dAVe80

Bass player from The Roots, Leonard 'Hub' Hubbard passed away aged 62. Really love that group. Him and Questlove formed one funky ass rhythm section.

I've got some mates who knew Mensi really well. Reading some fb messages, and by all accounts he was a top bloke, and a committed antifascist. RIP

This has been discussed before, but Mike Neysmith wrote one of my favourite songs of all time, Different Drum. Recorded by a few different artists, but this is my favourite version. A great loss. RIP.

For what it's worth, I thought the first Beatles film in the series was great. Some of my musings:

Bicks look away now. I can not bloody wait for this tomorrow. Been looking forward to watching this for months!

I think I've spent too much time listening to Roots Reggae, and now want eat Rasta Ital food.

Oh no, looks like Mills is injured. Was always a worry. He's very similar to Wood, in so much as you can't be sure they'll give you a full tournament.

Making a conscious effort to cut down on meat and dairy of late. Trying various vegan meat replacement, and I've switched to oat milk (which is delicious in coffee and porridge), and I can't tell any difference when it comes to yogurt. My biggest down fall is I do really love the taste of meat (insert Kenneth Williams here), and there really is no substitute unfortunately. I'm combating that at the moment just by cutting the quantity and frequency of eating it. I'm not sure I'll ever get in a position where I'll give it up full stop but I'm trying.

The song that keeps playing, and I think plays on the credits (I assume it's the official song of the World Cup). Is it just me that hears her singing "I ****ing love the game"?

Something something something now is not the time.

With £184m, I reckon I could make 100 friends and family millionaires, and still have more money than I'd ever be able to spend. I'd buy a nice car. I'd buy a house on the coast of Northumberland, one in Birmingham, a flat in Central London, a holiday home in Barbados. I'd pay for a box down the Villa. Then one at Lords and Edgbaston, and spend the winters following the England cricket team around the world. I'd buy a small record shop, and employ a mate to run it. I would hang out there pretty much most of the time, and I'd get a half price discount on all records. The rest I'd spend on my cat.

What do you want me to say? Yes, there are no excuses. Point scoring over me making a very serious point is a bit shitty mind. But yeah nice one mate.

Yes, there is no excuse for any Labour politician to write for, or talk to that rag. There are other ways to reach to their, thankfully diminishing readership. Out of respect for the people of Liverpool alone, it's an awful decision to make. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise. JFT97.

Keef is writing for the s*n tomorrow. No excuses on that one.

Dispatches from my house, now I'm back from Labour Party Conference - Day ??? 88 mins of my life I'm never getting back. Unison owe me £5 for a taxi. My feet hurt, and so does my back. Might need a new liver. I think I fell in love with a Scouse lass I was talking to. I'm not moving to Liverpool, but we'll always have Shoosh.

Dispatches from Labour Party Conference - Day 4 I'm a bit spangled as it was the union party night. Report will be short, and maybe tacked onto tomorrow. Had a great chat with former Ohio State Senator, Nina Turner. Palestine motion passed. I wish I was a little bit Welsh after watching Mark Drakeford's speech. If anyone asks me what I want from the Labour Party, I'll point to him. Goosed.

My union abstained till we can take it to our own conference to debate if our members want us to back it. I argued for it, and made the point Labour would need an SNP coalition in goverment if they're going to win FPTP. On a side note, GMB and Unison have manoeuvred massively in the build up to and over conference. Pissed a lot of the other unions off. Think Bakers Union is probably gone, after losing its seat on the NEC.

Dispatches from Labour Party Conference - Day 3 8am start, meeting up with my delegation to discuss our position on the motions for the day, and to talk though our motions. Got into the Conference easy enough, and avoided the rush. Had a bit of chat with my general secretary about the football. He likened Jose Mourinho to some of the CEOs he'd had to deal with over his time in the union (in so much as he now goes in somewhere, brings in his ways which he thinks still work, upsets everyone and then leaves. I laughed, cus I'm a sycophant like that. Morning session, and Ed Miliband's speech was pretty decent to be fair. Green New Deal had two motions, the second one headed up by GMB to protect their members in the nuclear power industry. Can't blame them for that, but it was clear that the first motion was the favoured motion. The rest of the motions got moved, including ours. Some great speeches from some of the union big wigs. Followed by votes. Everything passed unanimously, with the exception of GMB's Green New Deal motion that went to a card vote. Off to lunch, put ketchup on my burger without listing it on the menu. Wasn't happy. Back for the next session. Emergency motion on Grenfell from the FBU, which was unanimously supported. Then the Housing and Transport debate. Nothing contentious, everything agreed with no issues. Then the constitutional amendments. I'm not gonna talk about the first part. The second debate about the threshold for votes from PLP to go on a leadership ballot felt like a stich up. Dave Ward, CWU GS got up and called out Starmer for not consulting the unions, despite them saying they did. Matt Wrack FBU GS spoke against it too. Went through the votes, and away home to the hotel. Got fish and chips on the way home. They cost a tenner and were shit. Also saw clocked Mandy walking down the sea front. Was tempted to make him get in the sea.

