Jon Bacon retweeted
Just finished season 4 of The Diplomat and I am stunned!
For weeks I’ve been seeing countless breathless posts proclaiming this one of the best seasons of television in years, with a finale so jaw-dropping it apparently had to be seen to be believed. Well, they were right. What an ending.
And the thing is, the entire finale is some of the best television writing I’ve seen in a very long time. The dialogue, the pacing, the performances, the sheer audacity of the storytelling. Every aspect is firing on all cylinders. I was completely riveted.
And the parallels to real-world US and global politics are increasingly impossible to ignore. Some of the political machinations and sheer absurdity of it all feel uncomfortably close to what we’re witnessing in the real world right now.
What a killer season of television. Seriously, this show is operating on another level. Hurry up Netflix and renew this thing already!!!
@netflix #thediplomat
Jon Bacon retweeted
I agree. There are many areas of evidential weakness on this case. But, as a doctor, what I think is incredibly worrying is how implausible most of the medical evidence put forward by the police, CPS, prosecution and so called expert witnesses was. To anyone who has practised medicine for any reasonable length of time, most of it just doesn’t hold water and, to be honest, reflects a complete lack of understanding of the practise of medicine and of physiology, pathophysiology and basic medical sciences.
Jon Bacon retweeted
Ten years on and nothing has changed has it? I still see TV programmes & social media with the same Brexit ignorance, lies, deceit, misinformation, stupidity, English nationalism, exceptionalism, denial & immigrant/foreigner hating driven opinions.
The fact is Brexit was always going to remove our greater access rights onto our continent (for our businesses & us as individuals) without equally compensating us elsewhere.. It was & is not in the UK's gift to do what it did (its quite remarkable achievement) with 27 others.. Brexit was always going to shrink the UK economy; make trade, growth & movement across borders more difficult; *level down* trade; remove more rights, opportunities & benefits for more of us plebs; diminish our country's standing in the world .. All just a matter of how much.
Brexiters (fully in control, in BJ's govt purged of Remainers) chose to make sure of this by a substantially greater amount than it needed to be. They got what they wanted: a "Canada Style" FTA ...tariff free & quota free (good luck getting this from their darling, Trump, or any other country) ...but no FTA was ever equally compensate what was rejected by them: i.e. 85% of *our* former *internal* market, by wealthy consumers.
Which now (for goods) is smaller than the UK itself
Jon Bacon retweeted
Rafael Behr’s analysis of Reforms latest policy announcement is spot on.
#politicslive
Jon Bacon retweeted
⚽ #LFC Have Problems. The #PremierLeague Has a Crisis.
I wrote yesterday about Liverpool's 3-0 defeat to #ManCity, and plenty objected to my criticism of the players.
The effort was there. The quality wasn't.
Liverpool's structural weaknesses remain, attacking cohesion is poor and there is a worrying mentality problem. Injuries matter, absolutely, but recruitment left this squad incapable of coping with absences. Hundreds of millions spent, yet the squad remains an unbalanced mess.
But my greater anger today is directed towards the Premier League.
Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 charges, yet sit top of the table without punishment. The appeals process offers no clarity, no meaningful timetable and no reassurance that this season's competition has any integrity.
And the behaviour of City since the verdict has been extraordinary.
Not a shred of contrition. Not a hint of humility.
Players and supporters appear to be following the example set by those at the top, celebrating as though the guilty verdict never happened.
Banners proclaiming "In Khaldoon We Trust" and "We've won it all" are embarrassing. Khaldoon Al Mubarak chairs the club found guilty of serious financial wrongdoing. Supporters should be demanding accountability from their leadership, not treating them as heroes.
Then there's Chris Kavanagh.
Appointing a referee from Greater Manchester to this fixture, amid unprecedented scrutiny, was spectacularly poor judgement. His previous controversial decisions involving City already invite criticism.
I'm alleging no corruption. He may simply be a poor referee. But his handling of Gravenberch's dismissal made dreadful optics considerably worse.
