Recent content by FishofContemplation

You look at pretty much every statistic related to overall economic growth or general standard of living and there is a qualitative down shift around 2008 from which we have never recovered. All three of the traditional major parties have had a go at some point since then. Even if admittedly the...

I don’t think it’s either likely, or remotely a desirable thing to try to do, but “just isn’t doable in red ball” is perhaps on the strong side, given that the last time England scored 800+ at more than five an over in a test match was less than nine months ago.

A government has to be formed. Either a new administration or a continuation of the old are the only two options. It’s whether it can survive the vote on the King’s speech that then becomes the open question. And if a new one is formed and doesn’t, what happens then is also not something we...

There’s still a legitimate regulatory question to be asked when something like this happens just as there is when you get firearm related incidents. We do not, at least in this country, allow even those with a firearms certificate to possess weapons which are ludicrously overpowered and...

Your problem is that there is absolutely no evidence there are 5k itching to buy new season tickets if only it’s £100 less. There may be if the team is decent. That’s what shifts sales. When it’s poor you can’t give the seats away for nowt, as I found with my ST last year when I couldn’t go.

The principle established after the second world war is that it isn’t the decision makers alone. It is the perpetrators who must be held to account. Just obeying orders is not a defence. The Israeli Prime Minister is not actively committing acts of individual genocide in Gaza. The Israeli...

Women’s football has been an FFP fiddle ever since the men’s team started getting interested about 20 years ago. It’s a useful fiddle on the revenue account, and in extremis it’s a last resort fiddle on the capital account too. That’s not intended as a dig at the women’s game as such. But...

Feels to me like there’s a relative perspective test here. I don’t approve of what was said. I would condemn it. It was probably not particular enough for me to pass the criminal test, but it’s close. But it is utterly preposterous that this has got a greater level of condemnation in...

If we are keeping it on the lighter side, I would say supporting Middlesbrough is my worst call. All my mates at school in Norn Iron picked a British team in Lancashire or Lanarkshire that won stuff. I was a contrarian even then, and a Jim Platt fan. But I’d have gotten away with it if my father...

Sad to hear. Is he the last of the 62 World Cup squad? There’s not even that many of the 66 left now.

The issue with both is not whether they are acceptable, which is a matter of opinion, but whether they are criminal, which is a matter of law. If they don’t incite racial or religious hatred, or encourage the commission of an offence, or support a proscribed terrorist group, then they probably...

It seems to me that it might be more pertinent here that even in the unlikely event that they did, they would not be committing a crime in this jurisdiction. So inciting them to do so is not inciting them to commit a crime in this jurisdiction (technically, the offence of incitement to commit a...

There isn’t an “English national anthem” as far as I’m aware. As a result, when protocol demands a national anthem, the FA plays the National Anthem. As does the IFA. if other associations choose to do differently and play some local tune, that’s up to them. Until fairly recently, except where...

FYI chaps, Redcar were bested again today, this time by Marton seconds. This time, they were bowled out. And Marton declared early to give them extra overs, although they didn’t need them. No difference to Redcar’s points relative to the losing draw last week. But a big difference to the...

Oh behave, you think his country of strangers comment was about people being Spurs supporters? And not about people daring to speak forrin on trains, or openly have brown skin on the streets? Plausible deniability might work for the press. It doesn’t work for those of us who still have...