lenred

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

The reason we have Coronavirus in this country ultimately goes back to it being started and spread from China, agreed.  The reason we have death numbers as high as they are is for several reasons, many of them stemming from political / government decision / indecision and historical choices meaning a lack of preparation for a major pandemic.

I don’t get the constant jibes of “stop bringing politics into it, it’s not the time” when someone legitimately challenges the government on something they’ve done, said they were gonna do, etc.

I couldn’t care less who is in charge.  If it was Corbyn and Starmer playing this the same way as Johnson, I’d be just as critical (I was during their election campaign).  I see deceit, lack of transparency, failure to answer decent questions properly (in amongst too many shit questions admittedly), Inconsistent comparisons with other countries to suit agenda.  This is a government treating a large chunk of the country as idiots.  The press / media isn’t helping either.

Look at Cuomo in New York.  It’s a disaster over there numbers wise, yet he’s leading his State through integrity, trust, transparency, empathy...treating them as adults, telling them from his heart.

This country is massively divided, and I feel lost, the odd one out, sat somewhere in the middle.

I’ve missed it, but not as much as I thought.  Sky news 501 on more than Sky Sports.  Don’t watch re-runs of football games dominating the tv schedule, but quite like watching golf and cricket re-runs.

I haven’t been out since March 5th, apart from one trip to Budgens / Petrol Station - to get served through the late-night hatch the week after when we ran out of milk and bread.

Settled into a new schedule, of getting the kids up, helping with home schooling, watching the daily briefing, FaceTiming parents, virtual catch up with mates.  Tonight is family quiz.  Even my cousin who lives in the States is joining in.  I’m quiz master tonight....been preparing my picture quiz, rather than posting on OTIB.

Stay safe everyone.

This guy has been incredible. The most inspiring and competent politician in this sorry mess on both sides of the pond by far.  Don’t know his story but surely he has to consider running next time out (too late for this year obviously). 

10 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Got a link Len as there are loads of football away days groups on FB?

https://www.facebook.com/awaydaysatthefootball/ 

not sure that will work Ska as it said it wouldn’t embed. It’s the one with 241k followers if that’s of any use! 

If anyone follows the ‘Football Away Days’ page on Facebook then the Rugby Ground is today’s ground up for discussion. The post is only 10 mins old but there are some great comments already: ‘wouldn’t look out of place in Syria’....’ I went there once or twice in the 90's & judging by that picture it's stuck there‘.........’Not a great ground, away end is open or you can sit in a tent’.....’Shit ..away end open...pubs home fan friendly only ...train stations miles away’.........

I’m sure the ‘compliments’ will keep on rolling in throughout the rest of the day seeing how loved they are! 

21 minutes ago, pillred said:

It was 24 years ago they have apologised god knows how many times and have admitted they got it wrong I don't know what more they can do, if you don't want to let it go that's your prerogative.

To many people it doesn’t matter how long ago it was. Its not just Hillsborough anyway - it’s got a track record of racist, anti immigrant and homophobic leaning stories.  It’s a vile, hate preaching rag, but each to their own on what paper they take. Free country and free press and I respect the right of the public to consume whatever news they want. Doesn’t mean you have to respect the shite that they publish though. 

Being a BS7er now I thought I’d take a stroll with the dog up past the Rugby ground the other day, if only just to remind me that things could be worse (a lot worse).
Imagine my surprise when I saw that their new on-site, state of the art training ground had been built already. 
 

10 minutes ago, daored said:

Just been thinking ...... if the government changes its approach to masks - how goes that work with playing any sport ?

I’d imagine the sportswear giants such as Nike and Adidas will be working on that as we speak. More advertising opportunities for them. 

2 minutes ago, wayne allisons tongues said:

Reading that champ clubs want any clubs who defer wages to have a transfer ban and when season resumes there loan players must also return. 
Not sure how that’s going to work, but guess it could all be tied to the contract end dates etc. 
 

Be bad news for us if we lose Afobe  Benkovic and Pereria. 

Unfortunately you can’t argue with it I don’t think.  Those clubs that have ‘taken the hit’ and paid their staff without resolving to taking tax payers money deserve some kind of advantage when this is over imho. Goodness knows how they will work it all out though. 

2 hours ago, hodge said:

Perhaps something to consider, under current FFP rules owners can only put in so much money per season, perhaps Lansdown can't pay staff/player wages if he wanted too because it would exceed the amount he can help cover losses for the club given we push the boundaries anyway.

