Lionator

I feel like there’s a bit of a pile on here against you so I just wanted to say that I can see where you’re coming from. However the reality of the system is that it’s purely about saving money from the economy in the short term. If it was about people’s genuine wellbeing, it would come out of the NHS budget or department of health. The DWP since the Blair years (read layard report) has been all about coercing vulnerable people back into work. The talking therapies/IAPT service, the only thing commissioners are interested in is getting people back to work and off of benefits, and getting as many people through the system as possible. The people that work for those services are so exhausted that they cannot give a person the compassion they need. Now if we actually decided to make long term investments into people as a state, then we could give a person the resources to manage their mental health better (access to treatment, secure housing, adequate welfare support, lack of fear of sanction) which in the long run would increase their chances of finding and maintaining employment that can add to their overall esteem and wellbeing.

Damn that’s sad, he’s only 31. I know people had been worried about his mental state for a good while.

My take is that Southgate was a really good England manager in the sense that he developed an identity and narrative that helped people to feel part of something come major tournaments. Now, he was a dreadful tactician hence why we blew the chance of winning things, but his main achievement will be the guy that revived the England national team. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that an English manager could continue that. We had Hodgson and McLaren for example who were dreadful and fans were incredibly disengaged. In fact the only other recent manager to cultivate an identity for the team was Sven, and he was a Jonny Foreigner. Tuchel is clearly a step up on the coaching side of things. Whether he can get the weird unmeasurable momentum thing that Southgate developed will be another thing. If he can then we stand a very good chance of winning things. If that dies off then it’s a problem for him. As for people like Farage saying he liked Southgate and doesn’t want a foreign manager, he’s an idiot because he spent hours upon hours criticising him over the Black Lives Matter stance.

Beautiful bowling from Sajid though. The flight he’s putting on it is stunning. The pitch is deteriorating fast.

Looks like the west are slowly strong arming Ukraine into at least considering a ceasefire. It’s a horrible situation as Ukraine probably can’t win back the Donbas let alone Crimea, but giving up on that will be awful. However if we try and get Ukraine into NATO, there’s no way Russia will agree to a ceasefire and will literally fight to the end. So who knows. A lot depends on the US elections as there’s zero chance Trump accepts Ukraine into nato.

Go kill it, remember whatever happens, you’ve come a long way to get to this position and the nerves are completely normal. Positive outcomes are obviously great but even if it doesn’t go to plan, there’ll be something to learn from for next time. I hate the term but it’s all part of the ‘journey’.

We’re definitely not unbeatable at home. In our last 15 home test matches, we’ve lost 4 (SA, Aus x2, SL). Albeit we’ve won 10 of those and drawn one. So while we win series, it’s those silly losses that will stop us getting to the WTC finals.

In Indian and Aussie conditions I’d say it is. Last winter, Bumrah was far too good for us at times but you have to remember on his day he’s probably the most difficult seamer to face. I think both of those teams have the most depth in their bowling attacks, hence why India ran out winners last tour. I fear we will struggle in Australia as our bowling attack will be inexperienced even in spite of their batting being weaker than a few years back. Their bowling attack will likely exploit the technical weaknesses that Pope, Duckett and Brook have (mainly footwork) on those decks out there.

In Root, Brook and Duckett, I’d say we have 3 of the best 5 batters in test cricket currently. Only others in the conversation are Jaiswal and Mendis.

Win this and we’d only need 3 more points to beat Derby’s record

Yes that’s the plot of hypernormalisation where he talks about the government of New York handing over complete power to the banks in 1975

I am probably of the opinion that neo-liberalism is the least worst way of running the country and economy. However it has to be heavily checked. Exploitation of our insecurities is cooked into every little orifice of this society and that stems from the early 80’s when this rogue way of running the system became dominant. It’s sickening but what’s the alternative?

Or that all policy is fed into a treasury/bank of England algorithm that essentially ends up dictating all policy. For example, it was all very funny but was it Truss’s policy that was bad or was it that it didn’t align with the way that the way that the BOE arbitrarily thinks that we should run the country and its finances? Any radical policy gets instantly sabotaged in this respect and the status quo stays in place.

Trickier deck is this but nothing that should intimidate England’s world class in form batters.

Some big games in Asian and South American qualifying today. Very exciting. Hopefully Iraq can get another win under their belts and Iran can deal with Qatar so we don’t have to put up with them at another World Cup.

That is frustrating and damning of badly thought out policy, even if the overall rationale behind it, are in my opinion correct both morally and in terms of giving opportunity. It’s not the policy of envy, I personally support the idea behind the policy and would’ve hated to go to private school. Policy of envy is just a political tagline to taint the left.

I don’t see the problem. The players are profit making money machines these days and just because it involves children, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be exploited for the clubs gain. It’ll probably put an extra £1-2k in the coffers which is much needed to pay 0.1% of a players weekly wages.

Has anyone heard about the Nigerian team stuck on an airport runway in Libya for over 24 hours?

Very much stranded in Libya

I know that the justification is always that Hamas use these people as human shields, but I think even if that’s proven, the video of Al-Aqsa is beyond reproach. Anyone that defends that imo is devoid of any human feeling or emotion. Only an animal could justify it.

Yeah America still IS the world superpower. What China have done to get where they have is nothing short of remarkable, especially without completely militarising like the US/Soviet Union did, but the USA is still the big dog and everybody knows it. The ‘multipolar world’ stuff that the Russians bang on about it probably true and I don’t think it’s unhealthy to have strong blocs provided that they are economically beneficial to each other (think China/EU) rather than competing for land and resources that will lead to wars.

That was sensational. Hope De Decker can get some momentum now, as he seems like a great lad.

Any chance the WSL might get expanded in a year or two? Think they could easily have a league of 14 or 16.

I really want Venezuela to qualify just for novelty sake. Bolivia seem to be giving themselves a good shot too, they haven’t qualified since ‘94. Asian qualifying is also looking interesting. Uzbekistan are looking good for a debut qualification and Iraq are doing well in their group. Really hoping Qatar don’t make it.

That knockout was one of the most concerning I’ve seen for a while. Has he been reported to be ok?