RandoEFC

I spent all day finding it hilarious and I was briefly convinced that I was finally able to laugh and let it all wash over me then the stories about how this woman's brother owns a company that was rewarded multiple NHS contracts worth millions of pounds that familiar feeling of mild anger and injustice returned. Damn you conscience.

That second photo I hadn't seen earlier, he's so weird. At least he's a bang average politician and a questionable health secretary that provides almost constant comic relief, rather than the same thing but just not funny at all.

Phwoar how do you like that ye Tory meffs.

Utter madness in Northern Irish politics as Edwin Poots who replaced Arlene Foster as DUP leader is set to be replaced just 20 days into his leadership.

Nadal has pulled out of Wimbledon. This isn't a criticism, but it's really noticeable now how much he and Federer are just dropping entire slams which they know they can't win. The pair of them and Djokovic have now clearly made a decision they want to end up with the most majors. It's hard to see anyone other than Djokovic finishing on top though as he's the only one at this point who can still be genuinely competitive at all four slams in a year. Very good chance he actually ends up outstripping them by a decent handful.

I've noticed a weird phenomenon the Isle of Man. We're currently totally restriction-free, hopefully for good this time, all adults have had at least one jab so any hand sanitising and mask-wearing is pure personal choice and not even advised by the government. The thing I've noticed is that more than half of the people I see wearing masks are in cars, which I find weird, as in the car with the people you live with (presumably) is the lowest risk of catching or transmitting the virus. Even when mask-wearing was compulsory or recommended, I used to take mine off in the car and just put it on when I was in public. Don't see many taking the precaution in shops or walking down the street or in school. Just a bit of an oddity and wondered if anyone else has noticed the same. At first I thought the sample size was too small to draw any conclusions but I kept seeing it again and again.

Are they bottling it here? I'm torn between whether the delay is extra-cautious because of what's happened in the past and the fact that hospitalisations are rising. It seems that with the Indian/Delta variant that only having the first jab is closer to unvaccinated in effectiveness than it is to fully vaccinated. A lot of people are crying about the government moving the goalposts but they did always say this was a possibility and if that variant is now the dominant strain in the UK then the relevant percentage when it comes to jabs is how many people have had both. And you may also need to factor in that in takes a couple of weeks after your second jab to reach peak immunity. I think it's the right thing to do but I can see why people are angry when it was made out early on that if the vulnerable were vaccinated then we'd be sound. Also, it's not like the UK are in 'lockdown' anymore. The majority of most stringent restrictions have been lifted bang on schedule. The real criticism you have to level at the government is allowing (I've read) 20,000 travellers into the country from India at the height of their outbreak without the infrastructure in place to enforce an effective isolation period. Hopefully those of you who are personally affected beyond day to day life like @Stan planning a wedding get some clarity soon.

Tsitsipas leads by 2 sets to 0 in the final!

And Djokovic wins 36 63 76 62. Some brilliant tennis after I turned back over in the final set, hitting lines for fun. Still, Tsitsipas at least has a slim chance of beating Djokovic in the final, he wouldn't have had a hope against Nadal.

Most importantly, the tournament have had the green light from the French government to allow the crowd to stay in the stadium past curfew to watch the rest of the match.

Djokovic won the third set on a tie break after failing to serve it out and facing break points at 5-5. He has now broken to take a 4-2 lead in the fourth set. Two games away from doing what is unthinkable to most, and defeating Nadal at Roland Garros. Match has passed the 4 hour mark.

Don't care who wins, just wanted Djokovic to make a bit more of a contest of it. They're starting to take some proper chunks out of each other now. Turning into one of those Nadal-Djokovic slugfests with no particular pattern. I suppose I'll switch over to the football now and come back for the fifth set .

Good lord.

Garbage from Djokovic so far.

I like the players, but it's past time they knocked the big three out of the way. The last generation of Nishikori, Raonic and co failed to do so, it'll be a bit embarrassing for this lot if they don't wrestle the elite positions from the previous generation, as good as they are, in their mid to late 30s. It shouldn't be a case of just waiting for them to retire at the top, otherwise it'll always be held against this generation as evidence that they aren't as great as the all time greats, if you get me.

Must have missed that. It was Zverev who kicked off and got all up in the umpire's grill during the match . Great match in the end after a fairly uninspiring first couple of sets. Hopefully Rafa and Novak can now live up to the hype, this was only supposed to be the warmup act .

Rubbish from Zverev so far. 63 63 to Tsitsipas.

Djokovic won in 4 sets after for some reason going bat-shit mental towards the end of the final game and then going bat-shit mental again at the end of the match.

A particularly poor own goal but we all know it just doesn't matter at the moment.

Get well soon!

A shame for Josh King. Never even got a start which he probably felt entitled to given how poor we were in attack. At the same time, not enough in his substitute appearances to force the club's hand and give him another year. Got success at another club making us look silly written all over it.

I think her argument is that it shouldn't be a pre-requisite as a professional tennis player to face the media every single day in a huge tournament. I can see that. You should also be able to compete as an elite athlete without it automatically being expected that you have to be this great charismatic character who inspires the next generation. The way things are structured, the tournaments will lose sponsorship money if they stop insisting on the current rate of press conferences. It would take a lot of concessions on the part of tournament organisers, media and sponsors, but it would be better perhaps if players could decide whether to a lot of media duties or a bit less, even if it means a loss of sponsorship income and appearance fees. They could even set a lower limit so that sponsors and media still get guaranteed access to the players that they want, because I agree that it's an unavoidable part of the job to some extent. But this way would allow Naomi Osaka to do perhaps 3-4 press conferences throughout the tournament and have some days off instead of 8 press conferences between the opening weekend and the final if she gets that far.

Her choice. Don't really see how or why it has to be a matter for debate to be honest.

The lockdown brought case numbers down in the UK more than the vaccine did but if you look at the spike in infections and hospitalisations in the Indian variant hot spots and dig into the data, you'll notice two things. 1) The infection rate is barely increasing in those aged 60+ (the fully vaccinated) and 2) Of the ~20 people hospitalised in Bolton with Covid-19, only one of them is fully vaccinated and that person comes from a highly vulnerable group anyway. It has also been apparent for several months now that the rate of infections and hospitalisations among the fully vaccinated population was falling at a greater rate than the rest of the population even as the last big wave was still only just calming back down. The time for gut feelings and drawing conclusions from fear and speculation are past. The science is taking over again now. UNIQUE may have come out with some real horseshit in this thread but he had a point about the media. I'm all for caution and not getting carried away but I've not been impressed with the sensationalism over the Indian variant. If it doesn't affect fully vaccinated people and the spread amongst the young is kept low enough to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed then it's a non-story in the grand scheme of things. Certainly not grounds to start a conversation about another lockdown. If you're unsure, look up "John Burn Murdoch vaccine effect" and you should find some of his analysis for the Financial Times on Twitter or elsewhere.