I would imagine that if the extra money being invested was solely to ensure non-playing staff continued to be paid directly from the club and in turn saved the tax payer money then this wouldn’t be subject to FFP. Would be incredibly amazed if not. 

2 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Posts 5410 and 5411 and then a few earlier in thread.  

If I was condescending then I apologise but I didn’t appreciate your reply.  Nobody on this whole thread as far as I can see has advocated testing footballers before sick people.  You must have a dim view of people to think they might.

Sorry that your family have been affected.  Mine has as well. Worrying times especially being led by an inept government which is where my anger lies 

Jesus wept. There you go again. Can’t help yourself I guess. Ill leave it there 

16 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

If you honestly think anyone is advocating testing footballers before they are readily available to all then you are completely wrong.  

Can’t see where you have stated that but happy to be proven wrong.
You need to cut the condescension in your replies regardless.  Maybe you haven’t been adversely affected this far but my family have and the point stands.

2 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Blimey mate calm down.  Read the full thread. 

Football isn’t starting yet is it. We can test footballers if tests are readily available. 

Take your condescending bull elsewhere ‘mate’. 

3 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

Why can’t players just be tested and if they don’t have it they can play ?

Why on Earth should vital tests be given to footballers when we can’t even test our frontline NHS and care staff?  My auntie is an NHS nurse and has had suspected Covid but can’t /  hasn’t been tested so is off for a prolonged time. My sister runs homes for the severely mentally disabled and can’t get any tests and so her and her staff are having to do 18 hr days due to the staff shortages of those with suspected covid. These examples will be multiplied hundreds of thousands of times across the country. I’m buggered if footballers should get any special treatment and access to multiple testing before our frontline health and key workers. 

1 hour ago, Delta said:

"Moron"?

As if anyone can forget your moronic, bitter anti-Kodjia posts on Villa Talk. 

No - It's a figment of your imagination.

Jesus wept. At 8am on a Sunday morning you are on a teams forum that has f all to do with you, still pathetically trying to get your kicks by being a incredibly bad WUM. You really are very very sad. 

32 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

You have to look at the likes of Villa & West Ham though - it`s probably in their interest financially to end the season now. If the cost of going down outweighs the `payback` to TV they'll surely be campaigning for the season to be ended now.

I agree it very much is, but it’s the big clubs that hold the weight in the argument (and whatever they like to think Villa are not at the top table or anywhere near it). It’ll be the Liverpools, Chelsea’s, Spurs, Arsenals and Manchester clubs that dictate this and that hold the clout on this one.
 I’m sure there will be threats of breakaways to the much fabled European Super League etc being bandied about if they don’t get their own way and the Prem will kow tow. 

37 minutes ago, downendcity said:

 

The issue of whether the season finishes or not, will probably determine whether football has any morals left or whether it truly is all about money.

If I read it correctly, it seems the premier league are worried that if the seasons  fails to finish they will be liable for repayment of something in the order of £750m to broadcasters, under the terms of their TV rights contracts. As most clubs have already spent their 2019-20 Tv money, you can see how problematical this could prove. 

Logical common sense would say that the pandemic, and the personal cost it is incurring, particularly in peoples lives and health, outweighs any other consideration, but it will be "interesting" to see if the financial greed in football outweighs any other consideration.

 

I think we can see from the behaviour of Spurs this week just which way this will go unfortunately. Hope I’m proved wrong but I can’t see any way that those top clubs will not do everything they can in order to not jeopardise their primary income stream. There may be a few outliers who will want to do the right thing, but can’t see it.  All these crazy suggestions coming out just show how desperate they are to conclude it and not lose their precious tv revenues.  

9 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Do you work in private health like @Harry

Would explain a few things. Suspect he'd be less than enthusiastic too, about the idea. 

Regarding football, I give Burnley the award so far.

1) Paying casual staff (last time I looked). 

2) If they're paying casual staff then surely regular staff are being paid. 

3) Donated to foodbank. Unsure if it was cash or food.  Their foodbank thing is football related BTW.

4) Joined the NHS tickets thing.

Now granted they're in PL and their income streams are great but Burnley FC!!

The actions of a proper ‘community’ club when it’s actually desperately needed.  Actions rather than words. Good on them. 

