darrenm

I was fewmin when I saw it was Grealish who came off because it looked like a public insult. After seeing Southgate explain it it does make sense even if it's not what I would have done. And while you can't prove if it was the right decision, by not losing or conceding another goal, it's proven not to be the wrong decision. As for the better England fan than you rubbish on here, people need to realise that a lot of people (myself included) feel much more of a Villa fan than England fan because with England you're supporting players you're normally programmed to dislike. I've become increasingly distanced from the England team over the years because it's always been full of players from teams that have always beaten us. I don't really identify with the England fan culture and have found myself wanting Wales or Scotland to do well just as much as England. If England do well, city centres get smashed up and nationalist rhetoric is ramped up. So first and foremost I'm a villa fan who feels affinity with villa players. I'm also British English. I'll support England but I don't have to 'just be happy and get behind the team' thanks. Also, lots of people on here aren't English so assuming everyone should support England is a bit of a standard rude English trope. I'm glad England are in the final because it's another chance for superstar villa player, Grealish, to shine. It'd be nice if England win too but I dread the after effects.

I can see that Southgate will turn to Grealish if he needs him maybe because he's not fully fit or doesn't suit the system(??) etc but the problem there is Grealish doesn't do well as a sub. He grows into games. So I can see this huge weight of expectation for him to get us out of the shit with 20 mins to go and maybe getting 10 touches. Then it'll be Southgate vindicated because Grealish is obviously rubbish. It worked against Germany but he almost seems to be held to a higher standard. Won the Germany game for us with 7 touches creating 2 goals but still, Sancho did a dribble so is incredible. I just hope that when he's inevitably called upon to rescue us, he's able to instantly get into the game.

That link shows it slowing down even a week ago? 74, 73, 71, 67 looks like decreasing figures to me.

Only 28,000 extra cases today. That's a lot lower than I was expecting considering the weekend reporting delay. I'm becoming more sure that cases are reducing.

The next 7 days of case data should prove the Tories very right or very wrong on opening back up in a couple of weeks.

Working in IT, I never speak in absolutes

I don't like to use up my attachment quota but here's another few KB This is cases by date https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases You always get reporting delays over the weekend but generally Thursdays and Fridays are the full data. Some reporting delays get backfilled into previous days as they come through too. The 1st and 2nd of July are both lower than 30th June. They're a Thursday and Friday. Maybe there's a significant reporting delay with cases, I don't know. You'd expected the 2nd to have a few more added, then 3rd and 4th to have lots more from the weekend reporting delay, so today will probably look terrible because it'll be something like 40,000 new cases. But as I was saying before with deaths, that's new recorded cases added to the overall total, not new cases by date. I think double jabbed people are 65% less likely to be infectious (as far as I can recall) and are 98% protected against severe disease. Plenty of double jabbed people can still catch it but they're a lot less likely to pass it on and will be very likely to suffer no ill effects. Sajid's about to change it you don't have to self isolate now if double jabbed because you won't be pinged on the app. Could be interesting.

I think there's good reason to believe that cases are dropping off. The cases seem to have risen to about 27,000 a day and stalled there. We know that even 1 dose gives some protection against infection and we have 86% of adult population with 1 dose, 64% with 2 doses. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of infections are children, unvaccinated groups in BAME communities or the few people who refuse the vaccine. I think/hope that cases will start dropping soon because I just don't see where the people to infect are coming from. Deaths due to COVID and not just incidental positive tests at end of life are probably non-existent and hospitalisations are slightly increasing but that's probably admitting people who wouldn't have previously been admitted who were told to stay at home unless they were on the verge of unconscious. 2 weeks left of kids passing it around and then cases should properly fall.

Serena from Handmaid's Tale.

Just came to post about how utterly terrible Tomorrow War is. It's mainly the script that lets it down.

I chuckled but 911 works in the UK too

That'd be me. I don't remember putting much weight behind it, simply saying that the survation poll for Hartlepool turned out to be very close. If you've been looking for other gotchas you'll see I said a few weeks back that selecting Kim Leadbeater might just about win it for Labour as long as Keir Starmer kept away - Starmer kept away, leaflets were sent out without Labour branding and the seat was won due to Leadbeater. You'll also see that on the election night I predicted a close Labour victory after initially being sure the Tories would win. Not sure why you haven't brought those 2 up as evidence of me getting it right rather than a poll that I had nothing to do with.

