Rayvin

I don't know to be honest, if the lyric was the N word then I do feel that we shouldn't get to the point where white people are comfortable just throwing that around. Then again, it doesn't seem that there was any 'intent' to offend, so I'm not sure about it being a hate crime. Well, not under my assessment, but then that Nazi pug issue did get classified as one and the court stated that they are free to ignore context if they want, so there it is I suppose.

If all the Brexiters want to go around telling themselves that a shadowy cabal of political elites somehow thwarted this instead of acknowledging that they were woefully misinformed about the consequences of leaving (and in truth, I had no idea NI would scupper this either - all the more reason this should never have been a public vote), then I'm fine with it tbh. If that's what it takes for them to make peace with staying in the single market, let them have it I guess.

If he manages to win the Europa League I think the fans will be able to get on side enough to appreciate him. But they won't, and I think their patience with him is so thin now that, rather sadly, he's going to get very little appreciation at all.

I like to think that we broke Wenger's Arsenal with that 4-4 game I think they went on to lose the League Cup just after it, and I don't think they've ever recovered psychologically since. Fitting that losing to us at the weekend is the last thing to happen before this announcement.

The three people you've mentioned have no political power with which to thwart Brexit. The Tories have all the political power, have an opposition party that is also supporting Brexit, and still can't fucking deliver the thing because it seems to be impossible. That is the reality CT. It's not a lack of political will, it's not a conspiracy - if it fails, it is solely because you were lied to.

Should we be worried?

This isn't a two year backlash from the elite, it's just that you were fucking lied to. That's all it is. The elite are falling over themselves to try to deliver this man. You realise the 'elite' are the government, right?

There's no way in hell the DUP will back it, right? This has to be a line in the sand for them. I don't know how many pro-Brexit Labour MPs there were but we only need 9, don't we? Although I guess some would be cancelled out by Tory rebels...

That election last year could end up proving hugely decisive here, amazingly. If she didn't have to rely on the DUP, I have no doubt in my mind that May would just cut NI loose - I guess the question becomes a matter of what Labour will do. I think I trust Corbyn to vote the right way himself on this issue but there are some worryingly pro-Brexit Labour MPs...

Well the Telegraph obviously does, but then they're running the story Renton is quoting... and the Guardian isn't. Not sure political allegiances are featuring on this one much. Obviously I hope you guys are right, but we've been predicting the imminent demise of this government and various policies etc for fucking ages, and it just keeps soldiering on...

But surely more politically palatable to the Brexiters than keeping the single market and freedom of movement.

Having looked at the story myself, I suppose it is possible that they thought one of their proposed solutions would work, and with the EU having just refused them all, it may be that we will get an announcement shortly. But I just can't bring myself to think that they could be this stupid. if it was as clear as you guys are saying, wouldn't the press be screaming it from the hilltops by now? The Tories have managed to cling on far longer than we thought, May is seemingly impervious to scandal in a way even Corbyn would be proud of, and Brexit continues to rumble on as if an outcome can be achieved that will take us out of the SM without destroying the country. I basically expect that Northern Ireland will be allowed to keep SM status and that May will essentially set up a border between them and the rest of the UK, DUP be damned. Maybe she's counting on Labour to have enough defectors to get it over the line.

If that's true then it's great news, but until May is actually saying it, I can't quite believe that we'd be so lucky.

But why wouldn't they have just come out and said where we are heading. How does delaying the inevitable help the Tories electorally? The sooner they come out and admit that there is no way of them actually achieving Brexit in any meaningful way (save for no deal), take the hit in the polls, etc - the sooner they can start recovering from it. These are career politicians, you would think that they would at least be savvy enough to avoid burying their heads in the sand just for short term popularity (that doesn't make any strategic difference to them at all).

I still think they'll find some way of sorting the NI situation. There is no way May can let us crash out with no deal, and I think it very unlikely she feels she can keep us in the SM without the Tories being annihilated the next time out. If these were the only two options, they would have gone to the public with the situation and attempted to put a positive spin on it somehow. The fact that they're still acting as if a solution can be achieved, suggests to me that there must be -something- that they are working towards.

Really? I always thought it was somewhere between tabloid and broadsheet. I don't really think she's good enough to write for them, not when she has to stand up alongside people like Ronay. That said, the other 'regional' football reporters are about the same level.

Nowhere close to their level. I don't even own my own house.

No. The point was more about the whole 'hard work, being responsible, etc' I'm the most junior director on the board, so I get all the shit projects and have to listen to all the millionaires waffle on about the football pitch sized extension they're building in their garden. With a bridge over the water feature ffs. I'm also leaving in the summer

And I'm one of the younger ones on here. In fact in the politics threads, with the exception of the odd cameo from Andrew, I think I might be the youngest. (I don't really know, apologies to anyone I just aged). I'm also on the board of a multi-million pound business, run a side business from home in my spare time, have two degrees (one of them in business) and voted Corbyn and Labour every fucking time I could because I recognise that I am where I am not solely because of hard work, but because I was very fortunate with the upbringing I had and the opportunities I was afforded. If Corbyn gets in and raises taxes, that's more money out of my pocket - but you know what, I'm totally happy with that because the country is falling over due to extensive cuts and the most vulnerable in society are paying the price. I'm not so bothered what you think about anyone else's views, I'm more interested in your own. Feel free to cross examine me to your hearts content and I'll reply as best I'm able, as long as it's quid pro quo in terms of effort. I wrote a pretty lengthy post to you earlier which was just ignored flatly. I do not personally have any issue with you having a different opinion to me - I regularly seek out opposing views, which is why I am simultaneously known as the forum nazi, and also a bleeding heart liberal. I even posted on this thread saying how pleased I was that we could add another intelligent voice to the debate. But so far you've offered little in terms of actual content and intelligent insights, and the longer that's gone on, the more everyone else has assumed you have nothing to say. Hence where we are now. EDIT - apologies to everyone else for the lack of humility, just trying to make a point.

Then why are you even in here? If you have no need to debate anything, and simply shot in to throw your opinion down, why do you have another 50 posts in this thread? Surely the only other possible reason, is wumming. Which is what you were accused of. I'm 32 as well (what bearing that has on anything, I don't know). And yet I'm prepared to respect people's opinions enough to debate them properly if I'm going to add mine. Good grief...

The thing is, I guess you could make -some- arguments for anarcho-capitalism. Something about it being a system that mirrors the biological order, and producing the most efficient means by which humanity can progress. Taking away a safety net and forcing everyone who (in the anarcho-capitalist's view) is bone idle and thus being actively damaged by a state that doesn't incentivise them to work. It's hugely simplistic and takes no extenuating circumstances into account though. The streets would be lined with the bodies of the dead, those who were too weak to 'fight' in an ultra competitive system (which no one would dispose of as you would need a collective payment from the community to some manner of organisation to do so... I mean I guess you could do that. Could call it a 'tax' or something).

It's not so much that. It's more that you aren't answering with any substance. We're used to these opinions, we get them from CT all the time - and tbf to him, usually with more detail. I mean you're an anarcho-capitalist ffs, you would have thought you would have some in depth assessments and reasoning behind that.

Oh god. Pro-Thatcher. Tbh i thought some of this was just a wind up but no one would joke about being pro-Thatcher.