We didn't save the NHS. It collapsed anyway. It folded up like a deck chair in a gale.
    Rubbish. I am in Dundee, until recently the hot spot for Covid in Europe, apparently (well, it makes a nice change from drug deaths). I had a recent trip to hospital in Edinburgh. They wrote to my GP and Ninewells for follow up tests. The practice phoned me last week. I went in for my bloods etc, this morning. I am told to expect the results on Thursday. This is not the performance of a collapsed organisation.

    Hundreds of thousands of others are receiving their ongoing treatment on a daily basis. Statements like yours are, with respect, every bit as wild and demented as that of Philip Pullman's. Is any sense of perspective just old hat now?
    Er, you're in the Scottish Health Service (till it was deliberately and maliciously renamed, to maximise Unionist appearance, by IIRC Mr Rifkind).

    Different from the NHS England which is what Mr Hancock and Mr Javid were/are i/c.

    Ditto Wales and NI.

    But they are of course linked in many ways, not least Barnett consequentials.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 23,929

    glw said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    Two famous and intelligent writers. A pure example of Strasbourg Syndrome. 10/10
    Nothing to do with Strasbourg, just your typical leftwing luvvies being deranged and hating Tories.

    The Tories want to kill the poor and destroy the NHS has been a meme of the far left since long before Brexit.
    People having been saying "Tories are going to privatise the NHS" my entire life. Well they are taking their bloody time about it.
    I thought there was only 3 mins to save the NHS? The clock seems to have been suck at 3 mins to for so many years now, while funding has gone us.
    Funny thing is, it turns out all those hysterical lefties saying the NHS was in crisis every winter turned out to be right. Then it was flu which went away in the spring. Now it is Covid, which doesn't.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005
    I just don't know who Keir Starmer is.

    Is he a typical six figure income 90s north London lawyer like Tony Blair?
    Is he secretly a Corbynite unsure as to whether the nation is ready to accept full socialism?
    Is he more Ed Miliband. Social justice warrior but you know, of the gradualist, pragmatic kind

    Maybe he's secretly a bit of a Lib Dem who thinks Labour have a better chance of being elected.

    I'm not being mischievous I genuinely don't know.
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,766
    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    TOPPING said:

    @HYUFD in your unthinking relay of the Elphicke tweet you have highlighted an interesting point.

    It was a totally fucking stupid thing to say, as we all pointed out to you last night. But your response is "well the Tories love it and agree with it".

    And there you have a great example of what we have been saying wrt the Conservatives right now. The Tories are justifying policy simply because it is popular. Not because it is right and even, in the Rashford example, when it is manifestly, obviously wrong.

    That is where you have taken the Conservative Party to and you should be ashamed.

    It is not HYUFD's finest moment, but I think to blame him for how the Conservative Party is today is a bit harsh as he strikes me as pretty moderate normally. There are plenty of other posters on here that I would say are more representative of the folk that have turned the broad church Conservative Party into a narrow minded populist cult.
    That is true. We have established that we all value @HYUFD's contributions.

    But the fact that he justified something so obviously ridiculous in terms of "well it is popular" speaks volumes for everyone currently in the Cons Party.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign
    So you're saying she is a liar making a false apology, rather than that she feels she made an error in her comment?

    An interesting way to stick up for a party colleague.
    He can never say the word sorry and now he is throwing a colleague to the wolves

    She has made a genuine apology and demonstrates to @HYUFD how it is done but he is too pig headed and stupid to realise it
    I am not going to apologise for holding a view most of my fellow Tory voters hold ie they opposed Rashford's campaign, yes it was a but of a cheap comment but unlike you I do not always give in to the left while huffing and puffing about how awful Boris is and then voting for him anyway!
    Since you normally have an opinion poll to back whatever viewpoint you want, even if other polls say differently, have you got an opinion poll showing most Tory voters opposed Rashford's campaign?

    Or are you making that up?

    This Tory voter supported his campaign and called for the government to u-turn on this site before they did. Which is funny given how often I'm farcically accused of being a "fanboy" or even "CCHQ". 🙄
    Yes Yougov

    47% of 2019 Tory voters opposed Rashford's campaign, only 42% in favour.

    By contrast 71% of Labour voters backed Rashford's campaign as did 67% of LD voters
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20

    Given you voted for Blair in 2001 as did BigG when I was campaigning for Hague and the Tories you are hardly either diehard Tories anyway
    Philip also voted for the crypto-fascist Brexit Party; a party founded by Farage who has been described as openly racist by Alan Sked who founded UKIP. Philip is not a Conservative.
    True as well while I was one of the 9% who voted for May's Tories even in the 2019 European elections
    Which is nothing to be proud about. Unless you want the party to return to getting 9% in the future you need the party to attract those who aren't just Blue Corbynite zealots.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Go to a chemist when they put the poster in the window and buy one. That worked for all years prior to last year.

    This year I've already had an email about booking mine and I've registered at Lloyds Pharmacy via https://lloydspharmacy.com/pages/flu-vaccination
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited July 2021

    glw said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    Two famous and intelligent writers. A pure example of Strasbourg Syndrome. 10/10
    Nothing to do with Strasbourg, just your typical leftwing luvvies being deranged and hating Tories.

