Spudulike

Hull will have been training and building to this match. 'Boro not so much. 

1 hour ago, ClaphamFox said:

Hogg was a free agent. We may be targeting candidates who are currently in a job, some of whom may still have games left to manage this season. If we take ages to appoint and it ends up being somebody who was available all along, it will certainly suggest poor organisation. If we end up with a strong candidate we've had to pluck from another club, it might seem like good sense.

Or it could be an out-of-contract candidate that fit's the 'available' criteria but won't currently commit until other options have been explored and dismissed. Agents will be touting their clients far and wide.

Saw a bit last night and thought the Switzerland entry was ok, a bit Billy Eyelash.

That said, I'm not sure that Switzerland are taking part? Perhaps I was watching something else, not Eurovision. I dunno.

1 hour ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

 

Well, today was disastrous.

Both were alive and being fed by the mother around 09:30. When checked an hour later, one had died.

We looked at the camera feed again around 12 o'clock and the remaining chick had fledged.

That was good - we thought.

No. A little later we found it lying dead in some rain water that had gathered in a tub a few feet from the nest box.

We assume it had partly fallen/flew into it and couldn't get out and drown 

I scooped it out and laid it on some soil nearby. We noticed during our lunch the mother, with a caterpillar in her beak, flying down to it several times.

Sad to see really. 

That is sad. Ours are still frantically feeding so I'm assuming they still have a few hungry chicks. They get through a couple of big handfulls of soaked mealworms every day. Although shared with a pair of Great Tits that must have a brood close by. Must be fledging soon.

37 minutes ago, davieG said:

I've waited 60 years to win the FA Cup never even thought about winning the League as I started watching when winning the FA Cup was probably seen as the cream of domestic trophies.

 

My only regret, I wasn't there to witness it.

Same for me. Went to every game of the '74 run and never recovered after that night at Villa Park. Not quite as bad in '82 but accepted that we would never win it.

Wasn't able to go to Wembley in '21 due to the covid risk. My Dad (massive City fan) died from it the January before and I didn't want to join him. Watched it on TV with my lad and the Tieleman's winner will live forever. Never swap that for a UCL qualification.

3 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

One of the many reasons capitalism has failed is that markets aren't really markets. Let's take the chocolate industry. There's not much competition coming to steal their thunder that I can see:

 

One company bought every brand you grew up with — then quietly gutted them. Same packaging. Same price. Less of everything that made them good.

 

That company is Mondelez International.

 

🐀 Mondelez owns Cadbury, Toblerone, Milka, Oreo, Ritz, Chips Ahoy, Marabou, Clif Bar — and dozens more.

 

🐀 In 2010, Kraft (now Mondelez) acquired Cadbury for $19,600,000,000 — against the will of British workers, unions and politicians.

 

🐀 They promised to keep the Somerdale factory open. They closed it. Hundreds of British jobs gone. Production moved to Poland.

 

🐀 2015: Cadbury quietly swapped the Dairy Milk chocolate in Creme Eggs for "standard cocoa mix." Their own words: "It's no longer Dairy Milk." Six eggs became five. Same price.

 

🐀 2016: Toblerone widened the gaps between peaks — 400g became 360g, 170g became 150g. Consumers said they felt "cheated." One fan: "Not to be melodramatic but thanks for ruining Christmas, Mondelēz."

 

💰 2023: Toblerone moved production from Switzerland to Slovakia — cheaper labour. The Matterhorn logo, 115 years of Swiss identity, was legally required to be removed from the packaging.

 

🐀 Milka: 100g bars became 90g. Price unchanged. In 2025 Milka was awarded Germany's "Goldener Windbeutel" — the consumer protection prize for shrinkflation.

 

🐀 Oreo: packages shrunk 10–15%. Consumers on PissedConsumer.com (1,321 reviews, avg 2.3/5): "Less filling and taste different." In 2024 Mondelez quietly "adapted the recipe" — called it "meeting changing tastes."

 

🐀 Marabou: Sweden's beloved chocolate since 1916. Swedish consumers: "It no longer tastes the same." Mondelez announced weight reductions in 2025 — customers: "Tänker inte köpa deras produkter framöver." (Won’t buy it again). 

