@powmillnaemore Thanks for your response to the previous post. I’ve not replied to you Philip because we’d end up falling out and that’s not something I want to happen.
My mental state is fragile enough at the moment, so I’m going to take a short break from contributing, although I still check in to read comments from time to time.
@martin-bellamy - Sorry to hear about that, Martin. Get well. I hope your stepping back will be a short affair. We will miss your comments and I'm sure we all look forward to your return to active duty. Very soon...
@martin-bellamy Get yourself sorted as soon as you are able and take care of yourself.
All the best,
John
Clearly my view on the state of the country created a different view but hopefully we’ll respect differences and not fall out.
Thanks for the subsequent views of others getting us back to the issue in hand of MFC
Philip of Huddersfield
Best wishes,Martin.
We are living in a crazy world of social media lies, fabrication, bad faith, incitements to violence, support for the criminal far right, serious attempts to undermine British democracy and incitement to overthrow a recently elected Prime Minister by a foreign billionaire.
And how have our national newspapers responded? Not by criticising their perpetrator's grotesque libels and fanatical accusations but by attacking the PM's defence of democratic values, and of his criminally maligned colleague.
The spinning of the line that the PM is the person to be criticised for accusing anyone calling for another enquiry into child sex abuse as jumping on a far right bandwagon when he was clearly attacking specific Tory ministers demonstrates that very different criteria of honesty and truthfulness are being applied to different actors on the basis of their political beliefs.
It's Orwell's "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" where truth is what those with power and money say it is.
Keep the faith, Martin. Most Brits can see right through Trump and Musk's inflated lies and braggadocio to the sad and ignorant individuals that lie behind the social media they control.
If Musk really is concerned about child sexual exploitation then he can tackle it at the point where it proliferates unchecked on X.
Of course he has no intention of doing so. Indeed it is the prospect of the government regulating social media to protect children that has put it in Musk's line of fire.
It will be interesting to see the priority that British newspapers give to child protection when the debate about social media regulation gets underway. It will be a very low one when compared to their whipped up fears of attacks on freedom of speech ie the rights of the mega rich to say whatever they like without fear of ever having to be held to account.
Martin, it's no fun being a sane person in a crazy world, but I hope to see you back here before too long
@forever-dormo The form tables usually look at the last SIX games of a club. Boro's form look like this: W D D D W D. So it makes 10 points from the past 6 games. Not two points per match as expected from a promotion chasing team. Our average is 1,7 points per match in the last six games.
I think 1,7 is actually quite desent, if we all agree that Boro has played badly in the last six games. If we think we have gone through a bad batch of matches, my logic says we must improve soon. Hence I am positive about the season.
With the squad we have now, we should improve during the next few matches in front. And I repeat, after a few bad results and performances, we ARE still fifth. And about half a season to go.
I can hear someone thinking that if we lose Doak and Latte Lath. We might not as well. And we can even improve our squad during the January window. Let's see what happens.
I try to be relaxed about Boro nowadays. If we cannot be sure the wheels have come off the team, let's presume that the rest of the season goes well. I trust that when Morris ŵill be back after the FA Cup match versus Blackburn, we will start to play better than recently.
I trust in Carrick and cannot see us finishing below top six this season. Up the Boro!
@martin-bellamy An excellent post by Len. I too hate that the mega rich are lying and the sosial media is following them. They just want to get richer at all cost. They are in the sicial media just to make more money. I stepped out of X/Twitter a couple of months ago - and haven’t misssed it at all.
I hope you will be back sooner than later, Martin. I will be missing you already. All the best, mate.
And let's concetrate on Boro netxt, shall we? Up the Boro!
@lenmasterman ...always the most eloquent of us all.
@Martin-Bellamy. Keep safe, keep the faith and don't be too long back.
In the past three seasons Boro have earned more points in the second half of the campaigns than they did in the first half. Achieving a repeat is even more crucial this time around because there are plenty of teams currently pushing to earn a top six spot
OFB
That's a great statistic and one that we really hope repeats itself again this season.
@jarkko is right to keep reminding us that we are in 5th place and given the table does not lie, we are currently very definitely the 5th best team in the Championship on 7th January 2025.
