Rayvin

Brexit weakness might force their hand but under normal (non Brexit) circumstances I think they'd say no.

Afterlife was good yeah, I enjoyed it too. Not bothered on him in general but he's gone up in my estimation between Afterlife and that speech.

Why has Ricky Gervais upset the woke, I don't get it. I'm tempted to say that it's because the right wing enjoyed it, so now the left can't. I mean he was making fun of a bunch of famous, rich bellends. Who gives a shit. He was right anyway, they are indeed hypocrites, and they are indeed of no interest to anyone whatsoever as far as their political opinions go. EDIT - Although that impression of him is spot on

This.

Dalglish was a horrific manager for us. And with Liverpool the second time around. It took until Robson for us to recover from him.

The left and centre has been beaten across the world and is now soul searching and in total retreat. Corbyn was one attempt to fight back and he failed. But this wasn't just about him and his failure in the same way that the banking crisis wasn't just about Labour back then. These are global battles now. Whoever we choose will die on the same hill as Corbyn because no one since Blair has actually understood that this isn't just about petty domestic bullshit anymore. It's internationalism versus isolationism. Whoever we choose needs to be an internationalist but needs to win while somehow appealing to the isolationist voters. I don't think anyone within Labour was capable of navigating that line with Brexit in play, but maybe without it someone can be.

What Iranian terrorism? I haven't followed the build up to this. If Iran had assassinated a major western political leader, do you think Corbyn would have stayed silent? He'd be calling them out and demanding restraint.

Basically agree with this, although I'm gonna point out that saying things like this over the past few years is what gets you called a Nazi and a mysoginist by other people on the left

Jess Phillips is tainted by the culture war. I'd like her to be leader in some ways because it would mean we were finally tackling that head on, but i don't think she'd win. All we'd hear about is how she laughed at male suicide rates (along with, apparently, Labour's election results) and the ready made body of work of her being hypocrite in various ways. I don't think she's good enough to move past that. And her Corbyn tantrum bothers me also. On the latter issue, Corbyn's message shows leadership because he's calling a spade, a spade. The US is imperialist and while i dont believe in evil, it's not "good". Either way, still Starmer for me.

I think they pretty much have to retaliate or they'll look weak both domestically and internationally. Hopefully they're trying to think of a good way of retaliating without forcing themselves into a war that they won't win - maybe invading Iraq to 'clear out US military bases' or something like this. Hard to imagine them declaring war on the US with zero capability to do anything to directly assault American territories whilst at the same time leaving their own country exposed and vulnerable. Tbh this is a decent power flaunt by the US. Calling Iran's bluff almost.

100% this is a revenge mission then.

Not sure Iran is a big enough military power to trigger WWIII though. I have my doubts that they'll even declare war in any earnest sense.

I was reading into Cumming's political views a bit and I'm not sure he is all that comparable to people like Bannon. I think his agenda is entirely unique - he despises the London centric nature of the political system, despises the mono-culture created by Oxbridge graduates walking into civil service positions or the political landscape, and seeks to force all of these people to pay proper attention to the rest of the country. Put like that, he actually sounds more like a left winger. Also, I couldn't find anything about him decrying the left or even really Labour... but plenty on him saying that Brexit needs to happen in order to nip right wing nationalist movements in the bud. He sees all of this as removing Farage as a threat, relegating immigration to a secondary or tertiary concern within domestic politics, and de-toxifying the whole issue. Put this like, he appears to be a pragmatist more than he's anything else. Does anyone have any more info on his political views beyond the fact that he's just carried Johnson to power of course.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/02/dominic-cummings-calls-for-weirdos-and-misfits-for-no-10-jobs The sith lord is looking for an apprentice...

Maybe we need to spend some time convincing rural dwelling conservative/republican voters that the rest of us aren't voting left wing because we hate their traditions or cultural favourings, it's because we're getting increasingly fucking desperate in an economic sense.

And yet the majority of the country voted Remain in the election. So do we pander to 'northern voters' about something which "they won" and is now a non-issue, or do we actually set out a vision that doesn't have to be hamstrung by appealing to the people you've just set out in your previous post as being 'factually wrong about everything'. I don't know either tbh. I really don't. Pragmatically support people who are factually wrong in the hope of convincing them that their incorrect opinions are being catered to while pulling a fast one and reforming the country as best we can once in power (avoiding a number of important policy areas such as climate change in the hopes of spending the first term combatting voter ignorance), or continuing to point out that these people are factually wrong while the Tories are kicking them in the bollocks for the next 5 years, and hope that by the end of it they're all sufficiently scared of impotence that they're willing to admit that they've been wrong about everything.

Starmer has emerged as the clear front runner through Yougov polling. The membership don't seem keen on RLB.

Essembee isn't noted for his open-minded approach to discussion and can be obsessive (in a borderline psychotic way) about certain points. I think the rest of us get the point you're making.

Just from reading the comments here and in the match report, it sounds like the game was a horrific example of management. Were we down to 10 men through our own incompetence?

Happy New Year all. Wishing you all a much better year than 2019...!

I was being flippant ffs The fact remains they're a non entity in footballing terms.

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but Pardew has a new job as manager of ADO Den Haag. Struggling Dutch side. On an initial deal until the end of the season since his star has fallen so far that even previously unheard of Dutch teams won't give him a long term deal. The king is dead.

Will the Tories do anything about it if there's any public outcry? We just be approaching that point.

You either only read, or solely write, Christmas cracker jokes