 

💰 Clif Bar: founded on organic ingredients and employee ownership. Mondelez bought it for $2,900,000,000 in 2022. Employees on Glassdoor: "They gutted everything." "Sold out everything good they stood for."

 

💰 CEO Dirk Van de Put: $22,300,000 in 2024. 657 times the median worker's salary. Bonus structure based on "cost savings." Your chocolate got worse. His bonus got bigger.

 

🐀 Mondelez 2024 revenue: $36,400,000,000. Net income: $4,610,000,000.

 

The playbook never changes. Buy a beloved brand. Cut the ingredients. Shrink the package. Keep the price. Deny everything.

 

They didn't ruin your taste buds. They ruined the product.

Passing it on to the customer, that's the phrase, isn't it. Someones got to pay for the Christmas party bubbly.

3 hours ago, filthyfox said:

I'm in Newquay right now...

I used to be able to holiday quite well here.  This year prices are STUPID.

 

Been out for dinner with the Mrs twice and its cost £85 each time- two main meals, 3 alco drinks and a pudding to share.  AND THEN they have the cheek to add a service charge!!!

 

And these are independent places.

Which restaurants? I'm down that way next week. I'll swerve them.

Not me but my Dad decided to go for a pee at Wembley just after David Kelly scored the equalizer in the 2000 League Cup final. His plan was to beat the rush before going into the expected extra-time. He was still standing at the urinal when he heard the roar. I didn't even mention it afterwards as he was so gutted to have missed Elliott's winner.

2 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

There is a video knocking about at a immigration rally about open boarders, when a guy asks if people are in support of immigration - they say yes, then he offers a form to complete to sign up to house them, they all immediately recoil and think of a million reasons why they can't. 

 

 

Which is why Reform have hatched the policy for building immigration detention centres in Green voting constituences. The meltdown, they claim, has exposed this 'refugees welcome but not in my back yard'.

15 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

See this is the part I just can't agree with. 

 

Politics and music have gone hand in hand pretty much for eternity. 

 

Even just looking at what we'd probably think of as contemporary music, starting around the 60s or so you've got the entire counter culture movement that's steeped in political feeling. Not just in the music and lyrics themselves but in the words and the actions of the performers both on stage and off. 

 

For me as someone that's spent most of my life listening to rock, punk and metal I'd probably find it harder to list apolitical bands than political ones and for pretty much my whole life I've been watching artists go on stage and use the platform to speak out. 

 

Edit: just because I've seen @Samilktray react to this post, it's not exclusive to rock either. Look at the infancy of hip hop, from Gil Scott-Heron through to the early years of NWA et all, there's always been a heavy political current through hip hop. 

 

I went on those 'Rock against racism' marches in the late 70's and wore my 'Pogo on a Nazi' badge with pride. Might be why I'm disturbed by the current wave of activism being stoked by some with a platform who's motives may not be genuine. 

38 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I'm sure Buffalo Springfield and Johnny Cash, among others, would be very disappointed to hear that, given their own musical messages. (Were they still with us.)

20 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Not specifically talking about you as I've got no idea what you listen to but it does make me laugh how many of the people that trot out phrases like this these days are watching groups like RATM or SOAD or Green Day or some punk band whose lyrics and behavior have always made it clear they are profoundly political in what they do

 

I'd say 90% of the time I hear people being outraged about a band or artist having made a political statement it was a band or artist that are famously and notoriously political like, all the time. 

 

Ain't nobody turning up to a Taylor Swift gig and all of a sudden hearing her yelling from the river to the sea or **** MAGA or death to Putin or something are they. 

 

16 minutes ago, slymunn said:

This was happening long before the Sex Pistols, so its not really new.

This is all true, of course it is. My post was too generalised when it was actually in response to the point about artists using the Israel/Palestine conflict to get cheap approval from the audience. Antisemitism has become acceptable mainstream. It's frightening.

Just for the record, I spent my late teenage years at the very beginning of the punk era and the very early 2-Tone so politics in music is nothing new to me. However, it was never lectured in the way it is now.

18 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Didnt want to derail the not worthy of a thread thread into politics but regardless of your position on Isreael/ Palestine, I find it amusing when bands say Free Palestine at gigs to get a big cheer from the fans. Bit of a cheap pseudo edgy way of getting the crowd on your side.