Looks like Labour by a gnat's whisker

I'm in 2 minds. I thought it would be like Hartlepool where the voting was as normal apart from all the Labour voters staying at home but now I'm thinking it'll be quite close.

He's going to try and ride out the wave of calls for him to go. The socialist campaign group don't have the numbers to mount a challenge without Starmer quitting. Angela Rayner could possibly succeed but not sure she would be any better than Starmer. If he resigns there's the numbers for anyone from the left that the SCG want to nominate e.g. Clive Lewis, Ian Lavery etc.

I started to notice 2 or 3 over the last few months. They've been there for longer without me noticing I think. I reckon my new brighter monitors I use WFH show them up. I chatted to an eye specialist friend and he said they're common but if it's a sudden change then to go and see the doc. I don't think mine was sudden enough. I seem to have 3 in like a triangle shape. It shows just how much your eyes move while your vision is fixed - you look at something else and the floaters catch up a second later or the floaters are moving side to side as you're looking at something. Apparently your eyes move loads without you ever realising.

So she's not all bad then

My wife's already run at the absolute minimum amount of staff department in hospital is now even more dangerous because 3 people are self isolating with positive tests or living with others with a positive test. They reason they caught it or have to isolate? They refused the vaccine. I don't want to make it mandatory for anyone to have the jab but it's now making it so people who refused it are able to have 10 days paid off work while those who had it would still go to work if cohabiting with a positive. I'd support keeping the vaccines non mandatory in the NHS but if you have to isolate it's unpaid (unless a verified medical reason why you're unable to have it), which is awfully illiberal of me.

I've been having a little think about this. I think it stems from having Rice and Phillips in the middle. England seem to branch to left and right without ever really keeping the ball in the middle. The problem is, Rice and Phillips both automatically go right, which inevitably ends up with Sterling getting the ball usually being wasteful. Saka does well on that side but he has to do it himself because Trippier isn't much help and Sterling will be going into the middle. The only times the ball goes left is if Kane receives it in the middle and then turns left or Shaw receives the ball from Maguire/Mings. So when Jack's on the pitch he'll basically be fed by Kane or Shaw. It'll never come from Rice, Phillips or Sterling. When Mings plays he tries the longer pass to Grealish because he's used to doing it. Maguire won't as much. Also, I think if you have Henderson replacing Rice he would pull left a bit more and you'd have a better balance moving the ball upfield.

Looks like it'll be whoever manages to survive! The crashes a couple of days ago were just poor planning of the stage. The GC riders were having to be in the mix while the sprinters were pushing up the pace.

People for England so far: Pickford - Fairly decent. Punched a few when should have caught. Unbelievably good kicking. Walker - Can't remember much positive or negative. James - Sloppy. Stones - Solid. Almost as good as.. Mings - Brick wall. "Colossus" according to Southgate. So obviously he'll be dropped. Maguire - Looked great in the cameo. As good as Mings carrying the ball forward. Trippier - Lively in the Croatia game. Did OK at LB. Shaw - Poor decision making and not as good as Chilwell. Phillips - Decent but had absolutely no press against him v Croatia then struggled against Scotland. Meh. Rice - Backwards passing only. Does nothing. Henderson - Looked way better than Phillips or Rice. Which shows how poor they've been. Bellingham - And looked way better than all of the above. What a player. Sterling - Deadly with a single half-chance. But robs the team of build ups the other 89 minutes with stupid decisions. Mount - Tidy. Solid. Foden - OK against Croatia but did little after hitting the post. Grealish - Disappointing by his standards. Received fewest passes from team mates though so what's going on there? Saka - Looked great but little end product. Very positive though and taking the opportunity better than Grealish. Sancho - Meh Kane - Still coming way, way too deep. Basically playing as a CDM. Calvert-Lewin - Meh but maybe wouldn't be meh with wing backs and Grealish. Rashford - null I'm pretty sure Southgate is going to play every player I think has been poor and bench all I think have done well.

He's a very dedicated athlete and has been incredibly successful. I think his touch is shocking these days though. I don't remember it being this bad before.

I've heard from a credible source that Javid has been having meetings with Johnson for weeks. Which puts an entirely new slant on how this has all been set up and leaked to the papers. Cummings got rid of Javid. Carrie got rid of Cummings. Javid very quickly given the role after Hancock resigned, after starting to have regular meetings with Johnson from a few weeks back.

You can say that again, again.