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Henderson’s disallowed goal against the blue cunts. That game alone has probably set us back years. We were absolutely brilliant that day offensively, we looked so threatening and had the real swagger of champions and that latent sense of of invincibility. Mane’s goal is absolutely stunning football, like a well oiled machine. He misses an easier chance a few minutes later created in the same style. We then have the assault on our main man, our leader, the finest CB the PL’s ever seen. Given a bogus offside, those abhorrent cunt lines drawn from an arbitrary position and Pickford’s fly hack into Virgil’s knee is deemed academic. The sign of things to come. We dust ourselves down and still play some spell binding football. Mo’s goal just a deadly finish, worthy of winning any game. Concede a shite goal from a stood up ball ball to the back post. But again show our class and resilience and dominate them again going close multiple times, to then see our new midfield mastero receives a horrible studes into his knee challenge from that cunt Richardlison. We are somehow able to regain control and craft and brilliantly worked goal from our captain epitomises the grit and determination that had characterised this team for the past 3 years. Alas, we see the dreaded lines appear and you just know what’s coming next. Of course a faceless cunt in Stockley Park fucks us once again. That game totally derailed us, one of the great injustices in sport.

No, I don’t think we’ll all admit it. If Corbyn had made the Labour brand so irredeemably toxic Labour’s poll ratings wouldn’t have climbed over the summer and autumn last year and been level pegging with the Tories at Christmas. This is on Starmer. He got himself into a good position with a platform to push on and articulate a compelling alternative offer to voters, and he’s done absolutely nothing with it. As a consequence Labour are going backwards. What is Labour’s identity, purpose and selling point now beyond “Corbyn is gone and look, we’re really patriotic”? There are barely any policy proposals at all, not even broad outlines. The competence message isn’t cutting through any more because people are happy with the vaccine rollout, and the sleaze allegations aren’t landing because the media is glossing over them and most voters have priced them in with Johnson anyway. I challenge you to name a single positive reason Starmer gave for anybody to vote Labour yesterday.

The one good thing to come out of this ESL thing and the United protest is that hopefully we can all get back to hating Gary Neville for the snivelling little snide cunt he is. He hid it for a while but it's been on full display these last few weeks.

I think part of the reason why Labour and the Tories both dislike their own voters is because there's a lot of people in this country who are cunts.

Hey you - you Brexit loving, racist, Little Englander, fascist Tory cunt - why aren't you voting for me anymore?

Phew, anyone else get nervous when this thread gets bumped? George’s voice is fantastic, before we knew his name my sister and I used to call him ‘Mr boomy voice’!

Thoroughly depressing results coming in. I expected some vaccine and furlough bounce for the Tories but this is crazy. Understanding why it's happening is so complicated that I don't think Labour will ever unpick it. It's the vaccine, it's furlough, it's the push back against perceived wokeness, it's Brexit, it's austerity making Labour councils look even shitter, it's Left infighting, it's peoples selfishness, it's the deference to assumptions that posh = clever and so much more. Depressing.

They also don't realise the level of hatred towards us from other fans. Loads grew up with us winning everything in the seventies and eighties and hated it. There are entire generations who hate Liverpool because of their success. The Mancs hated it then when they started to win things they had a go at us because they had gone so long without being successful. Most of the London clubs were shit in the 70s and 80s just winning the odd cup, only Arsenal and Chelsea have had any sustained success since. There's loads of fans who hate us because of Heysel even if the ban had no effect on their teams and it's a stick to beat us with. Even though a lot of the fans of these teams were rampaging through town centres every other weekend. The Scousers got us banned though Loads of fans of other teams hate scousers and view the campaign for justice as a load of morbid grief obsessed individuals refusing to let a grudge go. They still refuse to accept the verdict from a few years ago and also use the subject to get a reaction. Liverpool get far more media attention than Everton due to the size of the support and that articles about Liverpool get website hits. Even negative articles get a ridiculous amount of traffic, usually because fans of other teams view them and comment on them. So they actually contribute to the never ending media attention the club gets. Then you have Everton, they had a brief bit of success in the 1980s and only one cup win since. Prior to that they won one title in the seventies and a couple of trophies in the sixties. They haven't competed with any teams for titles in that time to build up any rivalry or resentment from other fans. An Evertonian probably believes that they are a massive club who demand respect but no other opposition fans really view them as a threat or has any reason to dislike them because they rarely, if ever cross swords with them. They will also side with anyone against us. This is shown by the Mancs being invited into their pubs and allowed to put up banners. They also take Man City flags into their end to celebrate Liverpool not winning the league. Whereas Man City fans beat up their fans who had kids with them when they played then in a league cup semi final. They will sing songs about Tottenham winning the cup and clap Alex Ferguson when they see him in the Main Stand at Goodison.