    The Tories want to kill the poor and destroy the NHS has been a meme of the far left since long before Brexit.
    People having been saying "Tories are going to privatise the NHS" my entire life. Well they are taking their bloody time about it.
    I thought there was only 3 mins to save the NHS? The clock seems to have been suck at 3 mins to for so many years now, while funding has gone us.
    Funny thing is, it turns out all those hysterical lefties saying the NHS was in crisis every winter turned out to be right. Then it was flu which went away in the spring. Now it is Covid, which doesn't.
    As you know, it isn't just that. With COVID, when the wave hits, it is nothing like flu season...it goes from deadly quiet to warzone in a mater of days, with hoardes of people in critical condition arriving hour after hour after hour AND if people are admitted it is fairly common for them to spend weeks in hospitals, again unlike flu, so the pressure just keeps building.

    I am rather fearful after the football that in 2 weeks we might be seeing exactly this happening again.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    Dura_Ace said:

    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
    Democracies will never tackle the looming* environmental catastrophe. Democracy IS the problem - turkeys don't vote for Xmas. *Not sure why you say looming - it's already happened/happening.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,749
    Leon said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    Two famous and intelligent writers. A pure example of Strasbourg Syndrome. 10/10
    That is just so deeply demented. If I ever post such rot about anyone, even Gordon Brown, I would hope my friends would tell me to sober up and shape up.
    Likewise
    You’ve not listened to any of them then.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,084
    Sean_F said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    How can intelligent people be so stupid?
    Welcome to PB!
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,772
    edited July 2021
    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    I think you could make a fairly cogent argument that the NHS has, actually, collapsed anyway. 13 million forecast to be in line for treatment. Wait weeks for a photocall with your GP. A&E overwhelmed because there are no alternatives.

    If we locked down to save the NHS, in fact we failed. We didn't save the NHS. It collapsed anyway. It folded up like a deck chair in a gale.
    Rubbish. I am in Dundee, until recently the hot spot for Covid in Europe, apparently (well, it makes a nice change from drug deaths). I had a recent trip to hospital in Edinburgh. They wrote to my GP and Ninewells for follow up tests. The practice phoned me last week. I went in for my bloods etc, this morning. I am told to expect the results on Thursday. This is not the performance of a collapsed organisation.

    Hundreds of thousands of others are receiving their ongoing treatment on a daily basis. Statements like yours are, with respect, every bit as wild and demented as that of Philip Pullman's. Is any sense of perspective just old hat now?
    Er, you're in the Scottish Health Service (till it was deliberately and maliciously renamed, to maximise Unionist appearance, by IIRC Mr Rifkind).

    Different from the NHS England which is what Mr Hancock and Mr Javid were/are i/c.

    Ditto Wales and NI.

    But they are of course linked in many ways, not least Barnett consequentials.
    The Scottish NHS has been under much greater pressure than the English NHS in terms of Covid recently with our sharp spike in cases. And yet it still treats. For which I am grateful.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    edited July 2021

    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Normally, you go to Boots and ask for it and they charge you £10-15.
    Cheers, booked in for September :D
    This winter's flu season could be a big one with people having shoddy immunity from it dieing out through social distancing this prior year.
    Wasn't actually possible to get hold of the flu jab privately last year.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,266
    edited July 2021

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,093
    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    You are either eligible or you pay a few ££ at eg Boots.

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    I think you could make a fairly cogent argument that the NHS has, actually, collapsed anyway. 13 million forecast to be in line for treatment. Wait weeks for a photocall with your GP. A&E overwhelmed because there are no alternatives.

    If we locked down to save the NHS, in fact we failed. We didn't save the NHS. It collapsed anyway. It folded up like a deck chair in a gale.
    Rubbish. I am in Dundee, until recently the hot spot for Covid in Europe, apparently (well, it makes a nice change from drug deaths). I had a recent trip to hospital in Edinburgh. They wrote to my GP and Ninewells for follow up tests. The practice phoned me last week. I went in for my bloods etc, this morning. I am told to expect the results on Thursday. This is not the performance of a collapsed organisation.

    Hundreds of thousands of others are receiving their ongoing treatment on a daily basis. Statements like yours are, with respect, every bit as wild and demented as that of Philip Pullman's. Is any sense of perspective just old hat now?
    Er, you're in the Scottish Health Service (till it was deliberately and maliciously renamed, to maximise Unionist appearance, by IIRC Mr Rifkind).

    Different from the NHS England which is what Mr Hancock and Mr Javid were/are i/c.

    Ditto Wales and NI.

    But they are of course linked in many ways, not least Barnett consequentials.
    The Scottish NHS has been under much greater pressure than the English NHS in terms of Covid recently with our sharp spike in treatment. And yet it still treats. For which I am grateful.
    Excellent post, not least the last bit. But it's a fair point that discussion of 'the NHS' can often forget that there are 4 of them (not cointing those in the CIs etc).
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    edited July 2021
    Stocky said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
    Democracies will never tackle the looming* environmental catastrophe. Democracy IS the problem - turkeys don't vote for Xmas. *Not sure why you say looming - it's already happened/happening.
    The democracies are leading in terms of actually doing something about global warming. The autocracies are trying to get out of doing anything.....
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    HOLD ON.

    What have you done with @Leon?
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960
    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    I'm fairly sure you* can book an appointment at a pharmacy that offers it, same as if you're over 50. The only difference is that, since you aren't eligible for a free NHS one, they will charge a nominal amount.

