RoverAndOut

As I predicted in October, albeit you had the good grace to make it interesting by threatening to collapse! Congratulations Biblio, now if you could see fit to throw 3 points our way next weekend, I'd be most grateful.

Funny how other countries' nationalised rail networks are efficient, cheap and no less reliable than ours. We already own about a third of the network because they have to keep taking franchises off their fat cat mates who couldn't run a piss up in a brewery. Might as well go the whole hog and make it official.

I hope Newey goes to Aston Martin. I desperately want Alonso to have a realistic shot at race wins again, as I'm certain he can still do it. Is Mercedes an exciting prospect to Newey? Probably not. Ferrari would be more interesting due to their history and prestige. But, as I said before, Aston would offer him the chance to build up a team into title contenders for the 4th time (after Williams, McLaren and Red Bull - I know the first 2 were successful before him). Surprised Audi aren't making a play for him too, he could turbocharge their entry. I'm uncertain about all this hype about Audi. New manufacturers rarely hit the ground running. Toyota didn't win in 8 years of F1. Mercedes took 3 seasons before their first win and 5 before their first championship. Audi do have good motorsport pedigree, but F1 is a different animal and breaking the hegemony of the big boys is not easy, and there's so many teams fighting just behind Red Bull already: Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin. Add Audi into the mix and we could have 6 teams fighting it out, which, if they're relatively equal, could be thrilling, or we could end up with Noah's Ark, 2 by 2 by 2 - no wonder they're talking about points down to 12th.

Haven't watched it yet. I will do.

It is. But do we want to see presenters standing still, with their arms by their sides? It looks unnatural. If they're cropped from the chest up, then fine, but otherwise I'm fairly certain it would very quickly become weird. Maybe we'd get over the weirdness and it would become normal with time. But movement maintains focus and concentration. I'm not saying they need to do drastic movements or move all of the time, I fully agree time and place and leaving room for emphasis. The point I was making is in the past, they got away with it by having them hold a microphone. Now their hands are idle. Sometimes they get around it by getting them to walk somewhere, like down a high street, or along a bridge.

They used to be occupied by holding a microphone, but now it's all lapel mikes, they've got to do something with their hands.

26/4/24 28 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Murder On The Dancefloor 27 Wheatus — Teenage Dirtbag 27 Gorillaz — Feel Good Inc. 26 Manic Street Preachers — The Love Of Richard Nixon 26 Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse — Valerie 25 Kylie Minogue — Love At First Sight 24 Daft Punk — One More Time 24 Adele — Chasing Pavements 22 Coldplay — In My Place 22 Busted — Year 3000 20 Coldplay — Speed Of Sound 20 Plain White T’s — Hey There Delilah 20 Oasis — Stop Crying Your Heart Out 20 Pink — Get The Party Started 20 Razorlight — Somewhere Else 20 Manic Street Preachers — Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 18 Kylie Minogue — On A Night Like This 14 Kelis — Trick Me 13 Justin Timberlake — Cry Me A River 12 Jeff Buckley — Hallelujah 10 Corinne Bailey Rae — Put Your Records On 8 Dido — White Flag +4 8 Taylor Swift — Love Story -6 6 Kate Nash — Foundations Going about as badly as it could be right now.

The look on Wes Streeting's face.

I'm not sure what he thought would happen. On the 6 o'clock news, they said he'd war-gamed a vote of no confidence, so presumably thought he could win it, but once he'd royally stuck two fingers up at the Greens, there was very little incentive for them to support him. At that point, he was at the behest of Ash Regan, and, at best, could limp on with a tie. Very strange. If he thought it would look decisive and strong, he vastly overplayed his hand. If he lost the vote, a new election would have to be called I think? (Can anyone confirm?) So resignation would be the only option, to allow a new First Minister to be sworn in. Presumably, if Neil Gray (or anyone else for that matter) could not win a confidence vote, the election would happen anyway - and that would depend on whether the Greens were satisfied with their pound of flesh by getting rid of Yousef and then back Gray (is he from the SNP supporters of the Bute House agreement or the SNP opponents who were cockahoop this morning? That could be the deciding factor).

The gift that keeps on giving. Private Eye again.

Greens have announced they'll vote in favour of the vote of no confidence. That means 64 votes in favour (assuming all Labour, Lib Dem, Tory and Greens do as told) and 63 votes against (all the SNP). A tie would result in the presiding officer casting the deciding vote in favour of the status quo. So it all rests on the last MSP - Ash Regan, former SNP MSP, stood against Humza for the leadership after Nicola stood down and now a member of their fierce rivals Alba. Good luck, Humza!

Also, the ones we put through were, on the whole, shite.

