But I thought identity politics was a left-wing obsession?

Finding this an interesting episode of @holyroodsources.bsky.social, but one thing I think is missed is that the idea of an independent Scottish Labour Party has roots beyond even the idea of an independent Scottish Conservative Party. At the very least I recall discussing just this in 2015.

Polymarket have legitimately been advertising their site as future-predicting (at least to US investors), when their inputs come largely from 'whales' like Posh George.

The Cable Conspiracy has to be my favourite of this WC so far. We're legitimately getting pixelated phone videos with poorly applied 'ball tracking' effects doing numbers on football subreddits, like they're trying to prove the existence of Yeti.

Jesus settling disputes among the apostles:

Whoever wins France v Spain is taking the whole thing, aren't they?

ITV's pundits explain their characterisation of England as clearly the better team after half-an-hour.

Gave an interview on whether Count Binface can win in Clacton. Obviously I don't think they can, but if they did...

I was obviously rooting for the Egyptians because what a story that'd have been, but there's always something special watching Messi come alive like that...

Calling a by-election shortly before the summer break – when parliament is in recess so there's less news, even with a new PM – is a pretty *terrible* way to distract from an issue. Farage has basically guaranteed his personal finances and integrity will be headline news all summer.

Have checked and parliamentary prodecure nerds seem pretty sure: if Farage resigned, triggered a by-election, and won, the old investigations could all resume. So unless they're wrong (and I don't think they are), there's no procedural get-out-of-jail card here.

I hear the Democrats are having a problem with their Nazi tattoo candidate

I'd love Farage to shut it about being the "physically and verbally" most-attacked politician of modern times when two of his contemporaries were assassinated. Having a milkshake thrown at you pales in comparison to being chased down by a nutjob with a knife and a gun and being murdered by him.

Farage makes his biggest errors when he mistakes the UK for the US. For all our issues, rules and laws are still applied to politicians without fear or favour over here - he can't escape accountability by appealing to his constituents.

Mbappe was getting a grip on the game Paraguay were playing at the end there, laughing at them and not letting himself get too wound up.

If there's one thing this game is teaching me, it's that too many of you need to get into watching lower league games because you don't understand the difference between shithousery, cheating, and bad refereeing (all of which have happened in this game)...

There's obviously no way that France shouldn't be ahead, but I do need to question why so many of you were rooting for them to go ahead? Strong Horse effect? Paraguay shithousing a win here would've been so much more amusing.

No audible commentary until the game ends with a Paraguayan skying a penalty over the bar. "Mmmm. Well I'm satisfied they don't speak Fr*nch"

Paraguay are Cape Verde's evil twin

Things nobody told me about having a baby no. 15267: You've never seen a human being take up half a double bed so effectively...

Wat

Interesting to hear a question on @holyroodsources.bsky.social arguing that greater fiscal autonomy doesn't lead to support for independence because the Basque Country has greater fiscal autonomy than Catalunya, but lower support for secession - which is true...

You got the dud, England

Are we sure the French are playing the same sport as the rest of the WC teams??

God, it's France's World Cup, you're just playing in it....

Are we sure that Haaland isn't just some Norwegian guy nailing a Superstar play through in which we're NPCs?

He might be speaking to frustrations that the Scots, Welsh, and Irish (in NI) have been articulating for over half-a-century, but it's clear enough that Burnham's devolution vision is very much an English one, first and foremost.

Wealthy People Acknowledge Why You're Actually Wealthy challenge 2026 (IMPOSSIBLE)

I guess we knew Germany would go out sooner or later given their group performances, but out on pens v Paraguay is exquisite! Big up 🇵🇾

Brazil knocking out Japan...

On speculation that Burnham will go for a speedy snap election, I just don't see where people are getting the idea that it'd help him? Firstly, I can't think of a contemporary example of it working except for Johnson in 2019, in which case he was able to promise to bring years of Brexit chaos to...

As someone who very strongly believes in thorough reform of local (& regional) govt in Scotland, from powers to structures to local taxation, those are questions for Holyrood. Not necessarily the (presumed) incoming PM, whose party were hammered in Scotland a month-and-a-half ago.

I think our English, Welsh, and Irish fans need to seriously consider why this is such a popular meme among Scottish fans before defending Clarke in any way...

My fundamental position on Scottish international football at this point is twofold: 1) a nation with McTominay, McGinn, Tierney, Robertson, Gannon-Doak all healthy shouldn't be only putting *one* past Haiti. 2) a nation with our fundamental strengths shouldn't be relying on a handful of players.

Now Scotland are out: personally think Wrighty's right, fittingly. We have a small population but beyond that we have lots of fundamentals in our football culture - high attendances, large league structure, extensive youth participation - that suggests we should be doing much better than we are.

There's a broader piece to be said about the performance-expectations gap in Scotland that ought to have greater treatment, btw, from sport to business to policy. Would be nice to see someone explore that properly...

Now Scotland are out: personally think Wrighty's right, fittingly. We have a small population but beyond that we have lots of fundamentals in our football culture - high attendances, large league structure, extensive youth participation - that suggests we should be doing much better than we are.

My feeling about Scotland going out isn't that dissimilar to the first time I read Lennie's fate in Of Mice and Men...

Also means I can pick teams I support based on their players and style, until one of them wins. Which inevitably won't be England.

No longer needing to tolerate So You're Telling Me There's A Chance memes on r/scottishfootball, meaning a return to the Celtic Are Shite But McInnes/Rangers Are Bottle Merchant meta...

Bad news: Scotland not qualifying Good news: Don’t need to watch Scotland again for a while

...I thought I was going to be watching the Ghana - Croatia game, why's the entire build-up on ITV4 for the England - Panama game?

Broke: Is Britain ungovernable? Woke: Are the people we elect shit at governing?

Having a standing fan in the bedroom during a UK heatwave

US Geological Survey says high casualties 'probable' after powerful quakes hit South American country.

USGS are estimating a 30% chance of >100,000 deaths as a result of two massive earthquakes in Venezuela, per the BBC. Hoping to God that hasn't happened...

If you're McTominay and we don't go through you'd be battering yourself over those missed opportunities, but it's ultimately not his fault that Clarke has chronically refused to play him in the roles he's best in...

There's a good argument to be made that (injuries notwithstanding) we put out the team against Brazil that we should've put out against Haiti, and the team against Haiti we should've put out against Brazil.