It is also true that if we are still to be top six at the end of the season, we will have to up our game
The evidence so far is that we are not at all sufficiently consistent (or should that be put like we are consistently inconsistent) for us to be confident of that finish. It is still very possible for us though.
It is going to be interesting what Middlesbrough team we will have come the end of January that will have to deliver the results we need. I am following the transfer headlines through my fingers...
@jarkko - I'd be relaxed about Boro averaging a decent 1.7 points per game if Boro scored that percentage against the better teams in the division. But the FIVE fixtures I referred to in that earlier post, which represent the last 5 matches Boro has played, included games against the bottom three teams. You'd certainly hope for more than 1.7 points per game from those! The game before the last five was the 1-0 win against Millwall. But immediately before that game Boro lost 3-1 at Leeds and drew 1-1 at Burnley. I hope Boro can get things right from here onwards but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Twitter/X is another thing entirely. Maybe for another time...
The FA Cup is next. Boro gets a short period of rest before the LEAGUE season resumes (away to Portsmouth on Saturday 18th January). Portsmouth currently lies 21st in the league table (ie in the position immediately above the bottom three). Would it have been so terribly unrealistic to have hoped for 12 points in the games against the gruesome "bottom foursome" (Portsmouth, Cardiff, Hull and Plymouth)? I guess if your team manages to win the games it plays against Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland and similar teams considered to be Boro's competitors in the promotion race, then dropping points against the likes of Portsmouth, Cardiff and Plymouth (not at present direct competitors with Boro) wouldn't be such a bad thing. Boro would then at least be damaging the promotion prospects of the top teams. Maybe for the first time, I'll suggest success in the league over the next few months is more important than an FA Cup run.
Despite it all, best wishes to everyone who contributes to, or even just reads, this Blog.
Im slated for the Portsmouth opener will have to start thinking about what to say !
My usual splurb probably!
OFB
Is it my memory or were politics and religion were once banned on this football site, or maybe were supposed to be under their own lead, such as cricket etc.
Anyway after the Blackburn match, on the Thursday I will travel to Portsmouth for 6 days to take in the game, 5 of my family want to join me in the Boro end, so tomorrow morning I will go to the ticket office to try to purchase 6 tickets, my grandson is a Portsmouth season ticket holder so he will be in the opposite end. It is just pure coincidence that I travel back on the Tuesday just in time for the home game against WBA, 😱.
Come on BORO.
@original-fat-bob - I have a suspicion it will end with BORO 3 and that must happen SOME times! It would be better, though, if the opponents don't score 3 in the same game.
So that's it then. Zuckerberg has announced that he is going to get rid of fact checkers on Meta and there will be no more censorship so that anyone can say whatever they wish, though he admits there will be "more bad stuff", including, presumably, more child sex grooming, going on unchecked. Reality will be defined as whatever those with the loudest megaphones say it is.
This is US media moving into line with an anti-science, anti-truth administration that has an anti-vaxer in charge of the nation's health and climate change deniers running energy policy.
The target is to bring the full weight of the US administration into line against European governments' attempts to regulate social media and prevent the torrents of hate speech that pose a threat to the future of democracies throughout Europe.
Fortunately both Musk and Trump's views are regarded in this country as being so absurd and unhinged and their personalities as being so immature and petulant, without charm or charisma that there is little prospect of their leading mass movements
It will be the biggest possible vote winner for Starmer to tax social media giants to the hilt, clip their wings and use the proceeds to give us a first-class NHS.
How great would that be. Using the Musk millions to give us socialised medicine ?
Support the BBC, C4 and public service media, ie media which exist to seek out the truth in the public interest rather than the vast propaganda machines which seek to destroy it
Btw I do not regard supporting democratic principles and criticising those who are actively seeking to destroy them as being contentious or using this forum improperly
@lenmasterman the danger, maybe even the liklihood, is that no goverment will have the courage to act in the laudable way you suggest until the box that Pandora Musk-Zuckerberg et al are opening has been left fully open for too long to avert long term damage to society as the likes of you and me would see it.
Trump told over 30,000 lies during his last Presidency, over 30 lies every day.@lenmasterman - But who checks the Fact Checkers?