The Premier League created another entirely avoidable credibility problem.
Liverpool must address their shortcomings. City must face meaningful consequences.
And the Premier League must finally demonstrate that its rules, its verdicts and its competition actually mean something.
Jon Bacon retweeted
Five games, five wins, top of the league. Manchester City, a fortnight after an independent commission found they systematically broke the Premier League's financial rules for nine straight seasons.
So what exactly are we all watching?
Not asking for the season to be scrapped. That's daft, and it punishes nineteen clubs who've done nowt wrong. But I'd like somebody at the Premier League to explain why the table at the top of every sports page is one they already know is wrong.
Because here's where we actually are. The commission has ruled. City lodged their appeal on October 1st. No sanction has been announced. Nobody knows when it will be. Sky are reporting that Premier League clubs themselves don't expect City to even BE in this league next season if the appeal fails.
And in the meantime, the league just carries on. Points are awarded. Positions are published. Clubs are planning January windows around a table that might be fiction.
Think about who that actually hurts. Not City, they're fine, they're top. It's the club that goes down in May by two points and later finds out the table was never real. It's the club that sacks a manager in February over a league position that gets rewritten. It's the staff at a relegated club losing their jobs over a season nobody can stand behind. Real money, real people, decided by a table the league itself can't vouch for.
And the bit that genuinely sticks in the throat. Everton got docked ten points, mid season, reduced to six. Forest got four. Both for single PSR breaches. Both punished DURING the season it mattered, so the table stayed honest.
Eighty charges over nine seasons, plus thirty five for refusing to cooperate with the investigation into it, and somehow that one has to wait.
Carragher's right. Do it this season. Whatever it is, apply it now, to this table, the way it was applied to Everton and Forest. Because every week this drags on, the Premier League is asking us to treat a standings table as real while quietly knowing it might not be.
Due process matters and the appeal has to be heard, I'm not arguing with that. But there's a difference between due process and letting a club sit top of a competition for an entire season while the punishment for breaking that competition's rules sits in a drawer.
The league's credibility isn't damaged by what City did ten years ago. It's damaged by what the league is choosing to do about it now.
Nine seasons. Then three years of charges. Then a verdict. And still, somehow, nothing.
Who's season is this, exactly? 🖤🖤
#PremierLeague #MCFC
Jon Bacon retweeted
Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola was spotted running the line on Sunday morning for his daughter's team. 👏
Absolute class. The man just loves football, doesn't he? 👍
Jon Bacon retweeted
I’ve got every confidence in Richard Masters getting this right, you don’t pick a fight with City’s owners not to see it through or you simply look the other way from day one, he’s in too deep, he gets this over the line then resigns with this being his legacy.
He’s fighting for survival of the PL, there’s 2 outcomes.
1.) They heavily sanction City and the league stamps it’s authority on the owners to prevent situations like this happening again, they made the mistake of allowing state ownership & this one battle nips it in the bud, the league can’t continue like this.
2.) They fold, the legacy clubs hit the roof & see it as the excuse they want to form a super league where they get even more money & more control, this time, there will be no fan opposition so the American owners will finally get what they want, the PL will die without Liverpool, United, Arsenal & even Spurs or Chelsea, those are the clubs who secure the big TV deals, regardless of what the Nigerian Bots tell you, City don’t, a PL without the big teams don’t survive with City plus Everton, Brentford & Brighton etc, it just don’t.
If they fold, it becomes a free for all & teams like Newcastle, Chelsea & Villa will start breaking rules because they know the PL would be weak & the precedent has been set by City to get away with it.
This is why I’m not convinced any Arab Political pressure works here, those threats were made before Burnham made those comments that he was forced to u turn on by Downing Street not even 24 hours later, this was all after the threats which tells me the PL are being strong about this and they’ll come out on top, if anything, this could bring Burnham down if they start digging into his deals with them as Mayor, City are panicking & are trying to throw their weight around, Downing st were quite quick to distance themselves from Burnham’s silly comments & they know it’s Political suicide to allow such mass cheating to go unpunished, they even said it will in their statement.
