Alf Bentley

1 yellow to Huddersfield - for a trip when Mavididi (?) was dribbling towards the area.

I was imagining a protest march. A million men hoofing it to the White House (or the Bundestag) to protest against women's liberation or something.

Don't be too sad for the lad. He's been awarded an OBE..... Obnoxious Bastard of the Epoch

Surely the bit with your brother on the landing and bolting downstairs was just a nightmare, then you woke when your Mum emerged? Mind you, it must've been scary when your Mum took her beard off....

1. Vladimir Putin: Falls from balcony of Kremlin 2. Kim Jong-Un: Accidentally attaches himself to a ballistic missile and fires himself into Mount Fuji 3. Keith Vaz: Gets locked in a washing machine with an overdose of white powder, dies during the spin cycle 4. Suella Braverman: Mistakenly deported to Rwanda, she dies from Covid after being bitten by a fruit bat. Sadly no PPE is available. 5. Brendan Rodgers: A notebook-induced paper cut exacerbated by hand-clapping abrasions leads to a fatal blood infection. The Celtic board and players are blamed for the death of an outstanding coach. U40: UB40: Yes, the entire band drown in a vat of red, red wine in a poignant echo of the death of the Duke of Clarence, brother of King Richard III I expect double points when each of these deaths occurs as described.

Wilf deserves an awful lot of credit for how he's adapted to his new role this season. I wasn't surprised at him closing down well further up the pitch - and shouldn't have been surprised to see his athleticism and reading of the game in making good runs into space in attacking areas. Those were qualities he needed in his old, defensive role. But, as the season has gone on, he seems to be improving in other, less familiar areas of his new role - better crossing, linking & spotting of teammates' runs, even better finishing (well, some of the time). He already looks a very good attacking midfielder at Championship level. If he stays and if we do go up (two big ifs), I wonder what role he'll play in the PL? Playing against better defenders in a league where he and the team would get fewer chances, he'd have to up his game again to be a good attacking midfielder in the PL. But, given how he's adapted within a few months, I wouldn't bet against it. On the other hand, it would also depend on how Enzo adapted his tactics and squad at a higher level. Winks has been superb for us this season, but I wonder if we'd need a stronger defensive presence alongside him at PL level.....such as Wilf? I do think the centre of our defence would be vulnerable at PL level with current centre backs and Winks & Ricardo in front of them. I'm amazed Championship teams don't attack us more down the middle. It's great to see Wilf thriving this season, though. He had 3-4 years as one of our best players, so it would've been a shame if his stint here had ended on a low, with his poor form around 2021-23. He comes across as a nice bloke, too, and it's always good to see longstanding players bounce back or thrive (loved Sharky's cameo on Saturday for the same reason). Hats off to Wilf for his astonishing adaptation this season. Will be interesting to see what the future holds for him - hopefully here.

If Skippy the Kangaroo snaffled one of these "skipflated" packs of Skips from a skip, would that constitute SkippySkipSkipflation? I'll get my coat and head in shame for the Izzy Joke Thread.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/21/shrinkflation-youre-right-from-gin-to-butter-quantity-and-quality-are-taking-a-hit I'd come across the "shrinkflation" concept before, but not "skimpflation".

John Hyatt of the Three Johns: https://louderthanwar.com/john-hyatt-the-three-johns-rip/ Among the best live bands of the 80s - and still outstanding at a reunion gig a years ago.

Dancing in the church? Poignant emotion, conviviality, fun and mayhem even from beyond the grave, eh, Shane? Good to see almost all the surviving Pogues there (Jem Finer, James Fearnley, Spider Stacy, Terry Woods & Cait O'Riordan - didn't spot Andrew Ranken?). Also, John Sheahan, the last of the classic line-up of The Dubliners - the proto-folk/punkers. After a childhood listening to parental Dubliners records and teenage/early 20s into punk and its many post-punk ripples, I was always going to be a big Pogues fan, wasn't I?