In Hartlepool the people are truly thick and incredibly racist and xenophobic. Understandably, after decades of relative poverty and after experiencing conditions and opportunities degrade severely in that time, those people very understandably "want change". However, it's rather unfortunate that most of those stupid bastards don't seemnto understand the blantantly obvious: the Tories have held government for the past 11 years! They want change so they vote to keep the status quo. In-fucking-credible. It also appears that the collapse of the far right parties has seen their vote go over to the Tories. Imagine that! There's also the undeniable stench of Brexit still in the air. These same thick bastards still seem to think that this by-election is actually a re-run of last year's Brexit referendum. Imagine hating foreign people so badly, so completely irrationally that you'll actually rather suffer for your splendid isolation. Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Too true man - thread had gone a little Facebook here. @aRdja moving has seen a drastic drop in quality. And quantity. And cost.

55.43 for 10k today - new PB. Made up with that.

I've just watched the Inside Anfield crowd watch video and you know what: fuck it. The atmosphere that night was absolutely bouncing, the noise, the intensity - and we stepped it up and then some, producing our best football when the stakes are highest in front of thousands. The last 12 months has been awful but I'd much, much rather love a team that responds to that, that can perform to its absolute best in that kind of cauldron than one that feeds off the emptiness of stadiums. City and Chelsea dominating in the absence of fans is fitting. We'll be back when we're back.

Brexit hasn’t led to anything other than a country crippling itself, a deeply unpleasant undercurrent of nationalism, and a complicit media that’s all too happy to undermine the good in favour of the bad with lies and smears.

Here we go. Since Labour’s resounding election defeat in December, it has become something of a truism to say the loss of its “heartlands” was many years in the making. Across the north and Midlands, the slow burn of mine closures and deindustrialisation left a decisive void in the party – not only in an economic sense, but also politically. As industry vanished so did the local unions, working men’s clubs and labour societies that once offered working people genuine opportunities for democratic participation. Brexit filled this space, offering people a version of the sense of identity, inclusion and control that Labour has since failed to create: some argue that the party’s attempt to replay and therefore counteract the referendum may have lost it the “working-class” vote for good. Yet this breezy homogenisation of the north and Midlands fails to take in the complex geography of Labour’s defeat. Why the party continues to thrive in some seats in the midst of heavy defeats elsewhere has barely been covered – a detail surely more important to Labour’s recovery than the endless self-flagellation encouraged by many politicians and commentators Take Preston, a leave-voting bloc of the party’s now destroyed “red wall”, and a crumbled bastion of the “left behind” north – only this wilfully simplistic story does not hold. Under the guidance of the radical Labour councillor Matthew Brown, Preston has democratised its public institutions and invited people to participate in decision-making at all levels of the city’s economy. And guess what? Labour held the seat by a healthy margin. Although Labour’s share in Preston dropped a little from 2017, it retained much of the vote recovered under Jeremy Corbyn and was still higher than at any other point during the 21st century, while other Labour strongholds in Lancashire such as Heywood and Middleton turned blue for the first time – the culmination of a decline that began in 2005. In so many ways, Preston is indicative of the seats lost by Labour this election. After Margaret Thatcher came to power, the city could only watch as deindustrialisation tore through its democratic fabric. Consolidated under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s cosmopolitan, big city brand of Labourism, the party’s growing obsolescence soon became apparent: between 2001-11, Preston saw a stark decline in Labour’s share of the vote. Then, in 2011 – abandoned to austerity by the coalition government – Preston council decided to undertake a radical experiment, now known affectionately as the “Preston model”. The concept, based on the idea of community wealth building, has sought to create a collective and inclusive economy kept in the hands of the city’s inhabitants. Through worker co-ops, public enterprise, community land trusts and public planning initiatives, Preston council has not only jumpstarted the city’s economy, but turned a place emblematic of the ravages of neoliberalism into what one study calls “the most improved city in the UK”. These positive economic results translated into a boost at the ballot box for Labour at the 2015 election, and by 2017 the party had returned its share of the vote to the highest point since 1997. This should give pause for thought. Perhaps it wasn’t simply the nationalist tenor of Brexit that galvanised such ardent commitment from leave voters, but the sense of participation instilled by the vote itself. Labour can blame its loss on nationalist sentiment, rising populism and a hostile press – all of which have no doubt played an increasing role in British politics over the past four years. Or the party can focus on what Brexit continues to reveal: a gulf in political participation waiting to be filled. While Brexit fills this gap in only the most superficial ways, Preston shows how communities can have genuine political agency. Extending autonomy to local institutions, devolving decision-making to the grassroots, cultivating engagement in civic life at the local level – what would this look like on a national scale? This is the question that Labour must answer over the next five years. Crucially, Labour does not need to be in national government to make this happen in towns across the country – it just requires bold local councillors who are willing to venture into new territory. Not only does Labour still run many local administrations, but further cuts under Boris Johnson may actually offer an incentive for councils to move to the direct and radical forms of localism that Preston has pioneered. If continued austerity makes radical local government an attractive option, then the climate crisis makes it an urgent necessity. To stand a chance of mitigating disaster, a green industrial revolution can’t wait for a Labour government in five or 10 years; it must begin now in local communities. This would involve, for instance, the development of communally controlled renewable energy, which would allow people around the country to fully partake in the green movement as opposed to being bystanders. It will be no mean feat to revitalise a culture of participation in the places which have been left to build their futures from the scrapheap of 20th-century capitalism. But this is what Labour must do – or face decades in the wilderness as the right continues to capitalise on the alienation and despair that led so many to vote to leave the EU. While constituencies all around them were being lost, Preston remained red in December because, as one Labour councillor said, the city is genuinely taking back control. Preston shows that where Labour cultivates participatory democracy it can still win – it must now do this on a far larger scale. https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/13/preston-labour-woes-localism-brexit?__twitter_impression=true

