Alan Thatcher

Court Shack will host racket sports including padel and pickleball in superb community clubs. With squash an Olympic sport it's time for investors to join us.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Look at any photograph of a British high street in 1975.

Look at the people. Not models. Not athletes. Just the people on the pavement going about their day.

They are lean. Not in a starved way, in an unremarkable everyday way. Faces with definition. Wide jaws. Upright posture. Slim children. Pregnant women slim everywhere except where they are pregnant.

Rationing ended in 1954. The country had been off it for twenty years. The shelves were full. The pubs were busy. The chippies were on every corner.

The people on that pavement were still lean.

Now look at the same high street in 2026.

The transformation is total.

The 1975 British adult was eating:

- Butter on the bread
- Full-fat milk from the doorstep
- Dripping from the jar by the cooker
- Lard for the pastry
- Eggs every breakfast
- Meat at most meals
- Chips fried in beef dripping

No seed oils. No corn syrup. No ultra-processed ready meals. No protein bars. No oat milk.

Not on a diet. Not counting calories. Not in the gym. Not on supplements.

Then 1977 arrived. The American dietary guidelines crossed the Atlantic. Butter was demonised. Margarine took the breakfast table. Skimmed milk replaced whole. Vegetable oil replaced dripping. Low-fat everything filled the new aisles.

The food got replaced.

The people got replaced too.

The 1975 photograph is mostly gone now. The ones who lived ate the new food. Their grandchildren don't look like them.

The before-and-after photograph isn't a diet advertisement.

It is the food supply.

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

I thought Starmer's foreign policy was all about the "return of the sausages", according to his most famous speech in 2024.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

Ireland Deported 205 People. The Story Is the Sausages.

A human rights monitor appointed by the Irish government to oversee a deportation flight from Dublin to Islamabad last year has filed her report. The overall operation, she found, was conducted humanely with respect for the rights and dignity of the returnees. Her one criticism was the food. Pork sausages had been served as part of a full Irish breakfast. The aviation company changed its menu. That is the headline. That is what the story is about.

Here is what the story is not about, though it probably should be. Ireland deported 205 illegal immigrants and criminals on chartered flights in 2025. The flights went to Pakistan, Georgia, Nigeria and Romania. They cost the Irish taxpayer approximately €1.1 million in total. The operation was independently monitored, found to be humane, and the only actionable finding was that someone needs to order different sausages. Ireland has a functioning deportation programme. It works. The human rights monitor confirmed it.

Britain, with a population thirteen times larger and a Channel crisis Ireland does not face, cannot get people on planes at all. The legal architecture surrounding removal is so tangled, so comprehensively colonised by activist lawyers and expansive human rights interpretations, that the government which promised to smash the gangs has instead watched more than 200,000 people cross the Channel illegally since 2018. Around 46,000 crossed last year alone. This week a BBC undercover team found an established payment system for illegal crossings operating out of a phone shop in Woolwich. The shop offered a refund policy.

The comparison with Ireland is not flattering. Ireland offers unsuccessful asylum seekers up to €10,000 to return home voluntarily. If they refuse and a deportation order is issued, they are removed, including by chartered flight, independently monitored, with a full Irish breakfast. Britain offers hotel accommodation, legal aid, welfare support and access to a court system that takes years to exhaust. The incentive structures point in opposite directions and the results reflect that.

The cost argument is made for itself. Ireland spent €473,000 on a single flight carrying 24 men to Islamabad. That sounds significant until you calculate what keeping 24 people in Ireland costs over months or years of accommodation, legal proceedings, healthcare and administration while appeals work their way through the system. Britain spends over £8 million a day housing asylum seekers in hotels. The deportation flight is not the expensive option. It is the cheaper one. The human rights industry has successfully inverted the perception of where the cost lies.

Ireland's justice minister has said he would be open to processing unsuccessful asylum seekers in hubs outside the EU, watching Italy's Albanian processing centres with interest. Italy is moving closer to making that model legally viable despite years of court challenges. Britain is watching both and doing neither, bound by a government that has ruled out leaving the ECHR and an Attorney General whose instinct is deference to international legal frameworks over domestic democratic mandate.

The pork sausages story is a gift to everyone who wants to make removal seem cruel, chaotic and culturally insensitive. A menu change has been ordered. The human rights monitor is satisfied. Twenty-four men are back in Pakistan. Two hundred and five people were removed from Ireland in 2025 without a single legal challenge succeeding in preventing it. Britain cannot manage that.

And the reason Britain cannot manage it has nothing to do with sausages.

