Objectively speaking, unless Belgium and England show me something different, France look the team to beat. Again.

absolutely batshit mental stuff. Going to be disturbing to watch how many people could vote for these loons

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/r ... 63936.html

I see many good things there as I dare say will many people.

May I just how much of a bullet we dodged not getting Mudrych.

what do you think makes sense in particular ?

Saliba starting for France.

The following....................

The IFS have dismissed their figures and costings. Says it would three times as costly as Liz Truss’s disastrous budget. Basically, they’re offering hot air and utter bollocks.

If Carl Emerson says the figures are wrong then it must be true

I agree. One thing I would like any party to guarantee is that we do not have a blasphemy law implemented under the none too subtle guise of "hate crime" legislation. We must retain the hard fought right to comment how we feel about any religion without fear of legal recriminations. Our secular society must be protected from the out of touch elite and the zealots of any religion. At one time I would have looked to Labour for assurances, but in this current batshit-bonkers Britain I am sorry to say I am no longer confident to do so.

Argh St George’s day. That’s what’s been holding us back.

What about this bit?



The party also proposes a “patriotic curriculum”, which would include pairing the teaching of Britain’s history of slavery or European imperialism, with a non-European occurrence to “ensure balance”.

… obviously completely needed and not total cobblers

When have they or any of the other experts ever got anything right?

It was the Bank of England that caused the last financial crisis not Liz Truss.

About 99% of the time, which is why planes and trains and financial markets mostly don't crash ... unless idiots like Truss take over the controls.

Some call it the horseshoe theory, others say a similar thing that politics is not linear but circular. The far right and the far left become very similar the farther out you go.

I want free speech, not because I want to hear from neo Nazis but I want to know who they are...lol. Our far left want us to call a man a woman. That's it. I have a number of gay friends. No one lives in Los Angele and doesn't. I was all for them being able to marry and be just as miserable as us straight people. It's logical. Two adults should be able to determine if they marry. How can you tell any pair they can't if they are of legal age and its mutual. That said, I'm committing a hate crime of sorts if I don't refer to a man who believes he's a woman is a woman. If I am to use that same logic, it can apply to anyone who thinks they are of a different race or age or any demographic. But AG, they believe they are a woman. There are people in mental institutions who are not a danger to themselves or anyone who will pass a lie detector test and pass any psychological exam who believe they are Jesus, Napoleon, alien life form, that Tottenham are bigger than Arsenal. In fact, in LA, I can walk into work on Monday and proclaim i'm a woman and that's that. But if I get arrested, I say the same thing, they have to evaluate me to see if I'm just trying to avoid general population where the gangs are. No evaluation needed to work for the state, but needed for prison? Make it make sense.

Conversely, in Republican far right states, have BDS laws. You can't work for the state, get state aid unless you sign a document that you will not boycott, disinvest or sanction Israel. In your own privacy you do not support a foreign country and that freedom of speech is denied. Makes no sense. You can boycott Iran, Russia, and our closest ally the UK however. Not that I want to boycott Israel but its just insane how this is constructed.

There are aspects of the right and left I do agree on. I do agree on fortifying our southern border. It will not happen because the restaurant industry, the corporate farm industry and other fields, ironically enough with Republican CEOs, want the cheap labor. Proof? At the time of 9/11 where it was feasible that terrorists would come through the second border, the Republicans controlled all the branches of government at the time and nothing happened at the border.

One thing I like on the left, is national healthcare. Last stats I saw about 60 percent of personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. Cancer if caught early is treatable. You can get well but you will go bankrupt doing so. The insurance companies who have paid off both sides will deny you coverage knowing you don't have the minimally hundreds of thousands of dollars and months and years to fight them in court with their $250 an hour lawyers. These lawyers can tie you up in court for tens of months before a judge can plainly see you have a strong enough case for a summary judgement in your favor.

We are in desperate need of a 3rd party.

Finally, in the UK, when they say preserve British culture, Indians, Pakistanis and Blacks have been there for a few generations now, going back to the '50s Windrush generation. We hear some Republicans say 'real Americans'. You have the same little blue book (passport) but you're not a real American if you fall into a certain category. The recently released movie 'Civil War' in America a journalists says to a militant, "We're American just like you" and he responds "What kind of American are you?"

Brits are as human as anyone and some or many will vote for candidates people would otherwise be detestable a generation or two ago. Kitchen table top issues (price of food, NHS, petrol, jobs) get blamed on external factors.

Google 'how accurate is the ifs 'if you don't believe I am right'.

One vote less for Labour. Starmer still thinks 1% of women can have penises.

Whisper this, the Irish have royally screwed up hate speech too. .

Arsenal's first five PL 2024/25 fixtures:

Wolverhampton (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Brighton (H)
Tottenham (A)
Manchester City (A)

He’s back ! Fresh from burning crosses divvy Chris is back to expose how stupid he is.

If I can take any postives out of the draw; Nice to have Villa, Spurs and City all at home in the second half of the season. I think we have a couple of CL games squashed in as well.

Fixtures are out and assume everyone's seen them. I prefer to play as many of the top 6 away as early as possible. City and Tottenham away early. As long as we don't lose but I'd like to beat Tottenham away. Chelsea away as well but Man Utd home first...again. We have Liverpool away in May and that may be a title decider. We have

Tough start. The home games are two decent sides as well. On the flip side November through to the end of Jan looks like a good run when we could put our foot down!

