RandoEFC

They just had the latest round of voting and Tugendhat was eliminated. Sunak now looks the most credible and stable leadership figure, despite having also been fined for one of the Downing St parties, having served as BJ's right-hand man for three years, the non-dom stuff, the green card stuff, and that's before you even get close to his awful austere politics. He's polished (I'd say plastic) as a communicator and you'd expect him to do reasonably well on television during an election campaign. These are the things the Tory Party will be voting for seeing as they've long abandoned any plan or ideology in favour of clinging to power for another election so they can spend another 4 years going through the foreplay and execution of a back-stabby leadership psychodrama before presenting themselves as a "new look Conservative party" again at the subsequent election. Fucking dickheads. Anyway, Tugendhat was easily the most honest candidate grounded in some reality of those remaining so it's no surprise he's now got the chop. Truss is just fucking terrible. I saw she dressed up in the same outfit Thatcher once wore in a television debate the other day. On purpose. What an absolute melt. Badenoch said a couple of things I almost even agreed with at some point but I've already forgotten what they are because she ultimately boils down to one of those culture war morons who cares more about which toilets trans people should be allowed to use and whether it's "woke" to change street names than tackling the climate crisis or trying to reduce the number of people who need to use food banks to feed their families. Mordaunt seemed like she might be half decent (again, from an embarrassment perspective, not politically, because in that respect they are all just so awful) at first but she seems to be almost as much of a liar as Boris Johnson and the 5 minutes I caught of the ITV debate last night she made this pathetic "he got Brexit done" shout in the background off camera to stick up with him presumably in an attempt to appeal to his remaining base. Christ alive. My conclusion is still that Sunak is the one I'd be least embarrassed by as the leader of the country between now and the next election where they hopefully get bombed out entirely, and this is the only metric I can use to express a preference because from a policy and political perspective, they'd all wreak absolute havoc on the lives of normal people across the country, picking up exactly where BoZo is leaving off.

Got the notice this week that ties are optional so you know it's pretty warm.

Just watching a bit of our friendly with Arsenal. Been out boozing so not in an optimal state of analysis but this is really poor from us. Arsenal bagging a couple in the last 15 minutes. Only a friendly of course but far too easy for them to keep possession and pass through us. Looks like they've been at pre season for a couple of weeks and we've just started.

All the clever people suggesting Sunak will win with MPs and go up against Mordaunt or Truss in the final two, losing to whichever one it is when it goes to the full party membership, comfortably if it's Mordaunt. Don't know how much swing is likely before the final vote.

They're all absolutely awful, as expected. Based purely off the fact that Sunak is trying to tell the truth about not being able to reduce taxes at the moment because the money is needed for the spending we currently need (we actually need more) while every other realistic candidate is trying to woo the Brexity free market ideologue Tory right by promising sweeping tax cuts funded by a REDUCTION(!?) in public spending (NHS, policing, education, etc) without really being honest about the impact of that, he currently looks like the least of many evils. I've not been following too intently but from what I have seen, the leadership discourse is about as detached from real people's lives as you'd expect. I could go into the individual frontrunners and talk about how the billionaires and millionaires among them can't begin to understand the cost of living crisis, or how many "staunch Brexiteers" campaigned for Remain and then jumped onto the other ship the second they realised it would benefit their career, or how many of them are happy to talk about their ethnicity and how they grew up as immigrants in the UK in their campaign videos mere months after voting for the horrible Rwanda project, but I just can't be arsed. They'll fight like rats in a sack for a few weeks, decide who's going to be the new King Tory and then I hope they get absolutely laid out at the next election.

Martial? Thought he left .

With the season starting in less than 4 weeks and the first team squad just jetting off to the US this week, the lack of signings, or at best the lateness of them, is becoming a cause for concern. Assuming Lampard trusts Patterson as first choice right back for the season ahead, rumour is he wants two midfielders and a versatile attacker, which to be fair, is exactly what I'd say we need. An all action midfield player, a ball playing midfielder to boost our control of possession and a replacement for Richarlison. Morgan Gibbs-White sounds like it could be on. Armando Broja has been linked but others are interested. Not heard anything about Dennis for a few days. Still wishing we'd get a bit more creative and try scouting outside of the Premier League...

