Recent Posts

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News and Current Affairs / Re: Scottish politics [brought to you in association with Walkers shortbread]

« Last post by Elmo! on Today at 09:59:42 am »

He ended the Bute House Agreement (a coalition with the Scottish Green Party).  The SNP are therefore short of a majority and are effectively unable to govern.  Alex Salmond with his one Alba MSP - Ash Regan who defected from the SNP - was offering support in exchange for a referendum 

Self-inflicted chaos.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-greens-humza-yousaf-first-minister-bbc-radio-scotland-evan-davies-b1154169.html

For context, the Greens had scheduled an EGM to discuss ending the agreement themselves. They were unhappy about the Scottish Government abandoning climate change pledges, but there was a very good chance they would have voted to maintain the agreement. I can only think Yousaf wanted to get out ahead of that and end it on the SNPs terms, but if he had just let it play out, and if the Greens had decided to end it, they would probably have still supported him in a VONC and support a minority government on many issues. Instead he's ruined the relationshipp with the only party that will work with the SNP on reasonable terms.

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General Football and Sport / Re: Arsenal: Top of the divers league

« Last post by thaddeus on Today at 09:59:03 am »

Arsenal seem to have had the rub of the green this season with referee decisions.  The swing in the game from a penalty and potentially 1-1 to nothing given and 0-2 was huge.

I am a bit jealous as our central defenders have been soft for my liking this season but Arsenal's get away with roughing up players constantly.  Arguably we wouldn't get away with similar defending which is perhaps why we're as soft as we are.

As we've dropped out of the race I hope they go on to win it but I don't see Man City dropping any more points even though they're not playing particularly well.

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News and Current Affairs / Re: Russia launches invasion of Ukraine (*) & use spoiler tags for anything graphic!

« Last post by west_london_red on Today at 09:56:43 am »

Yes and that's the problem with long-standing sanctions as eventually almost any sanction can be worked around.  Oil and gas exported to the west via intermediaries and components for their war machine imported from China via intermediaries.

I'm not saying that the sanctions should be lifted as they still serve a purpose - primarily that Russia sells below the rates it could achieve if it didn't have to sell via intermediaries.  It would be good if they could be applied in a more watertight way but very difficult when there's so many immoral people happy to make their money by enabling this bypassing of sanctions.

Even if the war ends tomorrow sanctions shouldn’t be lifted on Russia, the pressure shouldn’t be eased up on Putin’s regime as long as he’s alive and Russia is a threat to its neighbours.

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General Football and Sport / Re: Arsenal: Top of the divers league

« Last post by PatriotScouser on Today at 09:55:05 am »

It'll be typical 'Spursy' to flop when playing their biggest rivals and turn it on against the team that their biggest rivals are competing against for the league.

I half expect them to get a result too...

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News and Current Affairs / Re: MPs back smoking ban for those born after 2009

« Last post by thaddeus on Today at 09:54:38 am »

Doesn't matter if it takes time as long as the trend is in the right direction. Having said that I think this is only a half measure and what also needs to happen is that the no-smoking message gets ramped up in primary schools. Let the kiddies have a good sniff at what a heavy smoker smells like (you can always tell when one is approaching you from behind because the aroma precedes them). Show the kiddies images of yellow-stained finger tips and teeth and the difference between the pink-and-shiny lungs of a non-smoker vs the black lungs of a smoker. Then explain to them how the tobacco industry is all about profit for the few and give them examples of the underhand measures they take to get people addicted. Don't hold anything back and get the message embedded into the heads of the little darlings

My eldest is in year 5 and a few months ago he came home telling me all about tar in lungs.  It seems they had been shown something graphic that illustrated the impacts on the lungs of smoking.  I remember something similar when I was at secondary school and it inspired one of my mates to pack in smoking.

That said, I've not seen a young person smoking a cigarette for years and years.  It's far more common where I live - but still relatively uncommon - to see someone of that age smoking weed.  The amount of school aged kids that vape though is insane.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by Peabee on Today at 09:54:06 am »

So does that mean it’d be ok for Hughes to make a fuck up of our transfers this summer if it’s early on and it’s his first season at a big club? I think this summer, we need to get at least 3 or 4 transfers spot on or else we’ll be sliding even further behind city and Arsenal who will no doubt strengthen their squads as well.

it's not just Hughes making the decisions. We have a whole team behind him. He'll be taking negotiations etc though.

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General Football and Sport / Re: Arsenal: Top of the divers league

« Last post by The North Bank on Today at 09:53:47 am »

Arteta is a c*nt but he is one hell of a coach. I still maintain that at both ends of the field Arsenal don't have top quality but what he has done has been able to build a system which suffocates most Premier League sides, so much so that they don't need an absolute elite backline/goalkeeper or striker.

That would not work in Europe however and in the CL, where you need to have both a system and that individual quality. But for the Premier League its been highly effective.

I think our centre back partnership is as good as any in Europe. Agree about not having an elite keeper or striker. Keeper is good enough for the league given how we suffocate teams as you say, but with the passes Odegaard threads through we should have a 20 goal striker/wide forward. That needs addressing in the summer.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Mohamed Salah - Best in the World *

« Last post by Santiago on Today at 09:53:11 am »

Yep knives were out pre sharpened.

On here too!!

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by rob1966 on Today at 09:53:09 am »

Konate had injury issues before we signed him, as did Thiago. Jota also had lots of niggly spells out for Wolves and we signed Nunez despite him having suffered an ACL rupture a few years ago. Maybe we should look at players who have proven that they have a good availability record?

Matip was hardly ever injured in Germany.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: The Alternative Premier League Table 2023-24

« Last post by courty61 on Today at 09:52:34 am »

Arsenal and Man City have won all 7 of their par 3 away games.  We dropped 7 points in ours.

Beat the dross. Win the league