The Magic Of The Cup

In a country where so many people are fighting to put food on the table but won't bother going after the rich that are causing it, it's hard to see why they would do anything different for a football club.

I've been wondering if we could do that with England and just save everybody a lot of trouble.

And I live here.

Streaming's original sin, like the serpent lobbing an apple at Eve.

They say indigestion comes on a pale horse

They did tell everybody this was how they were going to behave before the GE. Why the surprise?

Why the ludicrous rush to get the Test series over & done just so the season can turn towards a load of one dayers that nobody remembers 20 minutes after they've finished? Been a memorable series, but condensing it has broken players & robbed us of seeing both sides picking their full teams. Stupid.

At least she's back home. My experiences of Sandwell and of Walsall hospitals were the stuff of Bedlam. Good luck with it all, and give her my best.

Smethwick has a hospital???

Hope all is ok.

Time to limit the weight of the bat too.

England play some good cricket, but my God, they're a sour, churlish bunch at times. They need an extra 20 minutes off from being well paid to do what we would all love to do, just because the day went against them?

If that's Brooks & Duckett in the same situation, 100% they'd carry on. Pathetic.

Carl Sagan's prediction of America, made 30 years ago.

Agreed, but sadly this was obvious before the last GE. This is where voting for the 'least worst' option got us. 46 years of unbroken Thatcherism, that persistently fails us, with none of the big parties offering anything different. We need a new electoral system.

So very true. How can you disagree with this.

But let's just lock up the people who say this is a bad thing instead.

It's not a terribly optimistic thought for a Sunday morning, but I can only see greater and greater catastrophes for years to come under the political 'leadership', in power and opposition, across the globe.

The world is losing its mind. 🙃💔

1979/80: Para 1.07a Sheffield Wednesday v Barnsley 3/11/1979 Meat, potatoes and Peter Springett

Ey up, it's a South Yorkshire feast for you, as @themagicofthecup.bsky.social & @scraggy74.bsky.social pore over the delights of Sheffield Wednesday vs Barnsley. This is meat and potatoes. Tuck in, son. Tuck in. Fred Dinenage, take it away... yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com/p/197980-par...

Let Them Play Irish government is blocking these children's visas. #LetThemPlay #GaaPalestine

Irish government is blocking these children's visas. #LetThemPlay #GaaPalestine my.uplift.ie/petitions/le... @uplift.ie

There is a follow up book to be written too - How Live Aid Saved Lives & Killed Music.

Feel free to ask. DMs are open as I believe the kids say. Or said, about 10 years ago.

If Geldof had just said, "Right, solve world hunger now or else we'll let the Style Council play another one", famine would have been over there and then.

I had the misfortune to tune in just as the Style Council came on.

Click.

The FT needs to get its head around wealth, and the need to tax it The Financial Times published an editorial yesterday which revealed more about the priorities of the economic establishment than it probably intended. The FT editorial team was worrying, at considerab...

The FT has published an editorial attacking taxes on the wealthy, and saying we must keep those threatening to leave, come what may. They're horribly wrong. If pandering to tax abuse is the price of keeping the wealthy, we should show them the door. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07...

The UK spends less on welfare than almost any EU country & yet Labour have allowed for the “scroungers” rhetoric to mask their cruelty. Again.

Brits need to learn that they too can have nice things. They just need to stop falling for the most obvious propaganda & stop voting for neoliberals.

Bar chart showing welfare spending as a proportion of GDP in 2023. UK is 4th from the bottom above Iceland, Malta & Ireland at 10.8%. Finland is top with 25.7%, Germany, where I live, is 7th at 19.7%. Source: Eurostat & DWP

When the media are freaking out about “out of control spending” they are lying to your faces.

Welfare isn’t “spending”, either. It’s an investment. ALL of that money goes back into the economy.

Money leaves our economy when we let the rich hoard it & refuse to tax giant foreign companies properly.

Two questions.

Which sports person decided that it was a good idea to use the word 'learnings' - as in "We'll take the learnings from it"?

And why wasn't he/she burned at the stake?

The Peter Springett interview referenced in this is, quite incontrovertibly, the greatest piece of recorded television in history.

Find the link to it in the show notes.

If this isn't a four part Netflix series by next year, they're missing a trick.

120 copies of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear, in three tall columns, with one copy propped up in front of them.

You may recall that I was caught up in the collapse of publishers Unbound.

I now have the rights to my book Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? And I have a lot of them to get rid of.

So if you felt like buying one I might see my office floor again before 2027.

levparikian.com/index.php/pr...

Announce - and I cannot put this in any stronger terms - THE BLOODY LONDON TOWN BOX SET

Hi Steven, sent you a direct message that may, or may not, be of interest.

1979/80: Para 1.06c Southampton v Leeds United 27/10/1979 And a Maine Road masterclass. Of sorts.

BBC take us to The Dell where Mick Channon returns to #Southampton colours.

If Mick watches our second game, he will be delighted that he escaped the clutches of Maine Road, Malcolm Allison & Romark.

#LFC play well, #MCFC defence do not.

yourboystookahellofabeating.substack.com/p/197980-par...