    *or not you, as the case may be
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,084

    Leon said:

    To combine the themes, this is a remarkably unwise tweet by Angela Rayner

    “Let me be clear. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary gave license to the racists who booed the England players and are now racially abusing England players.

    @BorisJohnson and @pritipatel are like arsonists complaining about a fire they poured petrol on. Total hypocrites.”

    https://twitter.com/angelarayner/status/1414498287097454592?s=21

    I’d say she is drunk but it was posted at 9am. What is she thinking?

    This marvelous football team that was meant to unite us is going to leave us much more embittered, and racially divided, and both sides are stoking it. We are now France, but without the World Cups as consolation

    It's a common theme amongst the Left, who are desperate to politicise it.

    And they have the audacity of accusing the Conservatives of being the ones prosecuting a culture war.
    By the way, the feasibility study into extending the island’s railways is now out and a summary report is here:

    https://iwightinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/RYR-SOBC-Executive-Summary.pdf
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    I've had flu vax in the autumn, pneumonia a couple of weeks ago, and 2nd AZT jab coming this Saturday - I might just make it!
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Normally, you go to Boots and ask for it and they charge you £10-15.
    Cheers, booked in for September :D
    This winter's flu season could be a big one with people having shoddy immunity from it dieing out through social distancing this prior year.
    Unless you have certain medical conditions - eg asthma - in which case you should be entitled to a free NHS flu jab regardless of age.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Normally, you go to Boots and ask for it and they charge you £10-15.
    Cheers, booked in for September :D
    This winter's flu season could be a big one with people having shoddy immunity from it dieing out through social distancing this prior year.
    Wasn't actually possible to get hold of the flu jab privately last year.
    Yes, my elderly parents were saying its great we haven't had cold or flu for 2 winters now....I didn't like to tell them that it isn't necessarily a bad thing to get a cold every year.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,084
    Pro_Rata said:

    I think Quincel's assertion that it is primarily the PM's leader rating that is relevant to the next election at this stage, not so much the LOTO's, needs an airing here. I'm not saying Starmer's ratings are completely irrelevant, just that many voters aren't really making that comparative judgement.

    Either way, it doesn't look disastrous for the Tories as yet.

    You might say that the Tories are one nil up and we are just starting the second half?
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Stocky said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
    Democracies will never tackle the looming* environmental catastrophe. Democracy IS the problem - turkeys don't vote for Xmas. *Not sure why you say looming - it's already happened/happening.
    Except that democracies already are tackling it.

    The UK has reduced it's CO2 emissions by half from the peak already. We are well on target for going to zero.

    The reality is now we need to help encourage other nations to catch up with us as well as continue with what is working, rather than pretending that everything is awful.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,124
    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    No - I think a lot of the very old victims of Covid were probably in line for the grim reaper regardless. We will probably never truly know the real cause of death of a largeish proportion of 'Covid' fatalities. I think that also explains many of the variations between the numbers recorded in different countries.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,575
    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign
    So you're saying she is a liar making a false apology, rather than that she feels she made an error in her comment?

    An interesting way to stick up for a party colleague.
    Performative dishonesty is the current Tory orthodoxy, apparently.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,575
    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    TBF, the third book showed similar derangement towards religion, which rather spoiled it.
    (I've no objection to his anti-clerisy per se, but it rendered the book incoherent.)
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,959
    edited July 2021
    IanB2 said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    I think Quincel's assertion that it is primarily the PM's leader rating that is relevant to the next election at this stage, not so much the LOTO's, needs an airing here. I'm not saying Starmer's ratings are completely irrelevant, just that many voters aren't really making that comparative judgement.

    Either way, it doesn't look disastrous for the Tories as yet.

    You might say that the Tories are one nil up and we are just starting the second half?
    If only Labour hadn't lost any of their previous 32 games.....
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,084
    The keys to football would appear to be stopping the ball going in at one end and kicking it in at the other, but the Italians seem to be leading the realisation that it is also critical to be able to get the ball quickly from one to the other.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    IanB2 said:

    The keys to football would appear to be stopping the ball going in at one end and kicking it in at the other, but the Italians seem to be leading the realisation that it is also critical to be able to get the ball quickly from one to the other.

    The Italians appear to have devoted a great deal of compute time on a super computer and discovered that if the ball spends alot of time nearer the place you want it to end up, it is more common for it to end up there.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Oh I agree, there's only one job he would want after Rangers. Shame tho'. He would be bl**dy good. And Klopp is pretty young himself, he will take some shifting.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    IanB2 said:

    The keys to football would appear to be stopping the ball going in at one end and kicking it in at the other, but the Italians seem to be leading the realisation that it is also critical to be able to get the ball quickly from one to the other.

