Roger McCormick

Lawyer, Hon. Senior Visiting Fellow, Bayes Business School. Chair, Esher in Bloom.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

It is a sad reflection of modern football that the man who cares most about Manchester United, who will loyally, diligently again go into Carrington today to try and tackle the mess, is the one being eased out by those gathering in Monaco and via a link to Florida who don’t truly have United in their heart. Those who are primarily responsible for the mess.

Michael Carrick will leave the club sooner or later but the club will never leave him. United mean too much to him. He gave everything for the team in 464 games. His son plays for their academy. Being United head coach is not simply a job for Carrick, it's an honour he feels deeply proud of.

The manager who last season masterminded home wins over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool and away triumphs at Arsenal, Chelsea and Brighton has undoubtedly made mistakes this season. Diogo Dalot at left-back, not bringing Shea Lacey on earlier, etc. The poor run, and tumble into the relegation positions, inevitably means his job is on the line.

It is possible to understand why Carrick should lose his job but also why others should be held accountable, too. The decision on Carrick would be more palatable if it weren’t being formulated and then executed by Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the loathed Glazers. What good have they done to this great club? Debts and decline, holes in the roof and in the squad.

Carrick’s contribution to the history of Manchester United is substantial and his legacy secure – winning five titles and taking responsibility for a penalty in the 2008 shootout that helped win the Champions League.

At the very least, Carrick deserves to be treated with far more respect than is currently being shown to a dignified, hard-working individual as the clock ticks down on his departure. His exit is being handled appallingly by the club. Red man walking. At least United fans are showing all the class their board lacks. The Stretford End sings Carrick’s name because they know he is not the real problem.

It will be no surprise in weeks to come to spot Carrick standing, hood up, with United fans at an away game. They will welcome him warmly. He’s done it before, being a fan again. Carrick loves the club. He has ever since he was an apprentice at West Ham United, charged with keeping the away dressing-room tidy, and admiring how Alex Ferguson and his smartly-dressed collection of winners strode into the Boleyn Ground. They had an aura, and Carrick wanted to be part of that.

Carrick will leave the club physically, dismissed as much for the failings of underperforming players, those incompetents in charge of recruitment and the unpopular owners, as for his own undoubted mistakes. But Carrick will never leave United emotionally. It's sad that someone who cares so much will go, and those who don't care as much remain. #MUFC

[Dennis Porter @Dennis_Porter_]

Watch the sweat on Pete Hegseth’s brow as Jon Ossoff takes him apart without ever raising his voice.

Now imagine Ossoff on a presidential debate stage.

Then imagine him in the Oval Office, looking Putin or Xi in the eye and pressing them with that same composure.

[Roger McCormick @RogerMac272]

And all US goals will count double….

[Politics For You @PoliticoForYou]

BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has held talks with Donald Trump over the possibility of the US being given a 1 goal head start in their World Cup tie against Belgium as a “gesture of goodwill.”

[Sarah Vine @WestminsterWAG]

- Miserable pipsqueak
- A demented Dalek on speed
- A foetus in a jar
These are just a fraction of the insults directed at @michaelgove by @UKLabour and its activists during his time as Education Secretary. All this pearl-clutching from Labour MPs in relation to @KemiBadenoch's row with @bphillipsonMP is pathetic. They need to get over themselves. @bphillipsonMP's class war has caused school closures, cost people their jobs and messed up the education of countless children, many of them with special needs. She deserves to be called out for it. 'Spiteful class warrior' is the least of it.

[Roger McCormick @RogerMac272]

So if you didn’t go to a state school but are successful, you owe your success to “privilege” according to Lammy. They just get worse, don’t they?

[David Lammy @DavidLammy]

Kemi Badenoch’s attack on Bridget Phillipson at PMQs today lays bare something deeper about the direction of their politics.

I’m proud that this Labour government has the most state-schooled Cabinet in the post-war era - people who didn’t grow up with privilege, but earned their place through hard work.

