Reluctant Striker

John McGinn has been named as 1st team captain for the 2022/23 season. Emi Martinez vice captain. And Ashley Young as 'club' captain. Tyrone Mings had been captain. So perhaps a significant sign he'll be behind Diego Carlos & Calum Chambers next season.

Latest leaders debate, Sunak vs Truss, on new 'right wing' TalkTV, the host presenter fainted in the middle of a Truss answer. Apparently she is ok, but it was quite dramatic. A few clips on YouTube of Truss looking shocked as clattering & a crash is heard off camera.

The worst bit of how Liz Truss seems likely to move ahead of Mordaunt, and beat Sunak in the members vote.. is that she sees it as a sales pitch of her credentials that she came up with that Ireland bill, which the Irish Nationalists hate, by association the Americans have no time for & the EU intend to take the UK government to Euro Court over. Our list of allies will grow thin.. I was hoping whoever gets in would bring more reasoned outcome to that. But seems Truss just might actually ramp it up even further.

Yes, the ITV Robert Peston show had a chart suggesting that sort of possibility, on estimated popularity. Only surprise to me is Mordaunt, but then I'm not really in tune with what Conservative members are seeing & thinking right now.. just with Peston & Starmer. The odds do seem likely it's a race between Truss & Mordaunt, barring anything dramatic in however many rounds of reducing down to the final 2. Seems very unlikely both could be overtaken by anyone below. And could there be any underestimated popularity of Sunak with the deciding party members? Might they not like the idea of the 1st not white PM being a Tory?

Not really no. I enjoyed Usain Bolt's athletics career as much as any British athlete. I go back so far, I cheered Martina Hingis on more than any British female tennis player. But you could just as easily ask why people are so religious. Or why big brand football clubs mean so much to people. Or why political unions mean so much to people, whether it's an in or out stance. I guess people will always be in groups. I think people enjoy the easy community of sport in particular. Everyone gets to share the buzz. Wearing a t shirt shows membership of the winners club, or the cool gang. And there are no guns & stuff. Usually.

Odd tournament this year. Turns out Norrie was a Kiwi until he got better funding to be a Brit. The winner of the women's title was born in Moscow. And 6th consecutive different winner. As others describe, the men's final was dire, if you like to pick a favourite to cheer for. I'm not sure either especially want to be liked too much. Hopefully the men's will go like the women's soon. I have been a bit bored of the big 3 thing for a while now.

The main difference will likely be style of approach. Whoever is chosen they will surely have a more formal & business like attitude. Boris was fairly unique. More a used car salesman than a negotiator. He's not really a stereotypical Tory. More a representative of the floater voters perhaps. Something of the Englishman abroad about him. But the party were elected on their manifesto. And they had ousted all those who did not want to condone any Brexit of any kind. So it's unlikely anyone with significantly different ideas gets elected as leader. The most interesting bit will be around whether they go with someone seen as close or removed from Boris Johnson.

It really is the most astonishing era of politics I've known of. And I date back to John Major taking over from Margaret Thatcher. And it is all purely on Boris Johnson's character & how his own party, itself renowned for being evasive, deceitful & seeing it all as a bit of laugh.. got rid of him. Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss or Ben Wallace seem the leading candidates. Of all the options the Conservatives have, despite the no clear obvious candidate talk, from their point of view, they could just appeal enough to floating voters to keep them in at next election. Gove, Raab & Hancock probably all realise they'd be demolished big time in an election. And the rest of the party likely realise too.

That running count of resignations is just those with official posts to resign from. My local MP has no such role & had tweeted his support just before the VONC. He has now posted a letter that he sadly & reluctantly could no longer support him. It really does seem unavoidable that Boris is going out kicking & screaming soon as Tories change their own rules to push him out the door. BBC News should be captivating viewing over the week ahead.

I"m fairly sure anyone with that stance within Labour was pretty much seen as Nigel Farage around that time. There's certainly a growing sense of this not being what many expected. And not just the bits about more difficult trade & restrictions on people's ability to move where they want to. It's the level of American condemnation. How New Zealand's PM pointedly was visiting 'Europe'. The inability to get something all Irish & EU can or will accept. Attempts to break the international laws. What direction the sentiments go, I think mid to long term hinges on what Scotland do. If the SNP get their way, Britain will make Ireland seem easy & calm tranquillity. And would likely ramp up an idea that whatever is left with England perhaps is as well to be back in the EU (complete with Euro currency?) fairly quickly. If the SNP lose again. It may settle down to finding a leader that can 'make it work' and so that's why Starmer likely seems to sit on so many fences. He puts too much of a vision & sales pitch, he's either not much better than Boris Johnson, or pretty much in the SNPs pocket. And both would have issues.

