Nick Hutchison

Theatre, family, friends and fun

[Nick Hutchison @NickHWasses]

@profbate Can’t wait to read it.

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

Why is the #BBCNEWS not reporting the French giving Sir Keir Starmer the highest honour they can bestow. I thought the highly impartial Chris Mason would have been all over this. So biased it stinks!!

[Imogen @Imogenlemon02]

What an emotional #PMQs.

What a mistake Labour has made.

[Catherine @catherinemary0]

In a way the outpouring of love & respect for Sam Neill highlights how thirsty lots of us are for realness, for authenticity, for kindness, as well as for real craftsmanship and talent. We are fatigued of poor role models across many aspects, especially politics.

[Malcolm Tucker @gorbalsgoebbels]

I agree with Eric. This is the final straw for me.

[Ben 🇬🇧 @BenInRushcliffe]

I still can't believe Louise Haigh admitted to national radio that AB and friends had been planning for this for well over a year.

You'd think she would have a bit of empathy with the thousands of disgruntled supporters with the way this has been conducted. Shameful.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

And so, inevitably, we arrive at the USAians. Their goalscorer got a red card. A ban. A game in the stands. The rules every nation on Earth accepts. You foul, you sit, you come back. Simple.

Now, the Americans insist it was never a red card at all. And who knows, maybe it wasn’t. Even if the opponent’s leg looked like it might snap in half, referees get things wrong all the time. That is football. We love it and hate it for precisely this reason. But here’s the thing everyone else on the planet understands: a red card means a suspension even when the referee is wrong. Even when VAR is wrong. You can rage about the decision all you like, but the consequence stands. It always stands. That is the entire deal.

Think of it this way. A defender hacks someone down in the box, the whistle goes, penalty. Maybe it was soft. Maybe it was a dive. Doesn’t matter. The other team takes the penalty. What does not happen, what has never happened in the history of the sport, is a president ringing FIFA afterwards and having the goal quietly removed because his team didn’t fancy the outcome. The decision on the pitch is the decision. Full stop.

Except America’s response was to have the President of the United States, the actual man with the nuclear codes, telephone FIFA. FIFA, the most gloriously bent organisation in world sport, an outfit so crooked it makes a corkscrew look principled. And lo, the ban evaporated, the rulebook was rewritten, and Balogun trotted back onto the pitch as if nothing had happened.

Belgium complained. Obviously. And the American answer? A lecture. “We don’t understand the whining. We Americans always want to beat the best team. That’s when victory feels earned. Anything less is loser mentality.”

What a load of drivel. Belgium wants exactly the same thing. They want to beat the best American team. Nobody in Brussels is hiding under the bed because one striker is good at football. That was never the complaint.
The complaint is that this is cheating. Plain, old-fashioned, unambiguous cheating. Getting your head of state to lean on a governing body until an ordinary suspension disappears.

And everyone knows what we say about cheaters. Nothing they win counts. Ever again. Every goal from here carries an asterisk the size of Texas. If they lift the trophy, the entire planet will know how it was done, and nobody, not one single soul outside their own borders, will ever accept that this team won anything. What they’ll see instead is a squad of snivelling, cowardly, crying children who screamed until daddy fixed it.

There is no honour in this. None. A tournament that began so well for them now ends the only way it can: as a permanent embarrassment for American football. Forever.

And the tough-guy speech about always wanting to face the best? LOL. Embarrassing as well.
If they win now, they’ll never admit how. And honestly, they’ll never need to. The whole world already knows.

[Nick Hutchison @NickHWasses]

@StevieVanZandt I’ll buy you a lottery ticket if it might help!

[Sam @loulouyoohoo]

Everyone saying that those who believe the Labour Party have acted deceitfully & in bad faith need to move on & still support the party. I really don’t. Values matter, behaviour matters.If they are just as bad, as the others what’s the point? So politically homeless it is for now

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

Jeremy Clarkson is the guy who fantasises about making a black woman parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds throw lumps of excrement at her. Should we take his political opinions that seriously?

[Nick Hutchison @NickHWasses]

@lady_valor_07 Me

[Nick Hutchison @NickHWasses]

God how I hate Greater Anglia…I mean no one saw this heatwave coming did they!

[𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓮 @charlotteukcity]

It’s wild to me that democracy has fallen so low, that a mayor can just scheme with others to oust the PM. Can you imagine the uproar if Sadiq Khan did that! Andy doesn’t have to do anything to earn the position of PM, he just assigns himself the role.

It’s quite unbelievable.

[Alessandra Libutti 🇪🇺 🇮🇹 🇬🇧 @a_libutti]

Andy Burnham viene eletto deputato giovedì scorso. Durante il week depone il primo ministro, non senza chiedergli un passaggio di consegne di tre mesi perché non sa da che parte cominciare

Quando Starmer si dimette subito, Burnham ne approfitta per un serie di selfie, qualche video si TikTok e per dire tutto e il contrario di tutto: aumentare la spesa militare sì ma meglio che no; limitare l’immigrazione sì, ma meglio non troppo; vicino all’Europa sì ma fatemici pensare.

Non sa se l’economia sarà affidata al socialismo di Milliband o al neoliberismo di Streeting.

Parla di voler spostare Westminster a Manchester (no, non è uno scherzo).

Annuncia che non viaggerà tanto come Starmer perché il lavoro è a casa, ovviamente nel mezzo della guerra in Ucraina, il riarmo europeo, la crisi in Medio Oriente, la crisi energetica.

È già stato definito la versione di sinistra di Bojo, il monarca folle che trasformò Westminster in un circo di giullari e saltimbanchi.

Tempi cupi.

[Lauren Vidas @BroadAndMarket]

All I can say about the reflecting pool debacle is that I thought it would be impossible to top the Four Seasons Landscaping plot line, but having the guy who said he was gonna drain the swamp accidentally MAKE A GIANT SWAMP is giving it a run for its money.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

As a Labour member, I promise to be as loyal to Burnham in the way that he was loyal to the 420,749 voters in Greater Manchester, to whom he promised he would serve the full term.

He left them with a £4.7m election to pay for.

#NeverBurnham

[Selina Bastable @BastableSelina]

Turned replies off; how very brave and democratic of you.
You’re missing the point: there should be no need for an orderly transition. We had a good PM. You, Burnham et al destroyed his premiership and stood by while the media turned the knife. Shame on you.

[Ted Smith 🇪🇺 @TedUrchin]

This. Bloody this.

[Matthew Stadlen @MatthewStadlen]

Not hard to picture the scenes a year from now as Labour MPs scratch their heads and ask: Why on earth did we get rid of Starmer?

[Brendan May @bmay]

Congratulations to Labour for winning a seat they already held, so they can unseat the very leader who won them all the seats they hold. Is there a German word for this form of self-indulgent suicide?