An early World Cup farewell

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct/10/englands-henry-slade-shines-in-early-world-cup-farewell-against-uruguay

England’s fans will look back in anger at World Cup after hollow victory

England’s Jack Nowell, who scored a hat-trick of trys is, on this occasion, held up by the Uruguay defence.

England 60 - 3 Uruguay

We (England), managed to beat Fiji and Uruguay. Hardly two of the greatest rugby playing nations of the world. We did not however come any where near to beating Australia and were fortunate in only losing to Wales by 3 points.
Where does this leave English Rugby?
Either, we do not have the necessary quality of players to compete at the highest levels of the game or we do not have the managerial skills to weld our players into a formidable, ruthless machine to drive over the top of any opposition to win ball and score tries.
Now I was one of those people who raised and eyebrow when Martin Johnson was replaced by Stuart Lancaster, but I am not one of those clamoring for the immediate resignation of the Head Coach. Personally, I have always seen Dean Richards the former England number 8 and current coach of Newcastle Falcons as a very strong candidate albeit that he has not expressed an interest in the position so far. However, it is early days.

Newcastle Falcons director of Rugby Dean Richards

What is perfectly clear is that things cannot continue as they are. I am one of those strange (to some) people who ardently subscribe to the philosophy that there are no prizes for coming second and whoever said "it's not the winning but the taking part that counts" (I know it was Baron Pierre de Coubertin"), has never experienced the gut wrenching physical pain of watching some other party take the trophy.
We have the 6 Nations Trophy Internationals to come over the next few years leading to the next World cup in Japan in 2019. Not very far away in the overall scheme of things, so we must find the right people now to ensure that the terraces in Paris, Cardiff, Rome, Edinburgh, Dublin, Twickenham (and whatever they call them in Japan) will be ringing to the sound of Swing Low Sweet Chariot very soon.

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Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/corbyn-labour-leadership-rebel-mps-a7202641.html Labour MPs plan for Corbyn victory and plot how to confront an emboldened leader Even for the "Independent", the number and use of unnamed anonymous "sources" in this article is quite astonishing. However, amongst all the usual speculative delusion, there is one factor which causes concern to anyone who believes in the Labour Party, its principles and in he democratic process of the Labour movement. It is abundantly clear that elements within the Parliamentary Labour Party, are even now, planning another coup in the event that Jeremy Corbyn should emerge as winner in the current ballot. The failed coup of earlier this year, has now descended into a sham leadership election, because the conspirators still fail to accept the democratic decision of the Labour party membership and cling to

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey- A date has been set for a public inquiry into plans for Plemont Headland. This exceptional location must be sold to the National trust for Jersey, and returned to nature. Any other outcome involving development of the site, can only demonstrate the extent to which greed and self interest have become endemic in Jersey.

Agenda 2019

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