RandoEFC

Can't really prove whether it's political or not though.

I'm sure that's exactly what I said and I was the only one who did so if you're talking about this thread . I wouldn't describe myself as mightily against Tories, although I'm mightily against these Tories. If you are referring back to my comments it was more of a caveat than a criticism at the time. But anyway, yeah the free school meals thing I think I can explain. Boris Johnson's administration is a watered down "strong man" government in a somewhat similar mould to Donald Trump's. If there's one thing they hate, it's giving Labour the opportunity to say they've forced the government into a U-turn, especially when Labour are under new leadership and are trying to identify as a functioning opposition again. Even worse when Starmer has proven to be fairly highly-rated in his early forays. It was probably actually a blessing in disguise for them when Rashford took it upon himself to campaign for it and became the spearhead instead of the Labour Party. Indeed, when Labour tried to then claim that they'd forced the government into a U-turn, they were roundly criticised for trying to take the credit from Marcus Rashford. You could argue that the whole face masks thing. It may just be a coincidence but there's an election for Mayor of London that's been delayed to next year. Saddiq Khan wanted to make face masks compulsory on TfL services weeks and weeks back. The government steered clear of admitting face masks should be worn in public for a lot longer than most other countries. In fact, compared to other countries with similar demographics and at a similar stage of the crisis, we're way behind in terms of how many people say they would wear a face mask in public. It might be nothing but you wouldn't put it past some of the figures in this government to try and wait for everyone to forget that Saddiq Khan called it right before they did, before agreeing with him.

Rishi Sunak once again impressing everyone with his latest announcements. Again, you have to account for the fact that he gets to be the "good news" guy and that the plan has to be approved across at least the Prime Minister's team, but it's the way he lays out the facts of his latest package, what he is hoping to achieve, why he's made the decisions he has and even discusses the drawbacks of it. It's bad news but how refreshing is it to see a minister from this cabinet stand up and say "I'm sorry that I can't save every job". Yes, he's still a rich businessperson with 500 homes and he profited from the financial crisis that brought down Gordon Brown's Labour Party and he still voted for all of the pro-austerity policies and is an enabler of this dangerous no-deal Brexit government, but he's still a capable politician with leadership qualities and a genuine ability to reassure the public without lying about the drawbacks of his policies and the troubles we're yet to face, which is about the last thing you can say about Johnson, Hancock, Raab, Gove, Rees-Mogg, Jenrick, Patel or the rest of them. Can you imagine if Johnson had been responsible for this announcement. "It will be an oven-ready, world-beating financial package the likes of which the world has never seen before. Hurble gurble gurble no stone left unturned. Stay Great. Save Britain. Responsible Lives. Sensational Kipper-Leading Job Scheme Hosh Tosh Magosh. No follow-up questions."

The toilet bowl.

Hamilton to retire after this year apparently.

I just can't be arsed anymore. Anyone who is going to base their opinion on actual reality, instead of whatever barely intelligible propaganda Johnson allows to tumble out of his gob, surely can not back this cult that have taken over the Conservative party. What they've got left are the slavish Brexit supporters who will never leave so long as Boris Johnson is party leader and the people that think the Labour Party are worse. Johnson's government can not sink any lower. Hopefully some people are finally willing to have a little think about their support for them when they realise what an emphatic disaster leaving the EU with no completed trade deal with any other major power (still) turns out to be but mostly it's about Keir Starmer slowly winning over the people who have been scared of the Labour party in recent years and the rest of his MPs not shooting their own party in the foot by betraying the fact that a large faction of them are more interested in having a woke-ness pissing contest then actually forming a government that can make people's lives better. I mean, Johnson swore blind throughout the whole election that there would be no trade border in the Irish sea, the UK have now applied for trade posts to be built in Northern Ireland and it's barely even news because anyone who pays a jot of attention to politics just expect the exact opposite of what Johnson promises to happen. It would be more newsworthy if he actually told the truth. I just hope those people that like the novelty of "Boris" are getting as bored with the whole thing as I am. What a load of old shite the country is. More arsed about imaginary sovereignty than having a government in charge who actually know the meaning of competence, and I'm not talking about Corbyn either. It doesn't have to be about red or blue shirts. David Cameron's government would have demonstrated something resembling statesmanship and leadership throughout this crisis. I'm sure once everything settles down they'll start looking for a way to enable Scottish independence to go ahead that allows them to somehow place the blame on the Scots themselves, or Brussels, or a combination of Muslims, immigrants, care home workers and Antifa Marxists. Remove Scotland from Westminster and the Tories have it locked down for the rest of our lives. Couldn't bare to live in England now me. You think it's a dumpster fire when you live there. Trust me it's even worse from the outside looking in.