I know from your excellent contributions on here to be both intelligent and articulate, so I'm genuinely interested to know why this does not seem to concern you, and why you would choose instead to question the integrity of those who tried to put the record straight? As though they are the liars and conspiracy theorists.
During the pandemic, Trump's lies put millions of his fellow citizens at risk. Medical experts like Fauchi who gave a lifetime of service to the cause of public health were rewarded for their expertise with death threats to themselves and their families. This was a fate also decreed even to people like weather presenters who dared to suggest that there might be a link between recent extreme weather events and global warming. Scientists, environmentalists, university teachers and accredited experts across many fields are all under threat of physical violence if they challenge Trump. He has also vowed to put his political opponents behind bars
I am genuinely surprised that you seem somewhat reluctant to put your full weight behind the defence of Enlightenment values
All I would say is that surely democracy exists for the people to hold the rich and powerful to account - not to bend to their will and allow the people's representatives to be bought. If the truth is what the richest and most powerful say it is then we really are in trouble.
My belief is that Musk's political meddling in the UK and Europe are simply distractions to keep the MAGA mob on his side while he gets his way in allowing hi-tech immigration into the US. My main hope is that big egos will never last long together and Musk or Trump are not people who can bear any criticism from anyone.
But who checks the Fact Checkers?
My concern is with many now getting their information from non-regulated sources - will they then get their own 'facts' verified by their preferred sources? It's impossible to control the flow of information today and alternative facts get just as much exposure as actually facts.
I now get AI facts given to me at the top of my search engine results that on close inspection are not correct but are based on data that is not correct. Who has the time or ability to try and verify if the 'facts' they are given are true. Young people are absorbing 5-6 hours a day from various sources where what is trending (true or false) gets pushed by the algorithm and then shared among themselves. We simply don't have the infrastructure in place that can cope with what has been left to develop.
The only thing I can suggest is that schools focus on equipping children to identify facts over alternative facts but my experience with my 14-year old is that they simply being continually tested for a world that doesn't really exist any more and most are hooked on devices to some extent and struggle to keep up.
Sadly lies are now doubled-down and if you don't give two hoots whether half the people think you're lying and basically have no shame then it appears nothing can force someone to accept that they lied. The 2020 US election was still stolen to those who choose to believe it despite no evidence for the claim. I wish there was a respected source for facts that everyone agreed upon but facts have become for many no different to opinion and whilst we may agree on 99% of what is true based on our education, logic, actual experience and witnessing them first hand - people simply just deny them or choose to believe something they prefer was true. People now live in parallel worlds aided by algorithms and technology that has the power to unite or divide depending on how it is used.
A final postscript on the subject of Meta and their decision to abandon fact checking on its platforms in favour of 'freedom of expression' and users adding notes to posts instead of corrections.
Well somewhat bizarrely, Meta have just appointed Dana White on to their board - he has little expertise in social media but is president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) a global mixed martial arts organisation - although he's perhaps better qualified by being a friend of Trump and has donated $1m to America First. He was also infamously filmed slapping his wife in public confrontation a couple of years ago but wasn't charged after he and his wife apologised for their drunken behaviour - so ticks all the boxes!
Anyway, rather ironically given Meta's new look of opting for freedom of expression and less censorship, it has been reported that Facebook has been busy since the announcement in deleting critical posts of White's appointment by Meta employees - as well as deleting posts questioning why critical posts are being deleted.
It seems just like X, Meta doesn't like freedom of expression if that expression is critical of themselves or not to their own liking.
Trump was asked on Fox News yesterday if he thought Meta were making changes because of what he had previously said (he threaten Zuckerberg with "life in prison" in August) - he replied "probably" and praised Meta for coming a long way and that its "presentation was excellent".
At least we now know what it takes to get social media companies to conform to requests for change...
Hi there, @Len & @Werder. I turned away for a day or so (?) and now see there is a Blackburn thread for the FA Cup match on Saturday but, before I read that, I thought I'd answer, maybe in a roundabout way, Len's questions of me and Werder's subsequent posts. If I do that here it will not "hijack" the FA Cup thread.
1. Let me say at the outset that I am not uspet or offended at all. I agree with Martin when he said "No worries. I love this Forum, not least for the polite and respectful way we all talk to each other" (Martin's post of 6th January at 3.04pm).
