Why I hate the Argentinian football team

Sorry, but there are a few football teams that I hate. Italy are one (though I love the country). Argentina are the other.

Growing up there was The Falklands War when a failing right wing dictatorship, which murdered left wingers like me, invaded the islands deciding that the population of The Falklands had no right to decide who rules them and invaded them. A conflict ensued, people were killed as a result and the islands were liberated. After that, England played Argentina in a World Cup game in which Argentina cheated, as well as also scoring one of the best goals ever in a World Cup.  Argentina went on to win that World Cup but four years later caused the worst final I ever watched. Their players were disgraceful and behaved like animals. 

I don’t blame Argentina for beating us in the game that Beckham lost for us by getting sent off, but I remember them taunting the England players afterwards.

The video below is interesting. I did think that they were to follow the normal left wing view of giving The Falkland’s to Argentina, and I am glad to see that they mentioned the rights of the Falkland Islanders. I disagree with their views on the sinking of the Belgrano. It was a warship which was looking for the British fleet. But I am surprised that they did not mention the lack of multiculturalism. Unlike other South American nations, the team of Argentina has been all white very often. It is right that we look at the past of Britain, taking pride in the great things our nation has done and accepting when we have been in the wrong. That same scrutiny should also be applied to Argentina and what happened to its black population.

Count Binface on democracy in Great Britain

Count Binface has spoken in the past about democracy in Great Britain, and he is so right. Elon Musk has commented about our tyrannical government. He is so wrong. There are arguments for and against our first past the post system and I have commented about Proportional Representation in the past. But the best argument for our current system is the way that someone like Count Binface has a chance to follow the likes of Martin Bell in being elected against a political party with far greater funding.

Comparing Louise Haigh to George Cottrell

There are levels of fraud and crime.  Comparisons have been made by Reform UK Ltd about how Louise Haigh, a Labour MP who had to resign as a Minister in November 2024 over an issue with fraud involving a mobile phone in 2013, her pleading guilty in 2014.

George Cottrell had been caught agreeing to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers in an FBI sting operation in 2017. Cottrell was a backer for Nigel Farage before and after his conviction. 

The Thai based billionaire Christopher Harborne is the man who donated the five million pound gift to Nigel Farage, to use in security, or it may have been given to thank Farage for Brexit (the story changes). While he is an innocent man, concerns have been raised about money laundering. 

And of course, there is Ben Delo. He has a conviction and earned a pardon from Trump.  Living in Hong Kong, he gave Reform UK Ltd the total of four million pounds before the rules on donations were changed. His conviction relates to US Banking laws. 

So, while Louise Haigh has a conviction for fraud involving a mobile phone, there are degrees of wrongdoing, and her crime, while wrong, are not on the same level as the backers of Reform UK Ltd. I do not think comparing her probably returning to government can be compared to the concerns with the Reform donors. 

Revisiting Nigel Farage and the Coutts bank scandal

In hindsight, Coutts probably did the right thing. In 2023, Coutts closed the bank account of Nigel Farage. He took action about this and a head rolled over this. Considering the donations that Nigel Farage and Reform UK Ltd have been given, this may have been the right thing to do.

Ben Delo, a man who was pardoned by Trump following a conviction, has donated money to Reform UK Ltd. It was reported that Ben Delo, who lives in Hong Kong, gave £4m to Reform earlier this year before the Government changed the law to put a £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living abroad. 

There also the five million pound donation to Nigel Farage for his personal security or as a reward for Brexit (depending on the time Nigel Farage is explaining it).  This one is from Christopher Harborne, a British crypto billionaire living in Thailand.  Who also has a conviction, but has not earned a pardon.

For once, this story has been given the attention it deserves, though most are ignoring the Ben Delo donation, as that appeared to have been declared and was to the party, not to Nigel Farage himself. The reason I mention this is that Richard Tice made an error with taxes (for a company), but was not hounded out of a job in the way Angela Rayner was. 

Nigel Farage has managed to avoid the consequences of this racist comments in the past. The question is if “The Establishment” in the form of Count Binface will be able to beat him. In 2024, he was elected with over 40% of the vote, which means that if all who did not vote for Farage in the last general election vote for Count Binface, then he may win! 

What a game

What a game. I went to bed early yesterday, was woken by my wife when she went to bed. I did not sleep too well, but adjusted my alarm when I found out the game was delayed by an hour.  

My daughter had gone into Colchester to watch it with friends.  I knew that Mexico would attack, which would play to our strengths. But during the week, when talking about it at work, I had forgotten about how the altitude would work against us.  I was reminded about this later in the week when players from that game in Mexico in 1986.  I was not intimidated by the record of Mexico at the stadium, but I knew it would be tough. But, I kept the faith, knowing that we have come from behind to win games. But the joy of going two goals up in the first half was amazing. My wife had told me not to wake her up and it was hard not to do so. I did not lose faith when they scored their first goal, or when we went down to ten men, or even when they scored the second.  But the boys did good (my family hate the phrase) and did the country proud. Our multicultural team was amazing. 

It was strange seeing the sun up at the end of the match. I offered to collect my daughter from Colchester, but she declined, walking back with a friend instead. Anyway, time to catch up on sleep. 

Password failure

Well that was an interesting return to work. I love my job, but had a frustrating morning as I locked myself out of the clinical system at work by forgetting my Windows password, and that for my smart-card.  It was all fixed, but it took time. But from then, the day got better.  

Back in Blighty

We are home, and are exhausted.  We left our apartment early in the day. Last night I ended up swearing at the children as one decided to pack at ten at night while the other was trying to sleep. While the apartment is nice and has a great location, it has no air conditioning and sleeping has been an issue in the last few nights. 

The journey back was not too eventful. We arrived at the airport with time to spare, Portugal appears to have suspended the EU passport checks which have caused chaos for British travellers, which meant that we arrived too early. But having heard of planes leaving passengers behind, we did not want to risk that ourselves. 

Our issues were once we landed. The taxi we booked was not available and a slightly smaller car was sent instead. But the M25 was very busy and our journey home took about two hours longer than normal. And it was so hot! I did get to watch the England match on my phone but there was a lag which meant that I saw my daughter respond to the radio before I saw England go behind. We were exhausted by the time we got back home, the heat and being trapped in the car not being enjoyable.  I decided to get our dog who was at in-house-boarding in Ipswich. Leia loves it there and loved seeing me. She expected the rest of the family to be in the car, but they needed to rest at home.  The dog-sitter is amazing, she loves Leia and wanted to chat, which meant that I missed the equaliser and ended up watching the highlights to see the two England goals.

I knew England would have to attack as the DRC would defend, I just did not expect us to go behind so quickly. But I had faith in the team and we got the result we deserved.  Our next game will be against a team playing at home, at altitude, in a stadium they have rarely lost in. But that means they will be attacking us… 

But we are at home, and we are happy to be so.  It is back to work for me tomorrow, hopefully it will not be too much of a shock!