The Russian national thing really wasn't worth it. Nationality in tennis is... flexible, as has been mentioned above. The players at Wimbledon don't even play with a national flag next to their name. I don't think it's mentioned at all apart from in commentary, and if that's the case there's really no difference between Rybakina and anyone who competes as a "Russian" tennis player. I still haven't fully made my mind up about it. I get excluding the actual Russian national teams from stuff. Russian based clubs, not sure. With individuals, if you want to use it to have a pop at Russia then surely just let them compete without that registered as their nationality instead of punishing individual athletes? Roman Abramovich (not an athlete but sanctioned in a sporting context) is different due to his links to Putin but unless there's something like that it feels like unnecessary overkill.

Well congratulations to Djokovic. I've seen a lot of tweets to the effect of the Wimbledon final having a lot in common with the start of the Tory leadership contest in that you just wish all of them would lose and fuck off and I have to say I feel it.

Kyrgios shouting at his box after he just blew a 40-0 lead to get broken at the worst possible time in the third set. I'm really trying to just enjoy the match for what it is and not worry about how much of a prick he is but he reminds you how much of a prick he is constantly. You're in the Wimbledon final. At least pretend to be a role model for one day? Instead of yelling foul mouthed abuse in front of a stadium of people while you blame others for your own mistakes.

Fair play to Norrie for taking that first set, more than I thought he'd be able to pull off, but ultimately comfortable for Djokovic. You'd expect Djokovic to get the win on Sunday but Kyrgios is one of those players who despite being ranked 40th in the world is probably in the top ten that you'd back to potentially pull off the win against an all time great in his first Grand Slam final. Djokovic a clear favourite though.

Also this: The fact that a large number of people who are desperate to see Labour back in government don't even think Starmer or the current Labour Party are even that good or appealing just goes to show how absolutely pathetic the current Tory party is.

Starmer cleared of that Beergate thing in Durham today in what comes as just absolutely impeccable timing.

Ben Wallace is such a flavour of the month shout though. Nobody knew who he was before Putin invaded Ukraine and just because he's not said or done anything stupid since being thrust a bit into the limelight, he's apparently a competent leader. Yes it probably makes him better than most of what the Tories have to offer but what does he know about economy, health, education, etc? To be fair, probably still more than the other "big hitters". God they're such a shower of shite.

Johnson nailed himself. And that's the only way it was ever going to end. You could sense back when "PartyGate" started that it was the beginning of the end though. He may arguably have fronted that out, although he still hadn't quite got away from the lying in Parliament bit, but he burned through so much political capital that he was never going to be able to shrug off his fortnightly scandals again and again and go and win another election. Gove has already ruled himself out of running for leader as have Raab and Hancock. Suella Braverman's leadership campaign ought to be quite a hysterical spectacle though. We'll see a lot of people get very excited by a leadership contest but aside from watching the most laughable of Tories who you wouldn't trust to run a bath make a case to run the country, it shouldn't really be enjoyed for its drama. Even terms like "runners and riders" being casually thrown about makes me feel a bit sick because it shows that the commentariat and political class will continue to treat politics like some big game when we need a government and politicians who are actually focused on the betterment of the country and its people, which shouldn't even really need saying out loud. Of course, whoever takes over will be an improvement on Johnson and his removal should be welcomed but they won't be "good". The best we can hope for is that someone who's actually focused on policy instead of the whole woke/culture war scaremongering brand of campaigning so that the next election can be fought on actual policy and governance instead of childish rhetoric and scare tactics.

Nadal has withdrawn now, shame.

