Just to remind these same folk:
You’ve not lifted 1/2m kids out of poverty. You’ve just moved them over a bureaucratic line on a Whitehall spreadsheet.
Your ‘workers rights’ are destroying entry-level jobs, hitting young people disproportionately, where unemployment is now over 16%.
You have not transformed the NHS. It’s still the same old wheezing leviathan, just with a lot more dosh and still dismal productivity.
And you’ve nationalised steel and rail before. It was not the prelude to an economic or industrial miracle. Plus you will now have to include their demands for capital/subsidies among all the other priorities already crowding in on the public purse.
Other than that your reminder was useful. Thank you.
Southampton kicked out of Championship play-off final for spying. Correct decision, especially as it transpires they spied on three clubs in total. This is about more than a bloke standing behind a tree with an iPhone. It’s about how seriously the game should take cheating. EFL independent disciplinary commission have struck a blow for fair play, for integrity, for the need for respect between clubs, for coaches to have an expectation of privacy in training. 25% of goals scored in the Championship this season were from set-pieces. Clubs practised them. Understandably, coaches don’t want their plans revealed. EFL sending a strong message with this punishment.
Spygate 2 different from Spygate 1. Rules tightened and punishments introduced since Leeds United’s offence. Appeals, of course. It’s tough for Southampton fans to be denied the trip to Wembley and the chance of a return to the Premier League. It’s particularly tough that many have forked out for tickets, travel and accommodation. Their frustration and anger should be directed at their club. Southampton should recompense fans. It’s not the fans’ fault.
The stupidity in all this is that Southampton would probably have beaten Boro anyway. Better team, stronger bench. But this is so damning… “Southampton admitted breaches of Regulations requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match,” says EFL. “The admitted breaches concern fixtures against Oxford United in December 2025, Ipswich Town in April 2026 and Middlesbrough in May 2026.” So the punishment is proportionate. It should act as a deterrent. Honesty matters.
An Independent Disciplinary Commission has today expelled Southampton from the Sky Bet Championship Play-Offs after the Club admitted to multiple breaches of EFL Regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other Clubs’ training.
In addition, the Club has received a four-point deduction that will be applied to the 2026/27 Championship table.
The effect of today’s order is that Middlesbrough are reinstated into the 2026 Play-Offs and will proceed to the Play-Off Final against Hull City. The final remains scheduled for Saturday 23 May, with the kick-off time to be confirmed.
📘 https://t.co/kGIhl4GksL
❤️ Today, our social media will fall silent as we remember Bill Stacey, Jim West and the 54 Bradford City fans who lost their lives at Valley Parade on this day in 1985.🧡
🌹 Forever in our hearts.
On this day 41 years ago, 54 Bradford City supporters and two Lincoln City supporters went to a football match and never returned home.
We will never forget those who sadly lost their lives, and as always, our thoughts are with their families and the hundreds still affected by the disaster to this day.
Always in our hearts. 🎗️
#BCAFC