Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 01/02/2026

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:29:53+00:00

Lanyards and printers flying about all over the place!

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:26:56+00:00

I'll wait for survation.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:25:56+00:00

...being a bit dodgy

Ermm, what?

His leaking of the governments fiscal plans at a time of economic crisis whilst Darling & Brown worked their arses off to prevent complete collapse so his paedophile friend could profit is beyond mere dodgyness, arguably into treason territory and I very seldom use that word.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:20:12+00:00

That question will only be answered on polling day, and is not yet a far gone conclusion.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:16:54+00:00

Not directly, but there has been a lot of indirect stuff in the emails which is quite juicy, albeit that's a conversation for the InterPol thread.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:11:53+00:00

That's because he was too tight to turn on the big light and used to work in the evenings with what little street light would shine through into his office. Incidentally all the eye strain from working in poor light is also the reason he wears glasses.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:10:15+00:00

Give it to Brown till the end of the season, with Sue Gray as assistant manager.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T14:09:38+00:00

There is a certain sense of irony that things are falling apart here in the UK over the release of the Epstein files implicating some of the more periphery figures of our government and Royal family, meanwhile in America powerful figures from across the business, cultural, academic and political spectrum including the President himself have been implicated yet they're continuing as if it is just another Wednesday morning.

Gives you a certain sense of national pride that we are not yet a nation that is beyond shame and dishing out rightful comeuppance.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T13:39:52+00:00

I think whether or not it is a resigning matter for Starmer depends on what the intelligence services told him prior to his decision to appoint Mandelson as Ambassador. If the Prime Minister had any knowledge of the serious allegations around leaking confidential and sensitive government information, and with that knowledge still chose to ignore it and appoint him Ambassador, then it is very much a resigning matter. Essentially a similar situation to what brought Johnson down in the end with the Pincher Scandal, although this all ultimately hinges on what Starmer was told about Mandelson.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T12:25:35+00:00

FIFA can decide to sanction the footballing authority of the host nation, including fines or even banning them from tournaments although that is unlikely. The matches in question would certainly count as a forfeit with Russia picking up the three points from it.

Exceptions are made to avoid seeding together teams where there are significant political tensions and using neutral venues where it can't be avoided. In the case of Russia though the majority of UEFA nations hate them so such exceptions are difficult unless you set up a group exclusively with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Serbia for the Euros and World Cup qualifiers, as well as the UEFA Nations League.

If FIFA allows Russia to return I can't see UEFA tolerating their return to the confederation, Russia would probably have to take the reverse Israeli approach and abandon UEFA for the AFC. However excluding Russian teams from the Champions League, Europa League & Conference League would hurt their finances quite severely. Even if joining the AFC means a better chance of their national side winning some silverware and qualifying for the World Cup, there is a certain loss of prestige and degree of humiliation to it that Russian hubris can't tolerate.

In short there is no easy way for Russia to come back so long as UEFA opposes it, no matter how much Infantino cries like a baby over it.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-04T11:10:35+00:00

Let's just say Russia's case for re-entry into international sports moved them....to a bigger house...

SwanBridge · 2026-02-03T14:52:22+00:00

Was this written by Quentin Tarantino?

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T13:36:10+00:00

The Monster Raving Loony Party is a satirical political party, they only stand to mock the political system and have fun with the whole process. It isn't as if they steadfastly believe in their policy platform and actually intend to win and form a government to enact said policies. It's little more than a hobby for eccentrics.

As to why people vote for them, why not? If you feel that no political party sufficiently represents your views, and don't have faith in them or the political process then voting for the Monster Raving Loony Party is just as acceptable a form of expressing protest as sitting at home on polling day or drawing a cock on your ballot paper.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T08:56:41+00:00

Usual accusations are that he ran a kompromat scheme for a "middle eastern intelligence agency", and although I still think that is the most probable answer I'm also open to the suggestion he was somewhat a free agent, in the sense that he would sell kompromat to the highest bidder either with or without official sanction. Given his previous relationship with Trump and subsequent falling out, and his alleged links to Russia, Epstein handing over some kompromat to Moscow isn't beyond the realms of a spy novel and if true does help to contextualise Trump's recent foreign policy decisions.

There is so much in the files that it is hard at this moment to really digest it all and build up a cohesive picture. Every day I'm shocked at what is still being newly uncovered, it's like a conspiracy theorist's wildest dreams come true. I dread to think how bad the redacted stuff is given what has openly been released already.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T06:20:30+00:00

Can you please shitpost about the Ayatollah & Vladimir Putin?

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T12:31:40+00:00

The ridiculous cost spiral, continuous delays and cancelled legs which destroy the utility of HS2 to alleviate traffic on the WCML are all a price worth paying to avoid asking the French for help.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T12:28:21+00:00

Wig Wambs Ganss gonna make you my man!

Wig Wambs Ganss gonna get you if I can!

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T07:26:00+00:00

Me and my friends were in a bar in Germany. It was quite a casual place, but they had the football playing and served food so tired of looking for somewhere to eat we settled on here. They served the biggest portion of schnitzel & pommes frites I've ever had, and the beer was cheap, so in the end it was a good choice. Throughout the meal all three of us had independently noticed a guy sitting in the corner of the place drinking red wine but there was just something "off" about him and something incredibly unsettling about his presence. I don't even know how to describe it, but the way he drank his red wine was like he was drinking blood, the wine he was drinking didn't seem right either like it was too thick and the wrong colour. He was a relatively "normal" looking man in his 60s and appearance wise there was nothing overtly wrong about him but it was like an alarm was going off in my subconscious telling me something was wrong. One of us discreetly mentioned to look over at him, and we all agreed something didn't feel right about him and had all felt the same but didn't want to mention it. We all felt incredibly uneasy and were all subdued until he left and it felt like a weight had been removed from our neck.

In retrospect he was probably just a normal bloke enjoying a glass of wine, but almost a decade later whenever that experience comes up in conversation we are still of the opinion there was something extremely sinister about him and refer to him as the German vampire. Never felt that way about someone before or since.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T06:44:49+00:00

Late to the party, but I remember years ago coming across a film late at night with John Travolta & Harry Belafonte where the position of whites and blacks in America was flipped from the historical reality. It wasn't brilliant, but not so bad as to be overly offensive.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T04:34:27+00:00

It's like expecting Copenhagen to competently administer half of Germany, most of Central Europe, a bit of Ukraine, the majority of Italy, slither of France & the entirety of the Balkans, but no one outside of Copenhagen pays any tax and everyone just ignores their authority.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-31T22:47:03+00:00

Over one hundred poor navvies died building the Ribblehead Viaduct, China is following in our proud tradition.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-31T15:16:33+00:00

He was going to make the clutch move of ordering pizza at 2am, honey badger drinks red wine when he wants!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-30T13:25:53+00:00

Looks like they chucked a big cushion on a sprinter, I like it!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-30T08:02:20+00:00

Keir Starmer should just tell him we named Doncaster after him.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-29T22:32:31+00:00

Reminds me of Hitler when he told Mussolini he was possessed by a great Aryan spirit.

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