We will get the outcome we crave.
Jon Bacon retweeted
Manchester City Breaking rules.
It has taken the authorities over years to conclude that Manchester city are GUILTY of breaking rules.
However the authorities have NOT imposed the punishment.
When Spurs were found guilty of breaking rules the punishment was imposed immediately. 12 point deduction, a ban from the FA Cup and a £600,000 fine.
My point being is that Man city have not had any punishments imposed and are free to carry on playing. In the case of Spurs and Everton the points were immediately deducted in the appropriate season.
Its simple. The rules are you are guilty and here is the punishment. The punishment should be implemented immediately . The process of appeal can then follow.
Jon Bacon retweeted
It takes 3.2 seconds to RT and help find Lillia 13 year old from Bolton has now been missing for six days She was reported missing on Friday 11 September.
Last confirmed sighting 1.50pm Saturday 12 September at the Trafford Centre #Manchester please call 116 000 with any info
Jon Bacon retweeted
It takes 3.2 seconds to RT and help find Missing 3-year-old boy Noah in Brantham
Noah was last seen around 3pm at the play park at the top of Decoy Merriam Close
He has curly ginger hair, is non-verbal, partially deaf and autistic He was wearing a white Bluey t-shirt, shorts
Jon Bacon retweeted
*BRILLIANT*
The French made a short film about what could happen after all immigrants would follow the ‘_white, angry old man’s_’ advice to go back where they came from.*
Jon Bacon retweeted
Overturning Lucy Letby's convictions would raise huge questions about every part of state from NHS, policing, to CPS and the adversarial system itself. Is that too much for the Court of Appeal to stomach? Steve Phelps on Lucy Letby's 'appalling vista' thejusticegap.com/lucy-letby…
Jon Bacon retweeted
Farage and Reform UK are in deep trouble. However, after 3 days, @Verbatim_Media's 37 minute video of their extraordinary year-long undercover investigation into Reform UK's illegal foreign donations has only got 161k views. It should have several million.
So please repost this and then share the video.
youtu.be/RugPik-G1Jw?is=-ikY… – at Brighton, England
Jon Bacon retweeted
For 24 years, Mirka Federer stayed in the Background.
But her Speech inducting Roger Federer into the International Tennis Hall of Fame just broke the internet. 😭🐐
Heart Touching.
The Most Beautiful Video on my Timeline Today !!!
This is What a Family Looks Like. Respect. Awe. Support.
And Most Importantly, Cherishing those Wonderful Moments.
Share Widely. But After Watching ❤️
#FI
Jon Bacon retweeted
Nigel Farage and other senior members of Reform UK have been filmed by undercover reporters celebrating secret new foreign donations.
Channel 4 News and @Verbatim_Media, a group of investigative journalists, can today reveal a plot to break the law on party funding at the highest levels of Reform UK.
You can watch the full investigation here: youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI
Channel 4 News approached Reform UK, Mr Farage, Mr Jukes and Mr Orr for comment on the findings of this investigation. They did not comment but we understand they deny the allegations in full.
Jon Bacon retweeted
“It worked, boom.”
That’s Nigel Farage celebrating a Reform UK plot to break election law - by having a US company secretly pay for three influential political polls that benefitted the party.
Earlier in the investigation, Reform’s Head of Policy James Orr and senior advisor Dan Jukes arranged for a Verbatim reporter to pay for the polls through a US company. Orr and Jukes believed the firm was run by the reporter’s American father.
Mr Farage was filmed by undercover reporters from @Verbatim_Media as part of a year-long investigation that Channel 4 News has thoroughly checked and verified.
This meeting took place in his Clacton constituency in July - when Mr Farage was fighting a by-election he called after separate allegations about his finances.
Watch the full investigation on YouTube.