That’s the difference between us and them.

This Labour government believes background should never be a barrier to opportunity. Social mobility isn’t a slogan - it’s the whole point of a fair society. And yet too often it feels like there are those who want to sneer at it, undermine it, and drag us backwards.

We should be celebrating opportunity, not trying to hold it back.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Let’s be honest, they are no longer Labour MPs.

They are Welfare MPs.

[Ike Ijeh @ikeijeh]

The party that called Tories "scum", leavers "Nazis", moderate Muslims "Uncle Toms", Kwasi Kwarteng "not really black", Liz Truss "a lettuce", Covid "The Johnson Variant" & Kemi Badenoch "blackface for white supremacy" is hurt because Badenoch called Phillipson "spiteful". Bless.

[Roger McCormick @RogerMac272]

Diddums!

[Stephen Kinnock @SKinnock]

Absolutely right, Anna. Kemi Badenoch behaved disgracefully towards @bphillipsonMP at PMQs today. A new low.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

This is an outrageous, disgraceful smear on John Healey — and an outright lie. There are a ton of ways to finance more for defence — starting with net zero — without taking a penny from schools or hospitals. Reeves should be ashamed of herself for allowing this nonsense. Suggests she’s really desperate.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

These leaked messages prove that even the Prime Minister’s right hand man doesn’t think the Chancellor is capable of growing the economy.

It doesn't matter if it's Starmer or Burnham running the show, the problem is the Labour Party.

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

You, Bridget, are a member of a government that has impoverished parents with higher taxes, soaring fuel bills. the highest energy bills in the world, and yet here you are boasting about your stupid breakfast clubs.
Families are really struggling because of Labour.

[Ed McGuinness @EJ_McGuinness]

Nothing is free. Taxpayers pay for it.

This attitude is all that is wrong with Labour.

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

We need an OFCOM investigation. Blatant bias during a crucial by-election.

[Ramon Agusta @ramonagusta]

This needs to be posted every day from now on...

[Madeline Grant @Madz_Grant]

"Every meeting I have is: 'who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others'?" https://t.co/MlQgpIgEHp

[Roger McCormick @RogerMac272]

A very serious error.

[Matt Chorley @MattChorley]

I owe Nigel Farage an apology.

During last night’s Newsnight we covered the murder of Henry Nowak and the political reaction to the case, including discussing Nigel Farage’s comments about “pure, cold rage”.

However I referred to “white cold rage”. This was a mistake on my part, a misremembering of the quote. It didn’t change the content of the interview but I should have got the quote right. I apologise to Nigel Farage for this.

[Roger McCormick @RogerMac272]

And it’s free! Not….

[Bridget Phillipson @bphillipsonMP]

We’ve hit a big landmark – 10 million free breakfasts served.

10 million better days at school – more children turning up, concentrating, getting on.

10 million easier mornings for parents – better drop-offs & commutes.

Change doesn’t happen by chance, it comes with Labour. 🌹

[Ruth Davidson @RuthDavidsonPC]

Last time Labour was in power it was the "I am afraid there is no money" note.

Today's Mandelson release contains Pat McFadden stating:

'Every meeting I have is "who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?"'

It should serve as this Labour government's epitaph.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

They are no longer the Labour Party, they are the Welfare Party. It doesn’t matter who is in charge of these people, the party for Benefits Street will tax us all into poverty to pay for more welfare.

Pat McFadden has said in private what he and the Prime Minister deny in public. As I’ve said repeatedly, Labour MPs don’t understand where money comes from. They think our taxes are their money to spend, rather than the result of the hard work of the people in our country who deserve so much better.

The Conservative party is the only party holding Labour to account, as Reform, Lib Dems the SNP and others join Labour in demanding the state pay more and more benefits.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Too on point not to share, “Aussie reply to Trump rant about NATO not being there for us.

Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
"NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your fucking mouth. Credit (borrowed from) Jim Scroggins - original author 📷 unknown”