    The Italians appear to have devoted a great deal of compute time on a super computer and discovered that if the ball spends alot of time nearer the place you want it to end up, it is more common for it to end up there.
    Interestingly, they paid for the services of StatsBomb right at the last minute before the tournament.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Oh I agree, there's only one job he would want after Rangers. Shame tho'. He would be bl**dy good. And Klopp is pretty young himself, he will take some shifting.
    I think Klopp might want the German national team job at some point. It makes sense for him.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653

    Stocky said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
    Democracies will never tackle the looming* environmental catastrophe. Democracy IS the problem - turkeys don't vote for Xmas. *Not sure why you say looming - it's already happened/happening.
    The democracies are leading in terms of actually doing something about global warming. The autocracies are trying to get out of doing anything.....
    I'm not talking about global warming - people whose only concern is that are only concerned in as much as it affects humans! What about deforestation and the shocking loss of biodiversity?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,959
    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    I had the misfortune to read a draft of a film script that Pullman wrote. It was 300 pages (the norm is 100-110) of really, really badly written and scripted derivative pulp.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    eek said:
    If employed, check what your employers policy is, with regards to flu jabs. An increasing number pay for them, and even organise a nurse to come in and jab the employees on site and on the company time as well as dime....
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Alistair said:

    FtPt

    Alistair said:

    MattW said:

    kle4 said:

    I must say, the racist tweets I saw quoted by Sunder Katwala this morning really don't sound like they were written by English people.

    If you wanted to sow division and hatred in a country, this is the kind of thing you would do, isn't it?

    I think its been established before that even a lot of things that seem like they must be by bots, for example, often are not. Simplest explanation is usually the best, and conspiracy is not the simplest.
    It was probably said by people.

    Just not by English people.

    Look at the language. English people don't speak like that.

    What proof do you have the perpetrators were English people...?
    A New Age airhead has defaced a mural of Marcus Rashford with a howl of meaningless psychobabble. No proper Englishman could utter a sentence like that:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-57803161
    (For the record, Horse, yes obvs I condemn this).

    However it will be interesting to see where the media / commentators take this - most media reports are going for the 'this is so offensive we have blocked it out of the picture and won't discuss the content with you' method, as the Today programme used to do before they spent 6 minutes discussing how outrageous twitter had become.

    'Racially aggravated damage' ?
    https://theathletic.com/news/marcus-rashford-euro-2020-england/R45W1PIU6IHR

    It is a picture of a cock 'n' balls.



    I can see them going for RAD due to indirect reasons, however.
    Given how much of the mural is currently covered up I don't think that is the graffiti in question.
    There was also the word “shite” and “bastard” as well as another word in the middle that I couldn’t read (as it was muddled up with the cock & balls)
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,840
    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
  • mwadamsmwadams Posts: 3,089
    edited July 2021
    justin124 said:

    HYUFD said:

    At the moment the polling suggests we are heading for a 1992 style result, the Tories would be re elected but with a smaller majority than in 2019

    That might be true of an election being held today , but we have little idea as to how the polls will look 18 months or 2 years from now.
    You also cannot ignore the Hilaire Belloc factor. Voters will re-evaluate everything when they're no longer in daily fear of succumbing to a horrible disease. The polls we saw the other day indicate that this is still uppermost in many minds.

    In two years, some may no longer feel the need to keep a-hold of Nurse.

    [ETA: to be fair, HYUFD compares to 1992. I think a 1992-style result is quite likely in those circumstances.]
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    FPT

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign as that Yougov polling data shows
    Lets be clear. 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids. A significant number of whom are the same WWC they complain are discriminated against by taking the knee.

    Same with the education committee Tories horrified at the poor attainment of WWC pupils yet seem to think that repeatedly voting to reduce funding for the schools they go to, repeatedly attacking teachers and exams (too easy) and voting to keep them dirt poor (no we won't keep feeding them in the holidays, we can't afford it).

    I would have more respect for them if they were open about it. We don't like poor people and won't pay for them. The likes of Ben Bradley get mocked when they say poor people will spend handout cash on drugs but at least he is open. the rest are frit.
    No, 47% of Tories disagreed with this specific proposal to replace parental responsibility with government intervention
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    Stocky said:

    Stocky said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Father Lenin (correct in all things) said, "Sometimes history needs a push."

    If democracies won't tackle the looming environmental catastrophe then violent revolutions will.
    Democracies will never tackle the looming* environmental catastrophe. Democracy IS the problem - turkeys don't vote for Xmas. *Not sure why you say looming - it's already happened/happening.
    The democracies are leading in terms of actually doing something about global warming. The autocracies are trying to get out of doing anything.....
    I'm not talking about global warming - people whose only concern is that are only concerned in as much as it affects humans! What about deforestation and the shocking loss of biodiversity?
    Again, the more democratic a country is, the more they tend to have put in place policies to begin to tackle this. Banning imports of timber from rainforests etc.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,285
    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    He doesn't seem to realise that older voters are the Tories' core vote these days.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Oh I agree, there's only one job he would want after Rangers. Shame tho'. He would be bl**dy good. And Klopp is pretty young himself, he will take some shifting.
    I think Klopp might want the German national team job at some point. It makes sense for him.
    There is a big different between club manager and national team, with the later you get very limited time to develop players. Klopp and Pep in particular are known for improving players through consistent analytic and tactical work.

    Apparently this is why Southgate doesn't like the high press, favoured by many top club teams, because to work your own version of that, all the players have to be incredibly well drilled.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    Its very sad. I've met Phillip Pullman, who was nice, as was his wife, but this is a ridiculous thing to believe. You can argue about how much funding the NHS gets, you can argue about is organisation, but no government is going to benefit from allowing it to collapse and have hundreds(?)/thousands(?) of people die. Even if you allow private companies to tender to provide services, that is not privatising the NHS. It will always be free at the point of need. That is the NHS. Turn up, need treatment, get treated and walk out without a bill.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    To be fair, God *has* had multiple best sellers - topping the chats over millennia.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,019
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    To combine the themes, this is a remarkably unwise tweet by Angela Rayner

    “Let me be clear. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary gave license to the racists who booed the England players and are now racially abusing England players.