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Stones' man of the match against @WorthingFC

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

🧤 Doop, Doop, De, Doodop Lenny Holden!

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Wonderful send-off for you yesterday, George, crowned by a huge victory over Worthing. The fixtures have been kind and the 3 teams above us, Maidenhead, Weston and Ebbsfleet, face the top 3, Hornchurch, Dorking and Worthing on Saturday. One last push to get the win at Bath!

[George Elokobi @georgeelokobi]

Thank You Maidstone 💛🖤

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Stones players and fans will do everything they can to give @georgeelokobi a winning farewell to the Gallagher Stadium.

[Enterprise National League @NL_Enterprise]

Will we have a Worth-y winner?

The Enterprise National League South champions could be crowned on Saturday 🏆

It's a massive afternoon ahead!

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

I published a similar report on the benefits of racket sports on @SquashMadNews in 2016 following a major health survey in the UK:
https://t.co/UxcbrG42H6

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

@georgeelokobi @maidstoneunited @acerhelen Thank you, George, for taking the Stones on an incredible journey and for developing so many outstanding players. You and Craig have done a superb job. Good luck with the next stage of your career.

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Thanks Craig.
Three cup finals left to play!

[Craig Fagan @Craigfagan7]

Enjoyable at times 😅
No good for the 🖤💛
But good result in the end 👏🏽

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

I enjoyed commentating with @justafan1m on this crazy goalfest yesterday as mighty @maidstoneunited beat @HornchurchFC 5-4, turning Easter Monday into Easter Funday!
https://t.co/AV1S55rpY9
@maidstoneunited
@Craigfagan7

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Really enjoyed commentating with @justafan1m on the 3-1 win by @maidstoneunited over @AFCTotton on Saturday.
Three excellent goals and several near misses.
Looking forward to Easter, and back on comms with Alex for Monday's battle with @HornchurchFC
https://t.co/Ctl0twZLwE

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Huge, must-win game for the Stones to retain any hope of reaching the promotion play-offs.
#COYS

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

Can't make Gallagher Stadium this afternoon? Alan and Alex will be providing live commentary from the AFC Totton match from 14:40.

You can tune in here:
https://t.co/XVeL2GHMOK

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Looking forward to it, Alex!
#COYS

[MSton3 @justafan1m]

🎙️| Excited to be back in the comms, this time with @AlanThatcherCS.

No better event to spectate than the return of JBA 🐐

COYS! 🖤💛

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Massive match at the Gallagher on Tuesday night as Stones entertain @WSM_AFCOfficial who are two points ahead.
#COYS

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

BIG WIN!!! 🖤💛

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

And three points tonight!

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

☀️ Finally feels like Spring is coming!

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Really enjoyed commentating with Nigel on a superb game of football on Saturday. Stones were so close to taking all three points against league leaders Dorking. Stones will take that energy into tomorrow's game at home to Enfield. #COYS

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

🎙️ Alan and Nigel sum up the @DorkingWdrs match at the full time whistle.
https://t.co/rSrom1reol

Few issues with Nigel's headset, with apologies!

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Really enjoyed commentating with Nigel today. Superb performance from the Stones, who dominated the second half and were unlucky not to beat the league leaders.

[Maidstone United @maidstoneunited]

📻 Not at the match? Nigel and Alan are live now with the commentary.
https://t.co/buz8iqEO8n

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

With childhood obesity at alarming levels in most parts of the country, the government decides to cut funding for PE in schools. You couldn't make it up.

[Labour Future @LabourfutureUK]

Again the wrong priorities. Instead of helping teachers tackle the vape crisis in schools we are cutting PE funding.

How do we tackle obesity and mental health if we are cutting PE?

https://t.co/ErRCqTM2HS

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

What a truly amazing day that was. The whole Cup run was one celebration after another. I'll never forget the noise and the atmosphere created by the Stones fans at Ipswich, especially after Sam Corne's brilliant winner. Drama all the way!

[Oliver Ash @olivernjash]

Today is Ipswich Day for every Stones fan ❤️💛🖤

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

As @maidstoneunited travel to @TUFC1899 after a mid-season break please log in to our free weekly online magazine. A great read for all Stones fans and anoraks: analysis, top columns, previews, non-league round-up, a great quiz, brilliant pix and a few gags here and there! #COYS

[The Stones Back Page @StonesBackPage]

Edition 22 of The Back Page is live ...

[Alan Thatcher @AlanThatcherCS]

Fantastic tribute to a great guy and a brilliant manager. Happy anniversary, George.