Put posting on my break. Waited through my break while @AstroKat didn't post. Then went to my next lesson. Will try again now at lunch when nobody is posting. (Watch this be gazumped before I've posted. ) 25/04/24 24 Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse — Valerie 24 Daft Punk — One More Time 24 Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Murder On The Dancefloor 21 Busted — Year 3000 21 Wheatus — Teenage Dirtbag 21 Justin Timberlake — Cry Me A River 21 Kylie Minogue — Love At First Sight 20 Coldplay — Speed Of Sound 20 Kylie Minogue — On A Night Like This 20 Plain White T’s — Hey There Delilah 20 Manic Street Preachers — The Love Of Richard Nixon 20 Kelis — Trick Me 20 Oasis — Stop Crying Your Heart Out 20 Pink — Get The Party Started 20 Coldplay — In My Place 20 Razorlight — Somewhere Else 20 Adele — Chasing Pavements 20 Corinne Bailey Rae — Put Your Records On 20 Manic Street Preachers — Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 20 Gorillaz — Feel Good Inc. 20 Jeff Buckley — Hallelujah 14 Taylor Swift — Love Story 14 Kate Nash — Foundations 14 James Morrison ft. Nelly Furtado — Broken Strings -6 12 Dido — White Flag +4

Posting

Non-story. It's not going to work, certainly not short term, which is all that matters.

FFS what a shit show. A song that's not from the 00s (albeit a masterpiece), weak early offerings from Adele and Taylor Swift and that bloody indie ballad. Another great Rihanna offering gone, the iconic Empire State of Mind and don't get me started on La Roux. And now we've got to wait to start the grand final because we didn't end it 2 hours ago! Not impressed.

It is 3 years since the last round of this game started and nearly a year since it finished but with another season about to commence and sacking taking place at an astonishing rate these days, surely the next round shouldn't last as long! The last game took long enough to finish that I ended up coming out on top, and with no Miracle Aligner around, and the support of Buffalo Phil and Great Uncle Bulgaria, I am happy to step into the breach of running what should be a relatively stress-free game (for everyone apart from those whose jobs are at stake!) After all, I've lurked around here long enough without actually running anything, about time I did something useful! This seems to have crept up on us, such that the 2023-24 EFL season starts next Friday (July 4th), so time's ticking to get this up and running! Entries are valid until midday BST on Friday August 4th 2023 via DM or you can post on the thread - but your picks are liable to be stolen! That gives you just over a week! Rules are pretty straightforward: Submit a team of 20 names. (Plus subs, but with only a week to go until the game starts, one or two subs max should be all that's needed). The first person to have all 20 names they chose leave their club (this can be due to resignation, termination, mutual termination, changing club or any other form of sacking) wins. It's as simple as that. Valid Leagues are any 2023-24 members of: English Premier League English Championship English League One English League Two English National League English National League North English National League South Scottish Premiership Scottish Championship Scottish League One Scottish League Two Welsh Premier League Welsh Cymru Alliance League Northern Irish Football League Premiership Northern Irish Football League Championship (I'll be reliant on your notifying me if your picks have gone in some of the more obscure leagues, mind you!) The last round saw 5 entrants, but it would be great if we could get a few more of you involved - I know there are plenty of football fans on here and the fruit is ripe for the picking (14 sackings across 11 Premier League clubs during last season, more since the season ended, and only 32 of the 92 league managers have been in charge longer than last summer!) so feel free to get involved. The more the merrier, it's just a bit of fun and gives us something to talk about between deaths. Good luck!

"Working assumption" - code for "unless the bastards try and knife me after the local elections."

24/4/24 84 Jeff Buckley — Hallelujah 41 Adele — Chasing Pavements 25 Rihanna — Russian Roulette 17 Taylor Swift — Love Story 14 James Morrison ft. Nelly Furtado — Broken Strings 10 Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys — Empire State Of Mind +4 09 Kings Of Leon — Use Somebody -6 Nice try TQR. But I know the writing's probably on the wall...

This is what happens now. He'll promise the earth, knowing he won't have to do any of it and trying to get Labour to say whether they'd support it or not.

Amen, Steve. What a shitshow.

Better still, I'm pretty sure Farage would fuck off elsewhere if we gave him a million pounds. And 30p Lee. And Gullis. And...well not Rishi, he's got £1m lying down the back of the Downing Street sofa.

Sometimes, I do wonder how different things might have been had Davis beaten Cameron in 2005...

23/4/24 84 Jeff Buckley — Hallelujah 34 Adele — Chasing Pavements 27 Rihanna — Russian Roulette  27 Taylor Swift — Love Story 23 James Morrison ft. Nelly Furtado — Broken Strings 21 Kings Of Leon — Use Somebody -6 10 Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys — Empire State Of Mind +4 04 La Roux — In For The Kill Sigh...you're making such a mess of this...

True but...it did provide big majorities at other times. Thatcher and Blair could only make the revolutionary changes they did because they had huge majorities in Parliament. Likewise Boris and his bullshit Brexit deal. It's fallen apart, as we've said, because of the multi-party system we've now got, sometimes seeing voters committed enough to a third party to elect them in spite of FPTP, or else encouraging radicals to join the main parties and making them too broad a tent to form a cohesive government. Either way, it's started producing chaotic governments with alarming regularity.