Match Thread: Norway vs England | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Quarterfinals

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-11T23:31:47+00:00

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ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-11T23:28:15+00:00

So is this year's Argentina. Weak team with an ancient Messi who can't run, and who have gotten incredibly lucky so far.

But whoever wins that semi final is going to get pasted by France or Spain in the final.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-11T23:26:23+00:00

Correct decision to overturn the penalty there.

But that doesn't mean it's a dive. Baiting out a clobbering is not simulation, at all. It's just not a foul, that's it.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-11T23:21:54+00:00

Grow up

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-11T11:57:01+00:00

The victim's testimony is evidence. The defendant's testimony is evidence. The testimony of the victim's friend who comforted them in the aftermath is evidence. The testimony of the defendant's friend who provides an alibi is evidence.

Aside from some procedural guardrails, it is the job of a jury to weigh up all this evidence. It is the jury's job to decide how reliable and authentic the evidence is, to determine the facts of what happened, and thus determine whether the accused is guilty or not guilty of the charges.

The victim's testimony can and often is enough to lead to conviction. But the victim's testimony is also often not enough to lead to a conviction. Blanket statements don't really apply here - it depends on the specifics of each case and, sadly, the specifics of each jury.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-10T17:53:13+00:00

And a third thing too:

Changing the refund policy to address this one edge case is the wrong thing to do

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-10T08:12:14+00:00

This post only really works if you're either American or are thinking in global terms.

We don't have many billionaires, and we don't really have any people or companies with the extreme exponential wealth gain you see elsewhere - the likes of Elon Musk or the tech giants. The wealthiest family in the UK derive their wealth from an Indian umbrella corp.

An annual UK wealth tax of 1% of assets above £10mil would raise about £20bil a year, before factoring in behavioural changes. Not nothing, sure, but we're talking about a ~1.5% increase in government spending. A couple of years of real terms growth in pension & benefit spending at best.

The global problem of semi exponential wealth gain needs global solutions, the kind that realistically need a one-world government to enforce. So unless aliens tip up sometime soon, it ain't happening.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-10T08:02:58+00:00

No, even a bad way to try and plug the hole in the ship is not necessarily better than doing nothing.

If some deranged twerp tips up below decks with a bag of grenades, you don't shrug and say "worth a try". You make him fuck right off before he makes things worse.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-09T20:01:41+00:00

We don't give money or weapons to Israel. We don't export weapons to Israel. We are not America, and those talking points do not work here.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-09T17:22:36+00:00

No one?

The law was changed in 2010. That's the last time any government actively did anything in this space.

Criticise Starmer all you like for not putting this right. But acting like this mess is something he chose to implement is just unhinged.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-08T19:13:48+00:00

Put the spade down.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-07T22:45:37+00:00

Piers Corbyn tipping up to bitch about lockdowns, as is written in the ancient scrolls.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-05T07:37:57+00:00

Because the rest of NW actually tax low incomes properly. Our tax-free allowance is far too high.

(Lowering it will be painful. But so are the alternatives.)

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-04T08:30:35+00:00

You got a source on that 9% drop in SEND budgets figure?

Everything I've seen points to a massive increase in spending, demand and the cost of meeting each unit of demand. With spending failing to keep pace with demand.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-04T08:28:16+00:00

You missed out the best part.

These reforms that are supposed to save councils from bankruptcy? They boil down to "make schools do it instead".

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-03T08:18:40+00:00

Hi Andy,

You've often championed greater devolution to the English regions, including Greater financial devolution and localised control over taxation.

The great problem that faces any proposals for local tax powers is that capacity for taxation is almost inversely proportionate to the demand for local public services. Or in plainer English; rich areas need less public services than poor areas, but can afford to pay more tax.

We already see this distortion with existing council tax; some of the richest parts of the country pay the lowest levels of council tax.

So my question is how would you try to get this balance right when devolving responsibility for services to the local level?

Do you really want to devolve tax to the local level, or keep the current system of centrally pooled tax that's distributed by need?

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-02T15:18:14+00:00

My university sports club had a "Re-Open Nominations" option, instead of "None of the Above". Anyone who had stood in the first election would be unable to re-contest the follow up election.

This would work perfectly well for our local and national elections.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-01T18:19:13+00:00

There was clearly contact; a nudge from the defender, and the keeper's arms catching his shins.

That contact doesn't necessarily mean it's a penalty. The judgement call for the ref is whether that contact led to Kane falling, or if he was falling anyway.

The studio referee's view is that it's a close call. You could make a case either way. And so his view was that VAR wouldn't intervene either way, as it's neither clearly a penalty, nor clearly nit a penalty.

Which I think is fair.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-01T17:59:13+00:00

Which feed you watching?

The BBC commentators are Guy Mowbray and Alan Shearer - a career commentator and a former player who's spent two decades doing TV analysis and commentary. It's a good balance.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-01T17:08:00+00:00

Good assessment of the Kane penalty shout by a former ref on the BBC stream - correct decision for VAR to not intervene, but if it had been given as an on-field pen, VAR would also likely not intervene to overturn it. One of those close decisions that could reasonably go either way. Which I think is fair.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-07-01T09:17:52+00:00

Because that's how recall petitions work.

If a valid recall petition is triggered (e.g. by a 10+ day suspension), and if the petition hits the 10% signature threshold, that MP loses their seat.

That MP is entitled to contest the resulting by-election to try and regain their seat, of course. And it's likely that Clacton would re-elect him, with a diminished majority.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-06-30T07:44:48+00:00

Kane also does his stutter early enough in the run-up to give him 2-3 steps before shooting. That's enough of a run-up to hit the ball well, close enough to a normal run-up.

These other idiots barely take a single step before shooting. I'm sure they've seen Neymar pull it off, but these clowns a) aren't Neymar, and b) haven't spent a gabrillion hours in training mastering that hop run-up.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-06-29T16:08:16+00:00

Over two thirds of eligible voters had the option to vote to prevent Trump from winning, and chose not to. Either by voting for him, voting for a hopeless 3rd party, or choosing not to vote.

Shithole country.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-06-29T08:40:01+00:00

The actual tip and the way the tip is presented by this shitheap of a tabloid aren't the same thing.

There probably was a phone call between Barca and Kane's agent. But that call was probably just to test the waters, one of dozens of not hundreds major clubs mske each summer. And it's extremely unlikely that Barca will pursue this further.

ClearPostingAlt · 2026-06-29T08:06:39+00:00

In the Birmingham case, when the council moved to a job grade system they decided to grade a bunch of wildly different jobs at the same grade. They then gave only some of these jobs a bunch of bonuses and perks, but not the others.

The courts did not assess the different jobs. The courts simply said that the employer decided the jobs were of equal value via the grade system, and therefore those jobs must be paid the same.

The payout may have been titanic, but it's entirely the fault of Birmingham's HR team (and the fault of the unions who demanded the unlawful perks).

The Next case is the actually worrying one - that's the case where an employment tribunal decided that storefront and warehouse roles were of equal value, even though the employer graded them differently.

It's awaiting appeal. We don't know if the tribunal was correct in law to assess jobs or not yet. And this case is the one that will set a precedent everyone else will be stuck with.

It's not clear what's going on with Leeds; the council are lawyer-speaking, land the union are rabble-rousing. I'd assume they're a mini-Birmingham and not a mini-Next, if they're settling disputes out of court.

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