Brett-Butler

In fairness that was a great goal by Bellingham.

England could have this in the bag:

She was Reform UK's Immigration & Justice spokesperson on her death.

There's a news conference on at 16:30 which should shed more light on the situation. From what we know so far it's implied that it was a home invasion gone wrong rather than politically motivated attack, but we'll know better after the press conference.

I can’t see any party other than the Tories beating Farage in this. The Tories won 72% in 2019, and Reform/Conservatives won a combined 74% in 2024. Unless there’s been massive demographic change since then, or Labour have an unprecedented Burnham Bounce, it’ll be one or the other.

He has a majority of 8,405 over the Conservatives. It’s a risky move which I can see backfiring and getting Kemi Badenoch a surprise extra seat for her party.

I think this will be Hulk's last season unfortunately. Quite a disappointing race for him given his heroics at Silverstone last year.

Verstappen out. Diddums.

That’s something I’ve never thought of before - do the Box Office figures include VAT or exclude it? Did a quick check but can’t see a conclusive answer.

I hope Partey gets booed every time he touches the ball.

Haven’t seen Obsession yet (will likely check it out once it comes to streaming), but from what I can understand from the plot, the same concept was done before on Irish TV before, in 1998, in under 10 minutes, with puppets -

I bought “Bournville” by Jonathan Coe in a whim a few years ago and enjoyed it, but haven’t read anything else by him. May need to make a trip to the library to investigate further.

Well, in a rare occurrence, I got the winners of all 3 by-elections right. After all of that, the net effect is + 1 Tories, - 1 SNP. There will now be a by-election for the Mayor of Greater Manchester, which I’ve seen suggested will be the largest ever by-election in population terms in UK voting history. If Andy calls a General Election on his coronation with a Lib Dem pact, then he’ll continue Labour’s majority, cut off Reform when they’re at a wane, and wipe out the Tories for good, with Reform withering on the vine in opposition to Burnham. If he leaves it to 2029, then it’ll be a straight Labour/Tory contest - Kemi Badenoch has settled into the role as leader of the opposition, and this surprise by-election victory gives them the momentum on the right rather than Farage.

Has the Alan Parsons Project received a boost from "Sirius" being used as walk-on music?

Cameron Thomas, the MP for Tewksbury, has been suspended from the Lib Dems after being arrested on Wednesday evening.

Very surprised that “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was Spielberg’s highest opening for a film in the UK, and that “Lost World” in the 90s was higher than some of his high-profile 2010s films with inflation adjustment. I’m guessing Jurassic Park is probably his biggest adjusted for inflation?

Great timing! Decided to start a Letterboxd account for the first time on Saturday. I’m currently trying to remember every single film I’ve ever watched, and have made somewhat of a start on it. It’ll probably take me a good year to remember them all. Username is beanochris (anyone with a very long memory will remember that name)

Vozinha's going to get picked up by some lucky Championship team after that first half performance.

Are you in Makerfield at the moment, or Scotland? What are your thoughts on who will win in your constituency?

In 2003 Giancarlo Fisichella and Jordan were awarded the win in the abandoned Brazilian Grand Prix five days later after the timekeepers got the lap the race officially ended incorrect - https://www.crash.net/f1/news/45341/1/fisichella-wins-brazilian-grand-prix

There's one week until the Makerfield by-election. For reference, here are the candidates running in the by-election: Jake Austin – Liberal Democrats Count Binface – Count Binface Party Andy Burnham – Labour and Co-operative Party Dan Clarke – Libertarian Party John Dyer – Independent Ed Gemmell – Climate Party Paul Gould – Independent Alan "Howlin" Laud Hope – The Official Monster Raving Loony Party Robert Kenyon – Reform UK Robert Pownall – Independent Rebecca Shepherd – Restore Britain Sarah Wakefield – Green Party Peter Ward – Rejoin EU Michael Winstanley – Conservative and Unionist Party As expected, given the high profile of this by-election, there is a massive slate of candidates hoping to take advantage of the added attention they are likely to get; outside of the usual suspects there's the Libertarians, Monster Raving Loonies, Rejoin EU (whose raison d'etre is a mystery), and the absolutely hilarious Count Binface. Under normal circumstances this would be a slam dunk Reform seat if it wasn't for the presence of Andrew Murray Burnham on the slate (although of course, there wouldn't have been a by-election here at all if it weren't for the presence of Mr Andrew Murray Burnham). The Brett-Butler Prognosticator 4000 gives this one to Labour and Andy Burnham with a narrow victory (although what Andy Burnham we get post 19th we will see). Given the high profile of this by-election, it's easy to forget that there are two other parliamentary by-elections in Scotland on the same day to replace SNP politicians who were elected to the Scottish parliament. The support acts are as follows - Aberdeen South - Nurul Hoque Ali – Scottish Labour Party David Ballantine – Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (ADF) Jo Hart – Reform UK Douglas Lumsden – Scottish Conservative and Unionist Jorg Shelton-Eckstein – Scottish Green Party Mel Sullivan – Scottish Liberal Democrats Richard Gordon Thomson – Scottish National Party (SNP) Arbroath and Broughty Ferry - Tanvir Ahmad – Scottish Liberal Democrats Lara Bird – Scottish National Party (SNP) Jack Cruickshanks – Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Heather Doran – Scottish Labour Party Bill Reid – Reform UK I would have put both of these down as solid SNP holds if it wasn't for the public learning that Nicola Sturgeon has a special medical condition causing her to not see caravans parked in her garden. The SNP's majorities weren't massive in either of these, so both of these will end up tight. I'm predicting a shock loss in Aberdeen South to the Conservatives, and a hold in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, courtesy of the good voters in Battenberg Road, D11, Arbroath.

The eye gouging and attempted beheading took place 5 minutes away from where I live, it's an area I'm very familiar with, and the video was absolutely horrific to watch. The man who has potentially saved the victim's life with the hurley bat is slowly becoming a folk hero since the incident - £30k was raised on a Crowdfunder to buy him a pint, which he is going to donate to the victim & his family. There will be questions raised about the vetting of the alleged attacker (his asylum application was fast-tracked at the time), which will cause problems for Reform UK trying to make hay out of this incident, give that in 2023 when he was granted leave to remain, the people in charge and who praised this particular scheme were Suella Braveman and...Robert Jenrick. And regardless of the heinousness of the assault, that does not excuse the horrific, inexcusable violence that took place in Belfast and further afield in NI over the past two nights, with the targeting of innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with this incident. And the last thing we need with an ongoing homelessness and housing crisis is tens of social housing units being taken out of commission by the f-wits who just want to spread violence and intimidation. I'm hoping that we're over the worst of the violence, the weather's been terrible today which tends to dampen protests, although the buses out of Belfast are stopping at 5.30, which suggests there's the potential for trouble.

18 please

Called it, although I didn’t expect it to be #2! I’d heard about it a few years back, but only watched it for the first time at the weekend and watched all the episodes of it on Netflix in one sitting, it’s pretty great viewing. Will wait until it’s on streaming until I see this one though.