Brett-Butler

So if it's still 0-0 after 90 minutes does it go to Golden Goal? (yes, I know).

Have the rules for the kick-off changed in recent years? Normally I remember two players from the same side kicking at the centre, but at this match there's only one player who passes back a lot further.

- My mum when Daniel hit that G3 in "I Just Want to Dance With You".

Please stand for the national anthem of England- uck1AcftyRo

Please stand for the national anthem of Scotland- eIekZvhyrsk

Imran Ahmad-Khan, the Tory MP for Wakefield, has been charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year old boy. He has had the Tory whip suspended.

I’ve worked from home or less from the moment the pandemic started and absolutely hate it, although given that I live on my own and have no dependants at the moment there are more drawbacks than benefits for me - I love the coffee-pot conversations that can trigger interesting developments, and I like being able to turn my head to ask a colleague a question, rather than sending an email that can get garbled or hope they’re available to take a call. But I recognise that a few years down the line when I have kids I’d savour being able to work from home to spend more time with them, so I am glad that there will be a greater flexibility going forward plus it allows those people who would have been excluded from work due to having dependents or having mobility issues to keep on working in a way that more suits them.

It's the default biggest story when I open up the BBC News homepage. It is also the main story when I open the BBC Homepage as well.

Looks like the Lib Dems will have to upgrade their parliamentary offices from a phone box to a small caravan. Definitely got this prediction wrong, another one to add to the list. I imagine there were a lot of local factors in play here - The Great Realignment cuts both ways.

It’s going to be realllllly fun summer here. It’s the first July in a long time that I truly do fear that something terrible is going to happen during the season, like a powder keg is about to explode. Plus, if we do get a new election to the next few months, that won’t help things either.

When was the last time a "rock" song made the UK Top 10 of the singles chart (yes, I know that the definition of "rock" is quite a moveable feast these days).

:D Although I presume the Ryman in question is the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee - saw Queens of the Stone Age at the same venue. Interesting that NGHFB's Best Of... is #1 at the moment, quite surprising to see a non-legacy GH release reaching those heights, although of course I imagine it's a low sales situation.

Very niche question that Buzzjack should know the answer to, but what is that song that the England fans have been chanting the past few minutes? Don't recognise it.

*sobs in Jack Charlton*.

Seems sensible, at least it's a delay rather than a return. Would've prefered if it were 2 weeks rather than 4 with the option to extend, but fair enough. I can't see ParkRun being affected - the reason its return was delayed from 5th June to 26th June was due to them not having enough permissions from land owners, but they've now secured this, so even if there's an extension they can still have up to 500 people taking part as long as they carry out a risk assessment first.

*Puts disputation hat on*. I'd agree with Sit Down, but I'd say that their other best-known song is instead "Laid", being their biggest streamed song on Spotify (indeed, a few years ago it was the biggest streaming song released the year it came out on the service), and it's probably better known in America than "Sit Down" is.

They/he is touring in September, plague permitting. I was due to see them last March before "the event" (if the gig was 2 days earlier, it would have gone ahead), so I should finally get to see the Lightning Seeds in 3 months time. If 3 Lions does get a significant boost over this period, it could translate to a few more ticket sales. Don't think it'll lead to new Lightning Seeds material; Ian Broudie seems happy enough to just play the hits from their 90s heyday (he's more or less disowned their 2009 album, claiming that it should never have been released as a Lightning Seeds album).

Fantastic news from Northern Ireland as for the first time since the pandemic started there isn't a single person with Covid in an ICU unit here. Covid patients are now down to just 15, and although there has been a slight uptick in amounts of admissions compared to last week, the fact that the total number of Covid patients have continued to fall would suggest that those who are admitted are staying in hospital for shorter amounts of time. Vaccines are awesome.

After a massive range of candidates in the recent Hartlepool by-election, the Batley & Spen by-election also has a mammoth ballot, with sixteen different candidates taking part in the Labour marginal on 1st July. The candidates are - Paul Bickerdike - Christian Peoples AllianceMike Davies - Alliance For Green SocialismJayda Fransen - IndependentGeorge Galloway - Workers PartyTom Gordon - Liberal DemocratsThérèse Hirst - English DemocratsHowling Laud Hope - The Official Monster Raving Loony PartySusan Laird - Heritage PartyKim Leadbeater - Labour PartyOliver Purser - Social Democratic PartyCorey Robinson - Yorkshire PartyAndrew Smith - Rejoin EURyan Stephenson - Conservative PartyJack Thomson - UK Independence PartyJonathan Tilt - Freedom AllianceAnne Marie Waters - The For Britain MovementNotable by their absence are the Green Party; their announced candidate was stood down after someone dredged up tweets he made 9 years ago. A different emerald party, the Alliance For Green Socialism (me neither) are taking part instead. Rejoin EU & Freedom Alliance are surprisingly taking part in their 2nd by-election in a manner of weeks. Elsewhere, the Anti-Muslim, Anti-Catholic Morrissey favourite Anne Marie Waters is standing, as is convicted criminal and perennial loser Jayda Fransen. Still putting this down as a Labour victory. Whilst the Greens pulling out might give them a boost, given they only got 700 votes in 2019 I don't think that the margin will be smaller than that.

He's had 4 songs that have gone top 75, although his only top 40 hit was a collaboration with Fall Out Boy on a cover of "Beat It" (which I think he only played guitar on).

As someone who strenuously dislikes the fact that Ireland has been reduced to a tax haven with a country attached, I would welcome a higher tax rate here, although doing so on an international basis could only work if all countries agreed to it, otherwise you'd still have the usual race to the bottom. Interesting to note that if it is 15% that's the basement figure, there aren't as many countries in Europe that would have to raise their corporation tax rate to make it to that level.

Will be interesting to see if “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” by Spiller/Sophie Ellis Bextor shows up on Spotify during the week. It’s finally been added to Spotify for the first time, think there were legal issues with the sample holding it up.

In Northern Ireland, in the last 7 days the amount of people tested has increased by 1/3 over the previous 7 day period, but in spite of this the amount of people testing positive has decreased period on period. Only 3 people have been admitted to hospital in the past 7 days (compared to 10 in the prior week, and well down from the c700 admissions at the peak in January), and only 17 hospitalised (down from 27 last week, and down from the peak of 1,051 in January), so things are going fairly well since the re-opening here. It's been 10 days since most things reopened here, so if we do see an uptake in cases, then it's in the next week that we can expect to see it in the numbers, based on what we know about the virus. Looks like the vaccine has done its job so far here.

The head of the Icelandic-UK Tourist Board just bagged herself a massive bonus.

Quite an interesting article about the Batley & Spen by-election here, which outlines why it is highly likely that Labour will retain the seat despite it voting 60% to Leave. Basically, Batley is not Hartlepool.