The single most effective thing we could do to raise the profile and legitimacy of women’s football would be for all sports journalists and broadcasters to start always referring to the men’s game as “men’s football”.
They already do it for the tennis… Obviously this would cause meltdowns among all the usual gammons but a. Fuck those guys b. No seriously, fuck those guys and c. It would at a stroke put the women’s game on an equal linguistic footing with the men’s, at no cost to anyone.

Never mind evil, how fucking THICK do you have to be not to get how this looks? Many members of the Bunchonumbers family have pointed out to me that this pic has been cropped; that the full version shows SB is laughing at a joke cracked by one of three other people and that this warrants some sort of retraction/apology on my part.
My response:

I’ve been thinking about the whole “it’s all the Remainers’ fault that Brexit is shit” angle, and how ostensibly sensible and grown up people can come out with something so CHILDISHLY absurd…
1/

https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1589535992477716480

In many respects the Remain “campaign” (such as it was) was doomed back in 2016 as soon as the Leave campaigns succeeded in framing the referendum as a PATRIOTISM TEST, rather than cost/benefit analysis.
2/

The Met police’s decision to ignore the Downing St 2020 Xmas parties was taken AT THE TIME.
There are armed Met officers on duty in Downing St 24/7 so I think it’s safe to say they knew it was happening.
These coppers, of course, then had a no-visitors Xmas like the rest of us 😕 So even if we accept the Met’s bizarre-assed Minority Report “We can’t investigate crimes that have already happened” excuse at face value, it’s STILL irrelevant because they knew about THIS crime WHILE IT WAS BEING COMMITTED.

Been reading up a bit on Alvin Stardust (as you do); it’s amazing nobody’s ever done even a cheapie TV biopic of his life because it is the most BIZARRE story. Not only did he have two entirely separate pop careers in different decades with different names & personas… … but in BOTH instances he inherited those names & personas from someone else.
Pretty much everyone my age & older knows that before he was a 70s glam star called Alvin Stardust, Bernard Jewry had been an early 60s Oh Boy-era rock n’ roller called Shane Fenton...

@hansmollman Ok here’s how I do it:
1. Have an idea that’s worth writing a novel about. This, surprisingly, is not the hard part.
2. Write a dead simple movie-pitch style synopsis; just the big plot pivots, beginning middle & end stuff. This is not the hard part either.
1/ @hansmollman 3. Write a beat-for-beat breakdown of the story. THIS, as far as I’m concerned, is the hard part. Getting your idea and plot into a followable shape. This will take quite a while and will probably end up being about 10% of the novel’s eventual length.
2/

I’m not the first one to point this out but the US election is causing a strange amount of shock & awe considering it’s going pretty much how everyone predicted it would: Trump ahead on the night, tries to declare victory, the fight is on to make sure the votes get counted
1/ This shouldn’t be a surprise, or that it’s closer than it looked in the polls. So far what’s happened is exactly what everyone knew would happen.
The reason it’s hard to WATCH it happen is because Trump’s level of support now says MUCH darker things about the US than in 2016.
2/

Liberals will always be at a disadvantage to conservatives when it comes to elections because conservatives will always cheat more.
This isn’t a partisan statement, it’s an observation based on how each side chooses to perceive itself.
1/ If you watch the football World Cup it’s fascinating to see how different cultures have completely different attitudes to the whole concept of The Rules.
Some cultures regard the rules as the framework within which the game is played. The game only exists within that framework
2/

Something the BBC has never really understood - and which it really should - is that it can’t, nor will it ever be able to, appease the Conservative Party.
The Conservative Party will ALWAYS hate the BBC, not because of anything the BBC does, but because of what the BBC IS. Or rather Conservatives hate the BBC for what it is NOT, ie. “for sale”.
That something as big, powerful and important as the BBC is NOT available to be bought by the highest bidder is anathema to modern Tories.

