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The electorate are turning against Johnson, but I suggest what just happen to the Chechs brings the answer. What the Czech elections mean for Europe’s strongmen This past weekend, Andrej Babis, the Czech Republic’s seemingly invincible populist leader, was the unexpected loser of its elections, after a coalition of previously divided center-right parties united against him. They had a simple, clear message: We can beat Babis. The success of these Czech opposition parties could have major repercussions in the region and beyond. For the past decade, strongman leaders disdainful of democratic norms have risen to power around the world. Now, opposition leaders are mobilizing, trying to forge unified fronts and oust populist leaders in upcoming elections. In Hungary, for instance, six parties across the political spectrum are collaborating to oppose the party of Viktor Orban, the right-wing leader who has become a standard-bearer for “illiberal democracy.” And in Poland, Donald Tusk, a former prime minister and European Council president, hopes to rally the main opposition party and people who often do not vote, and to lure support from a plethora of other opposition groups. Quotable: “Populism is beatable,” said Otto Eibl, the head of the political science department at Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno. “The first step in beating a populist leader is to suppress individual egos and to compromise in the interest of bringing a change.”

3-5-2 is not a defensive formation inherently. When played well it provides width, solidity in the middle and the potential to transition quickly. Giannoulis is probably built for a wingback role, Aarons could well thrive in it. A 4-2-3-1 is not the only way to score.

Disagree. I've long given up on letting businesses take the lead. Whilst I find it abhorrent, there seems to be an acceptance among society that if a company is operating within the limits of the laws of the land, then fair play to them. For me, I couldn't sleep at night knowing I was presiding over business practices that are contributing to individuals killing themselves, but it appears that sentiment isn't as prevalent as it should be. Given that, the onus is on the government to force companies to act responsibly. Gambling needs to be as restricted as smoking in where and when it can advertise.

It will never go away but will become just another endemic respiratory disease that we have to face. There won't be zero Covid any more than zero influenza or zero common cold.

Corrected that for you Duncan!

What is amazing is that the 'government' clearly lied, misled, sold a dud and scammed all those honest voters that voted for them! No different to any other on-line scam or fraud I'm afraid on the vulnerable. Lie to Queen, lie to the people. They have in fact admitted that they know their supporters are thick and can be treated as such - or else such supporters are equally culpable. I thought we'd become a second rate country. That was clearly optimistic.

Some of the brain research on the programme was staggering, in that it seemed to identify a genetic disposition to addiction, and in Merson's case to gambling in particular. His own phrase was 'It's in me'. Others just refer to an "addictive personality" to explain their dependence. Gambling, like alcohol, tobacco, pornography etc is a drug for some people and just as we don't allow certain advertising or sponsorship for those, we shouldn't allow the gambling companies to prey on the vulnerable or the young. The attachment to football over the last 30 years, rather than racing which by comparison is now low key, is particularly pernicious.

Bannon to face criminal charges https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58919751

You wanted preferential treatment and didn’t get it.

Look out Argentina!

What's more, he's not clever , funny or remotely challenging. A very low grade Troll. @Pete Raven we expect a better class of Troll, this one is rubbish. Next please!!

I think the simple thing would have been to have just looked at Arsenal. You're right pre covid muddies the waters but so does including Burnley. I think the clubs default should be if you're charging fans £25 for the chance to buy a ticket you need to err on the side of giving those fans as much of a chance as possible to do so.

I see the lorry driver visa scheme is proving a sparkling success, brexit Britain is simply irresistible: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/government-labelled-incompetent-as-only-20-visas-are-issued-to-foreign-truckers/ar-AAPtjhY?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531 A senior minister disclosed today that only about 20 foreign lorry drivers have been granted temporary visas to work in the UK. It was announced last month that the Government would issue 5,000 temporary visas to HGV drivers and a further 5,500 to poultry workers in an attempt to prevent shortages in the run up to Christmas. However, Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden said the numbers of drivers applying were “relatively limited”, with about 300 applications received and about 20 actually issued.

Looks like a great day out. I recommend sticking your sloes in a freezer for a night as it is usually advised to pick the sloes after a frost. https://sipsmith.com/10-common-sloe-gin-myths-ignore/

The one your lot couldn't afford to enter. I did live in a a caravan once, not ashamed of it. Lovely warm dry home in a beautiful place with trout angling just a field away. What a desperately sad individual you must be .

No, but it is really quite a stretch to compare the owners of a legal if slightly questionable business with an autocratic regime with a proven record of appalling human rights abuses. The whatabout-where-do-you-draw-the-line argument over morality is usually (although not in every case) put forward by people who have no interest in drawing a moral line anywhere and so have to denigrate those who do.

Trump supporters. 😀 Posted pictures of empty shelves to shame Biden, the only problem was the prices on the shelves were in sterling. https://www.mediaite.com/politics/failed-republican-house-candidate-kim-klacik-earns-ridicule-after-posting-false-empty-shelves-photo-to-slam-biden/

As long as they don't listen to him when he's advising them about drug testing!

In fact i'd happily see us set up with 2 deeper holding midfilelders if it mean the rest of the "front 4" were given more licence to attack. I think we'd be just as solid but have more attacking threat as well.

Dreadfully frustrating when Boris won't stuck to the thread narrative😀

So what ? Let the mangers say what they like . All the precious protection of refs is nonsense . If Hansenhuttl talks cobblers then we can be the judge , rather than some kn0b in a blazer .

How are we going to get rid of him?, the opposition just seem really weak and if we were to have a GE tomorrow, he would still win. The Americans got the idea right in which you can only serve two terms at the most. Here it’s until the public stop voting for you and I cannot see that ending for some time, sadly. I just hope the awful way he’s handled everything and goes on holiday to paint and escape the heat, finally makes the public who vote for him to come to their senses.