Keir Starmer's stance is now making Brexit work. It may not please some, but I could see that working in certain areas of England.

Yeah, on guns, the whole it's not guns that kill take just falls apart for me when you start with a national sense of entitlement to guns. What happens when any member of such a society goes nuts? People start shooting guns. I don't know too many nations to compare to, but in the UK it's not in the slightest bit easy to obtain a gun of any kind. There's no sense of national entitlement to have 1. When people go nuts here, it's with knives & stuff. Or terrorist self made bombs.

It is still going the same at the moment on the whole Northern Ireland thing. No sign of the DUP accepting the terms of Brexit arrangements. The EU & Ireland very willing & very keen to have meaningful discussions. Except on the bit the DUP hate. The only bit that it seems is actually being questioned. And that the Conservatives are trying to retrospectively change without anyone else's consent. And risking Ursula von der Leyen, Goddess of the Free World, taking them to Euro Court. But they are willing & keen to have meaningful discussions. Just not on that bit. For me, it's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. All as unyieldingly petulant, touchy & sour with anyone not into their union as much as they are. And yes.. I did notice Boris Johnson making Putin jokes at the G7 table. And have since read of Macron's concept of some European community, apparently to cover those not in the EU. Arguably sounding like the 2 grown ups in the room. Which says plenty.

If cheering on the Brits is your favourite bit, we've had it quite good for quite a while. However many semi finals Henman got to. I think Rusedski won a US Open. Then with no pause we were into the Murray years, with 2 Wimbledon's & 1 US Open. Although Raducanu lost, it seems likely she'll at least be Rusedski type level, for a while. Capable of reasonable results on grass, but perhaps best suited to US Open style court surface. I noticed 1 of the commentators in her 1st round match was pointing out how she may have a won a point she'd lost if the match had been on the US Open surface. Seems crazy how 14 of Nadal's 22 slam titles have been on the French Open clay. I guess Nadal vs Djokovic is the 1 I'll look forward to. Whichever round it is they meet, if they both make it. And I'd tend toward Nadal, who seems a less abrasive character.

Perhaps whoever is running things has to allow regional Covid rules to apply. I guess the US has some national 1s now. I totally agree with the ban on players from Russia & Belarus. And to explain why: 1 Russian medallist was stood next to a Ukraine medallist at some sporting event somewhere. Complete with the 'Z' thing like all over Russian tanks. I'd go with blanket ban over allowing however many instances like that. It's not comparable to taking the knee, or in Hitler times the raised fist thing. I can't help but feel some of those who boo the knee thing would not be too bothered by Z displays of athletes. And it is apparently normal Russians who need to get rid of Putin.

For me, whoever runs world tennis is getting it wrong. Unvaccinated Djokovic ok to play Wimbledon. Players from Russia & Belarus banned from Wimbledon. Wimbledon has no ranking points. Fairly sure all the above is the opposite way around for the US Open.

It does all stem from the bible, with its comments about being fruitful. I think mostly in the more restricted Old Testament. Most Christian nations have long since moved beyond literalism. And burning or drowning of witches. In my mind the only people who want religious rule are anti democratic & xenophobic. It is times like these I realise America is quite possibly just 1 civil war from being the Russian Federation.

I did read 1 line somewhere that 13 states had total bans lined up for immediate effect. Expected to be half the states very soon. I saw 1 news crew where an Arkansas clinic was having to instantly close down. Complete with its black out of state physician & some crowing white male weirdo outside the grounds. And as for the multiple tearful women outside the court, happy that the murders will stop. Well, I guess let's hope it's the ones celebrating that have all the problematic scenarios to deal with. They've apparently thought them all through & feel ok with it. More likely they're the type that assume some things just don't happen to nice women like them.

Not sure how to attach links, but New Zealand have just celebrated Matariki, the Maori new year. With their first ever national holiday for it. I was watching the YouTube stream of the New Zealand TV coverage & found it quite moving that 1 of the singers had tears streaming down her face. It was nice to find somewhere that seems to be in its own positivity bubble. A refreshing change from Russia-Ukraine, Brexit Britain, Indian diggers, Chinese education of citizens, or keep the rapists babies USA.