I'm half-watching BBC Live Text...... "6th minute: Offside, Leicester City. Mads Hermansen is caught offside" WTF, Mads.....that's taking the sweeper-keeper role a bit far, mate!

Half a million per year in net migration / UK population of 68m = annual increase of less than 1%. Also a large proportion of the increased migration is foreign students, who wouldn't generate much economic output. In comparison, recent growth is described as "flatlining" but has typically been between 1.5% and 2% in recent years, so higher than net migration.....but lower than growth was in previous decades, so only "flatlining" comparatively. There'd be different opinions as to why growth has slowed, some of them political: mature capitalist economy in an era of globalised competition, low productivity, failure to move into high-value-added business, low private/public investment, tendency of British stock market to demand high shareholder value/dividends and consequent under-investment in R&D.....many theories, many of them controversial.

No, I'm not a protectionist by instinct - more a pinko liberal internationalist. In a utopian world, I'd like to see much more of politics and democratic decision-making, particularly on the regulation of global capitalism, become global - but that ain't happening any time soon and with Brexit the UK has even retreated back from pooling some sovereignty in a regional bloc. I'd say that what comes across to you as protectionism on my part is down to: (1) Concern for democracy and economic/social/political stability; (2) Pragmatism as to what the people of this country will accept re. immigration, without risking instability and the rise of Far Right, populist, anti-democratic forces. Though, while the nation state remains important, its first democratic responsibility is to its own people, anyway. My concern for democratic stability is real and justified, I think, by the rise of anti-democratic, divisive forces worldwide. Even in the UK, it wouldn't surprise me if we see the rise of Reform UK (or possibly a rehashed, Braverman-style Tory party) as a political force, perhaps before the election but certainly after it - a definite risk to democratic stability as the state of the nation and structural factors will make it enormously hard for any Labour or other govt to retain public approval, even if it does a good job. The risk of the Far Right having a chance of power in the UK by 2029 is quite real, I think - and would certainly be boosted by levels of immigration that proved unpopular. Factor in popular alienation from the democratic system, a possible rise in unemployment, climate change disruption, an increasingly unstable world, associated migration flows and A.I. and the risk gets greater. I have a lot of sympathy for many of your points on an abstract/moral level, but pragmatic analysis restrains idealism for me, I'm afraid - or maybe I'm just getting old and over-cautious... Sorry that I can't respond more fully but my life is busy just now, working long hours, part-overseeing 19-year-old daughter and trying to complete a move to South Devon. The good news is that, if the move is confirmed soon, I'll probably be casting a tactical vote for your lot in the election, as I'll be moving to a Tory constituency with little Labour presence but that went Lib Dem during the Blair years. Probably just as well to draw this dialogue to a close, anyway, before we piss off other posters, get banned and get this thread shut down for excess politics.

It's just a shame that Robin Friday and Sunday Oliseh won't be playing Wednesday, Wednesday. Maybe they'll be fit for the weekend. Though I suspect Friday won't be, as he's dead.

Yep - and I'd add Choudhury to that. Faes and Hamza both impressive - barely put a foot wrong all match. I had both at 8. KDH started slowly but was very good for the last hour & Ricardo also pretty good. I had both at 7. None of the 4 of them rating much above 6 so far?! All subjective opinion, I suppose....

I can see it now....Elton rises like a young salmon at the far post to power home the winner with his hair transplant....