2. I asked the question "Who checks the Fact Checkers?" partly as a bit of light relief, not because I support the undermining of "regulated" public media companies, or because I support any particular politician or party. The reality is that I refer to various sources for my news and I try to consider the bias that might exist in the stories I am being given.
3. I also said it because I had in mind Juvenal's question in The Satires: "Qui custodiet ipsos custodes" ("Who watches the watchers/guards the guards"). We can't all have the time to fact check every statement that comes from Government/politicians/media companies. I also had in mind a video I watched showing Ros Atkins of the BBC's fact checking department (BBC Verify). It had the title "Should we believe the News - with Ros Atkins, a conversation with Roger Mosey". Mosey is a former head of BBC News and of Radio Five, and previously editor of BBC Radio Four's Today programme and he headed up the BBC coverage of the London 2012 Olympics). The interview/conversation was followed by questions from the audience. It can be found on You Tube if you search for the title and include reference to Selwyn College Cambridge. The issues it raises are included in the matters we have, between us, raised on here: perception and awareness of bias, the differences in approach between various outlets within the same country let alone different countries, acceptance about lack of knowledge, the need to give context to the reporting of many stories, the impact of AI/Chat GPT on journalism, the need to check sources of information etc. It is worth watching that conversation/interview.
4. My own "digital life" is fairly limited. I still look at Twitter/X, I contribute to this Blog, I send emails when necessary and I use WhatsApp but I have never been a user of Facebook or Instagram or TokTok. I know that Jarkko has come "off" Twitter/X in light of its content and ownership but I remain "on it" for the present because it is useful in receving messages about sport generally (Middlesbrough FC and Yorkshire CCC in particular), some news developments that spark me into checking the news about that issue, and a few niche things like today when I saw a tweet with a very amusing video advertisement from Yorkshire Tea.
5. I am aware of the ownership of Twitter. I am also aware that, if one delves into some of the messages on that medium and follow the replies, it is sometimes difficult to avoid the eyes being opened wide through incredulity or shock. I recognise the partisan nature of the replies both on the Right and the Left (if those descriptions still apply). Sometimes they are genuinely shocking. However I remind myself that people may genuinely have different views and that I, retired in my North Yorkshire village, may not be the best qualified to weigh in on a debate about the fate of the general public and the economy in Venzuela or the manufacture of pedal cycles in Poland. It has become apparent that a Tweet about the man who will be the next President of the United States, the owner of Twitter/X, the fate of Kemi Badenoch or even Keir Starmer, is likely to cause an avalanche of Tweets agreeing on one side and an equal avalanche of Tweets amounting to a "pile on" by those disagreeing, often abusively. Not very many Tweets saying "I agree but you may not have given enough credit to Z". No room for nuance in 280 characters (is that still the limit?) so there is little point in joining the debate there.
6. I don't think I have ever said something on Twitter that couldn't be repeated in the correspondence columns of a newspaper but I have still vastly reduced even the minor number of messages I put on there. The same may be true on here. I guess I very rarely put anything out that could be considered controversial because I'm not really a very controversial kind of guy. I realise the world outside IS often filled with controversial opinions and sharp divides between the differering sides. Telling an American that his freedom of speech should be in any way limited so as not to offend this group or that group would be like trying to take away his firearms, and be regarded as an assault on his Constitutional rights. There's no debating society politeness out there for many in the world, where differing views can be expressed without any intention to offend and no offence taken.
7. Obviously I'm the product of a society which had recently come out on the right side of a World War (I suspect the final bills for which - lease lend etc - have only recently been paid off). When I was born I had the benefit of free medical treatment if it was needed, and my family had no problem enroling me at the local schools or finding a local authority house to rent in a town where there was plenty of employment available (if only we'd known not all of those jobs or even their industries would last a working lifetime!). I had the benefit of a free education at one of the world's finest universities and things were so good when I graduated that even my local bank manager offered to put me in touch with some Barristers' Chambers in London and, when I said I wanted to remain in the Teesside area, also (without my asking) organised a job interview for me with a local firm of solicitors, even though I eventually went to another firm. I was employed throughout my career until retirement and though never rich, I was always comfortable. So what do I know of, say, the political hopes and wishes of a Latino who has taken American citizenship and now supports the GoP and Trump? But obviously if we in Britain can be critical of President-Elect Trump, what's to stop Americans (rich or not) commenting on our PM, the state of politics in the UK, the state of our Armed Forces etc? That they may not be diplomatic or even passably polite in doing so is no surprise. In reality even tolerant little me has been surprised at the tone and content of some of the tweets emanating from political figures in the USA - it's as if no filter has been applied or perhaps some of the messages were sent after copious consumption. Surely not?
