Gary Othic

Wittering about stuff and things

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

@AllyFogg Seeing this angle for the first time, and surely you’d have to judge by body position not who’s moved their foot which way??

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

@drhanko2 @flying_rodent Well that's the thing. I think people are fine with negative football, for smaller teams, if it gets results. But if it's not getting the results then what's the point of playing it?

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

@flying_rodent Yeah, and the fact that it’s the same as the last two tournaments as well. Nothing seems to be learnt and the theoretical greater experience doesn’t seem to have helped

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

In true Scotland fashion, this’s go to the last match and Algeria will score in the 95th minute to make it 2-1 to Austria

[Scotland’s Coefficient @scotlandscoeff1]

8pm tonight, for those still invested in the next chapter of misery.

In 48 hours, Scotland’s progression chances have gone from 80% to 7%.

Instead of needing four results from ten groups, we now need four from six.

If even one lands tonight, we can’t be mathematically out until the final night.

If all three land, we can’t be eliminated until the final match.

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

I seem to recall this was the same argument being made when Starmer became PM

[Flying_Rodent @flying_rodent]

Could this system perhaps offer the public something better than “You pigs better eat this slop up, or else it’s (throat-cutting gesture) for everything and everyone you hold dear”.

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

@AllyFogg I’m not sure if he’s the problem or not, and he does deserve a lot of credit for getting us there. But that’s the third tournament now where we’ve played the same way and struggled to get a shot on target

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

And I can’t work out why? Is there too much stress on needing to make it out of the group, so everyone is thinking too much and impedes action?

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

The annoying/depressing thing about Scotland is that this is our third tournament now and you’d think we’d be a bit more experienced; but we’re still playing the same way and suffering the same problems

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

No shame in losing to Morocco and Brazil, and Haiti aren’t mugs, but we consistently don’t seem to be able to create chances

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

I know we're not great, but I'm baffled as to why we can't seem to even get shots on target at tournaments, never mind goals

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

It kind of depends on how he intends to govern. If he’s planning on being semi-radical, then an election is a bad idea - you want time to turn things around.

If he intends to be continuity Starmer then go early while your popularity is up and before you crash through the floor

[Robert Ford @robfordmancs]

I will continue to die on the hill marked "it would be completely mad for a PM with 400 seats and 3 years left in a government term to call an early election which is all but certain to weaken his party." https://t.co/7J7DEv7glj

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

@pizza990 That’s awesome! All the best on wherever this journey takes you!

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

Part of what drives this rewrite of the narrative is likely guilty conscience too; Toynbee, and most centrists, know they made a bad bet prioritising getting rid of Corbyn over everything else. But they can never admit fault so their part has to be played by someone else

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

Perhaps the quintessential example of Corbyn Derangement Syndrome from Polly Toynbee here: blaming Corbyn for not doing something he did in fact do

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

Corbyn also organised cross party talks with the Tories to try and find a deal they could agree on. Who scuppered those talks? Polly’s hero Sir Starmer

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

Well, congratulations to one of Streeting or Mahmood on the promotion I suppose

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: Andy Burnham is choosing between Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood to become his Chancellor

[@thetimes]

[Flying_Rodent @flying_rodent]

I was wondering what I had said the day after election day 2024, and

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

The true culprits for his demise are social media and the impatient electorate. Which I broadly the story I’ve seen from the Centrists and Journos so the lads have cleared worked out The Line in the last week or so

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

It will surprise no one to learn that Johnathan Freedland managed to get through this whole analysis of Starmer’s failing without once mentioning Gaza

https://t.co/Fm7cC1EY8Y

[Gary Othic @GaryOthic]

Mandelson gets a cursory mention, but only as an incidental note about Starmer’s lack of political nous