That bit in the middle is pronounced like "gogery" but is actually spelt llewishllwynyn. A common misconception.

Most of the things that were supposed to lead to second waves haven't actually come to pass so far, VE day celebrations, BLM protests. Seems like it might be a case of the more aggressive strains of the virus burning themselves out and the slightly less lethal strains still in circulation or something.

Jurgen Klopp has done exactly the right thing, shows class, eloquence in a secondary language and a genuine understanding of Liverpool as a football club and a city. All that he's missing is Roy Hodgson's record on the pitch and he'd be an ideal manager for them.

Starmer = Nazi sympathiser confirmed.

Can't really blame them if I'm honest even though if you look at it objectively they're definitely breaking the rules. Are there even rules now or are they just guidelines? I've lost track. The UK has been a total mess throughout this, it's bizarre seeing it happen like that when on the island we've just used simple common sense, done the lockdown properly, closed the borders and now we're two weeks into no more social distancing.

The Tory light accusation usually comes from the "proper left-wing" of the party and for all Corbyn's campaigning and galvanising of young voters, all that his iteration of Labour ended up standing for was giving the actual Tories the biggest majority they've had for decades thus enabling them to deliver the shittiest version of Brexit they can conjure up to benefit their disaster capitalist donors while robbing our generation of countless opportunities enjoyed by our parents and leaving us to deal with yet more crushing economic hardship.

John McDonnell and Momentum have already tweeted solidarity with Long-Bailey. They stopped short of criticising Starmer in any way. Time for the Corbynite faction to decide whether they want to fight the Tories with Starmer or to fight their own party and hand the Tories another decade to keep corrupting the country. It really is that simple. The decision itself seems like it could be painted as an overreaction. Recent events have led me to try not to understand issues like this as I've never experienced them and anti-semitism and Israel in particular are right at the top end of things I know almost nothing about.

I've not been following this story that closely but it seems staggering that he hasn't resigned. Then again, this entire cabinet's MO is to just never admit that they've ever done anything wrong. It's like they think as soon as they admit they're capable of doing something wrong or lying, the whole Brexit tunnel vision lunacy that they were elected on which their supporters call "getting things done" or "being decisive" ends up falling to pieces.

Yeah that surprised me about him.

UK down to 15 deaths reported today I thought I saw before? That's a remarkable improvement now even if Mondays seem to be lower for some reason. To be honest, the pandemic is finished over here. 33 days since the last positive test and school kids returned in full today. 1 or 2 from each of the classes I've had stayed away, theres hand washing stations at the entrance and we're in non uniform for hygiene reasons but otherwise things are pretty normal. We've kicked it out early enough for the Year 11 and Year 13 proms to be reinstated as well which is great for the kids. Went out on the piss on Friday and Saturday. Had a full family gathering for Fathers Day then went back to my Mum and Dads to watch the derby. Pubs were only given the green light to reopen without social distancing from Thursday so a lot of them weren't open yet but most of them will be by this weekend. Going back to football training tomorrow night too. What's mad is that it felt like it was lasting forever and the second its finished, it feels like it never happened. I'd even poke my head out and say that on the Isle of Man, as long as we don't fuck up the reopening of the borders in the coming months, it's been a very welcome anti-climax. What's also noticeable about returning to work properly for about a week is how easy it suddenly is to stop getting arsed about the UK governments fuck ups and half truths when I'm actually engaged in having a life again. I'll leave the political commentary to the more qualified critics and analysts now I think and just be grateful that I live where I do and don't get impacted as much by it.

