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Teaser
Cover imaging for ‘Secrets and Lies’, the new Skinner, is about to be uploaded. Look out for it.
Hang on Sloopy
Having been distracted by the Biden saga, which is over until he decides to resign and hand the White House to Kamala so that she can run as incumbent, I am turning my attention back to Westminster and the Tory shambles.
All I can see so far is squabbling, not only between potential leadership candidates, but among the depleted rank and file MPs who have yet to agree how a contest should be run.
I have a solution to offer them. Don’t have a contest. My sense is that now that the election is over, there is an undercurrent of sympathy for Rishi Sunak. There is also a growing acknowledgment that he inherited an impossible job from the unlamented Truss and her disgraced predecessor. No, his declaration in the rain was not a good look, but I would blame that on the advisers who let him do it that way rather than at the indoor lectern,
Of all the people who are likely contenders, I don’t see one who will unite the party and advance its cause. Therefore Rishi, why not let it be known that you will stay on for at least two years?
You can be a constructive leader of HM Opposition, let the dust settle (or the rain stop), give Cruella a job to shut her up (Shadow SofS for levelling up since nobody really knows what the **** that means) and allow your party to heal and realign in a calmer atmosphere.
When the next election comes into sight, say 2027, then you can take a collective decision on the way forward. How’s that for an idea?
Yes, age is an issue
The Trump campaign team may be rubbing their hands at the prospect of a Harris candidacy, but as an outsider it seems to me that race and gender are no longer deciding issues in American politics.
The last time Trump ran, he lost as America elected a black woman, on the ticket as Vice President. In 2008 and 2012 it elected a black man. In 2016 Hillary Clinton polled more of the popular vote than Trump, but won fewer Electoral College delegates.
With Biden out of the picture attention will now turn to Trump’s age. He may be sound now, but he is in decline. If he is elected how will he be when he is two years older than Biden is now, and still in office?
Worst possible taste.
Watching the Open on Sky, I can’t believe what they’ve just done. What does a player’s wife’s back story have to do with the championship?
The moment of truth
It’s all over, and there seems to general agreement that the best team in the tournament won the trophy. However there are plenty of precedents in which that did not happen. The 1966 World Cup may have been one.
England lost, and yet they might not have, if they had seized the moment, after the substitutions had been made, and after they had equalised out of nothing. The Spanish were disorganised, off balance and under pressure. England were ascendant and had a throw in around twenty yards from the Spanish goal line. What would Rodri have done? He’d have thrown the ball to Yamal. What did Kyle Walker do? He looked around, for many long seconds, then threw the ball to Stones, who passed it back to Pickford, who went long and gave it back to Spain. They regrouped and England barely saw the ball again.
Courage over caution, that’s what the moment called for. Walker took the opposite approach, and that’s when England lost.
Don Juan
Watching the game on BBC it’s good to see Juan Mata on the pundit panel. One of my favourite Man U players and an exceptional human being. I wish he was still involved with the club, if only to dilute the Dutch cabal that seems to taking over the coaching side.
Off target
www.bbc.com/sport/football/videos/czk0y5dkmrpo
Quite a few of these celebs are unknown by me, but whatever if they do win it isn’t coming home. That would be Scotland.
Yes, I know the FA was formed before the SFA but the first recorded football club is said to be the Football Club of Edinburgh in 1824. 
To the pedant who accused me of being an ABE, (Anyone But England I assume) I’m not. I have two dogs in the race, so I am neutral. But why should the English expect their team to be our second choice?
Out there
Thing on Netflix called Obliterated. It explores the boundaries of bad taste, burns them to the ground and drives off into the unknown. So far, it’s great.
Fugit
It’s hard to believe but Mr Brightside is almost 21years old. It’s even harder for me to believe, but Skinner’s Rules is ten years older.
Quintin Jardine's blog 