    @BorisJohnson and @pritipatel are like arsonists complaining about a fire they poured petrol on. Total hypocrites.”

    https://twitter.com/angelarayner/status/1414498287097454592?s=21

    I’d say she is drunk but it was posted at 9am. What is she thinking?

    This marvelous football team that was meant to unite us is going to leave us much more embittered, and racially divided, and both sides are stoking it. We are now France, but without the World Cups as consolation

    It's a common theme amongst the Left, who are desperate to politicise it.

    And they have the audacity of accusing the Conservatives of being the ones prosecuting a culture war.
    By the way, the feasibility study into extending the island’s railways is now out and a summary report is here:

    https://iwightinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/RYR-SOBC-Executive-Summary.pdf
    Cheers Ian. Very kind.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,285

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    Some of them may be. A bit strong to say all of them are,
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    Andy_JS said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    He doesn't seem to realise that older voters are the Tories' core vote these days.
    There is a well known phenomenon, where someone eminent in one field, will, in another, say something that a child of 6 would know was idiotic.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,013
    Charles said:

    FPT

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign as that Yougov polling data shows
    Lets be clear. 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids. A significant number of whom are the same WWC they complain are discriminated against by taking the knee.

    Same with the education committee Tories horrified at the poor attainment of WWC pupils yet seem to think that repeatedly voting to reduce funding for the schools they go to, repeatedly attacking teachers and exams (too easy) and voting to keep them dirt poor (no we won't keep feeding them in the holidays, we can't afford it).

    I would have more respect for them if they were open about it. We don't like poor people and won't pay for them. The likes of Ben Bradley get mocked when they say poor people will spend handout cash on drugs but at least he is open. the rest are frit.
    No, 47% of Tories disagreed with this specific proposal to replace parental responsibility with government intervention
    And for the people in the gutter beneath your ivory tower, there is no difference. Did the Tories make an alternative proposal? No, they said "you've had your benefits" and blamed the parents.

    At least they did until the u-turn to provide the money after all. If as claimed this policy is so popular with Tory voters why the about turn to back it due to the wall of public outrage at saying no?

    Punters are happy to support politicians who pursue twatty policies. But when faced with the stark realities as to the impact of twatty policies they are happy to change their minds. Perhaps people are less reactionary than you want them to be?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,625
    Andy_JS said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    Some of them may be. A bit strong to say all of them are,
    How many Gods have you met?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,575
    edited July 2021
    DavidL said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Fantastic quote.
    Beloved of Richard Nixon.
    https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/07/archives/man-in-the-arena-essay.html
    ...Mr. Nixon viewed the lines in 1960, and does today, “straight”—without irony—as vividly expressive of his own attitude toward life in general, and to the political life in particular. “It is not the critic who counts” can be seen, let's face it, as anti‐intellectual, disparaging the man of thought while exalting the man of action, similar to the scornful “if you can't do, teach.” The contempt the President holds for carping critics is an inextricable part of his character, at times a source of strength, at other times a cause of self. damage....,/i>
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,093
    edited July 2021
    Charles said:

    Alistair said:

    FtPt

    Alistair said:

    MattW said:

    kle4 said:

    I must say, the racist tweets I saw quoted by Sunder Katwala this morning really don't sound like they were written by English people.

    If you wanted to sow division and hatred in a country, this is the kind of thing you would do, isn't it?

    I think its been established before that even a lot of things that seem like they must be by bots, for example, often are not. Simplest explanation is usually the best, and conspiracy is not the simplest.
    It was probably said by people.

    Just not by English people.

    Look at the language. English people don't speak like that.

    What proof do you have the perpetrators were English people...?
    A New Age airhead has defaced a mural of Marcus Rashford with a howl of meaningless psychobabble. No proper Englishman could utter a sentence like that:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-57803161
    (For the record, Horse, yes obvs I condemn this).

    However it will be interesting to see where the media / commentators take this - most media reports are going for the 'this is so offensive we have blocked it out of the picture and won't discuss the content with you' method, as the Today programme used to do before they spent 6 minutes discussing how outrageous twitter had become.

    'Racially aggravated damage' ?
    https://theathletic.com/news/marcus-rashford-euro-2020-england/R45W1PIU6IHR

    It is a picture of a cock 'n' balls.



    I can see them going for RAD due to indirect reasons, however.
    Given how much of the mural is currently covered up I don't think that is the graffiti in question.
    There was also the word “shite” and “bastard” as well as another word in the middle that I couldn’t read (as it was muddled up with the cock & balls)
    This is from the Sun. So my original piccie may well be wrong. However, the bit censored by the Sun does look like a more energetic set of equipment.

    I still can't find an account which records the text.



    https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/15567963/marcus-rashford-mural-vandalised-england-euro-2020/

    Listening to WATO this lunchtime, and the BBC are all over '1000 abusive racist tweets' and 'why can't platforms deal with this' and 'the huge racism issue his shows', with various outraged commentators. I have yet to hear it asked 1 - Whether 1000 is very many or 2 - Whether they are actually from here or Bots.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149
    Andy_JS said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    He doesn't seem to realise that older voters are the Tories' core vote these days.
    Didn't stop Mrs May putting her foot in it with them over the dementia tax, mind.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,454
    IanB2 said:

    The keys to football would appear to be stopping the ball going in at one end and kicking it in at the other, but the Italians seem to be leading the realisation that it is also critical to be able to get the ball quickly from one to the other.