I still don't think the Scottish issue should be that difficult for Labour. Even now, with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, who is absolutely despised in Scotland, support for independence is hovering around 50%. Whenever Labour finally do have another Primer Minister, it really shouldn't be that difficult to go up there and convince 5-10% more people that things will be different enough for them to want to stay in the UK, get the referendum out of the way and put the whole thing to bed. The Tories only strategy for keeping Scotland in the Union is to deny them their referendum which is pathetic. If you can't convince a large part of your country just to not secede, you really don't have the right to call yourself a credible leader. There is loads more the next Tory PM or Labour government could do to improve the relationship with Scotland, they have loads of valid gripes with the South. Just seems nobody has the confidence to say they can do something about it and are just scared of having the referendum at all because they aren't convinced they can win it. Meanwhile, Tory MPs are now accepting posts in Johnson's weird interim cabinet until Autumn despite the fact that the party is almost unanimously working to get rid of him and install an interim leader before the summer recess two weeks from today. James Cleverly has just become the third different Education Secretary in three days and we might have another one within a week. Just incredible.

Johnson now trying to get around this by saying he'll remain as caretaker leader until Autumn when the new leadership contest is concluded. Tory MPs not having it and want him out today. Presumably that would result in Raab as Deputy PM being the obvious choice to keep the seat warm until someone is elected. British politics is just mad. The last Prime Minister we've had who has actually won power outright in a general election, you know the normal channel, is Tony Blair in 1997. Gordon Brown took over mid-term and lost, David Cameron sort of won but still had to enter a coalition to form a government, he then won a majority but lost the referendum so Theresa May took over mid-term, called a snap election and lost her majority, so Boris Johnson won mid-term, won a majority, then he was Boris Johnson so someone else will be taking over mid-term. It won't happen but it really feels like the Tories should choose their next leader, then we should have a general election within three months.

Kyrgios is due to face some sort of domestic assault charge when he returns to Australia. Another reason not to buy into the "oh he's such a maverick, McEnroe come again, people just don't like him because he's confident and Wimbledon people are just being snooty and he's *Box Office*" stuff. He's a tit.

Now Beth Rigby and Pippa Crerar are reporting that Johnson will, in fact, resign today. Cya horrible cunt.

Nadhim Zahawi, just 36 hours after being appointed Chancellor by Boris Johnson, has now publicly called for him to step down despite not resigning himself. Michelle Donelan, whoever she is, who replaced Zahawi as Education Secretary 36 hours ago has actually resigned. The Education Secretary thing hits me because that's my sector but it will be the same for workers across many other areas. Seeing these offices reduced to transfer deadline day political footballs (they're close enough to that in the first place) like this really shouldn't be allowed to happen. Education could do with some actual governance. I read something the other day Donelan is the 8th Education Secretary in 5 years or something and she's now gone after less than 2 days and there are no junior ministers left in the department. We basically have no government right now simply because Boris Johnson is being a spoiled man baby and refusing to go to bed when Nanny tells him. In a way, it's almost better the longer he drags this on because people might realise that no matter how "funny" or "something different" these posh boys from Eton manage to come across, at their core, they've been given the same upbringing that produces the same entitled man babies who see politics as just another game of how much they can use their privilege and education to see what they can get away with, and enter politics because they were "born to rule". At least with the state-school educated politicians, there's a chance they come into that career with the best of intentions before realising that "playing the game" is the only way to achieve anything meaningful and becoming corrupted. All these pearl-clutching Tories right now shouldn't expect to get a fair hearing after this either. Enough people told the world what Boris Johnson was in 2019 and some have been doing so for many years before that. They've all served under his leadership, voted for his policies, publicly defended him for the last 3 years. Anyone who has held the Conservative whip in that time is culpable for propping him up this long. Now they're upset that he won't fuck off when they want him too. And they only want him to because he's become harmful to their career and their potential to keep their jobs at the next election. Cry me a fucking river. Johnson is about a month short of Theresa May in terms of how long he's served as Prime Minister. It would be absolutely sweet as fuck if he was gone before he overtook her and it looks increasingly likely.

I have no time for anyone who's enabled Johnson by serving in his government and Gove has proven to be especially slimy in the past. None of them are really close to being as bad as Johnson himself though. What I'm laughing at is the fact that Bubbles thinks he's in a position to be sacking anyone who hasn't resigned when he already has 40 vacancies to fill.

Now he's sacked Gove. Okay.