Good question. I might recognise Liverpool and England players from the mid ‘60s. One dies every month at the moment.

I see Alan Ball, Nobby, George Best face down (long hair), is that Jack Charlon crying in trainer's arms, Ian St. John.
Bobby Charlton the bald guy.
damn, Billy Bremner as well.
David C was Irish. That's why he was nice and affable.

The core issue is UK government breaking international law, of which it was a founding member. Same as what Trump did or with Operation Demetrius in Ulster in 1971. 



And the only way they will get votes in the next general election.

The core issue is whether GL is permitted to show bias as someone working for the publicly funded BBC. His defence seems to be that he is freelance and the rules only apply to employees. But he is only freelance because it means that the BBC don’t have to pay National Insurance. It’s the famous IR35 tax avoidance scheme. Whether it’s legal or not for GL is going through the courts at the moment. Of course, GL has previous form for tax avoidance. Some at the BBC have said that the impartiality rules only apply to news reporters. But I’m pretty sure it applies pretty broadly…I’m also sure the BBC would love children’s TV presenters to give us their lefty opinions!

Meanwhile…the government isn’t breaking international law. It might be trying to but it isn’t happening yet.

Seems like the UK government is somehow using the same attorneys that Donald Trump has been using ... I wouldn't have thought that many attorneys would be licensed to practice in two completely separate countries, and certainly not many crap attorneys.

I'm not sure to what extent the Conservative Party in the UK parallels the Trumpublican (no, not "Republican:" you can't call yourself that after you've attempted to end the republic) Party in America, but per Daniel's comment they may be headed down a similar path.

The American Trumpublican Party has for at least the last 100 years been the party of the wealthy and corporations. There is a somewhat interesting history of how this came to be due to the American Civil War and the years that followed, but that's beside the point. Prior to the Great Depression, this alignment was fairly popular: everyone (well, everyone who was white and who had a penis) was doing pretty well, so who cared if the Rockefellers and the Mellons were doing much, much better?

After the Great Depression, it became fairly unpopular. So as the American Democratic Party abandoned the racist south that had been its strongest block of supporters, the Trumpublicans picked them up, and added on gun fetishists, religious nut cases, and people who hated women. And the Trumpublican Party was able to ride this Frankenstein monster of a coalition to national relevance for quite a while.

Eventually, however -- beginning in the George W. Bush administration and leading to the Dumpster Fire of the Trump Presidency -- the shock troops of the Party recognized that the pro-business, pro-wealthy core of the Party was happy to have their votes, but really had no interest in implementing their values when the opportunity arose.

So the shock troops stopped dutifully supporting whatever candidates the core of the Party put before them and started coming up with their own candidates ... most obviously Trump (although he actually served the core of the Party -- his main notable accomplishment was a big tax cut for businesses and the wealthy -- his campaigning and his messaging were all directed at the shock troops).

So -- I'm finally getting to the point here -- the Trumpublican Party is now faced with the age-old problem of having to keep both a wife and a mistress happy. And if the Conservatives think they can maintain relevance by appealing to immigration foes, they're heading in the same direction.

In the UK to leading order:

Public sector -> Labour
Private sector -> Conservative

So in the UK employees in the private sector generally support the Conservative Party?

That's a distinct(-ish) difference with the Trumpublican Party, possibly because the UK has relatively pretty well guaranteed standard of living. Just off the top of my head, American lacks universal healthcare, a minimum wage indexed to inflation, guaranteed vacation, reasonable unemployment benefits, affordable college education ... and a lot of Trumpublican policy is aimed at keeping it that way (possibly a relic of our slavery-based economy ...). If those things are off the table in the UK, or at least only marginally on the table, that makes it a very different game.

The Trumpublican Party pretends, sometimes, that it's the party of private sector workers (they promote "right to work" laws, which ban mandatory union membership, for example), but it's a pretty obvious subterfuge to anyone paying any attention.

Thatcher turned things upside down. Before her I get the sense that if you were poor you needed Labour to help you out. With the Conservatives liking the status quo. Thatcher divided people into the aspirationals and the lazies. And that resonated with many Brits. The public sector is essentially lazy, your job isn’t going to disappear if you aren’t productive. So they vote Labour. The mystery is why all the wealthy old money vote Labour, even voting for Corbyn who could have destroyed their wealth! Funny world!

Match of the Day (MOTD) was short last night. But there was always BBC2.

I watched it myself for the first time in, well, forever. I was one of the record viewing figures. My conclusion was, as also from World Cup etc., that it needs commentators but not the moronic pundits at half time etc. I.e. dump Lineker and co.

I watched it myself for the first time in, well, forever. I was one of the record viewing figures. My conclusion was, as also from World Cup etc., that it needs commentators but not the moronic pundits at half time etc. I.e. dump Lineker and co.

Yeah, I never watch it myself. But Dutch TV football shows are even worse.

panem et circenses

"Football is a game of two halves and in the second half, Lineker wins."

Could be. Brits don’t like to be lectured to by rich footballers, etc. So Lineker and co. get to say what they like and the Conservatives don’t lose by as much as they could. Everyone happy.

What we need is Alf Garnett.
BTW Paul, did you know Tony Booth ("Scouse Mike") was Cherie Blaire's dad.. Well, I never