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There was a really interesting twitter thread on the psychology of England’s penalties this weekend. One thing Pickford started to do was meet our penalty takers and walk down to create a 2 v 1 against the Sommer. The referee clamped down on this but not the other shenanigans such as...

Both times he ended up at LWB, he was covering someone which makes sense. I agree that he doesn’t look 100%. Where we differ is that he’s still our best player in that position. He has 2 goals in 5 games which is more than Mbappe and others. He’s our captain and if a chance falls to him in the...

We definitely need more shots on target. The nature of international football is more boring than in club football. Our game had 6 shots on target (3 a piece), France v Portugal had 10 shots on target (5 each), Netherlands v Turkey had 8 shots on target (4 a piece) and the most entertaining...

Still the best option we have and that isn’t even worth debating. He was up against Akanji who is a world class CB and Switzerland were a stoppage time equaliser away from winning their group ahead of Germany. Watkins nor Toney have lit up the team when they’ve played for England. Kane faced...

On what basis would Watkins and Toney improve us? Between Watkins and Toney, they have 4 international goals. Neither have proven they can realistically challenge Kane for a starting berth. There’s a lot of amnesia here, before the Euros it was consistently said that England struggle for goals...

So one instance in 120 minutes and not even a guarantee he would’ve got to the cross? Whenever Watkins has started in qualifiers and friendlies, the narrative is that England struggle to create or score without Kane. Neither are the answer, however, Toney has really proven that he’s a reliable...

All I care about is winning tournaments. For too long we’ve not even been in the picture. Make no mistakes, failure to beat the Netherlands on Wednesday and this tournament would be considered a failure and the end of the Southgate era. Even if we don’t win the tournament, I do believe that...

We didn’t create a single chance for Kane and that’s a team failure. It’s been the same whenever Watkins or Toney play too. I’d like to see Foden and Saka (in particular) shoot more when they’re in positions at the edge of the box. I’m convinced Saka wouldn’t have made the same shot for his...

I just accept things for what they are at this point. It’s another semi-final which is another record for England. Being outcome focused, all that matters is that we won and have a good chance of getting to the final. England v France final for the Anti-Football Classico.

No, it’s just obviously a pretext to break promises made on the campaign trail. It’s no secret that public finances are a mess and the government needs to raise taxes and cut public spending. The IFS said this continually throughout the campaign.

Oh look, a pretext for raising taxes… They’re elected now, who cares what was said on the campaign trail.

Correct as you say, but was the vote change for Labour? Usually quite marginal but the damage to the tories was gains to Lib Dem and Reform voters (a bit of Greens in more rural areas too). That’s a narrative, but the energy cap was the single most expensive policy in that mini-budget. Let’s...

Love it! That’s the exact team I’d play and only Guehi to come back in for the semis should we get there.

I don’t think Reform have hit their limit at all. As an amateurish party with next to no funding before the election was called, they’ve got 5 MPs, 15% of the popular vote and finished 2nd in nearly 100 constituencies. Europe provides the blueprint as to what happens to mainstream parties if...

Very good points, but I said printing money is inflationary, not deficit spending.

QE has suppressed interest rates and if there was a time to commit to large public spending commitments, it was then. Alas, interest rates are around 5-6% and because asset prices have ballooned (partly because of QE), historically normal interest rates cause people issues. At some point...

The net benefit is about £3.3bn - you’re not getting much with that. Again, that’s without spending the money on the infrastructure to keep up with levels. What does that look like then? There’s a reason GDP per capita is going down steadily since net migration has picked up.

No, but printing money is. The costs of servicing public sector debt is already £40-odd billion so good luck with bold public spending plans.

It’s all well and good saying that… How do you fund the spending required? There’s a housing deficit of 4.3m and then apply that to roads, hospitals, schools and so on. There already exists a significant deficit and finding it by printing money is inflationary and that drives interest rate...

Realignment of the major parties. The best example is UKIP, they promised to leave the EU, the tories respond by offering a referendum. Leave wins and UKIP achieve their political aims without ever winning more than 2 MPs. Besides, the IFS has come out and criticised both Labour and Tories...