It is a tough start, particularly as it'll be a short pre season prep.....if any of our players get through to the later stages of the Euros we may have a less than full squad to choose from....if memory serves me correct we give these players a bit of time off to recover

I like the tough start so we get it out of the way and we'll have plenty of time to make up the points if we have bad results.

If it was 2 years ago I'd be worried but we are a very confident side now.

Rumor season and the latest we are linked to.

We’ve got a relatively ok run in for the final 8, but still need to navigate Liverpool away and Newcastle at home in 2 of the final 3. Man City’s run in is a dream once again.
Not a great start though, Villa away before the CL kicks off to hurt their lack of depth, then Spurs and City back to back away immediately after the international break….with a CL fixture sandwiched between - which we could really do with being the easiest home European game we get out of the hat.
The start to the season could be interesting for many teams with lots of players likely going deep in the euros, copa america, and Olympics this summer.

You got that from a 1 nil against Austria where their only goal was an Austrian putting through his own net.

Based on what we’ve seen so far Germany have looked most impressive. A disciplined performance, very regimented set up, they could be marching on to success !

However they were playing a Scotland side that could barely get out of their own half

Spain had Croatia beaten by half time in their game. You can't make definitive judgement after a single round of games. The worry for England is that Southgate picked what could only be described as an experimental midfield in their opening game so does he know what his best team is?

France have a super squad but Deschamps always does odd things. Kante in the first 11 ahead of Camavinga and Tchouameni despite playing his football in Saudia Arabia these days.

Anyway, it should be entertaining over the next few weeks.

Thought Kadioglu the Turkish left back we’ve been linked to looked good today. He’s clearly in that category of a full back with midfield technical ability but he still maintained the width.

I think we need more support for Martinelli on the left from our left back. Martinelli on the final day looked like our biggest threat when he was partnered in close areas with Ødegaard and Ben White

If we get him, I wonder if the club still goes after Jorrel Hato from Ajax?

It will be a blow we can deal with Saka being out. Jesus can play there or possibly Trossard with Martinelli on the other flank.

I've asked this before. What happens if we lose Ødegaard for a few games?

So the semis are the 9th and 10th of July and the final is 14th. Our first fixture 17th of August.

We could have several players who have played constant football throughout the summer with only a minimal break and very little if any pre season.

It’s likely Saliba, Rice, saka, Havertz, Ramsdale could all be involved up to the semis or final.

Trossard could possibly make quarters with Belgium.

We are quite lucky Timber and White aren’t involved.

Then the season kicks off and the champions league has been expanded. Simply too much football plays into the hands of sides with massive squads

Indeed.

Having a large squad of virtually interchangeable players is a massive advantage.

I think he recently signed a new deal and personally expressed a desire to stay with Ajax for a bit longer before making the 'big' move

The left side will be solid if we get that Turkish fullback. I still think Timber will eventually replace White if he is allowed to compete for that position. In any event the back line will be very solid.

Do you think if we get the Turkish fullback we won't need Zinchenko any more?

Was watching a couple of Dawkins, Hitchens and Sam Harris vids last night ripping Religion apart. Recall the God Delusion being good reading too about 20 years ago. If anything there should be laws against people propagating complete bonkers idiocy in the populace. When are you jumping ship to Canada?

London 1902. America and the UK had a similar GNP around that time, UK had a vast Empire obviously, the sterling was the world's unofficial reserve currency. America had the biggest domestic output in the world. Both had a large amount of Abject poverty in both London and New York as well as Birmingham and Chicago.

To say the least it is a politically interesting time to be living in the UK. Hard to imagine for someone of my age, but we may be about to see the end of the Conservative Party as an electoral force. The public have simply lost belief in the most successful political party in our history and Labour will gain some short-term ascendancy. Conservatism will of course survive, but in a fresh form with representatives who respect and listens to the concerns and values of the majority of our population.

I very much enjoy Douglas Murray too. On first hearing, his terribly posh accent instinctively raised my hackles, but I am pleased to say I soon got beyond that to discover one hell of a communicator. His combination of intelligence and humour is persuasive and his bravery regarding Islamism is rare. His books are well worth a read.

All things being equal we hope to be in British Columbia by spring 2025.

Agree generally Old Man but what you'd describing is a party looking for a sincere and honest politician to emerge. We all know someone who can fake that.

I give you Boris Johnson - a dilettante incompetent, a self-serving chancer, a morally-bankrupt hypocrite and the barest of bare-faced liars. It was Boris who started the process that has brought the Conservative party to their current miserable state, ably abetted by loony Liz Truss who runs him close (but only on incompetence). The rest – the lick-spittle Ministers, the toxic Home Secretaries, the dullard Chancellors and the just plain dreary PMs – all played their parts, but it was primarily Boris against whom the nation turned so decisively.

But having said that, Boris is still revered by some in the establishment and also (unaccountably) by large chunks of the voting Public, largely I suspect for having the sheer cojones to tell such outrageous and obvious lies - for that does indeed set him apart. A lot of people want him back, and Boris knows that. He himself desperately wants to be back; he needs to be front and centre. For obvious reasons, he’s keeping his head well below the parapet until the chaos that he caused subsides. But he is the most obvious future for the Conservative party. He will be back and so will they.

Another prediction, while I'm in the mood.

Although it's barely been mentioned in this campaign, the next election will be fought squarely on a closer-to-Europe ticket. The only debate - the battleground - will be on just how close.

It'll be "Lets get back to the good old days". No, not our Empire (we've tried that) but those halcyon days of the EC. Happier times, eh?

You'll be in your 'home thoughts from abroad' period by then Old Man.