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Reply | Armstrong extended
at 12:03 14 Jun 2024
I see Frey as more of a Matt Smith type striker - useful sub. If he could play like he did against WBA every week happy to change my opinion. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 11:58 14 Jun 2024
I think there is actually quite a lot people TEND to agree on in this thread:
General unhappiness with the Tories
Not massive enthusiasm for Labour
Openness to smaller parties
Even on immigration:
Liberals like me have agreed that immigration DOES result in problems (as well as benefits), particularly for those on lower wages and in poorer areas
Most agree that living standards have remained far too flat for far too long
Where there is genuine difference is whether (like the Reform-type posters on here) you think immigration is the CAUSE of many of our country's ills or whether (like me and a number of others) you think its a symptom of far deeper problems.
As some have concluded, there are no easy solutions: you haul up the drawbridge on globalisation, stop immigration and increase wages - fine. But we still live in a globalised world where the Chinese can pay $1 a day to workers. Its not just foreign workers in this country we have to compete with.
The challenge to me is how do you raise productivity in the UK and create high value jobs which aren't so easy for the Chinese etc to undercut?
To me that means things like:
Encouraging pension funds and businesses to invest in British tech firms - when Britain has had a genuinely really exciting tech company it has in almost every case been swallowed up by a big, usually American conglomerate.
Incentivise investment
Invest in education
Invest in health
Invest in infrastructure
But all these problems are highly complex and the reason I am sceptical of the Farages (and Corbyns) of this world is anyone promising easy solutions probably hasn't understood the problem. |
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Reply | I hope this is and stays just a rumour.
at 09:51 14 Jun 2024
Totally agree. I understand why fans were against selling under previous regimes because we didn't have much faith that we would get the right replacements. But for the first time in years we seem to have some intelligent people running the club. There's no guarantee they will get it right of course, and I am sure there will still be the occasional flop as with any club, but I simply don't see what other option we have. Buying a striker who can score goals is probably the one area in the Championship where its extremely hard unless you can pay a serious transfer fee. And that is probably the single biggest barrier to us progressing. We are going to have to raise funds from somewhere to do that. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 09:45 14 Jun 2024
I thought it was a fair reading of Sheffield's views considering how vehement he was about what he considers the damage to this country caused by immigration, including sexual assaults by certain ethnic groups which I believe were mentioned (I thought by him but apologies if not). Anyway, if I have misrepresented Sheffield's views then naturally I apologise. No hard feelings I hope. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 19:18 13 Jun 2024
But you have given zero credible solutions about how we become more "self sufficient".
Force people (white people I'm guessing would be your preference) to breed more?
Raise the retirement age to 90?
Massively increase wages to get more home grown people back in the work force (your right wing politicians would love that solution!)
Massively increase spending in education and training (ditto to that one, did I miss Sunak or Farage calling for that?)
Turn un-qualified people into doctors and nurses? (Even if we started tomorrow training more doctors it would take at least 7 years for them to qualify)
Stop unemployment pay?
Send someone with a year's wait for an NHS operation back to work?
The NHS has 74,00 vacancies alone - send the immigrants "home" and how many vacancies do you think it would have then?
Brexit/ Reform supporters equate running a country with sounding off with pub-bore slogans. If only it were so easy! |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 14:55 13 Jun 2024
By Brexiteers I mean the senior Conservatives who are running the country. They lied to you that "getting Brexit done" would "control" immigration. It hasn't.
Here's another example: Farage stood under a poster during the referendum saying words to the effect of: "If you don't vote for Brexit, 70m Turks will come to the UK." Leaving aside it was a preposterous claim - obviously not all Turkish people were ever going to come here, and Turkey wasn't even a member of the EU, nor is it going to be any time soon.
But Johnson and co never disowned that poster or Farage's claim.
Since you voted for Brexit there have been a couple of hundred thousand Turkish immigrants to the UK.
And you are absolutely right Sheffield - that was a CHOICE of this Conservative government.
