chrisp65

Yes I'd have to agree there's a definite chicken and egg element to the media problem. Newspapers lie and apparently there is nothing we can do about it. The media have behaved badly towards Corbyn, back when Laura Kuennssberg got booed and hissed I thought that was justified and I'd have hissed at her questions had I been in the room. Her attitude was insulting, her personal views were shining through and she was anything but neutral. The point was made, I believe she's actually reigned in the sneering a little. At that point Corbyn should have been able to man up and improve his media technique and be seen to be magnanimous. But no, he still can't do media. It's an absolute shame as it's a critical part of the job. I've suggested it before, but it's almost like he has to split the job with someone that can do media. I'd rather him have interesting ideas and struggle at media but have a 'spokesperson' than the alternative route of Owen Smith who appears to believe in whatever is up in the polling today, but comes over well in front of a camera.

Except that we all know, deep down inside every england fan, they are constantly scanning the area for patio furniture, even if they don't realise it or admit it.

apparently 72% of men staying at this hotel couldn't find stair 1

I'm not suggesting Erdogan is in any way a good man, a democrat or a progressive. But we know nothing of what the coup leaders would have caused in that country. To simply want change without knowing what that change would be suggests that as a 'culture' we have absolutely no ability to learn any lessons from recent or historic experience. To do the same thing and expect different results....

Owen Smith has announced he's now officially announcing the re launch of the launch of his leadership bid. As somebody that wasn't in Parliament he's confirmed he would not have voted for war. This is to clear up the fact that when previously asked would he have voted for war he first answered yes, then recently changed that to don't know. He now wants it known he wouldn't have. A member of CND, Owen Smith is in favour of renewing trident. He suggested that whilst he's been in favour of austerity it's now time to start spending. All on the TV and radio this morning.

Yeah, I'm not totally convinced that simply blaming The Matrix or The New World Order really moves us on much.

Fellaini game changer

That wasn't a pop at you there Dr P. That was my general observation that an awful lot of people got quite excited last night that a group of a couple of thousand soldiers had seized a couple of bridges and this was going to cure Turkey of corruption and religion. We had no idea who the leaders were or what their long term aims were. We didn't know if they would kill people. But somehow, at least 50% of all commentary was in favour of a military take over of a country of 70 / 80 million people with a european land border. There was a presumption it was endorsed by the USA and Russia. If those 2,000 troops had decided to fire back at the stone throwers and try and properly get the foot hold we were told they had it would have been a blood bath with thousands dead on day one and every chance of a real civil war on the borders or europe in a country with a border with Syria. Was that ever really a great idea? I don't know, I really don't. But what I do know is, we have a good few bad bets under our belts over a lot of years in this region and if I was a gambler with our track record, I'd stop betting on outcomes. How much money is one nice big drone delivered bomb? How much money would stop radicalisation in a UK prison? Bombs are sexy though, so they win every time. Gotta love a late night light show. Shock n awe baby, shock n awe.

Perhaps our expertise in backing horses in Libya, Iraq, Egypt etc., has caused us to start a slight learning curve on these things. Perhaps the Greeks sent a few world leaders a photo of the distance to the Turkish coast and a picture of 2 million immigrant rape gangs trying to get to the UK. Personally I'm not convinced it's a case of backing a winner in a two horse race. I think it could be complicated. But I'm not an expert.

There were any number of 'experts' on the various news channels last night and in to the early hours all giving us their expert knowledge and their ITK tip offs on how that was going to pan out. Turned out the experts with the inside track knew **** all. Just chancers with an angle to push. That angle usually involving telling us this will all get better if we could just bomb this guy or kill that guy or buy more of this weapon. That was Turkey experts. They've all shuffled back across the table to resume their position as IS experts now I presume.

Whichever way it pans out, today's a great day for the people that love this stuff to get wood and touch themselves whilst saying 'told you so' and telling us that they are in the know on these things and more extreme action, clamp downs, drones and assassinations are our only option. White guys and brown guys, military trainspotters, loving a bit of action from their laptops.