You seem to frame this largely as a moral issue, ignoring both the political context and the implications for social, economic and political stability in this country. You also mainly focus on "people of talent and ambition" coming to do high-skilled work, but then suddenly merge this with an argument for asylum for people "in desperate need of shelter" - a quite different case. Re. your straw man depiction of opposing arguments: I'm not a protectionist and won't be appalled to see foreign-born players run out in blue shirts this afternoon. Likewise, I wasn't appalled when an Egyptian surgeon operated on my heart - and I was immensely grateful, indeed moved at the wonderful care my Dad was given in his last couple of years by mainly African carers. I'm also happy to see foreign students attend UK universities and British students attend foreign universities - beneficial all round and it's a massive shame that Brexit has removed most of the options to do this via Erasmus schemes within Europe. But my previous post concerned the political realities behind the surge in immigration under the Tories - not a wider moral argument or personal hostility to immigration in general. The official figures identify 2 main factors in this surge: foreign students and foreign workers, particularly those coming to do health and care work. Note that these are 2 DIFFERENT groups - not 1 group of talented and ambitious people studying, then opting to pursue high-skilled careers in the UK. On average, I believe that international students pay at least twice the fees of UK students. That suggests that the influx of international students come disproportionately from privileged sectors within their own countries, so I'm not sure that's necessarily something to be proud of. It also points to UK motivation: universities under-funded by the UK government maximising income from comparatively wealthy foreign students. The other group comprises those coming to work, in particular, in health & care. I presume they mostly have already been trained in their home countries (maybe not all care workers). While I've no problem with some overseas influx, a policy of mass recruitment of foreign workers qualified at their own country's expense does seem like immoral "poaching" to me. So what is the Tory motivation for this, when Brexit, which I opposed, was supposed to be partly about protecting jobs for Brits? There's a massive shortage of health/care workers, at least partly because real wages have been falling for years and stress increasing. Yet the Govt has spent all year fighting NHS fair pay strikes, thereby increasing vacancies, stress & waiting lists. What have the Brexit Tories done to attract UK workers to fill health/care vacancies? Surprise, surprise, they don't really care about British workers, but are happy to cut public spending by importing workers on the cheap. What have they done to improve pay, conditions and esteem for care work so as to attract Brits? Again, importing cheaper labour without improving funding or conditions seems to be their solution. But the govt of any responsible nation state has to protect the interests of its own citizens (until such time as we have global democratic governance - which is a long way off). It also has a responsibility to protect economic, social and political stability. Just this week, we've seen an anti-immigrant party win elections in Netherlands, anti-immigrant riots in Dublin and a chainsaw-wielding demagogue elected Argentine President in a context of economic instability. At the moment, despite other massive problems, UK unemployment is low but that might not remain the case - and it does nobody any favours, Brits or immigrants, if economic/social problems combine with perceptions of excessive immigration, allowing the Far Right to scapegoat foreigners. We've had far too many toxic, autocratic regimes in Europe, the Americas and Asia recently to risk that. Already, at a time when the UK faces major structural/economic problems, Reform UK is polling 10%, which could easily increase if cost of living and public services problems persist. On the separate asylum issue, I share your opposition to govt failure to offer a safe route for asylum claimants (I believe the French even offered to allow the UK to set up a claims processing office in France) and its disgraceful use of the issue to diverts voters with race-based fear and division. I also oppose the dishonest argument that asylum seekers should always go to the nearest safe country - we should take our fair share of those displaced by war, persecution and tyranny. I don't see Labour's policy as "a more competent version of the status quo". Labour is committed to properly funding the asylum system so as to eliminate the massive backlog and to working with other govts to tackle people-trafficking gangs. If achieved, they would not be "the status quo" but an admirable improvement. As well as being a cost to taxpayers, it is massively unfair to asylum seekers that their lives are in limbo for years, unable to work or progress while claims aren't processed. As a large proportion of asylum seekers come from places like Afghanistan, Syria and Iran, I'd expect a lot to be granted asylum, which I'd welcome (despite all the vitriol, asylum seekers only constitute a small proportion of migrants). If a Labour govt wrongly sent lots of persecuted people back to dangerous regimes or failed to offer a safe route for claimants, I'd join you in criticising this. The criminal gangs will be a harder nut to crack, but as Labour would adopt a less confrontational, nationalistic approach than Johnson & Truss, there's a chance of multinational action to tackle gangs. Of course, some asylum seekers deserve to be rejected: p.21 of the current Private Eye has an eye-opening article by an Albanian correspondent about the sudden mass influx of Albanians involved in crime gangs, drugs trade and violence.

