tlr

There was a viral video a while ago (pre-Covid) of a dad taking his son to a supermarket to make him apologise to the staff after he'd acted like a little shit towards them. Kid looked mortified but I bet he never did it again.

Who was the Newcastle fan who I think lived in America? No idea if he ever migrated over here from the old place, if he is here and I've missed him, or if it was so long ago I've just misremembered the whole thing

I fully expect, as I think many do, the next batch of Tier reassessments will see the whole country into Tier 4. I think the only unanswered question in all this is what to do with schools really.

With their form the five days relaxation will be back on by Monday evening.

This has just pissed me off. People will know from my post a couple of days ago I am not one for Christmas anyway, but to have mishandled what is probably the most special time of years for millions of people in this country so horrendously is fucking criminal. Millions will have gotten their hopes up for one flicker of light at the end of an atrocious year and it's literally been snatched from them at the last. There'll be a lot of mentally and emotionally shattered people in this country tonight and it's all because of one useless cunt in London and his abysmal handling of every turn since mid-March. And the really galling bit? What @Lucas says - there'll be people who adhere to all this now and take the hit on their health and wellbeing, and there'll be people who carry on regardless and elongate this misery for us all.

So we've gone from three tiers reviewed every fortnight to changing things on random days of the week and creating a new tier out of thin air when required?

No fan at all of this government but they were damned if they did, damned if they didn't from the off with this one. Keep restrictions in place? How could they, obliterate mental health, it's only one day, I miss me mum etc. Ease them for a couple of days? How could they, they've condemned every person over 59 years old to a long, slow, painful death. It is as true now as it has been since this pandemic first started affecting our day to day lives - people will do what they want at Christmas, it's too ingrained in our way of life as a nation for some to even contemplate going without. Given a choice I wouldn't celebrate Christmas, I get dragged into it by family by and large, so the concept of treating the 25th December just as I have the 25th of any other month is fine by me. As much as I would love to see my family, with the price for it being all hell to pay in the New Year, with its traditional mental health problems at the best of times, really doesn't do much for me. I am honestly dreading what this country will look like come mid-February.

I get the impression you don't care for Welsh Labour @Bluebird Hewitt Surprised given their form they haven't ordered supermarkets to tape off their alcohol aisles after 6pm. The impression I have always gotten from traditional pubs at least is that they make practically nothing on beer but an absolute killing off soft drinks, and even more of one off food; sadly making the places dry means you won't actually get anyone in to begin with. How long does this current set of restrictions last (in theory)? Edit - Noticed you answered that question the first time. I'll read posts properly next time...

Selfishly thought as we're probably the safest Tory seat in the West Midlands they'd do us a favour and we'd be spared Tier 3 again. Always next time I suppose. (I would like to clarify I do not contribute to the Tory majority!)

Yes, the government are far from innocent. However, from what I have heard of Croydon and the various other headlines that seem to crop up from time to time, I don't think you can absolve the councils themselves either. Some of the amounts of money banded about and tales of goings on are incredible. I accept most are genuinely doing their best in trying circumstances, but some others are, let's be frank, their own downfall.

I never normally read Private Eye but have seen a couple of recent issues, and needless to say this has come up in it. Impression I get is classic local government shambles, in this instance a massive ongoing payout to an old Leader, and some dodgy investments and dealings on commercial properties in the borough, etc. Northamptonshire County Council were on the verge of going under years a couple of years ago too. Suspect as part of the post-Covid fallout we'll see a proper rationalisation of local government in England which'll hopefully work out better financially in the long run.

I don't think it's an amendment to the tiers per se, more bespoke fiddling just for local areas. A bit like how when Liverpool City Region went into tier 3, gyms had to close, but when Lancashire did, they didn't. (I think!) A bit like Greater Manchester and Lancashire was during the first wave of local lockdowns - the worst areas ended up dragging the everywhere nearby in with them, as borders between districts are so unremarkable and indistinguishable they had to I suppose. Places like Rossendale and Tameside were relatively average yet got the same treatment as those with hundreds of cases a day.

Bristol in talks to move into 'Tier 1 Plus'. About as straightforward as nuclear physics is this simplification.

You honestly don't know what's going to happen next these days, do you?

Greater Manchester up to Tier 3, London and Essex up to Tier 2 from this weekend according to the BBC. Question for those of us living under restrictions, does anyone find this more shit than the nationwide lockdown? All of the forbidden stuff without the novelty and 'all in it together' carry on; whilst people literally streets away in some cases can go to the pub with mates, etc. Depressing as fuck.

It was the last place I went before it all kicked off in March. Lovely part of the world in fairness, Cardiff is very underrated city and Snowdonia and North West Wales are as scenic as anywhere else in the UK.

Who'd want to go to Wales anyway?

Not strictly Covid, but there was some bloke on the bus yesterday who took his mask off to sneeze. Sadly you can't regulate stupidity.

It concerns me. Trains and buses are still deserted around here, peaks have practically disappeared and the only real flow that seems left is local leisure stuff into the big cities for a couple of hours a day, but that'll go once schools are back and the weather turns for autumn. We've had months of the government telling everyone to walk, drive or don't bother, only recently has that narrative changed, but even now it is more of a reluctant concession than proactive endorsement. All the while they are underwriting the whole thing, which'll be well into nine figures by now. We've spent decades building up to where public transport coverage and usage we were in February. At present, I doubt we'll get it back for decades, people have every excuse they need to avoid us altogether now and the finances will snap eventually. It's not just those of us currently employed that I'm worried for, all the projects now on their knees - HS2 and not - had thousands of jobs and millions for the ecenomy riding on them. The longer we're like this, the closer those'll come to vanishing.

There's a meeting tonight apparently between the FA and leagues at a certain level of the pyramid which is hopefully going to confirm one way or another which of the 'September start with fans', originally hinted by the FA and the government's 'fans not back until October' stances will prevail. The consensus is that restarting without fans send dozens of clubs to the wall, but if it is October then it's nye on impossible to complete the season... There's a whole swathe of FA competitions in September for starters. Of all clubs, Dorking Wanderers are leading the #LetFansIn charge on social media, respect to them for actually trying to organise sustained pressure on the FA and DCMS over this. For non league it has been a shambles from start to end so far, not that we should expect owt less from the FA or Boris's mob.

Just posting this so I can preserve what could be the only accurate football prediction I've ever made

... and just down the road York City, who were top when football was suspended back in March but fell to second on PPG, lost to a very decent looking Altrincham side in the Conference North Play Off Semi Finals. Could well be the last ever match at the magnificent Bootham Crescent as well. Guy Mowbray (a York fan) was doing the commentary and he sounded gutted at the end. Had a shocking decade and apparently only three players (including two keepers) are contracted for the new season. Alty meet the winners of Boston United or Gateshead, who are playing and now and I'm watching that as well. If Boston lose, like at York it will probably also be the last ever game at their ground, another proper old school ground too.

Also worth noting the FA are still considering two (anonymous as far as I can tell) applications - one of which is belived to be from the Bury FC. Will all be finalised once the play offs are concluded in a couple of weeks.

... joined in the North West Counties by FC Isle of Man too, albeit in different divisions. That's gone straight on the list of away days!

I have no idea. Like I implied above, this whole thing seems so ill-defined. Is Grassroots just Sunday morning stuff, county FA level? Hopefully will become clearly as we go on.