9 minutes ago, S25loyal said:

Unfortunately it is true, the “rent” Bristol sport was charging was being put up too much so they have had to go elsewhere. 

I imagine it was a couple of years back now. 

Sorry I should had said it wasn’t the car park but the use of the lounges etc. I was surprised Bristol sport charged at all let alone increased it.

Unbelievable. Can’t believe they’d charge anything at all for such a vital not for profit service like you say, let alone hike the prices. Sad times Bristol Sport.  

28 minutes ago, S25loyal said:

Seeing as Bristol sport started charging the blood donation service too much to use the car park so they had to go elsewhere, i wouldn’t put it past them saying no this time. 

Is that true? 

27 minutes ago, The Gasbuster said:

Yep.

Strange timing. Should have been sent at 6.00 am this morning IMO. 

Some of them were.  

11 minutes ago, daored said:

Anybody seen the video of the complete bell end who has gone into a Supermarket and licked the products?

Seriously needs an absolute kicking 

Sounds like he needs sectioning.  

24 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Just nipped to Asda in Longwell green woody. it was busy but certainly nowhere near yesterday's panic. The only aisles that were empty were the frozen food aisles. In and out in 15 minutes. 

The last bit of your post is truly shocking behaviour! 

People selling it for £100 a tin on the bay apparently. Scum. Pure and utter scum. 

36 minutes ago, underhanded said:

I am certainly taking the current situation seriously, and and under no illusion that this crisis is a once in a lifetime situation that will see at least the following several months being new, extremely hard and ultimately testing times for us all. 

I do however, feel that certain posters on this thread do need to consider some of the things they are saying. Perhaps we have no responsbility to anyones mental health and wellbeing, but there are going to be plenty of people reading this forum who are very scared and anxious, and also see this as a place of comfort, where they've always gone to interact with others and feel some sense of belonging. To begin suggesting we are going to crumble into social disorder, and also suggesting life is going to change immeasurably as we know it for decades to come, when they don't really KNOW what the future holds, is venturing into the area of fear-mongering. 

Let's take this s**t seriously, but let's not turn a football forum into a place that will terrify many, based on worst-case hypothesis

This forum has been the worst I have seen regards some of the scaremongering and doomsday scenarios being presented, across all the social media I engage with.  Very surprised tbh but each to their own! 

53 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

That was sort of my thoughts on my first post on this thread. Huge numbers of companies wouldn't survive 6 months of this: not just your local Dog n' Duck, but national chains. Anyone not working in food retailing or medicine basically.

I'm interested in what the benefit claimant figures will be soon. It was 1.6m before this I think (from memory), but I can see it getting above 10m or more. And with a much smaller tax-base, you wonder where the cash for these benefits is coming from.

A prolonged virus lockdown will break entire national economies.

Maybe it IS time for the experts to factor this in and think if there is a way those of us who aren't over 70 or with underlying health issues can all live as normal while keeping strict isolation for those that are. It'll spread, we'll take our chances, but then it'll peak and eventually those isolating can emerge to a world that might look a bit similar.

It's clear from the large numbers who think they have the disease but haven't been tested (I know of three in Bristol alone) that the genie is out the bottle. Containment has failed. Providing it stays with the healthy and young(ish) population, the NHS may not have to be overwhelmed.

Is this mad? Thoughts?

Not at all and I think it will be being discussed as a very real possibility once more data becomes available. If the risk is deemed ‘acceptable’ - and I don’t want to get political on that point - it will happen I’d imagine. Just depends what the Tories deem acceptable.  

24 minutes ago, mozo said:

But the dilemna is that if a relative of yours passed away as a result of these workers spreading the virus you might have a different  view. Tricky innit.

Then the blame would be on the government not the worker for not ensuring people are being cared for quickly enough.  

36 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

The selfishness, greed and don't give a damn about anyone else is showing how uncaring we have become as a nation.

This is totally different to his we were during the second World War. People looking out for each other, helping others was a way of life that is sadly no longer with us. Reportedly, the Italians have shown that they can cope with a disastrous time without resorting to greed and selfishness.

Those who bought trolley loads of toilet rolls need to learn to share the pain!

Yep. If Brexit didn’t bring out the worst of our country (on both sides - before anyone cries foul) then this situation really really is. It will also bring out the best in people, which won’t go as widely reported of course, but the selfishness shown by many will I’m afraid once and for all dispel any remaining notion of Britain being a sharing and caring society with a high moral compass.