Not of Remainers, not of the EU, not of Brexit, not of the Lib Dems, not of Labour.
So the Conservatives have imposed massive economic harm on the country by implementing the hardest of Brexits AND presided over record immigration.
You couldn't make it up. [Post edited 13 Jun 14:56]
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Reply | 'Marquee' Rs signings who were (successful) 'statements of intent'
at 14:45 13 Jun 2024
Thanks for filling in gaps in my knowledge there Camberley. Yes massive signing. Think he was 29? Trying (and failing) to think of a relatively recent example of similar level players. Maybe not quite a Lampard or Gerrard at 29 but maybe a 29-year-old Jordan Henderson or Declan Rice going to Burnley (ie a newly relegated club). It just wouldn't happen. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 14:38 13 Jun 2024
You have completely sidestepped my question: do you agree with me that the Brexiteers massively lied to you when they said that thanks to Brexit they would bring down immigration? |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 14:15 13 Jun 2024
I do believe in democracy. I believe politicians should deliver what they promise (how old fashioned does that make me!). And if they know they can't deliver it they shouldn't promise it. It is Farage, Johnson and Sunak who promised voters that they would cut immigration and they completely failed, or in the case of the Tories never intended to follow through on the promise. They are the people you should be angry with. They are the people who lied to you. You can hardly blame me for pointing out that literally THE key thing Brexiteers and Conservatives promised in the biggest vote this country faced in half a century turned out to be a whopping lie. Brexiteers can't just say "oops, nothing to see here."
I am not surprised people are angry that they have been lied to, but don't direct that anger at Remainers for simply highlight a simple fact: immigration has gone up, and not just by a little bit, it has soared. And rather than admitting their lie, the Tories are doubling down on it. Sunak is banging on about stopping the boats (he can't even do that) when he knows full well that the boats account for a tiny fraction of the immigrants he WELCOMES in legally.
Now I would say it was always going to be a lie because we were always likely to need immigration, so the promise to cut immigration was a bit like if the QPR board last season had promised us fans we would win the league. In other words, a promise they could never keep. You would dispute that and say the govt could easily stop it but for some reason choose not to do so. Lets agree to disagree on that point. But surely we both agree that the Brexit politicians lied massively about their central claim? |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 13:48 13 Jun 2024
You miss my point. I am saying the people who voted for Brexit and for the Tories at successive general elections to reduce immigration have got the exact opposite of what they were promised.
Its not my job to apologise for that - it wasn't me and Remainers like me making the promise! |
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Reply | 'Marquee' Rs signings who were (successful) 'statements of intent'
at 12:43 13 Jun 2024
Not sure they suit QPR or our budget. Most of the Hughes/ Redknapp signings were washed up superstars looking for a final pay day on ridiculously inflated wages - masquerading as a marquee signings. They were names who no longer had footballing substance.
I agree with the OP about Tony Currie - extraordinary signing, then a current(-ish) England international, from Leeds (still a massive club then). Were we even already relegated or was it the season before? Often wondered how that came about. You can't see us coming anywhere near a player like that these days. |
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Reply | Richards.
at 12:36 13 Jun 2024
The club can't really say anything because:
it would end any slim chance they might have of off-loading him
he could claim mental health issues and then the club would be embroiled in controversy
its not exactly great publicity because it highlights failures in our recruitment process, something I believe Noury is addressing.
Arsenal btw when recruiting players now also look at their academic record, do psychological testing etc. Its all obvious stuff really and amazing in such a high value business recruitment was so amateur for so long.
Hopefully a lesson learned and I like to think we are far less likely to make such mistakes moving forwards, but I bet we are not the only club lumbered with a wannabe gangsta/ good time Charlie/ whatever you want to call this type of waster. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 12:28 13 Jun 2024
Even raising the retirement age to 70 would not cut it, the need for labour is vast for all the reasons touched on.
