Donathan

My point about Dresden wasn’t to compare it to the current situation. I’m just saying that there’s a situation where people might be inclined to agree that carpet bombing a civilian populace can sometimes be justified. Regarding Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is it not widely acknowledged that beating Japan conventionally would have taken 1-2 years and cost the Americans tens of thousands of soldiers?

Purely out of interest, what were the general public attitudes in the UK towards the carpet bombing of Dresden and other German cities?

My current prediction of the 23: Gunn, Gordon, Kelly Hendry, Hanley, Porteous, McKenna, Tierney, Cooper Robertson, Hickey, Patterson McGregor, Gilmour, McTominay, McGinn, Ferguson, McLean, Armstrong Adams, Dykes, Christie, Brown Souttar, Taylor and Jack on the outside looking in

The more I look at this I think the vast majority of the squad picks itself, assuming they do go back to 23 Barring injury the following guys feel like locks Gunn + 2 Hickey, Patterson, Robbo, KT, Hendry, Hanley, Porteous, McKenna McGregor, McSauce, McGinn, Gilmour, Ferguson, McLean Adams, Dykes, Christie That’s 20/23. Then pick three from: Another CB (Cooper/Souttar) Another WB (Taylor/Doig) Another CM (Jack) Another AM (Armstrong) 3rd CF Anyone else

The point is that defenders should have their arms down by their sides at all times (especially when in the box)

Absolutely no excuse for a defender with the experience of Michael Keane cutting about in the box with his arms stretched out like the fucking angel of the north. Penalty all day long.

One of the problems with refereeing is there's no accountability. Respect for the referees will only improve if they get better at their job.

Nonsense. The referees already get way too much protection.

Serbia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovenia North Macedonia Kosovo Montenegro I'm not sure if there's any further prospect of Bosnia and Herzegovina splitting into their two separate parts like Serbia and Montenegro did.

So you effectively have a 7-state solution there (if we include Kosovo as a recognised independent country). They don't particularly like each other and occasionally you get flare ups at international football matches, but guns aren't being fired on a daily basis. I'm not sure the strength of hatred is as strong there though. Serbs want Kosovo to be part of their country. They don't want all Kosovans dead.

Not saying the media are in the right here but this is literally how referees behave. Very often you'll see a "yellow card" level foul go unpunished when the player is already booked. Kovacic against Arsenal two weeks ago for one.

Sent off

Is the strength of hatred between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs as strong as the strength of hatred between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims?

At 2-0 down against Spain (when getting it back to 2-1 would have been significant in the context of the group), Clarke did a straight swap of McGregor for McLean and sacrificed Porteous for Billy Gilmour and went 4-2-3-1 instead of throwing Brown on. It’s pretty clear that Clarke thinks there’s a huge gulf in quality between our top two forwards and the next bunch (Maybe Ross Stewart aside, but he’s always injured)

I’m not sure there is any “feasible” solution here. As I mentioned elsewhere it’s surely impossible to have two populations that both want one another dead peacefully co-exist.

So your choice is you either have two countries at war with each other, or you have one country in a civil war. Ultimately when two populaces have such a bitter hatred of one another then it’s almost impossible to have them peacefully co-exist.

Very weird article. The telegraph is saying there has been a terrorist attack in the UK, carried out by a Palestinian Islamist, but the media are not allowed to report on the details. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/20/terrorist-attack-in-uk-linked-to-gaza/

I think a one state solution is not feasible here. Imagine the scenes. Roughly 8 million Jews and 6 million Muslims, who absolutely hate and despise each other. Would be civil war by lunchtime on the first day.

Two wins needed to secure pot 2. 4 points might be enough if the game we win is by a few goals. I wonder if we might go with a smaller squad given the reports about the smaller squads for the finals. Goalkeepers - Gunn, Kelly, Clark Defenders - Porteous, Hendry, Cooper, McKenna, Hickey, Patterson, Taylor, Souttar Midfielders - McTominay, Gilmour, McGregor, McGinn, Ferguson, Jack, McLean, Armstrong Forwards - Dykes, Adams, Christie, Brown Line up wise I’d be tempted by a 4-2-3-1 for these games. With Robertson and Tierney out there’s no need to play a system that accommodates them both, and we’d be expecting to see a decent amount of the ball in these games so I think we can sacrifice one of the defenders in favour of a midfielder. Gunn Patterson-Porteous-Hendry-Hickey Gilmour-McGregor Christie-McTominay-McGinn Adams

Telling the NIMBYs to get lost isn’t right wing at all.

I don’t personally think it makes a huge difference. You can still only use 11 starting players + up to 5 substitutes in any one game, so I can’t imagine players 24-26 ever get on the field for most teams.

Agreed, but that doesn’t mean that the UK government won’t just ignore it.

Have you got any doubt that Labour are going to win? Let’s actually look at his policies rather than just branding him as right wing https://labour.org.uk/missions/ All of these are the sort of policies that should be popular among the people that post on here: - Massive increases in home building, telling the NIMBYs to get lost and reducing the cost of housing through supply side increase - Commitment to net zero in line with the previously agreed timescales - Nationalisation if the energy sector and reducing bills - Cutting NHS waiting times and reducing deaths from cancer, heart disease and suicide - Halving violence against women and girls - 6500 new school staff funded by ending tax breaks on private schools. None of these seem particularly right wing.

Such great analysis.

Spot on.