Reverse psychology is my superpower.

He who laughs first may not laugh longest, but at least he gets an opportunity to laugh at Leeds before they inevitably go on to win.

Coventry, eh? All these years, I believed that "this town is coming like a ghost town" because "all the clubs have been closed down" [except Coventry City FC, regrettably]. Now I discover that it's a ghost town because they've all murdered one another. "Well, I never!", as my Grandma would've said.

During a lull in proceedings at tomorrow's match, I hope you'll seize the opportunity to start a chant........ "Happy Birthday to you, James Maddison, happy birthday to you!". Bound to go well, I'd say.

Can you remember who any of the pro-Commonwealth Lexit commentators were? Doesn't matter if not. I'm just curious. I recall one or two Labour voters expressing such sentiments, but not politicians/lefty media commentators. I agree with you about the immorality of poaching skilled/trained labour from developing nations. It's then doubly immoral if such foreign labour is being poached in order to avoid the cost of training up British workers and/or to hold down pay levels in certain UK economic sectors (health & care, it seems). I didn't support Brexit but one of the few Brexit arguments that had some validity, in my view, was that foreign labour was holding down pay rates in some lower-paid jobs (e.g. care work & less skilled NHS jobs). It's scandalous if the Tory Govt has "taken back control of our borders" only to massively increase the influx of cheap foreign labour so as to hold down pay for jobs in Britain - including public sector NHS jobs. Scandalous, but entirely unsurprising. Anyway, it's been a long working week, so my weekend focus will now be football and fun, not Brexit and immigration.

Recruiting from the Commonwealth wasn't a Lexit argument. Misguidedly, in my view, the Lexit argument was all about "socialism in one country". It saw the EU as a stooge of global capitalism and Lexit as a solution - freeing the UK to tax and spend and run deficits and nationalise industries/utilities without facing EU capitalist constraints on such actions. Recruiting from the Commonwealth was an argument put forward by some more traditional right-wing Brexiteers. Some of them definitely proclaimed themselves unhappy with EU free movement, but happy with "control of our borders" leading to EU workers being replaced by workers from the Commonwealth with whom we had more of a historical connection - provided the UK controlled the numbers. I well remember posters on here saying they weren't opposed to immigration, so long as the UK controlled it. Presumably people who hold such views will be happy that the Tory Govt has exercised its control of our post-Brexit borders to allow a large influx of workers from India and Nigeria. On the other hand, part of the Brexit argument was also that EU workers were forcing down British workers' pay, particularly in low-paid sectors. Care workers aren't generally well paid and NHS staff have spent half the year on strike over real-terms pay cuts, so it's interesting that the Govt is allowing a large influx of immigrant labour to take up posts in NHS and care work. Brexiteers who used the pay argument presumably won't be happy with that. Still, unemployment is still low - and the UK will have saved a lot of money by not having to fund the training of our own health and care workers, so there'll have been lots of extra cash for tax cuts, improved public services and paying down debt, eh?

A factor, but only a minor one, it seems. About 175,000 Ukrainians have come to the UK, but an unidentified number of them have already left. C4 News said the main nationalities coming in are Indians, Nigerians and Chinese. The 2 big increases seem to have been in foreign students and in workers coming in to work in the NHS and the care sector. In 2019, net migration was about 245,000. The 2022 figure had rocketed to 745,000 - back down slightly to 672,000 in the 12 months to June 2023. Another minor factor increasing the net migration influx is that there has been a fall in the number of Brits leaving. That contrasts with EU migration, where in recent years more have left than have arrived.

I have a new favourite. Didn't even realise it existed until yesterday. By the sadly deceased Poly Styrene. formerly of X-Ray Spex.... Otherwise....Fairytale is a great song but I've heard it too often for now, so I'll go for "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses, followed by Slade (which, aged 11, I bought along with Wizzard, when they were first released).