42.55% turnout in Hartlepool. People won't come out to vote unless you give them something to vote for.

Not until he’d run it past a focus group.

I think the best thing to do is when people say something racist, call them racists. Until then don’t call them racist.

Focus group Labour is worse than corbyns meek and mild shite. Forget power just be an opposition for now, be a voice for millions who are just sat there actually thinking how the fuck are the tories just getting away with this shit. Every single PMQs bring up cronyism corruption, give him shit! shout at the speaker "any fucking chance of getting the questions I asked answered or is this entire establishment a charade" stop playing this tradition politics shite against a party that doesn't care about truth or rules. Be angry and demand better for the people of the country who gives a fuck how the mail reports it, double down use social media. Labour MPs actually tweet facts about the corruption rather than us having to read some independent journalists thread highlighting shit an opposition should be screaming from the roof. The privileged and pampered Tories have no fucking clue what life is like for most people, take the piss out of them. Focus on Boris, his every cheat his every provable lie and pick at it like an old scab, just keep on and on never let his lies be lost in the next day's news. Just go for these pricks. Aspirations can come in the future, give youth skills, the vulnerable a safety net say you'll change education to actually reflect the modern world. How the fuck is finance not part of the school curriculum. Money dominates everything yet were not educated on personal finances, investments how currency works, what's the best thing to do when you begin to earn. I look at Labour and think what's the point, it's not even an anyone but the tories vote anymore because they can't beat them.

A second recession in 10 years, 150,000 dead via governmental negligence and incompetence, Brexit bungled beyond belief, a litany of scandals concerning huge swathes of public money going to political donors and it's still yet another Tory electoral wipe out. Worst thing is, it's not even surprising. I think most would have been shocked if Labour got anywhere near parity. Modern Britain is basically just Florida with shit weather.

That’ll do pig, that’ll do.

When the Titanic sank and that fella fell from the top, smacked his back half way down, then fell in to a tailspin and hit the icy cold water before drowning.

Haha, UEFA indicating the final will go ahead in Istanbul and ignoring calls from the self proclaimed guardians of English football to switch it to England. Just more reason to null and void it because, well, people's lives mean more. Give it a massive fucking asterisk as well, cunts!

Could not agree more which is the single biggest reason I will never vote Lib Dem again (having done so in the past). Clegg had the ideal opportunity to change politics and representation of the ordinary working man when he agreed to a coalition with the Tories by insisting on PR as part of his agreement. He sold out and agreed to a pathetic compromise of the alternative vote fiasco. Having listened to and admired a lot of what Paddy Ashdown had to say regarding electoral reform, I genuinely thought Clegg would take his chance. He bottled it and destroyed his party doing so. I live in a Tory stronghold (John Major ex MP) and felt genuinely dejected voting yesterday as I knew nothing would change no matter who I voted for. They could put a blue Rosette on a bin bag down here and sell it to the electorate on the on a manifesto of clearing up the rubbish and it would still get elected.

Was at the count in Derby last night and there were just truly pathetic turn outs in all the wards. It's been the case for years, the majority of the country isn't Tory but the majority who do vote are. Starmer hasn't enthused anyone to go out and vote. Even in Hartlepool the Tories have got in because around 20% of those registered to vote, voted for them. Yet it's going to be seen as a huge endorsement of Boris. Labour really need to wake up about this, they're seemingly not wanting to offend those who in dwindling numbers, vote but aren't offering anything to those who don't feel compelled to vote. McDonnell was right in his tweet earlier, they went into these elections with no policy.

