[Philip Marlow]

Cricket? What's that?

Our comp sold off everything but the AstroTurf football pitch. A 20 metre flick off the hips was a six when we played cricket. This may inform the amount of Windsor Davies I have for those struggling with school fees.

As a keen but hopeless player I was very, very lucky that there was a decent local cricket club where I grew up. My secondary school’s equipment shed boasted an ancient Duncan Fearnley bat which I don’t think anyone had ever bothered to knock in properly. I went to square cut with it once and the jarring contact vibration practically broke my wrist.

[Oboogie]

Late to the party, it's only since 2015 that I've learned to appreciate just how capable Yvette Cooper really is. I didn't vote for her in 2015 because, at that time, I felt her association, via Ed, with Gordon Brown/New Labour would present the Tories with a free kick. Unfair? Certainly. But true nonetheless.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Has anyone got any idea what those who barracked Starmer when he was paying his respects in Southport were on about?

[Abernathy]

She's the lost leader from 2015, isn't she?

I voted for her, and would again.

Me too. I once had the task of driving her back home to Wakefield in the Regional Director’s car after a speaking engagement at Warwick University, so got the chance to have some long, interesting conversations with her on the journey. She is a lovely woman, and formidably intelligent.

[Killer Whale]

Has anyone got any idea what those who barracked Starmer when he was paying his respects in Southport were on about?

There's a ton of shit on Twitter linking this to Afghans, small boats, Muslims, anything the thick cunts don't like. Depressing.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I've seen some of it. Utter cunts, all of them.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Says it.

[Youngian]

They’re pond life, wouldn’t even want to see Boris Johnson heckled at an event of this kind.

[Oboogie]

Has anyone got any idea what those who barracked Starmer when he was paying his respects in Southport were on about?

There's a ton of shit on Twitter linking this to Afghans, small boats, Muslims, anything the thick cunts don't like. Depressing.

According to the BBC, the knifeman's of Rwandan heritage. Rwanda being a 93% Christian, 2% Muslim country, he is less likely to be Muslim than your average Brit. On evidence yet that he's ever been anywhere near Afghanistan.

[Tubby Isaacs]

As a keen but hopeless player I was very, very lucky that there was a decent local cricket club where I grew up. My secondary school’s equipment shed boasted an ancient Duncan Fearnley bat which I don’t think anyone had ever bothered to knock in properly. I went to square cut with it once and the jarring contact vibration practically broke my wrist.

I've got a very different cricketing history, albeit with Duncan Fearnley in common.

I went to a school with one of the best batting wickets in the country used by Gloucestershire. That was a mixed blessing for me as a bowler, but the hospital (directly over the read) was pleased to be spared a constant procession of batsmen with knocked out teeth.

I rarely got to bat, but one time I did I picked up a Duncan Fearnley from the kit bag. The ball absolutely flew off it, and I got 32 before being bowled by a slow bowler (or " off spinner" as we optimistically called them).

Anyway, I never saw the bat again, nor anything else that could hit the ball off the square. So ended my batting career. I expect every bat in the kit bag at my school ow would be better than that Duncan Fearnley.

[mattomac]

If he’s living in Banks I would suggest he moved there with family though could be working on the farms it’s a bit of a back end of nowhere.

I’m concerned for my brother and his partner with this shitty escalation.

[Oboogie]

If he’s living in Banks I would suggest he moved there with family though could be working on the farms it’s a bit of a back end of nowhere.

Yes he was living with his family. I've seen the family home today on a news report, they moved there from Cardiff nine years ago when he was eight.

[slilley]

It is fair to say that the 1st Battalion Robinson Keyboard Warrior Regiment have been hard of thinking on X over the last couple of days. Spreading a lot of misinformation about the Southport incident and so creating the riot we saw last night. All sorts of conspiracy theories as to why the suspect in custody has not been named, to demanding they be named the moment they turn 18 and all sorts in between. When people have pointed out the law on naming juveniles to them, these folk simply say the law should be ignored. I also see that the leader of Reform UK Ltd has been thinking out loud on the “unanswered questions” there are about this. Not deliberately spreading discontent but saying there is so much we don’t know about the suspect and any interest they may have attracted from the security services etc.

[Andy McDandy]

It's the technique pioneered by the Sun - rather than report what's going on, however sketchy, you can easily fill space and liven things up by asking "Aaaah, but what aren't they telling us?". The bonus being that it leads to loss of trust in institutions and the current order, which furthers the aims of the disaster capitalists and wannabe dictators.

[Philip Marlow]

Late to the party, it's only since 2015 that I've learned to appreciate just how capable Yvette Cooper really is. I didn't vote for her in 2015 because, at that time, I felt her association, via Ed, with Gordon Brown/New Labour would present the Tories with a free kick. Unfair? Certainly. But true nonetheless.

My issue with Yvette Cooper has only and ever been her stewardship of benefit reforms when she was work and pensions sec. They were happening with or without her, but everything that’s happened since was entirely predictable when they first came in.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, that's fair comment. The Labour record on benefits had been fairly good until then. It's stupidly played down by lots of the left in a "well, just raise the minimum wage instead, neoliberal!" way. That wouldn't have worked.

[Tubby Isaacs]

From one of the architects of the previous leadership's "everything nice you want, paid for by someone else" nonsense comes this. They didn't rule out restricting the winter fuel allowance, but they asked a question about it to the opposition, so that was like ruling it out. Or something. Anyway, given that nearly everyone agrees at least £6.4bn asylum costs were hidden, what does he suggest doing? As the very fair Jon Portes pointed out, you don't really want to be shrugging and sticking it straight on the deficit.

Scrapping the care cap is a broken promise though, fair point. That ought to be put right as soon soon as possible.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And here's another of the genre. The language of credit cards isn't meant to be taken literally. It just means the Tories have spent too much, as confirmed by the OBR. Doubtless the answer to this is, same as it always is with this lot, a load of extra borrowing (for day to day stuff, not even for investment). But as Chris Dillow points out, the economic context is very different to the Osborne era- much lower unemployment, and (I'd add) more expensive borrowing. A load of extra spending without tax rises would likely fuel inflation.

[davidjay]

Look at it objectively and as neutrally as possible, how well do you think Starmer & co have done this past week or so?

[Andy McDandy]

Obvious comparator is the 2011 riots. On that score, they have acted faster, gone for the roots of the problem as well as the front line, and won over the bulk of the media and population.

Not bad at all.