    Or do it slowly a la Spain, or in between like Germany or France. One of the beauties of football is the diversity of tactics, styles and tempos that can work.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    NEW: No.10 says a bank holiday to mark England football team's achievements in Euro2020 is "not being considered"
    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1414569698809819140
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    Meanwhile, depressing news on the vaccination front from the US, where partisan politics are now the biggest part of the problem:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/biden-boosting-vaccination-rates-499047
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    Hmm. At Rangers you play Celtic and once/if you get that sussed you've sorted your title.

    We are talking about a WC here with plenty of teams (only a couple of which we faced at the Euros) in with a shout.

    I continue to say, as @FrancisUrquhart and I discussed last night, the depressing thing about the tactics was the lack of attacking intent. Against Ukraine and Denmark it was a pleasure to watch. Last night when Rice drove forward likewise.

    Otherwise we had <30% possession, stayed virtually the whole game in our half and had one shot on goal.

    Southgate has said he will reflect upon his decisions which is to be welcomed and perhaps one conclusion will be that with the hugely talented squad he has, he doesn't need to park the bus.

    We shall see.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,840
    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    He's come first out of two once in three seasons.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    To be fair, God *has* had multiple best sellers - topping the chats over millennia.
    He gets quite annoyed when people file His works under "fiction", though.
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,153

    FPT

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign as that Yougov polling data shows
    Lets be clear. 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids. A significant number of whom are the same WWC they complain are discriminated against by taking the knee.

    Same with the education committee Tories horrified at the poor attainment of WWC pupils yet seem to think that repeatedly voting to reduce funding for the schools they go to, repeatedly attacking teachers and exams (too easy) and voting to keep them dirt poor (no we won't keep feeding them in the holidays, we can't afford it).

    I would have more respect for them if they were open about it. We don't like poor people and won't pay for them. The likes of Ben Bradley get mocked when they say poor people will spend handout cash on drugs but at least he is open. the rest are frit.
    Lets take that phrase " 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids". No, they didn't. They thought that the parents of those kids should feed them, as my parents fed me growing up, and their parents did them. If you want to make the case about benefits not being enough then do so, but please don't lie about peoples opinions.
    VERY STRANGE: Parents taking responsibility for bringing up their children, such a quaint old fashioned idea!

    :lol:
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,149
    Endillion said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    To be fair, God *has* had multiple best sellers - topping the chats over millennia.
    He gets quite annoyed when people file His works under "fiction", though.
    Also a bit of an issue (pun not intended) over which edition one should go for.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,718

    Pulpstar said:

    Stocky said:

    Getting a flu vaccine slashes the risk of falling severely ill with Covid, a study has suggested.

    An analysis of nearly 75,000 coronavirus patients found those who received an annual influenza jab were 60 per cent less likely to end up in A&E compared to people not vaccinated against flu.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779765/Getting-flu-jab-slashes-risk-hospitalised-Covid-60-study-finds.html

    That seems a bit strange doesn't it - given that many oldies who have died would surely have had the flu jab?
    It says, it doesn't reduce death if you suffer severely, but it does appear to reduce numbers where it goes from bad to severe. We know with COVID that there is a week period where you are ill, then for most people it just gets better, for others, you go downhill rapidly.

    I presume, there is some sort of protective effect from the flu jab that reduces the overall numbers where they went downhill.
    How do you get hold of the flu jab in your forties ?
    Asking for a friend.
    Normally, you go to Boots and ask for it and they charge you £10-15.
    Or any other pharmacy.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,884

    Leon said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    This is genuinely fascinating. And merits proper scrutiny

    Let’s focus on Pullman. He’s a clearly brilliant man, who has written wonderful books. It may be aimed at older kids, but the Dark Materials trilogy is a mature, beautiful meditation on faith, and history, and childhood, done with grace and flair. And it has a driving plot. It is deservedly a global bestseller

    And yet. Someone this intelligent honestly believes Boris Johnson WANTS the NHS to collapse. An utterly preposterous thought. How can he think that?

    A toxic cocktail of Brexit and social media has sent him mad. That’s my only explanation. I welcome others
    I think you could make a fairly cogent argument that the NHS has, actually, collapsed anyway. 13 million forecast to be in line for treatment. Wait weeks for a photocall with your GP. A&E overwhelmed because there are no alternatives.

