Patrick

If Starmer changes tack or is replaced by someone to his “left”, the main shift will be tonal because the government has just been quite left wing. It put up taxes, spent more on public services and gave unions a load more powers

Interestingly the feed for Sam Freedman and Ayesha Hazarika’s pre election podcast about Labour has now been taken over by some slop called “No Sacred Cows”. Of their 36 BlueSky followers one is Tom Baldwin. What’s all that about?

Anyway, thoughts on the Romero red?

Have you considered that what you consider to be trivia is actually of more interest to a lot of people? Revealed preferences matter.

“This country is obsessed with VAR decisions - or previously the lack of them - because it wants to talk about football but it still trying to work out what False Nine is.” Sounds like you’re calling them thick tbh!

With that sort of tedious language policing I can now understand why you are so uncomfortable with the views of normal football fans.

Your argument is basically people obsess about VAR because they are too thick to understand what a “false nine” is. I think that’s both completely irrelevant and wrong and that the average football fan is now more knowledgeable than they’ve ever been in the history of the game.

There are better pundits than them available but the idea that Liew / Bandini / Random Broadsheet Columnist would be better is just status signalling midwittery

I don’t believe you actually watch Match of the Day if you think that’s the level of analysis on there. They don’t mock xG, they use it with every game. MOTD also has a responsibility towards mass appeal. And crucially Shearer or Rooney do know more about football!

All part of the broad appeal of football. Something like Libero will be enjoyed by middle class graduates of a certain age (me) whereas AFTV is watched by predominantly by people outside of the UK. Low brow stuff is often really good!

But the analysis some people dismiss as nerd nonsense didn’t exist or had no route to market 20 years ago. There was no previous golden era, we’re in it now. Some egg heads set up Tifo football and there were enough people into it that they now work for the New York Times.

I just don’t think VAR has anything to do us not being a “more football literate nation” or supposed scepticism of experts. Fans have never been more knowledgeable or interested in the views of experts than they are now.

It’s easier than ever before for people to access detailed analysis of football if that’s what you want. There’s no shortage of tactics and stats types all over the internet. AFTV et al are targeting an entirely different audience to those people. The complete opposite of your argument is true.

I walked past this site with some friends last night and started going off on one about the planning application and they looked at me like I was completely mental.

It would obviously just be weaponised against political opponents in a way that suppresses free speech. How would you determine whether someone is lying or just simply making an incorrect prediction?

Have you considered how your argument would be used by those less sympathetic? “Unfortunately they are so traumatised that they might murder women with screwdrivers but also can’t be held as responsible for it. Let’s do nothing about this”.

If I were you I would avoid suggestions that his actions were a consequence of his refugee status.

How long should he have got?

“Hateful framing” aka completely accurate and relevant information.

😵‍💫

Completely accept that living v close to City airport would have disadvantages. Hope planes continue to get cleaner and quieter.

Glad we agree that no one was displaced 👍🏻

This seems like a good idea if you’re not intelligent enough to grasp second order impacts.

There were no local residents there before Canary Wharf was developed. No one was displaced as there was no one there. That’s the point. City airport is also absolutely class. The benefits outweigh the costs.

What local residents?

There’s a line of thinking that views all consultation requirements and impact assessments as sacred texts. Has anyone checked if this data centre will be compliant with Martyn’s Law?

It continues to be a bad failure that essentially there's a policy debate that is obvious to you if you read a business newspaper OR the gov dot uk website or the MI5 threat update OR a decent policy Substack is basically invisible on the BBC and in 90 per cent of Commons debates.

I’m very much doing the WhatsApp equivalent of Gallas at Birmingham.

However I do think the faith people have in sort of NHS intervention to fix their mental elf is a red herring. Go out for scoops with the boys, go for a run, get a hobby. For the vast majority of people it’s really simple.

This is correct and another reason why we simply must reject attempts to make the drive drive limit stricter. It’s deeply anti-social.