gdevoy

I think you are being too generous to them.

I've done my time watching us roll over to the twisted two while I had to listen to Scottish sectarianism at its "best". My ST seat was surrounded by 3 or four groups of the drunken great unwashed while we rolled over to let Rangers win the league at RP. On reflection it's probably better we did in view of my own personal safety. The club swore blind there would be no "away supporters" in the East Stand ... Michael Johnston lied. So I have paid my money, but I have no intention of going through that nonsense again.

Can some Labour supporter explain what the purpose of voting Labour might be? They seem to be for a benefits cap but against a cap on bankers bonuses. They seem to be for a freeze on corporation tax but against increasing tax threshold for those on low wages. They seem to have lost any notion of a green investment pledge but are keen to replicate the governments support for the Israelis' carpet bombing the Gaza refugee camp. I have already exhausted the topic of maintaining charitable status for institutions of privileged like Eton and Starmer's support for maintaining the House of Lords and "making Brexit work". Can somebody explain why a vote for Starmer would be even in some small way, any way at all, a vote for change?

I'm still trying to work out what this new deal / NI protocol / Windsor Framework is all about . I sense somebody is coning somebody but I can't clearly see who yet. Maybe they all think they are conning somebody else. As you say, for the DUP it is all about the £3b and once that is handed over and Sinn Fein gain power in the South it could all just fall apart again. Also I heard from another source that Rishi's small print may have included a hidden increased cost to UK mainland businesses. Apparently you currently need extra paperwork for certain items on the mainland even, if you are sending them to NI in the green lane. This makes the NI market off limits to some UK suppliers because of the extra hassle and cost. The new deal obliges all UK suppliers to generate said paperwork even if the products are intended for UK markets. Thus "levelling up" the playing field and making it equally as expensive to sell stuff here or in NI. Whether this is correct or not will only come out in the fullness of time.

I can see the media seem to have done a 180 on her but my sense is they are quite enjoying themselves. As I said, I am hardly her biggest fan, I'm sure she suffered the same issues as The Blessed Margaret Thatcher in keeping too much power to herself and several key decisions were guided by her politics, just like, say, eat out to help out was at WM. However it seems to be her display of contrition which is getting her the biggest kicking.

While I am hardly her biggest fan, I really can't understand the visceral hate being directed at Nicola Sturgeon in the MSM. Their curt and total dismissal of her becoming emotional during her COVID enquiry statement is a world away from the wokery they usually peddle. What ever happened to "every person's feelings are valid, especially a woman's" and "only an ignorant 1950s neolithic male would dismiss what as woman says? I understand where it originates from in that the establishment want to crush her for having the cheek to suggest Scotland could be independent but what audience are they directing it at? Do they think there is a huge Sturgeon hating audience out there just waiting the Hover this stuff up? She probably made some mistakes like everybody else in charge at the time of the pandemic but its not like she was organising huge piss ups at her place of work and in her own home while people were dying. The total hypocrisy of the Murdoch press and the UK state broadcaster once again leaves me speechless. Oh aye, and just as wee aside, it turns out the Tory Secretary of State for Scotland at the time, Alistair Jack, deleted all his WhatsApps too. Not enough memory on his old phone don't you know. Priceless.

If the DUP go back into the Stormont Assembly with Sinn Fein as First Minister and NI still in the single market does that make a United Ireland more likely and if so, how does it impact Scottish calls for independence? If NI can be in the UK and the Single Market, why not Scotland? The SNP are missing a trick here. Far too enchanted with deals with the Greens.

Dunno, but I formed the impression McInnes is quite content with his current situation despite being at a "smaller club" than he was. That could be the reason.

Starmer beginning to panic that his support for Israel is going to hit him where it hurts as he loses the UK Muslim vote. A tricky circle for Keir to square. A bit more challenging than trying to decide if a woman can have a penis.

Watched the game, 2 poor teams.

I don't give a flying stuff what the "claim". What I would say is ,"You cannot achieve a lasting peace, while carrying out summary executions of people lying in hospital beds." Any wise person must know this. So we have to infer that they don't want a lasting peace. What they want is the extermination of the Palestinian people.

In 1930s Germany about 80% of the population thought "this master race nonsense is bollox but saying that could be a serious threat to my career progression and health". By the 1940s many were dependent on narcotics to help them through the day working in the extermination camps. The human inclination to conform to the group is deeply embedded survival instinct but can have some terrifying consequences.

Still waiting for Starmer to say anything -ve about Israel or indeed even that "it needs to stop".

It is the brutal truth that a government minister's renumeration is a fraction of what somebody might get in the private sector. It is also true that it seems like riches beyond the dreams of avarice to most of us. That is why BoJo was having so much trouble with loans when he was PM. He simply was not prepared to downshift his lifestyle. I think the most important lesson we can all take from this is the orders of magnitude scale of inequality in this country. You really have to ask yourself how much is enough?

it is "important" that the UK actively supports the US military position and that a prospective UK Prime Minister does too. Without US military support in the form of GPS etc, etc we simply cannot defend ourselves. It has been like that since Suez.

$83m plus legal costs is a lot of crowd funding for an appeal. What happens if he just refuses to pay? Nothing he does seems to result in a custodial sentence. He seems to be totally Teflon so far.

How come every sensible commentator I see says focus on cost of living and the NHS, That's what the public want addressed and that is where the votes are. But no serious political party will go there. It's like, ever since Blair they are all totally committed to the neoliberal economics that got us here and without a serious change of mind set there is nothing any party can do about poverty and inequality. So suck it up. And as long as no serious contender offers anything different its never going to be a problem to the main parties.

Belgium's Disciplinary Council for Professional Football has ruled that Genk's defeat to Anderlecht must be replayed in full due to a VAR error. Just thought I'd throw that into the mix.

I heard he wanted to move because he was getting a.first team game every week with us. It's worked out well so far.

I am just aware of the way Alex Salmond, Tommy Sheridan and now Nicola Sturgeon have all had their personal failings rinsed by the British state. Anybody offering a alternative to the Establisment. Meanwhile BoJo, the Eton cretin, who has more holes in his personal life than a Swiss cheese, who hosted pissups in Downig Street while people were being fined for going for a walk, carries on totally unscathed.

Getting into bed with the US over bombing Yemen shows really poor political judgement IMO. At a strategic level its gesture politics.

There's that possibility. Trump wants to help the US re-ljve some of its former glory. What better way than re-running the Civil War.

He'll never pay it. It's an outrage against democracy, a Democratic witch hunt, etc., etc.

So, just like Trump. I agree some folks are naieve about how low this could get.

He has worked out, probably correctly, that the only way he will get elected in the UK is to praise Thatcher and adopt neo liberal economics as gospel. He is so far away from anything that might be recognised as socialist in Scotland that I don't understand why Scottish Labour are so popular right now. The SNP are in need of a wee rest but Labour are so close to the Tories it is not really a choice.