Dominic Raab once appeared not to realise that England and France had water between them didn't he? I see that the government, after insisting that all primary school students would return before the summer, and then going back on that after realising that they'd have to double the number of schools and teachers in the country to do that without scrapping the 15 per class rule whilst simultaneously blaming the unions for being uncooperative by pointing this out to them for weeks before they were forced to admit it was actually true, are now promising that all students will return to school in September despite the fact that they can't promise that the disease will be under control and a second wave avoided making that possible. I genuinely think they realised halfway through this that they'd fucked it up too much and there was no way that anyone who doesn't blindly support them could ever call their response to this crisis a success, so they've just stopped really trying and have instead resorted to their usual trick of doubling down and consolidating the support of people who blindly support them by declaring another war on unions and red tape (merging government departments and centralising them even further) with a pinch of empty nationalism (painting a British flag on a plane) and thinly-veiled xenophobia (abolishing the department responsible for international aid). The coincidence of the Rashford thing and the international aid thing is particularly amusing, as those who don't like international aid claim "we should look after our own" instead of helping other countries a little bit, but then when faced with the opportunity to help "our own" by feeding hungry British children, change their position to "people shouldn't have kids if they can't afford to feed them" as if it's that simple followed by something about benefits and flatscreen TVs in the front room.

I didn't even know he had a plane but this is an utter embarrassment on so many levels. Imagine announcing this when you've just caused such a fuss over feeding kids in poverty for six weeks. The optics of this along with the NHS surcharges for NHS workers make you wonder if Cummings really is that in touch with the public and the master strategist he thinks he is while he pulls the strings behind the scenes.

Table update for Round 7 (Primeira Liga). Viva moves off the bottom of the pile thanks to Batard's no show in this round. Eco misses the chance to close in having been absent in the Primeira Liga tie break but still goes clear of nudge in 2nd. With almost everyone scoring 3 points, the rest pretty much cancel each other out. At least 5 players have a genuine chance of taking the title if they can put a run together in the 8th and final round. 1. @Lucas - 28 points 2. @Eco - 25 points 3. @nudge - 23 points 4. @Tommy - 22 points 5. @Bluewolf - 21 points 6. @Michael / @RandoEFC - 16 points 7. @Storts - 14 points 8. @DeadLinesman / @Stan / @Rucksackfranzose - 12 points 9. @Dan / @CaaC (John) / @Azeem - 11 points 10. @...Dan / @Pyfish - 10 points 11. @SchalkeUK - 9 points 12. @JOSHBRFC / @Mel81x - 8 points 13. @Viva la FCB - 7 points 14. @Batard - 6 points

Let's try and leave the which side's worse shouts out of it. Last week a dangerous minority of idiots hijacked what should have been a peaceful march because they wanted to get in a scrap and take their anger out on some police who have done nothing wrong. This week, an admittedly more braindead group of idiots have come spoiling for a fight with the BLM protestors, the protestors didn't turn up but they want a fight so they've gone for the police instead. Left wing idiots don't represent "the left" and right wing idiots don't represent "the right". Both of them just represent idiots and it isn't the fault of the rest of the Black Lives Matter people or the rest of the more Conservative-minded people that a minority of dickheads hijack what they stand for as an excuse to fuck shit up. It does obviously remain concerning though that there are people doing Nazi salutes etc. and I'm not denying any of that but it doesn't justify what last weekend's dickheads did either. As far as I've seen, every significant right-wing commentator and a number of Conservative MPs have come out in full condemnation of today's idiocy as they did last weekend so I think the point-scoring can end there.

Incredibly, with over 3 weeks since the last positive test, we're scrapping all social distancing guidelines on the island from Monday. Everything opening as normal but the borders remaining closed at least until the end of June. This to me signals an acceptance from our government to leave the borders closed for longer to reopen the island internally. The alternative would have been to stay careful with the restrictions whilst simultaneously slowly relaxing the border controls. It's amazing what a government can achieve with basic competence and common sense and no party politics causing them to stubbornly pursue their own ideology at risk of losing "points" to the opposition. They've also procured 10,000 antibody tests meaning they'll be able to test a sample of over 10% of the population to see how widespread the virus actually has been. For me it's great as it looks like our school will be going back with full-sized classes to completely normal timetables within a week or two. Amazing really when we were braced for several months of having to maintain some sort of reduced class sizes to respect social distancing, possibly for long enough to take us up to the point where a vaccine is available.

