Farage often brings a certain cunning and deviousness to his political scheming. Kemi Badenoch is just straightforwardly as stupid as she is unprincipled. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Badenoch defends decision to allow man jailed for antisemitism to stand as councillor

Tory leader praises Joshua Bonehill-Paine’s ‘contrition’ but says she has higher thresholds for MP candidates

theguardian.com

If this is true, then Morecambe's owners are no better than the ones who went before. Repeatedly failing to pay pension contributions, when you are legally obliged to, is indicative of either moral or financial bankruptcy. Possibly both.

Old ad men: The 1980s were the real high-water mark of advertising as a vibrant, creative, culturally important force. Adverts in the 80s: They tasty, tasty, very very tasty. They're very tasty.

If Liddle was such a brilliant, irreverent writer, how is it that the only time his work was ever passed around was as an example of the latest witless, leaden offensive shit from Rod Liddle? His obiturists talk up imaginary columns he never wrote and refuse to address the terrible ones he did.

Phil Free@philfree.bsky.social · yesterday

“He may have been delightful to his friends but he should be judged on what he put out into the world & that was bile by the bucketload.” Liddle to be celebrated - @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/brokenbo...

Liddle's ex-colleagues find it easy to defend his mainstream journalism as a lark But a conscious effort to ignore what his Millwall-Monkey stuff revealed."Even the Jews were allowed to smoke at Auschwitz" was reported. His "niggermeat, not wogmeat" comments + most virulent sexist threads were not

big respect for Wenger dusting off the old "I didn't see the incident" about Infantino's plans www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Sad to see that, in 2026, 'he wrote horrifically unpleasant, bigoted things but did so fearlessly and with brio,' is considered a fitting tribute by so many in the media. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...

The joy of this is that, while Infantino knows all the FAs now attacking him either never liked him or only voted for him because he put money in their pockets, Trump, he believes, is his friend. So when he gets blanked by him, it will hurt all the more. Gianni is the loneliest man in football.

Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 2d ago

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is seeking the Trump administration's help to stay in office and has scheduled private talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the NYP reports. Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson later said Rubio had no plans to speak with Infantino.

While this is good news, there's no getting away from the fact that every one of these national associations should be ashamed of ever having supported the re-election of someone they knew to be totally unfit for office. They condemn themselves even as they condemn Infantino.

Nick Ames@nickames82.bsky.social · 3d ago

European countries prepare to formally withdraw support for Infantino’s re-election with announcements likely soon. Pressure tightening. Story: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Words only ever used in novels: brackish.

AI as a medieval dancing mania led by CEOs...

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 4d ago

Neoclassical econ assumes rationality. The corollary of, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" is "you're rich, so you must be very smart!" Thus, people assume that if powerful, well-compensated CEOs insist that "AI is changing everything," well then, *AI must be changing everything*. 1/

Yeah, I dunno about that one. Seems like the literary equivalent of lifting some heavy weights and making a loud grunting sound to draw everyone's attention.

This is one of those fascinating stories where you start in one place and end up somewhere totally different. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor

Jason Arday was regarded as an academic superstar, but then questions about his work prompted scrutiny of his backstory and counterclaims of racism

theguardian.com

If Infantino thinks he can just pop his plan back on the shelf and carry on as if nothing happened, he is very much mistaken. All the people who despise him but did nothing because he was unassailable can see how damaged and vulnerable he is now. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Fifa scraps proposal to sell off stakes in World Cup after widespread backlash

Gianni ⁠Infantino has said Fifa ​has scrapped plans to ⁠sell a stake in the World ⁠Cup to private ​investors ‌after widespread ‌backlash

theguardian.com

Feels like John Christopher or Wyndham would've written a marvellously eligiac, cosy dystopian climate change novel, called something like The Summer It Stopped Raining, where a vicar sits in his Surrey garden and remembers all the beautiful roses, dahlias and gladioli he used to be able to grow.

Watching sports journalists in full cry, chasing down each new story about the impending end of Infantino - someone who they've reported on for so long but has always seemed invincible - is a delight. "How does a king lose his kingdom?" "Two Ways. Gradually and then suddenly.

How’s your Friday going?

One of my most boomer beliefs is that such motorbikes are inexcusably antisocial and the sale of them should be banned entirely. Riding a Harley doesn't make you an outlaw. It makes you a selfish wanker.

Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · 5d ago

Every single person who rides an ostentatiously noisy motorbike can just fuck off. Those who do so in London or any town or city, and especially those who use chainsaw-volume engine revving as a “warning” can then fuck off all over again.

This is a very good point. Fifa needs football but football doesn't need Fifa. Fifa has no intrinsic value. There is no special reason it should be maintained and reformed. We could close it tomorrow and organise the World Cup and other tournaments anew and not one thing would be lost.

Mash@itismashagain.bsky.social · 6d ago

My entire life I’ve never called it the FIFA World Cup. I’ve always called it the World Cup. Fans don’t give a shit about FIFA. If national teams showed up for a World Cup tournament not held by FIFA we would all watch it. World Cup is the brand. FIFA is nothing.

It would be an astonishing failure of the new football regulator if it approves the purchase of a club by a man deeply implicated in torture and corruption, as part of his role in a grotesque regime that respects neither human, political or civil rights. www.telegraph.co.uk/football/202...

Martin Calladine@uglygame.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Just catching up on the bid of Turki Al-Sheikh for Derby and stunned to see that not one report I read found space to mention Al-Sheikh's reported involvement in arbitrary arrests, detention and torture, including in MBS' famous 2017 kidnapping and shakedown of some of the kingdom's richest men.

The question now is who will replace Infantino and how will they reform Fifa. Removing Infantino is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Uefa and the rest of football must not blow this opportunity to clean up the game. www.thetimes.com/sport/footba...

Uefa to boycott World Cup in protest against Fifa sell-off

European governing body takes decision at crisis meeting in move that will likely trigger a collapse in Gianni Infantino’s scheme to sell stakes in tournament to private investors

thetimes.com

UEFA has announced they will boycott the World Cup. Italy has announced they’ll extend their boycott for another four years.

www.thetimes.com/sport/footba...

Only just got round to reading the IFR's notice to Morecambe. Contrary to the club's suggestion it was a minor administrative matter, it appears a long-standing pattern of deliberate failure to comply with the regulator. www.footballregulator.org.uk/api/download...

Glen Hansard stuff is a bit tricky, isn't it? I mean his Wikipedia explicitly says he groomed a teenager into a relationship. But the world of music fawns over him. Hell of a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Howe gets the chop [figurative].

According to @robharrisreports.bsky.social, Infantino is set on rushing the World Cup privatisation through. It's time for the national associations to stop 'monitoring the situation' and wade in. They must destroy this disgraceful plan - and end Infantino's corrupt misrule.

TikTok has incredible moderation team. Our InfoWars video about Multiple Horse Theory — the idea that there are many horses in the world and not just one — has been fully deemed misinformation and lost the formal appeals process. Confirmed by Larry Ellison: There is only one horse on Earth.

"Leaves you radicalised and exhausted." Amused to see what people who bought my most recent book also bought...