    If we locked down to save the NHS, in fact we failed. We didn't save the NHS. It collapsed anyway. It folded up like a deck chair in a gale.
    Nope - its still there. It has become harder to access for non-life threatening things, but it still works. I needed to speak to a GP two weeks ago. Filled in an online form and was called within an hour, problem resolved. This is better than it used to be, where I would be competing to get through on phone lines for non-existent appointments. Patients need to adapt, and for some that is not easy or fair on them. We need to accept the the idea of turning up to queue at the GP is gone forever.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653
    Scott_xP said:

    NEW: No.10 says a bank holiday to mark England football team's achievements in Euro2020 is "not being considered"
    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1414569698809819140

    Maybe No 10 should blame Rashford for the loss of the bank holiday due to the missed penalty??
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    That last line is very good! Are you a novelist?
    Apparently there is a novel in all of us. Some of us have the good sense to keep it there.
    Yes, I’ve often thought how awful it would be to write a novel, make a million quid, then spend the rest of my loafing about

    Thank god I have the daily grind - literally! - of the flint knappers, to keep me grounded
    Hopefully it’s the flints not you that are being ground!
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    He's come first out of two once in three seasons.
    Which isn't bad considering Celtic had come first out of one nine seasons in a row before then.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    He's come first out of two once in three seasons.
    He's done it with nothing in the tank and just effective player management and motivation. It's actually a similar situation to managing a national side where there isn't a transfer budget or the ability to sell or buy players. Gerrard has done an incredible job with what he's been given. He's going to become one of the great modern managers.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,285
    edited July 2021
    Looking forward to forgetting about football for a while. Never been a big fan of the game, apart from big international matches.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,772
    TimT said:

    Meanwhile, depressing news on the vaccination front from the US, where partisan politics are now the biggest part of the problem:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/biden-boosting-vaccination-rates-499047

    This is where the madness that @Leon has highlighted this morning leads. Ultimately it is not about novelists being tossers, it is about lost lives.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    Mr. W, politicians and journalists think algorithms are magical incantations that can stop kids seeing bad stuff on the internet.

    I'm amused you think they'd know what bots are.

    I'm not tech savvy but seeing the bizarre lack of knowledge from the media and political class is somewhere between comic and tragic.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Endillion said:

    glw said:

    @HugoGye
    This is surely true, the Tories know the best path to re-election would be destroying the NHS and killing elderly voters.


    https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1414545579196231684
    image

    It shows that no matter how eminent you may be, you can also be a total moron.
    I have met a few novelists. I think being a moron is a requirement. They live in a sad fantasy world where they can play God (particularly in Pullman's case) with their creation. If they manage to get a publisher and a modicum of success they begin to feel they are god, even though everyone else knows they are a moron.

    The difference between novelists and God is that God doesn't think he is a novelist.
    To be fair, God *has* had multiple best sellers - topping the chats over millennia.
    He gets quite annoyed when people file His works under "fiction", though.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHSPI7ZkRk
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited July 2021
    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    He's come first out of two once in three seasons.
    He's done it with nothing in the tank and just effective player management and motivation. It's actually a similar situation to managing a national side where there isn't a transfer budget or the ability to sell or buy players. Gerrard has done an incredible job with what he's been given. He's going to become one of the great modern managers.
    There is one thing I am not sure about with Gerard as a manager of elite players.

    If you ever hear the stories of him at Liverpool or England, he basically bullied other players into being good, and if you messed up, you could quickly be effectively side-lined by him and Carragher. It was very much of the attitude, if I can do x, you must be able to. Not how to do it, just do it, if you can't, f##k off. He could do this as a player, as everybody knew he was undroppable, but the England squads he was part of never seemed to gel.

    There are a number of elite players who had a similar problem when it came to managing the top modern talent. Just telling them when I was a player we did x, doesn't work.

    That isn't the environment the current England team has been built under.

    Sean Dyche talks about this really well, about managing the modern player, while still trying to instil some of the old fashion ethics. Because of his position as manager below the elite, he has explained he doesn't have to deal with the most extremes of this, and actually choses to buy players who on the whole aren't like that.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    TOPPING said:

    MaxPB said:

    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    In case someone else didn't post it on the last thread, this is for the haters that have been dissing Southgate:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

    Southgate knows only defeat. That’s the point. He’s a thoroughly likeable man, a charming presence on TV, he seems to pretty good at managing people and sometimes unifying them, but when it comes to football he consistently falls short. He’s one of Napoleon’s ‘unlucky generals’. It’s rather sad.

    He makes an interesting contrast with Boris. The prime minister. Who is, I’d guess, morally much inferior, not so good with staff, definitely not a unifier, and yet Boris is a winner. Consistently

    A bit early to be writing the career epitaph of either. I think you are simply revealing bias, along with a lack of understanding of genuine leadership and a Trump like obsession with "winners" and "losers". Read the quote again, it could have been written for folk such as yourself.
    Actually, you’re right. I didn’t read it properly. And it is a true and insightful quote

    I will suspend judgement on Southgate, but I am still deeply pessimistic. I don’t think he has it in him, I hope he proves me wrong
    Tell me Gerrard wouldn't do a better job.

    Successful club manager treading over the hot coals of sectarian Glasgow. Legend of the game, universally respected, knows his football inside out. Champions League winner. Steely, determined, never, ever loses his temper. Young enough to understand the modern player and his mentality & aspirations.

    He wouldn't want it, of course, but I would take him over Southgate in a heartbeat.
    Why would Gerrard take the job though? He clearly wants the Liverpool job and will wait it out for the next 2-3 seasons until Klopp leaves. Southgate, for all his flaws, is probably the best England can do right now.
    Why would anyone want a National job?
    Way more intrusive on your private life. Need to do overt politics. You can't buy players you want, nor sell the ones you don't want. You barely ever see your players for months at a time, don't get any time to prepare properly, are unable to manage injuries, or fitness generally. Very few games to get a rhythm.
    The list goes on...
    This England team have the capability to win the biggest prize in football. That's a pretty big draw for managers but it would still be tough to attract someone with proven winning ability like Gerrard. His stint at Rangers has been excellent, he's restored credibility to that club and simultaneously pissed off Sturgeon and her ilk which makes it even sweeter.
    Hmm. At Rangers you play Celtic and once/if you get that sussed you've sorted your title.