Stop saying Trump can’t legally or constitutionally cancel the election.
He couldn’t legally or constitutionally blackmail Ukraine.
He couldn’t legally or constitutionally order Barr to commute Stone’s sentence or withdraw the Flynn case.
1/ He couldn’t legally or constitutionally pressure the UK govt to move the British Open to Turnberry.
He can’t legally or constitutionally funnel millions in tax dollars, charitable donations and campaign contributions into his own businesses.
2/

It can’t be a coincidence that all the right-whingers have thrown their toys out of the pram and pissed off to Parler at the precise moment that literally everything liberal snowflakes have been saying for years has turned out to be true, can it?
1/ The Tories really ARE a bunch of sociopaths who’d cheerfully watch us all die.
Boris really IS a useless lazy bastard.
Racism really IS threaded throughout society.
American cops really DO execute black people with impunity and, it would seem, out of sheer boredom.
2/

It IS a game to Conservatives.
Back in the 00s I actually attended BBC functions at all “Big 3” party conferences a couple of times (they would have Radio 4 comedy types do a “turn”; some years it was the Dead Ringers gang, some times it was us Now Show lot).
1/

https://twitter.com/gralefrit/status/1272123493329637376

The Tories were always the best and most relaxed audience to play to.
I guess the stakes were lower for them in opposition but they were FAR more relaxed about laughing at themselves than either Labour or the LDs.
2/

1. Look, here’s why we just got an utterly nonsensical “address” from the PM.
As I’ve been saying all week, what we currently have is not an administration. It’s a PR team in search of an administration. 2. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that they don’t WANT to contain the virus. They’d LOVE to contain the virus, because it would poll well and make them look good.
But it’s the polling well and looking good that’s the objective, not, you know, saving lives and all that.

1. Ok, here’s the trouble with conspiracy theories. (Thread) 2. I’m talking those big apocalyptic conspiracy theories now; your flat earthers, your moon truthers, holocaust deniers, Covid19/5G “theories”…

For the record, I think the BBC’s apparent constant covering up for Boris isn’t so much a case of political bias as professional embrassment blended with denial.
I’ll explain…

https://twitter.com/thefogg/status/1200560791826644994

I’m reminded of how for the first year or so of Trump’s presidency even the “neutral” American media seemed horribly reluctant to address the sheer viciousness and stupidity of both the man and his administration.

I’m gonna say something: quite proud of the UK today.

The USA & UK are in by no means identical but comparable situations: we have administrations with no popular mandate, who gained power on the back of criminally manipulated votes, and who are using criminal methods… … to retain that power in order to pursue at best unethical and possibly criminal objectives.

But here’s the thing; it’s the *USA* that’s supposed to have the ironclad Constitution with the inbuilt checks & balances, established for the express purpose of containing…

Ok I’ll bite:
He’s squandered the goodwill he generated in 2017 with his constant triangulation on Brexit, which has blown his supposed USP ie. his “integrity” by showing he’s just as shifty, self-serving and duplicitous as any other politician.
1/

https://twitter.com/AndyWalker1963/status/1155466121824391169

He makes all kinds of pledges to reverse austerity while ignoring the fact that Brexit will make all these promises unfulfillable, instead going on about “jobs first Brexit” which is a contradiction in terms.
2/

I actually think @theSNP deserve credit for opposing Brexit as vocally as they do, given that if it were to go ahead it would absolutely be the final nail in the Union’s all-but-sealed coffin. Kudos for putting the wishes & welfare of the Scots ahead of party aspirations. Because here’s the thing; being half & half Scots/English (well Scots/Scouse actually; not quite the same thing) I’m *emotionally* pro-Union but I recognise that this is just my own reaction. Scottish independence would be like watching my parents split up.
But…

Re. the rising tide of Brexiter anger and the varying responses thereto; yes, it’s despicable and the reaction from right wing pundits and politicians that Soubry et al in some way Had It Coming is EQUALLY despicable and they should be throughly ashamed of themselves. But... 1/ ... there’s ANOTHER reason that the notion that this rising anger means we shouldn’t do anything to impede Brexit For Fear Of The Consequences is thoroughly fucked up, above and beyond the principle that we shouldn’t allow violence to dictate policy, and it’s this: 2/

Just heard Darth Raab describe #Brexit as “Our moment of coming together as a nation”...
.
.
.
WHERE THE F U C K DO THESE PEOPLE LIVE?!???! Perhaps the single defining feature of the whole #Brexit clusterfuck is the extent to which it’s DRIVEN THE COUNTRY APART.
Not just the fact that it’ll almost certainly drive Scotland and possibly NI out of the Union, at grassroots it’s destroying friendships, dividing families..

BIG THREAD

1. First of all, my mute button is practically glowing: any Trumpers and transphobes been screaming at me since yesterday and wondering why I’ve stopped responding it’s because I can’t hear you any more.

But I’m gonna say this by way of clarification: 2. First of all, I didn’t jump into the trans/Pride “debate” in order to take a side EITHER way on the legitimacy of the protest at Pride, and I’m sorry if I mischaracterised the *specific* grievance of the protesters. God knows you gotta be meticulous on this one.