bovril

Purple is very silly Connections Puzzle #982 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Once won me (actually my Dad) 90 quid and a new LCFC shirt with 'Mancini 10' on the back by scoring against Chelsea in 2001. Well known as 'Peter Taylor's best signing' and if you want to know what a low bar that is, skip to 17 seconds:

Was quite surprised to read David Pleat has recently "returned home after a worrying fall" considering I was sure he'd croaked it about 10 years ago.

I didn't know about his diagnosis.

I'm sorry but this is a Will Ferrell character, not a real person

Is "out and into the world", "empire 2.0" in 2016 to "shit we need to start developing closer defence ties to Europe and fast" in 2026 a more or less dramatic reversal than Leicester City in the same period? Going to start blaming UKs issues on happy clappers with flasks of coffee who thought we'd made it

Well then you're not on the fence.

Yeah probably, good job I'm not a betting man

Are you a betting man because I always appreciate some easy money...

We could be sponsored by the Phoenix

Easy today #WhenTaken #720 (16.02.2026) I scored 912/1000👑 1️⃣📍463 m - 🗓️12 yrs - 🥇179/200 2️⃣📍346 km - 🗓️1 yrs - 🥇188/200 3️⃣📍179 km - 🗓️10 yrs - 🥇178/200 4️⃣📍1.7 km - 🗓️3 yrs - 🥇197/200 5️⃣📍758 km - 🗓️6 yrs - 🥈170/200 https://whentaken.com

Failed miserably

each to their own.... generative AI tool

never really know what to do on social media when people reply calmly with a well thought out post, all a bit awkward and cringey isn't it

Great spectacle and I enjoy observing the whole good ole boy culture around it. Pretty brutal sport as well of course.

Francophobia is the English conservative's great blind spot. They are our most natural ally and much of what we like to admire about our country has been influenced or directly come from within what is now France or from a French speaking elite.

I remember Farage in the run up to Brexit saying he preferred Indian migrants because they speak English and "understand common law". Which he's perfectly entitled to think of course, but it's a good example of the commonwealth fetish and he seems to keep it quiet now.

That's precisely the reason for much of the opposition to the EU. The English are in charge of the UK, which is the way it should be for them. That's why they always found it hard to accept Ireland being part of the EU.

Know nothing about skiing but I know a lot about Bulgaria and South Tyrol, the latter being close to where the winter Olympics are being help. Bulgaria is a pretty laid back, good grilled meat and beer kind of place, probably quite busy and surprisingly expensive, but with some good sights and landscapes nearby the main ski towns. South Tyrol is an upmarket area especially for skiing, lots of good wine and expensive portions of German-like cuisine, very pretty in places with some lovely towns to explore.

The 'trade deals with India' stuff and the nostalgia for commonwealth migration over European was a great example of this. Because a lot of English conservatives viewed places like India as both subservient and naturally Anglophile. Although that's not only a problem with looking back, it's a problem at looking back at what you want to see.

Makes me laugh when the English say we've "stopped freedom of movement". That's news to anyone who holds an EU passport...

Specifically being English, specifically hating everyone else that doesn't speak English.

The conservative case for a united Europe is probably better than a liberal one. The EU is a tool that Europeans can use in whatever way they choose and makes it more likely that European culture and values will be preserved. European conservatives have realised this since late last decade, which is why they generally now favour staying in and influencing EU policy on things like immigration, instead of leaving it. English conservatives never understood this because they are generally Europhobic and still hung up on the US and the Commonwealth. They also grew up in a time when the UK was able to project its power quite successfully. However I think they are slowly realizing both that those two worlds - the US and commonwealth countries like India - are less natural allies to us than they thought and also that being out of the EU doesn't protect us against the forces of globalisation they understandably dislike - it makes us more vulnerable to them.

Washed-up, "the-game's-passed-him-by" O'Neill may end up with a trophy at the end of the season while some other managers end up with an apartment in Saudi to hang the portrait of themselves.

I was about to post the same thing. What a bizarre thing to write but that's social media I guess.