Yep she was a dreadful chair. The Sabina Nessa comment was total gas lighting.

Dispatches from Labour Party Conference - Day 2 Decent breakfast, but streaky bacon, not back bacon. Met up with the other delegates and the team from HQ. Decent meeting, where we discussed what was going to happen over Conference, which rules changes we'd support or not, and made the decision that we'd vote against David Evans. Watched the first half of the match on my phone, then wandered down to the Conference centre. Walked past all the cranks, and the various different factional groups trying to give you a leaflet. Bloke stops me, "Do you want a leaflet?". I go, "Urg Labour To Win? God no." Get in the Conference easy enough. Had a little wander round the stalls. Got some free swag. Into the hall. Margaret Beckett is chairing, and gives a speech. I immediately switch off. Someone from Sefton CLP gets up and make the point that it's a disgrace that people from the S*n are there (I won't call them journalists). Standing ovation. Angela Raynor gets up, and for some reason she has entrance music. She Bangs The Drum - Stone Roses. Fair enough. Speech is good. Saying lots of good things about employment, and taking it to the Tories. Decent. Filler stuff happens, then David Evans gets up and gives his speech. Didn't go down particularly well I thought. Lots of laughing in not the right places. Says let's have a card vote. Feeling is they've already done the maths and he's gonna get in. To help him out the tellers are ignoring people and get collect the ballots so quick, people didn't even get chance to get their books out. Shambles. People getting up to raise points of order. Beckett is ignoring them, or just generally being a word removed. Standard Beckett. Evans is announced that he won his ballet. 60/40 split. If I were him I'd be worried. He won't be though. Rules changes debate madness. Everyone just wants to get on with it, but they're taking their time. Bloke gets up and makes a speech about Keef. Tells everyone he's a Marxist member of the Labour Party, and shows his t-shirt which ways something about Keef being a Tory. I get the feeling he's probably now and ex Marxist member of the Labour Party. Eventually they take the vote on rule changes, and we get to go. Drinks reception for the delegates at the hotel. Some free bottles of quaff. Happy days. Out for Italian food in swinging Brighton, then back to the hotel, and made last orders this time. 8am start tomorrow. FFS.

Oh supplement to this, I spotted Andy McDonald walking about, with a sizable minder. I'm not sure why, I always thought he was actually a pretty decent MP, so unlikely to get any crap. Also most people will have no idea who he is even. Also spotted Luke Akehurst.

Dispatches from Labour Party Conference - Day 1 Decent journey down to Brighton, but the seats on the LNER Zuma trains are terrible. Met up with some North East delegates at St Pancras, and had a bit of crack on the way down. Talking football with a Newcastle fan, and he was telling me about two lads he used to work with. One was Villa, one was sha. He used to stop with them when he came to Birmingham for the match. He was telling me about his favourite pub, but he couldn't remember what it was called. We worked out eventually that it was probably the Witton Arms, after naming every pub that ever existed between town and Aston, in the past 30 years. Arrived in Brighton and it was sunny and warm, unlike the frozen north. Never been before, and I'm sorry to be a lad, but given the reputation this place has, I was struck how many attractive young ladies were around. Got to my hotel, went and got my passes. Had a chat with a taxi driver who asked me if I knew why everywhere was so busy? Told him, and unprompted he started telling me he doesn't like Keef, and he's been too quiet during covid. I didn't stop him. President of my union took us out for dinner, which was very nice of her. Had a good chat with her about the miners in the Rhondda, and the North East. I invited her to the Durham Miner's Gala. Back in my digs, which are canny, but the bar was shut. I'm catching up on FB, WhatsApp, emails, and of course VT. Kicks off properly tomorrow, let's see what happens.

I'll try my best. I was talking about going today in our committee meeting for my union branch. I was saying I'm really looking forward to it, and I know I'm going to meet up with a load of great people, who have similar politics with me, and I'll be inspired, but the actual conference and speeches from the shadow cabinet, and Keef are probably going to get on my chebs. Will wait and see though I suppose. Going into it with an open mind. My union are also making a point of pointing out the s*n shouldn't be welcome, and we have t-shirts printed with such a message. I'll be wearing mine with pride.

Well I'm off down Brighton tomorrow, ready for my ringside seat to shitshow, assuming I'm not expelled while I'm on the train. I'm looking forward to voting for less power in choosing the next leader. I'm glad to hand over power to the likes of Dame Margret (Gord bless her), Our Jess, and Benny Bradshaw. I can't be trusted to make my own mind up, as I'm scum. As my mate put it, maybe we should just go the whole hog and have a new system to elect leaders. One pound, one vote. Then the billionaires can just have who they want and everyone will be much happier.