I'm not sure. It seems like after that statue got pulled down, and then Little Britain, which isn't that long ago and the scene in question was pretty offensive in some ways so alright, but it seems to have triggered a domino effect amongst the rest of these companies panicking so that they're not seen to be any less progressive than their rivals. Most of the usual "leftie mob" on social media are actually saying this is just getting silly now with a few exceptions.

Did you see Keane trying to mark Origi in the other derby this season? Apparently now Delph is a doubt but Gomes might be fit. If neither of them make it its Davies and Sigurdsson so guess I'll just die.

In utterly predictable fashion, we have become so consumed with taking down films and television series due to one racist comment in one episode which was taking the piss out of racists, not minorities, and started renaming buildings and tearing down statues of people whose uncle's dog growled at a black man once in 1792, that we have already forgotten about listening to and talking about what practical things can actually be done to challenge the systemic racism in society. Yes, you need to take down statues of people who were involved in the slave trade. That's so far away from the norms of society during any of our lifetimes that it's an open goal. Pretty much everything else is being silly though. Taking down Churchill's statue isn't in the same ball park and just opens the door to more culture wars. It's silly. Renaming Gladstone Hall because the Gladstone that it was named after's Dad was involved in slavery is silly. Taking Little Britain and Fawlty Towers off the air is pretty silly as well. I do so both sides to this one. Yes they're only joking and yes, like I've said they're mocking racists, not encouraging them, but people are stupid and impressionable and seeing someone black up or do Nazi salutes might be "they're so silly" in the moment but it also makes people think it's funny to do that stuff without the full understanding of what most people will see if they spot you doing something like that. However, this is a call for better education on these matters. About 20-30 Labour MPs from BAME backgrounds sent a letter to Priti Patel today because she wasn't as outraged as them about racism as they saw it when in actual fact it's her job as Home Secretary to condemn unlawful behaviour. I saw someone on Twitter who criticised her for not being on board with tearing down the statue of a slave trader and then made a comment about how she's a combination of the sneering English upper class and the Indian elite or something that was in itself pretty racist. In people's efforts to be seen to be on board with the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racism in general, which overwhelmingly begins with their heart in the right class but for some people soon becomes a pissing contest, they are starting to lose sight of what they're supporting in the first place. The letter sent by the BAME Labour MPs basically came across as saying "you might have suffered racial abuse but black people suffer worse racial abuse so if you disagree with us, you're against black people and you shouldn't use your own experience of racial abuse to facilitate racism against a different minority". If I'm biased, it's going to be in Labour's favour, but in this instance it really does just stink of them finding any excuse to make a government minister look bad and appearing to use the current issues around race to do so isn't a good look. That said, I'm a white person and I won't pretend to fully understand their first-hand views and experiences of the matter but that's the exact same reason that they shouldn't be throwing stones at Priti Patel over this. It really is going mad out there and it'll probably settle down soon but you have to wonder how much the most left-wing-minded activists are going to try and push some sort of revolution narrative here. Showing support to Black Lives Matter at this time is vitally important and change has to be pursued but it isn't going to happen overnight and with the pandemic still lingering in a significant way in the UK, now isn't the time to be starting Green Street face-offs with each other over which statues of people who said racist things that weren't considered racist when they were alive should get thrown in rivers. On a lighter note, Nigel Farage has 'agreed to resign' from LBC. I actually listened to his show a few times during the lockdown and didn't mind him too much as a radio presenter. He never crossed the line with his nuttiest views whenever I was listening but clearly some of the things he's said over the past week have been completely misguided and they've come to the right decision.

Barely a fortnight of contact training and four first team players are out injured. Our lineup for the next game currently looks something like this: Pickford Coleman Keane Holgate Digne Iwobi Schneiderlin Delph Bernard Richarlison Calvert-Lewin Fit players left to go on the nine man bench: Stekelenburg, Sidibe, Baines, Davies, Sigurdsson, Kean. Amazing. Still got over a week for more injuries too.