Renton

I find the reasonable ones just won't want to talk about it, which is absolutely fair enough. I've got mackem mates but they're fair weather fans so we never touch on the subject, especially recently. I had one "mate" in my circle of friends, well I say mate but more the partner of my wife's friend, who was always fuming about us, proper radgee about us. Once we were staying over at a mutual friend's house (in Sunderland as it happened) and he ended up offering me outside for a fight he got that wound up (over nothing). This was the first or second year Shearer had signed for us iirc, so a while back. I mean this was pretty bizarre behaviour amongst any group of young professionals - doctors, solicitors, scientists. He himself ended up in a very senior position in the NHS. I didn't take him up on his offer. Was hilarious watching him mumble apologies the next day to me whilst his wife watched on, arms crossed. I went to the match later that day where we played them at SJP, but disappointedly we only drew 1-1. Over the years I've known many like him as well, but the point is, yes, there are many decent mackems as well as utter arseholes, as there is for all clubs I imagine. I'm not sure what the decent fan/arsehole fan ratio is with them, I suspect its higher than normal but tbh you can understand that given they have to put up with coming from Sunderland. And you won't find any decent fan on Pure Football forum of the SMB either, that place slef selects itself (any dissent and You're branded a "mag" and bullied out).

I'm up for a bit of guess the historical train station as the next man. Had this on photo one, and now you've blown it.

Talking of distortions, I'm not sure about this. I'm sure I remember singing this song for as long as I've been going to matches. Whilst we're at it, can we have the Blaydon races back and ban the Mackem Aces or whichever shit they sing?

Had on a minute. He commissioned the research after he released the film. Now I think we need to be particularly cautious in the interpretation of such post hoc research, which should only be used for hypotheses generation rather than confirmation. I will write to the editor of whatever journal he's publishing this so called ground breaking research presently.

Echo what Gloom says 100%. Him just knowing you've got his back will be an enormous help, honestly. Terry Hall has put me in a somewhat fatalistic mood today, listening to his first solo album right now which is fucking class, I'd forgotten how much. And as he said in the Specials, "Enjoy yourself, it's closer than you think". Sounds like your mate's Mam got this memo from what you've said about her. It's all any of us can try and do.

You'll want to avoid any hedonistic behaviour at the moment. Not a good time to get ill or fall over.....

It reduces the risk of transmission a bit, its never been claimed it prevents infection totally afaik. But new strains are much more infectious than the original wildtype also. By far the main benefit is to reduce severity, and reduce incidence of hospital admission and death.

Yeah, I think our immune systems are pretty goosed, see also uptick in Scarlet fever cases in kids. Mrs Rents was really ill last month, took a week off work, she's never previously taken a day off even.

Good luck. Assuming you're jabbed up, otherwise tough luck. Christ, it's nearly a year since I got it. Feels like a ot longer ago than that. Just recovering from a non-covid virus now and will concur it's been worse than what covid threw at me.

I see Rees-Mogg's latest comment about the army should just do what they are told like good plebs has become so normalised that's it's barely been reported. How to win friends and influence people. What a cockwomble this bloke is. https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/20/jacob-rees-mogg-pushes-back-over-armed-forces-strike-concerns-17965569/

Indeed, lovely. Wish I could have been part of that crowd!

Absolutely. I doubt anyone has captured the zeitgiest of the time more than the Specials (not trying to sound pompous, there really is no other word for it). And it was right in my formative years, which I think is why it is playing on my mind a bit today. But I genuinely loved his later music too, including the Colour Fields., which I will stick on today. I've seen the Specials a few times, last time would have been mouth of the Tyne festival at Tynemouth Priory, about 10 years ago (ffs!). My best memory of Hall though is when he played at the Riverside upstairs venue, I think the same night as the notorious Oassis gig downstairs (although memory may be tricking me). There was a lad at the back constantly shouting "Terry, you're a special!" because he wouldn't play any Specials songs. Terry just handled it in his own gumpy way, I didn't know then (1994 I think) he had manic depression. At this stage I preferred his other stuff anyway. But it was still a lovely intimate gig.

Put laxative in his tea.

It's the way of the world at the moment. You get rid of one monumental cunt, only for them to be replaced by an even more monumental cunt. How the fuck did FIFA ever get to manage international football I don't know. They can't even keep their video game franchise happy.

Just heard this. Gutted. Loved the Specials and his solo stuff. When people like this go they take a part of me with them.

I dunno like, was quite a nice break watching football without having to get stressed about it because you're detached from the teams. Just enjoy it for what it is. I would have preferred les bleus yesterday but really, natch, not arsed. But now I am already slightly nervous over tomorrow ffs.

Yeah, so would I. The original suggestion was for a flat one-off tax of £10,000 per person "with" a million pounds though. Although I'm actually all for taxing this from @Dr Gloom in any case.

So I see Braverman and Patel are frothing at the gash over the latest high court ruling. Sunak, whilst spanking the monkey (to keep things fair on the sexism front), claims we all want to deport "illegal immigrants" to Rwanda, polling shows hardly anyone thinks its a good idea.

If you restricted the proposed tax to that group, which is effectively applying an additional 1% on their total income tax, you would raise £187 million. In the grand scale of things, that is peanuts. You could multiply this 100 fold though if it were taxed on assets, but I can't see a practical or fair way of doing that.

I want us to lose so we can concentrate on not getting relegated. Oh wait, do I fuck, that is so <2021....... The balmy heat we suddenly have will suit those Southern ponces, so I anticipate a mere 4-0 win for us unfortunately.

I usually just go BBC by default because of the lack of adverts, but fuck me Jenas made this challenging. I don't mind him normally but he should stick to Pebble Mill or whatever he does.

Bewewww!

Certainly come alive now.

Get in!