Straggler

Don't worry, working class hero David Davis has stepped up to the plate to say the NI increase should be scrapped. He does not think the government should be associated with a policy that drives more people into poverty and disproportionately impacts lower and middle income people. Bless him for not wanting to add to the financial burdens of Britain's already struggling families. I'm struggling to think of a single reason why his credibility on this sort of thing is completely shot.

For anyone who wants some really powerful analysis of the cost of living crisis I would heartily recommend: Jack Monroe She is an amazing person and has 100% lived the life she is talking about. She has a really good thread about the true cost of living increase for the poor that shows 5% inflation may be an average, but on a budget inflation is many many times higher. Illuminating stuff. sod it thought I'd embed the tweet for the lazy sods round here.

Amnesty International are already in the press complaining about the sportswashing of this visit.

They really are quite archaic though Rees-Mogg from 2016 on why this modern day paper fad should be ignored in preference for writing laws on animal skin.....

So true, it's more like cosplay homemade fan fiction on film. If I was told they were filming without a script, I'd believe them. And did you see the Wookie run away? We pissed ourselves laughing at how stupid it looked. It's not just bad Star Wars now, it is just plain old bad TV.

David Ginola, any old game will do, I just don't want to have to run around very much.

It's so badly written. I can't believe this person is employed to write. There are multiple better informed, more insightful, entertaining posts written on here for free every day. No respect for the work, or the publication, or the industry evident. I know it is a proxy local newspaper, but to be so obviously factually incorrect on very basic publicly available information is an absolute shambles in an article claiming to provide insight and analysis.

How the ref gave a penalty there is beyond me. Wasn't even close.

Carling don't make supermarkets for bluenoses, but, if they did......

Maybe it's just me, but I've found Boba Fett an absolute snooze fest so far. Stuck the reasoning in a spoiler warning as there are a couple of plot points in there.

Truss would make Boris look competent. Boris is PM for the lols and an ego massage, he has nothing he wants to achieve and gives not a single f*** about actually doing the work. It makes him a terrible PM to be sure. Truss actually seems to be trying hard and is still wildly incompetent. Her speech giving is genuine car crash material (see cheese speech for example) and when questioned she seems to have lost touch with reality completely. TBF she is a fairly good representative of the deluded but trying hard wing of the Tory party. As far as I can work out she is a charisma vacuum, but I'd rather get kicked in the nuts by a horse than spend my time with any of the Tory front bench so I'm not exactly impartial here.

2 of these have featured in the FHM hottest 100 women on the planet lists! If that is the standard you feel guilty about, the women you actually go for must be out of this world.

Meh, genuinely not interested in VR until there is a full body suit with a Kelly Gale VR experience.

I'm now over full and tipsy. Ready for a nap. Christmas bingo complete.

Pause it at 27 seconds in. Richards inside our half on the left-hand side of the screen. Tadic is the guy in the bottom right of the picture. I just can't believe he got to the penalty area first.

aston villa 2-4 southampton On YouTube but won't embed for some reason

There was a fan protest that day, the litter is all signs saying Proud History What Future? It mostly got turned into paper aeroplanes and chucked about. And yes the first goal was awful too.

Ahhhhrgh, I can't stop watching it! It gets worse each time. Players closer to our goal than Tadic when the ball was played - Lescott, Richards, Sanchez, Hutton, Westwood. The 20 yard head start for Richards isn't even and exaggeration. Tadic covered 70 meters in the time Richards covered (jogged) 40. Lescott was the only one who even pretended to do his job. The rest literally stood and watched. That team was so bad it deserved to be relegated twice.

The Lescott, Richards partnership is my CB pairing for my worst Villa XI. The goals we conceded in the Villa 2-4 Southampton game in 2016 are some of the most we don't give a **** goals we have ever let in. The second goal in particular still winds me up to this day. The Leandro Bacuna back pass from 25 yards inside the Southampton half into the space behind our defence (i think this is the worst pass I have ever seen a Villa player hit). Lescott thoroughly outpaced as he tries to keep up with Shane Long (although tbf Lescott is probably the least to blame as at least he turned and ran back). The worst offender was Richards as he stands and watches at the half way line. He has a 20 yard head start on the eventual goalscorer (Tadic). Well I assume it is a 20 yard head start, it is hard to judge as Tadic isn't even in the shot when the ball is played. Guzan actually makes the save, gives the defence a chance, but Richards having decided not to bother to help out turned up too late to stop Long from squaring the ball to Tadic for an open goal. Absolute joke of a defence that was. It's worth looking up the video, because I'm not really doing justice as to just how bad a goal it was to let in.

I've just seen that Newcastle one on the highlights. I already knew the score going in so when the foul happened I assumed that Newcastle missed the inevitable penalty. I am honestly floored by how badly and blatantly wrong they got this one. It's not even close. In real time it looked like a pen, in slow motion it looks like a pen, from every available angle it looks like a pen, because it is a penalty. All day, every day. If you ever needed to make a case for VAR not being fit for purpose, this decision would be front and centre as evidence.

I really don't think that works. Both my sons were watching (8 and 15 years old). Neither are anything more than very casual viewers having watched maybe 6/7 races in their lives. Neither really understands the rules, but both felt the injustice of what they saw. They are the definition of the layman newcomer and they were both put off by that last lap. Drive to Survive has done more for the popularity of F1 than anything that has actually happened on the track. If they want manufactured drama, let Netflix Kardashian the crap out of it on the telly and keep the marketing team out of the stewards room.

I can save the trouble. I am a Chinese scientist. Despite living under a tightly controlled regime with strict controls on social media posts, my colleagues and I have still managed to publish material proving that we in fact created Covid19 in a lab, here in China. Of course we did not call it Covid when we were creating it, we called it: 为容易被领导的愚蠢阴谋 We continue to be stunned that despite making this evidence freely available, it has only been picked up by a select few and not a single government world wide has acted on this information.

So do I need to start panic buying loo roll now? Or because of the new variant should I be panic buying another random item, like I dunno toothpaste or freezer bags?

I had been planning to get my booster shot at a walk in centre last week. I put it off as I had a load of meetings. Went out this morning to get it and found that my local centre had made it onto Sky news with a queue of around 300 people outside. Really, really regret not going last week now. I just turned away, I'll try again if/when this all calms down.

Personally, I wouldn't appeal. The race is run, champagne popped, the only way to ruin the sport more now is to award the Championship to a different driver in a court. I would like for the FIA to admit that they cocked up and to fire Masi, or at least accept his resignation. I know they can't really say they broke the rules as it leaves them open to legal action, but they can at least admit that inconsistent application of the rules impacted the race and that they will try to do better next season. If they don't admit that the decision was a poor one, then we are open to it happening again.