It is good news but it shouldn’t be news at all really should it? It should just be a given.

Being told by Cummings she was a dispensible useful idiot!

If we go for the 3-5-2 again I'd be happy to see Cantwell in as part of the two up front which would allow him to be almost a floating number 10

I take that point.

I told you… was never going to last 3 months… 😉

I think Merson said - perhaps not in this documentary but another interview - you can only bung so much coke up your nose or pints of lager down your neck, both of which he also did. In other words gambling can clean your bank account without having a tangible or physical change. It's numbers in a bank account. You could go mad on cars, TVs etc, but you've got to put them somewhere, bet a million quid on a horse and who's to know?

David Fox and Wes Hoolahan come to mind. What struck me about our Prem season under Lambert was how often the more one dimensional players like Barnett would win the ball and then lay it off to Fox deep or other players to Wes a bit higher up. I've thought for a while now that Gilmour's physique at present means he cannot compete as a CM, but playing him as a Regista in front of the defence but behind the CMs may well work and get him in the condctor role

When the turkeys don't have any turkey for Christmas? 🤣 Apples

I watched it Dan. Very sad, especially the group who have had family members commit suicide. Some of the ‘tricks’ these gambling companies use to keep already ‘addicted’ people gambling are vile and disgusting. Glad we campaigned to change our shirt sponsors before this season, shame other clubs didn’t do the same. Hopefully the time will come when the government change the rules surrounding gambling to protect vulnerable people.

I agree with this. Our biggest issue (aside from defending crosses) is midfielders getting caught out of position when we give the ball away leaving us exposed to fast counters or often a simple ball up the middle of the pitch which opens us up far too easily. Two sitting midfielders would give security okay allow the 4 in front of them to cause problems in attack unlike the last game where Burnley were effectively having to deal with 2 players a lot of the time.

Racism defined

We've done a couple of 10 mile stretches of the Angles way in the last few weeks (Scole to Harleston and Earsham to Beccles yesterday) it's an interesting walk for sure, and a nice part of the world. Wildlife was a bit scarce, but lots of buzzards and long tailed ti ts. I had to look up Monks Bond 👍 glad you had a nice time.

A very short break for me and Mrs S along the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Last minute break for first time in over 2 years. Loving being back and even a first visit in a decade to the Fine City (and a trip to buy from On the Stall City too yesterday). You folk living in Norfolk are extremely privileged. Amazing countryside, friendly people and beautiful architecture. I've felt like a 10 year old at times. I may post a couple of things here over a post or two. Today walked a section of The Angles Way (finishing at Brockdish). Saw a kingfisher, collected some sloes from a few blackthorn trees (after Googling how to make a sloe gin....having never tried it), and even some walnuts from 3 trees I came across. Also came across a Monk Bond brick wall which completed my day 😄 (which makes me a bit of a saddo I realise).

Sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you get what you need. Chelsea gave us one and Spurs kept the other. Parma

There is clearly no need or reason to subsidise the trips, but taking the number of tickets available would be a good start.

Just one of many parasites destroying the game.

‘We got so excited that we could, we never stopped to ask if we should’ Parma

It's a bit like we went out to B&Q to buy a lawnmower and came home with a water feature, lovely addition to any garden, but not what we needed to cut the grass. At the moment we need substance over style. That can come down the line , hard to build anything without decent foundations.

I don't understand the backlash against the ESL. It could have been the best thing to have happened to domestic football. The big clubs are a tumour on the game that need to be removed so the rest can survive.

Thanks for the reminder... Lucky dip coming up... I will buy Emi back... And build a new snake pit in front on the hotel!

From WOTB but worth sharing. At a recording of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue I attended last night, chairman Jack Dee Congratulated panellist Omid Djalili on winning the lottery and buying his local football team,Ipswich Town. He then added “Imagine if he had got four numbers!”

I'd argue that Gilmour (and trying to fit him in) has been the main catalyst for our awful start to the season. I doubt very much that we'd have tried to reshape our midfield so radically if we'd have somehow got Skipp for another season. The early experiments with the 4-3-3 saw us totally lose balance with the midfield three trying to be everywhere all at once and totally failing. Undoubtedly he's a good player. But he doesn't have the positional awareness (yet) to be a reliable workhorse in the engine room (am I mixing my metaphors?) of a team who will be scrapping at the bottom of the table. We need discipline and dogged determination. Our CMs can't get drawn out of position or we'll get torn apart. I think we could get more out of him if we get him playing alongside Normann and not wandering too far - the role that McLean was playing in the latter part of last season. Starting from a simple position of receiving the ball from the defence and moving it into the midfield and attack would get the most out of his ability on the ball. We just need to stop him getting too far forward so that he doesn't leave a huge space behind to exploit.

@TIL 1010 left us his pick... AWAY WIN for ENGLAND v Andorra which is on Saturday 9th. How appropriate @TIL 1010 should choose this historic occasion for his pick; the first match officiated by an all female team. Well done John 👏👏👏

2/2 and I picked correctly for the first time since Royal Engineers won the FA Cup. Or something. 👍

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I used to love standing in the sixties and seventies the atmosphere was terrific, but now as an old boy need to sit as standing all that time would be to much , guess it could work in the lower Barclay for you youngsters , but will never be like it was years ago .

As a long term investment it works because rails don't need replacing whereas seats do. I think the official document on the subject suggests that you get your money back in ten years. In general, you get three for two on rail standing as opposed to seating. The Lower Barclay seems perfect for this as so many people stand already. It would allow more people in and improve the atmosphere. I really don't understand objections to this. No one will be forced to stand if they don't want to.