Amusing?! I'm with Noel Gallagher on this. Sick to death of it. They need a new trendy cause to latch on to. The last thing I want at a gig is to be lectured on politics. 

I can't believe that Labour would go into the next GE with Starmer as PM and this current front bench. It would be the end of them for a generation, or more.

Their best, probably only, chance is to somehow get Burnham in but only within 6-12 months before the GE. Not enough opportunity to completely mess it up and can blame the previous imcumbent(s). Labour are masters at that. Ramp up the spin, new brush etc, and hope for some traction.

It's all about timing.

14 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

So it's context then.

 

Like saying, "I could eat a horse", is fine, but not at Ascot

No, it's nothing like that. 

1 minute ago, StanSP said:

Saying Free Palestine is not vile or antisemitic, sorry. 

It is when it's shouted in the face of a Jew.

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

Are any of the Greens one ls just for saying 'free Palestine' by any chance? 

 

I agree with your last sentence nonetheless! 

It's quite clear what the vile, antisemetic sentiment is behind that phrase. Can't prove it though.

2 hours ago, DJW1 said:

Is Keir Starmer a multi-millionaire?

Dunno but he's lost the dressing room, fans and, like an injured player, Burnham get's better the longer he stays out.

He's a dream ticket for opposition parties and Labour's demise will go further and faster than Tory's in 2024. They won't recover within most of our lifetimes.

1 hour ago, Beliall said:

Dr Hedgehog needs a sense of humour

Sounds a bit prickleh.

1 hour ago, Leicesterpool said:

Liam Manning as just left Huddersfield Town following taking some compassionate leave. Quite impressed the job he did at Bristol City, not so much at Norwich. Maybe he would be better in league one, ofc depends if hes looking to some time out of football for a bit.

Bristol City?! Their fans did'nt shed a tear when he left. Most didn't like his style.

5 hours ago, st albans fox said:

The tax take hike from the increase in fuel costs is unexpected and income that the treasury wouldn’t have counted on.

 

so why can’t reeves give a temporary reduction in fuel duties whilst prices are high and also announce a windfall tax on the fuel companies re their extra profits over this period. 
 

They should have done this weeks ago - their lack of response is the reason why they’re in the position they are with the public. 

 

We've seen before what happens when the Government reduce fuel duty. The petrol suppliers increase the per litre price by the amount reduced, drivers just pay the same and the suppliers pocket it 

1 hour ago, nnfox said:

But here's the thing.  Fans want an experienced manager who is proven to be a decent manager, assuming said manager doesn't currently work and would like to come to a League One club in that has very little money to spend and are fresh on the back of a double relegation.

 

The job could be a good job for an up and coming manager.  It's a gamble for anyone and someone with a proven track record shouldn't really touch us.  Fuchs fits the up and coming category (he isn't the only one).

 

The only other category that would look at us is someone looking to rescue their career after one or two disasters (Russell Martin anyone? )

When you say very little money to spend, it's most likely more than the rest of L1 combined.

39 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I couldn't say why they died, other than it is unusual for all to survive. This could be due to lack of food, inexperienced parents, etc.

One year, we had 5 or 6 chick's ready to fledge. They were very noisy, seemingly healthy and being fed from the nesting box hole. We were convinced one evening that they would be on their way the next day.

The next morning they were all dead.  We assumed that the parents may have fed them something that had been sprayed with some garden chemical or another.

It was quite sad watching the parents still flying up to the box for the next day or two and appearing confused as to why no chick's were appearing.

That was a shame. I didn't see last years brood fledge but didn't find any casualties when I cleared the box out. Just hope the local moggies didn't get them as they destroy wildlife around here 

6 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

 

Update.

7 eggs were laid.

4 hatched.

One chick died after 3 or 4 days, another after 7 days.

The two remaining ones are now climbing out from the nest occassionally and stretching their legs and wings.

If all goes well, they should be fledging the nest completely late Sunday/Monday.

 

Were the two that died being fed? Wondering if it's a lack of available caterpillars? I've been concerned about ours as they seem to be feeding them a lot of sunflower heart seeds which, although they won't starve, doesn't provide hydration.To assist, I put out some dried mealworms in a shallow dish soaking in water. They seem to prefer them to the dry seed but don't really know what's going on as I don't have a nest cam.