I would imagine Merkel & Johnson & Kerry et al had a moment of clarity and wondered exactly how many million sleeping bags and ration packs they would have to ship to Greece if the coup gained traction. No sorry, I retract that. No way did any western leader think about day 2. I also accidentally included our Foreign Minister Boris Johnson in the statement. You can imagine somebody at the F.O. trying to delay the in calls from around the world because Boris is busy in his dressing up box looking for a suitably funny hat for the occasion.

world war 3 and America turns up late again (sorry, I'm weak willed and it was there for the taking)

We've had a couple of instances in the past of people not being sure about leaving our local little club. They've liked it, they've been 'family' and they've been biggish fish in a small pond. Then, Cardiff or Swansea have offered proper professional contracts and the kids have been worried about leaving. To his credit the manager has explained to them that next week or next season they could have a career ending injury. If that happens at Swansea they will give the best care and a good payout. If they stay and it happens here, they'll basically get a card signed by all the boys.

I thought the absolute peak of membership for Blair was 405,000 and started going down as soon as he was in power - where's that 500,000 sourced from? labour membership

just like I did with the chip shop chips, when the school dinners went all Jamie Oliver

Knackered a leg muscle just over a month ago (vastus medialis, no less). Two firsts today. First time in a month I've got to mid afternoon without a single painkiller. First time in a month I've been able to use stairs like a normal able bodied person and not have to do some strange one step, level, one step, level arrangement. Bloody sore now but I'm determined to just ice pack it and not take anything. Tomorrow....using a car with a clutch! Maybe.

We had a fairly niche collecting thing going on in my school. We weren't allowed to play football to the point there were no footballs in the school. We got around this by inventing a game of football with essentially a hockey puck. The puck would be made of two discs from the tops of beer barrels. When beer is first delivered it has a plastic cap over the 'mouth' of the barrel. For some reason, these came in two very similar but different sizes (I'm guessing it was a metric / imperial thing back then) which meant one type would fit snuggly into the other. Making a puck, branded with two beers one each side. Playing on a hard surface like a school yard bloody hell those things could travel fast if you kicked it sweet. Stung too, if you got one in the shin. Every once in a blue moon one would life and fly across the yard and smack someone in the head. So we had football, with danger, with collectibility. You had to sneak in to pub yards after new deliveries and get them caps. Holidays were brilliant because you'd come home with an exotic. Devonshire Cider or London Pride. Then you were the man.

Look, this shouldn't be an opportunity for everyone to score easy points off each other. The argument that all muslims are responsible for all muslims and should react, apologise and prevent future hate crime is ridiculous. People mustn't shelter murderers, people must do their individual bit to make the world better. But come on, don't trot out glib stuff about all muslims. Else, I will require a list from you showing what you've actively done to prevent rape. To stop white cops killing black americans. To stop straight nutters killing gays. To stop white blokes fiddling with little kids. If you don't do those things or promote those things, they are not your fault. Just as the murders yesterday are not the fault of decent people in my town. Get a grip.

well, at least we got our country back

No. It's not a grey area, it's why we are leaving. You cannot make a one off trade deal with a single EU country. That is why we have left. If we want a special deal with German car manufacturers 27 EU countries have to see the detail and agree it. Now, it's most likely that Germany can get them to agree on that particular one as its in their interest. But how long will that take? What other pork barrel items will need to be thrown in? Why would Malta be bothered whether our financial services can be retained in exchange for keeping Mini in the UK? If we lose some financial serices they could end up moving to Malta. So what BMW want is of little interest to little Malta that doesn't have a great relationship with Germany, doesn't buy a lot of BMW's but does quite like Italy. This is not going to be 24 months of formalities.

fwiw I too have to hold my hand up and say I dislike grown men playing pokemon. It just feels wrong and it doesn't sit right and I have friends that are doing it and I'm finding myself judging them to be juvenile cretins. I buy music on vinyl and go in to rapture that I've found a shop that will sell me a record for £8.99 that I could have downloaded for 79p. Later in the year I shall be paying money to stand on the side of a football pitch and watch other people play football.

well we must be having a psych moment the guy 3 desks up from me just announced his arms were aching from last night's weight session and I shouted over 'do you even get in lifts?' everyone just looked at me, utterly vacant I assured them it really was funny