8. The reality is that I'm a fairly mainstream kind of guy. Socially maybe a little conservative with a small "c", I try to be tolerant and polite to others, and I don't want to impose my views on others. I am a political moderate. Never a communist nor of the Far Right (I do get annoyed when I hear people referred to as "fascist" by people who presumably never learned from history what fascism really was). I felt sympathy for Americans having to choose between Trump on the one hand with his "attributes" and Biden on the other hand (when it was clear to the world that he was no longer equipped to be President let alone to fill that role for a further four years) - or the VP who'd been insisting until the very last that Biden was fine when we could all see with our own eyes that was untrue. But, no, I realise Trump and Biden were not equivalents. We do not vote in US elections and have to put up with whoever is elected and it is probably not good for the interests of this country for us to "burn our boats". Maybe the fissures that have divided the USA have begun to spread to UK politics, but I hope not.
9. It would be difficult to find anyone with my background who isn't wholly in support of the democratic values our parents fought for. I thank goodness I don't live in a country like Russia, North Korea, Iran or Venezuela where, if I had views at odds with the prevailing political climate, I would be at risk if I dared express them. I can write to my MP or Prime Minister if I wanted to, and only a few weeks ago was standing a few feet away from this country's former PM as he visited the local Market chatting to the locals. You can't do that in all countries. Whether my education has enlightened me is another issue. I like to think so but might be kidding myself!
10. Anyway...back to the FA Cup thread.
Thanks Dormo
@forever-dormo I could spend all day reading the posts of so many people in here... yours included. I love that there are so many more people with open eyes and open ears and carefully nuanced words than there are on many other blogs and comments sections out there.
A very thoughtful and thorough post Dormo that highlights the problems of how everyone deals with the information they receive based on their own life journey.
I was thinking earlier that I've never used Twitter/X but am fully aware of most of the controversial posts and that is simply because of the news chain that now exists - Tweets turn into headlines and reports in newspapers that are then reviewed on radio and TV with guests then asked for comments and everything is then amplified until the responses by political leaders feed the next round of Tweets or articles and on it goes until the next story takes the bandwidth.
I sometimes wonder if this kind of 'news' has become the great distraction - I was interested in a discussion yesterday where one of the contributors argued that the government should not be responding to Tweets by Elon Musk as he'll be firing off many of them every day and that they will end up being puppets of him having their strings pulled.
Those who say controversial things are just looking for a response and when those people have no particular interest in what they are saying then it's done out of knowing they can exercise power and attention to make them seem more important than they really are.
Much in the same way that the algorithms of social media amplify content at both extremes in order to create more clicks and revenue - it's game that exploits the naive into going to places they wish they didn't have to.
This is why I left X and am not very keen on sosial media..... Much in the same way that the algorithms of social media amplify content at both extremes in order to create more clicks and revenue - it's game that exploits the naive into going to places they wish they didn't have to.
Most of my time on line I spend on this blog, the BBC Sport, The Echo and Teesside Live and the Finnish equavalent of the BBC. And a few local newspapers in here.
That is the reason I hate Trump and Musk. I try to ignore these chaps as well as Mr Putin. They are all similar and do not care about others or poor. Only their money and how to increase that without the concequenses. Do they know what is empathy (the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place)?
Now I will watch the Spurs vs. L'pool match. Up the Boro!
@forever-dormo An excellent and well measured post Dormo. Well done.
I have, what one could say, is a high percentage of long standing close friends that have children who are in education in senior positions.
I was also talking to a School Governor this afternoon.
All blame Social Media and the excessive use of it by the students that they teach or know.
All have mentioned depression in its many forms. Is there really an answer to it all?