It's amazing to think such a large Brexit General Election majority could be lost & we get Unity PM Keir Starmer, at the very next election. I don't think too many Brexit voters were expecting the Boris Johnson government to sign up to a deal. Then decide it was not the right deal. And be trying to break international treaty law. Again. Make no mistake, we are essentially teetering around the edge of being treated & thought of barely a notch or 2 above how most nations are treating Russia. And the longer that goes on, the more people will vote for anything else, because I don't there is any sort of desire for that. But having said all the good stuff, I will risk alienating half the population of this forum, as there is a flip side, to ponder all the non English political & societal dislike for the Conservatives. Are they actually in some way geared up just purely to see the UK or Britain as bad, or wrong. And in itself a horrible English 'right wing' concept. Perhaps because it has a token monarchy, or because it's 1 person 1 vote, similar to the fiercely Independent USA. Rather than 1 flag 1 vote, as in the EU. Which obviously sells extremely well to smaller nations & those who favour keeping the smaller nations extra sweet. It's European Influence that is I feel undeniably far more divisive than anything Russia or China could muster. The 1s we're supposed to have been concerned about for that sort of reason. And I can not lie, Deputy PM Ian Blackford would turn my stomach. He is a smiling Scottish right winger, who feels he's utterly untouchable because of the Scottish bit.

Not sure how the topic got here.. but, the 1s you refer to would basically be the right wing working class. The lost red wall voters. The 1s that feel done over by the perceived white European immigrant influx. Labour was originally about representing the under represented. i.e. A political party for the working class. And obviously minority groups would have perhaps easily found home with the more socially left parties. The slightly odd thing I tend to notice is that MPs like Rishi Sunak & Priti Patel are derided as some kind of race traitors, which seems to me equally as odd as anything the apparently anti minorities, right wing inclined, white working class could do. While the Lib Dems, as the much more clearly defined middle to upper class regions left option vs the Conservative right, do seem mostly white Brits. Oddly more so than the allegedly racist Conservatives. In itself it's probably likely a high portion of ethnic minorities would find home with Labour, purely as working class. But the left-right divide of white voters seems less confused among the wealthy. I think that's perhaps the class-race point of curiosity, if there is 1.

It just gets worse doesn't it. This whole idea of sending people escaping from France onto Rwanda is something we can only be seen as the bad guys in. Especially given the nation's dubious hidden history of relocating people. The whole drama over getting goods into Northern Ireland, for use in Northern Ireland.. I can't help but partly think there is a point there, but from day 1 there were more people pulling for outcomes the non Unionists want, this Government were being this Government, and we will just constantly be seen as the bad guys, until a United Ireland is in the EU as 1 full entity. If Scotland do their exit & get back to the EU, then Britain will not be any easier than Ireland. Australia & New Zealand I think are willing to do trade deals. With anyone. English. British. European.

I'm never sure what to make of this kind of story. I'm not especially Christian other than celebrating Christmas & Easter. But when I see Christian movies, whether it's Ten Commandments, Greatest Story Ever Told, or through to more recent Noah, Exodus, etc.. and even the more silly ones like Bedazzled, Bruce Almighty or that 1 with Alanis Morrisette as God, I always tend to think: oh well it's an interesting, thought provoking movie for anyone of any level of interest. I guess stories like this do make me feel a bit sad. Because I'd be open to see & enjoy similar movies of other religions stories. And I feel there would be more cultural benefits than any negatives if there were a few such movies TV channels could show at certain times of year, etc.

The other day I stumbled on an article on a Bill Clinton podcast he did with Tony Blair. An American Democrat President & British Prime Minister of the 90's, that both suffered somewhat tarnished reputations. They did apparently touch on the modern day being best advised to explain clearly why they think their alternative is better for people. Why people should not vote for what they may be entitled to, if that is what they really want. But put more focus & emphasis on why the alternate is better. Rather than what they were perceiving to be a bit preachy & often losing the open middle ground. The essential middle ground as one of them put it.

Delph was always extremely average at Villa. Ok, an especially poor Villa side overall. But it did always bewilder me how he went on to Manchester City. And to be an England squad regular.