Its ironic that those who voted Brexit were on average much older than those who voted against.
Many - probably most - who voted for Brexit wanted to cut immigration, which has since soared.
The only way we could survive with low immigration is if we forced those pensioners to work basically forever, get rid of the triple lock, slash benefits and spending on the NHS.
Would they be so keen on Brexit then? Its funny how those who complain about immigration don't complain specifically about the immigrant nurse caring for them, the Amazon delivery driver bringing them their parcel, the waiter serving them their lunch, the Dane laying on a goal. They only complain about immigrants in the abstract, and would probably be the first to grumble "the country is going to the dogs" if no one was around to do all the jobs. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 21:11 12 Jun 2024
Hilarious. Am loving some of the stuff on social media, including the crowd funding to get Rishi the Sky subscription he was so cruely denied... |
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Reply | I hope this is and stays just a rumour.
at 21:10 12 Jun 2024
Sunderland's board apparently have very strict criteria: a new manager can only bring in one assistant and has to play their yoof - not a happy place according to the couple of pieces I've read. Big expectations and a lot to turn round. Burnley probably a different proposition but hopefully if Kompany fits their profile they will want a flasher name. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 21:02 12 Jun 2024
I was clear in my post just now that Britain has other huge problems, not just Brexit...
When you say Britain being "tethered" to Europe, joining the single markets simply means we can trade freely with it - you make it sound like we would be chained to a lead weight and thrown in the Channel to drown.
Yes the vote across some European countries (though far from all) was very worrying to anyone who believes in liberal democracy, whether Remainer or Brexiteer. But lets not exaggerate: the far right got 23% across the EU this time, last time it was 20%.
Let us not be smug in Britain either: "Reform" (what an ironic name) is increasingly popular and when one of their candidates said this week that we should have made peace with Hitler he was defended by an official Reform Party spokesman. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 17:49 12 Jun 2024
I want to get rid of the Tories as much as anyone but don't agree Brexit is "window dressing". This country has profound problems, Brexit being one of them, but also chronic productivity failures, lack of investment, massive regional imbalance, lack of a manufacturing base etc etc - yet none of these issues are being discussed at this election. The political parties are ignoring the shit-show that is the reality of Britain in 2024 and to varying degrees pretending its steady as she goes. I can see why Labour is going safety first - they are so far ahead they just want to avoid putting their foot in it - but they haven't prepared the country for what a terrible position the economy is in and that could come back to bite them soon after the election. One way or another any new govt is going to have to either increase tax or slash public spending. It won't be pretty. What really sucks for those of us who are very anti-Tory is that this is probably an incredibly good election for them to lose... |
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Reply | EFL Retained List
at 17:26 12 Jun 2024
Wouldn't claim to be any kind of expert but presumably Willock and Bergovic "not retained" because no contract has been agreed. Doesn't preclude us agreeing a deal with either later? I hope we don't try too hard with Asmir as the stats showed he was a net liability in terms of goals saved/ conceded. Would like to Willock to re-sign but if he leaves I will greet the news with way more of a shrug than I would have done a year ago. |
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Reply | General Election Thread
at 17:17 12 Jun 2024
Yes although the irony is that six years on from Brexit immigration is at record levels and rising.
Even before Brexit just over 50% of our immigration came from outside the EU.
So yes the single market would come with freedom of movement but if any govt of whatever persuasion really wanted to cut down on immigration they could by ending all the other freedom of movement deals we have with the likes of Tunisia and many other countries. But the truth is with an ageing population, sickness levels through the roof and a major skills shortage any govt is going to allow immigration. So if you have immigration you might as well have it from Europe IMHO where the population tends to be better educated and the incomers have been proven to be a net positive to the economy. Plus you then obvs can get the benefit of the single market.
I agree with you about the customs union as well btw - but you can imagine what a field day the Mail etc would have if we rejoined that. I have no doubt that Brexit will eventually be reversed but it will probably have to be in stages and likely take decades. |
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