Yeah, that's guaranteed to get them all back on side. Keep up the good work

A Polish man walks into specsavers for an eye test. The optician shows him the test card, and on it says: "C Z W J X N Y S A C Z" The optician then asks him "Can you read that?" The Polish man says "Read it? I know the cunt!"

Agreed, this is on him and his people totally, but there is a much larger conversation that has to take place about if we're to become a party fit for today and chasing flag shaggers isn't that way.

If Starmer had simply delivered what he promised in his party election manifesto and shown some fight against the Tories we would have made a better show last night ,100%.

She did, but there again she'd look good in an NBC suit, and there was no nudity. Bitch. Put me right off her. If I'd met her back then, I'd say, 'Jenny. Love. You've got a cracking rack, don't keep them waiting for a glimpse of it. If the director says don't get your knickers off in this scene just say NO and start lezzing it up' etc. She clearly needed a better agent at the time.

How good was the '70s? Other decades seem a bit dull in comparison.

There are many things that the "metropolitan woke educated demographic" and traditional Labor voters/working class agree on. Labour needs to take some time to work out what these are, find a leader that agrees, and focus on them. Four or five key policies and hammer them home: Tax avoidance The working poor Child poverty Housing Environment, clean safe spaces

Probably has a point.

It happened before this season started - CAS overturning the City case.

And what was it you were saying about the working class who voted for brexit in 2016? And besides they aren't getting back on side if 150k deaths due to the incompetence, negligence & stupidity of this lot atop 11 years of austerity isn't enough to show them what utter cunts Tory's are then I'm not sure what will.

Or maybe they see through the bullshit when said doctor was influential in cutting local services in the area, couple that with being a staunch remainer who wanted a second referendum and you have recipe for another disaster. Labour just expected people to blindly vote for him because he's in the NHS, forgetting everything else. Labour shockingly, completely misread the situation. Funny how the big thickos in Hartlepool saw straight through it though. Almost as if they aren't as dumb as some are so desperate to think.

Distinct whiff of Far Eastern syndicates about this.

Villareal are the 13th Spanish team to reach the Europa/UEFA final since we beat Alaves 20 years ago. Only 2 of those teams have been beaten. Espanol in '07 and Bilbao in '12. Both were beaten by fellow Spanish sides (Sevilla in 07, Atletico in 12). Hopefully the trend continues

I think you are right , some of these wards are so small in numerical terms that a local issue or a popular local figure can skew them completely. For instance in the Eldonian ward in Liverpool the local estate committee has fallen out with the Labour councillor and launched a poster and banner campaign against her , and some poor Labour candidate down south has had to endure Turdsy knocking on doors , expecting this to be a positive.

Yeah mate, deffo. I grew up in the 80s and I had a mixture of red and blue mates. When the mancs were in town (either variety), we all went the match as it was absolutely seen as a fight between the cities - it would go off before, after and quite often during the match. It was fucking mayhem in the enclosure at goodison, which is why they made it the family section when they seated it. In 84 when we had the league cup final replay at Maine road, there were fucking riots in moss side. We came on the train but they put buses on from the train stations to the ground. The coaches got bricked stuck in traffic, we all emptied out (red and blue) and it went off everywhere. There was never a thought at any point this wasn't scousers v mancs. It was always the way until they got so bitter about us, they developed this my enemies enemy is my friend routine and fucking whored themselves to mancs.

People in fishing boat not willing to fight heavily armed ships. That's the equivalent of calling the average member of the public a pussy for not wanting to fight Connor McGregor. I said it before the leave vote and I've been saying it ever since, I am as certain as certain can be that the line for the next 10 years or so at least will be some kind of "it's a legacy of being in the EU" soundbite bullshit for every failing. The Tory party have never and will never accept responsibility for anything. For fucks sake they are still blaming Labour for everything as it is. Plus they now have the added get out of how they've had to help everyone out because of Covid. We're going to be stuck with these fuckers for years.

Lib Dems retained Marple. I voted for Malcolm Allen despite him not remembering me when we played cricket together 25 yrs ago and us clashing on parking outside the local school. Voted for Burnham too. See, I’m almost a lefty nowadays.

Any minute now. Aaaaaany minute...

"Sure, Tuchel looks like a paedo but..." is the perfect opening to almost any conceivable sentence.

I wish they'd stop the shitty handing over to 'pitchside Mcdowell' 30 minutes before kick off and just let George do his thing.

Looks like his supporters are out in force ...

Some of us never stopped. *side-eye emoji*

Bbc journalists? Have this rammed straight back down your throat,

Yes that is him. aB2LwX2_460svvp9.webm

Still fucking grinning just thinking about it now, genuinely one of the best moments of my life. Was just absolutely perfect, don’t think I will ever see a greater thing in sport in my life. To those absolute gobshites who are so quick to tell us that football doesn’t matter, go and watch that.