    We are talking about a WC here with plenty of teams (only a couple of which we faced at the Euros) in with a shout.

    I continue to say, as @FrancisUrquhart and I discussed last night, the depressing thing about the tactics was the lack of attacking intent. Against Ukraine and Denmark it was a pleasure to watch. Last night when Rice drove forward likewise.

    Otherwise we had 30% possession, stayed virtually the whole game in our half and had one shot on goal.

    Southgate has said he will reflect upon his decisions which is to be welcomed and perhaps one conclusion will be that with the hugely talented squad he has, he doesn't need to park the bus.

    We shall see.
    A good post. Italy, IMO, were there for the taking. A slow and tired defence up against a front 4 of Saka, Sterling, Kane and Grealish from kick off would have been incredibly tough for them to handle. The speed of Saka and Sterling plus Grealish being able to draw fouls would have been torture for Italy's old man defence.

    We didn't need to park the bus for the whole second half and when we went to four in defence and stopped the improvement was really decent and we started actually challenging again but by then it was too late.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    TimT said:

    Meanwhile, depressing news on the vaccination front from the US, where partisan politics are now the biggest part of the problem:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/biden-boosting-vaccination-rates-499047

    On the upside, the US is once again acting as a control experiment, as Florida, South Dakota and Texas did with lockdown.

    Imagine, for example, that infection rates and hospitalisations do not explode in US states with low vaccination rates.

    That would be awkward
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,093
    Memories from one of these Twatter threads.


  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    Opinium Scottish sub-sample:
    SNP 57%
    Con 28%
    Lab 9%
    Grn 3%
    LD 2%

    BJ approval - 38

  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    DavidL said:

    TimT said:

    Meanwhile, depressing news on the vaccination front from the US, where partisan politics are now the biggest part of the problem:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/12/biden-boosting-vaccination-rates-499047

    This is where the madness that @Leon has highlighted this morning leads. Ultimately it is not about novelists being tossers, it is about lost lives.
    Thankfully this partisan madness on vaccines doesn't exist in this country.

    If GOP politicians and leaders would rather see their own voters die than co-operate with Biden to help encourage them to get vaccinated then I'm not sure what more can be done?

    America like the UK needs to lift all restrictions and let Delta sweep those who are unvaccinated. If they won't get their antibodies from a vaccine, let them get it from the Delta variant instead.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    Charles said:

    FPT

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    From the Manchester Evening News

    Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has apologised after saying Marcus Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game than playing politics

    BBC said the Dover MP has now apologised saying last night I shared the frustration and heartbreak of millions of England fans

    'I regret messaging privately a rash reaction about Marcus Rashford's missed penalty and apologise to him for any suggestion that he is not fully focused on football'

    Our own @HYUFD said the same objectionable comments and it is time for him to make his own apology

    I am so sorry for Rashford , Sancho and Saka for missing their spot kicks and need to have the love and understanding of our nation, not bigots and idiots making unacceptable comments either on here or on the media generally

    It was pleasing to see how all the England players hugged their colleagues in distress, in marked contrast to Mbappe colleagues who virtually shunned him when he missed his penalty for France

    Ever decent person in the country should have great love and affection for England, it's management and players as they look to grow together over the years into a great side

    And well done Gareth Southgate
    Yes I may have made a cheap point and said so too but there is no doubt a lot of Tories have felt Rashford has spent too much time campaigning on a political line they disagree with.

    As I posted earlier 47% of Tory voters disagreed with Rashford's campaign for free school meals to be extended to the holidays to only 40% in favour
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1317126424587833344?s=20
    You always need to qualify your statements

    Why not be like Natalie Elphicke who has made a straightforward unqualified apology for the same thoughtless comments
    Elphicke only apologised because of her high profile as an MP and the storm around it from the left on twitter, she would not have made the comment in the first place if she did not think it and as I have just posted many if not most of her Tory voters will have backed her in opposing Rashford's campaign as that Yougov polling data shows
    Lets be clear. 47% of Tory voters disagreed with feeding hungry kids. A significant number of whom are the same WWC they complain are discriminated against by taking the knee.

    Same with the education committee Tories horrified at the poor attainment of WWC pupils yet seem to think that repeatedly voting to reduce funding for the schools they go to, repeatedly attacking teachers and exams (too easy) and voting to keep them dirt poor (no we won't keep feeding them in the holidays, we can't afford it).

    I would have more respect for them if they were open about it. We don't like poor people and won't pay for them. The likes of Ben Bradley get mocked when they say poor people will spend handout cash on drugs but at least he is open. the rest are frit.
    No, 47% of Tories disagreed with this specific proposal to replace parental responsibility with government intervention
    47% don't understand why we have free school meals in the first place then.

    Which is fine but it shows a different problem. Now if the survey was after a leading question such - as a lot of parents are dysfunctional which means schools provide free school meals during term time, I suspect you would have a very different answer.

    When I used to do marketing surveys I could guarantee any answer the client wanted just by ensuring previous questions steered you that way.
This discussion has been closed.