BORO v Cardiff City - EFL Championship
The Riverside, Sat 17 October 2026 – ko 12.30pm.
Those of you still in possession a good memory and who have read the rota for this season’s Match Previews may be surprised to see this piece emanating from North Yorkshire rather than from the Baltic North. However, Middlesbrough FC’s Finnish Ambassador is currently resting his weary body and mind from the ravages of the hectic activity that the early months of retirement present. He is busier now than when he was at work! I missed the call to volunteer when matches were being allocated so, in addition to a preview for an early League Cup tie, it seemed only right and proper to agree to step into Jarkko’s fur-lined boots for this one.
On the morning of Wednesday 14 October, still enjoying the frisson of excitement from last night’s victory (the stereotypical cold Tuesday evening at Stoke) I can see from the window that the sun is shining, and the forecast for today in Middlesbrough is “sunny and a moderate breeze” with temperatures up to 17C and a 0% prospect of rain. Some trees are shedding their leaves but there is plenty of green about as autumn is in full swing, but the memory of summer still lingers. In Helsinki, according to the BBC Weather App, the forecast is light rain and a moderate breeze and I see that Middlesbrough’s blue background has been replaced with a grey one on the page for Helsinki. Temperatures of up to 11C in Helsinki are accompanied by rain prospects of 89% but reducing through the day to 22% by 11pm. Winter is coming over there!
Whilst Jarkko faces the prospect of sliding into shorter, colder, darker, cloudier and wetter days than we might expect to experience in the playground that is North Yorkshire, he (and we) can all at least dream of a brighter future lying in wait for the football club we support. We can imagine, for the present, that Jarkko’s exhaustion is being soothed by endless mugs of kahvi accompanied by the odd cardamom-spiced pulla,
Let’s get this piece underway! Although my particular poison might be tea, we must acknowledge it’s not the Americans nor the Italians but the Finns who are the undisputed coffee-drinking champions of the world. I will be at the Riverside, again, to watch this Cardiff match. Meanwhile, for all we know, Boro’s Finnish Ambassador may have been able to spend the morning of the game enjoying the gentle pleasures of Jokamiehenoikeus as he freely wanders through the forest and countryside during the morning picking cloudberries or lingonberries, gathering mushrooms, or even fishing with a hook from a simple rod over a lake (the English laws relating to piscary don’t apply up there – no permissions or rod licence required!). After which I expect his return to the cosy mokki of a family member, and a comfortable seat in front of the TV to watch this Cardiff game at the very civilised Helsinki time of 2.30pm on Saturday. No doubt Jarkko will have some salmiakki ice cream or liqueur in hand.
I noted the references, in the Preview written by @Selwynoz for last Saturday’s game against Wolves, to the explosive growth of Middlesbrough in the 19th century. There is, to a great degree, a similarity in the stories of Middlesbrough and Cardiff. Although now a bustling capital city*, administrative and cultural centre, Cardiff found itself in 1831 as only the third largest settlement in Wales, with its 5,000 population less than half of Swansea’s, smaller than Newport’s, and only marginally larger than Wrexham’s. Middlesbrough’s rocketing growth meant it was, in 1871 (for the one brief period in its existence) very slightly larger in terms of population than Cardiff. It was only between the Census of 1871 and the Census of 1881 that Cardiff grew to be the largest town in Wales. Although Middlesbrough peaked in population terms by 1961 (over 157,000, by which time Cardiff was over the horizon at 256,000), Cardiff has continued its meteoric growth and in 2021 housed some 200K MORE than Middlesbrough. Meet Middlesbrough’s bigger brother!
*Cardiff became the first city in Wales only in 1905. In previous centuries the sparsely populated country had only market towns and villages spread between its mainly agricultural villages/hamlets. Other settlements only grew into larger towns after the Industrial Revolution had done its work throughout the countryside. Wales in earlier times had been split between competing small kingdoms and principalities apart from brief periods under Gruffudd ap Llewelyn who ruled all of Wales between 1055-63 and under Owain Glyndwr during his rebellion against Henry IV (Bolingbroke) in the early 1400s. There had been no real need for a “capital”.
With people moving away from the town in my lifetime, often to nearby towns and dormitory villages or even out of the region completely for work or other reasons, Middlesbrough has seen its population decline consistently in every decade since the high of 1961 with the sole exception of the decade between 2011 (when the population had reduced to 138K) to 2021 (seeing a modest rally to 144K). By comparison Cardiff has relentlessly increased its population, sometimes massively, in every decade since 1821.
Just like in Middlesbrough, those extra people didn’t appear by reason of natural growth: by families each having 13 children who ALL LIVED, and the next generation doing the same! Like Teesside, South Wales was a magnet to people from all over Britain but particularly from rural Mid and West Wales, the West Midlands and (like Middlesbrough) Ireland and elsewhere (including Northern Italy and Eastern Europe) as people flocked to work in the growing coalfields and metal works of the Valleys and as the ports were built/expanded in the coastal towns. In the 60 years after 1851, the South Wales Coalfield alone saw an influx of over 350,000 people into what had been previously a quiet, rural landscape (and, as a by-product, making Welsh into a minority language there).
And when, in his Wolves Preview, Selwynoz referred to the influx of Irish and Welsh families into Teesside, that will have triggered a feeling of recognition amongst many of this Blog’s readership. That includes your current correspondent whose family (one set of grandparents, two uncles, one aunt and a father, unoriginally nicknamed “Taff” by his friends) all came up from the Newport area in the aftermath of the 1926 General Strike but I think just before the economic calamity of the Great Depression triggered by the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Taff is, of course, the name of the river which goes through Cardiff into the Bay. The other “side” of the family (mother’s) came from the Valleys (specifically Tonyrefail in the Ely Valley which is next to the Rhondda Valleys).
In population, administrative or cultural terms, Middlesbrough is no longer in the same league as Cardiff. Thankfully the same cannot be said in 2026 in terms of football. Admittedly the Bluebirds won the FA Cup in 1927 (being beaten finalists twice - 1925 and 2008) and won the Charity Shield a few months after the FA Cup triumph. However, they have never won the League title (losing out to Huddersfied Town in 1923-24 only on goal average) and have never won the League Cup (beaten finalists in 2012). After next year, therefore, there will be no REAL silverware on display in the Cardiff City trophy cabinet which has been won within the last century.
In recent years the club has found league success difficult to achieve. It is fair to say Cardiff managed to gain promotion to the Premier League on two occasions under its current ownership, in May 2013 and in May 2018, but each time the club was relegated back to The Championship after only one season. Subsequently Cardiff has chugged along during the last 8 seasons in The Championship apart from last season when, after a further relegation, the club found itself in League One, but only for one season leading to a Championship return in May 2026. So, Boro is currently seeking to climb out of the division into which Cardiff is hoping to become a consolidated and secure member. Boro is looking up the ladder to the Premier League whilst Cardiff supporters may be spending more time looking over their shoulders hoping to avoid the trapdoor back to League One.
Cardiff City remains in the ownership of one Vincent Tan, a business magnate and one of the richest men in Malaysia. Say what you like about Tan (and many Cardiff supporters are not shy in doing so), he must possess a thick skin. Having acquired the club in 2010 he very quickly created a South Wales earthquake by announcing a rebranding of the club including a change of strip from the traditional blue to red – which is apparently considered a propitious colour in some parts of Asia. Even the offer to invest a further £100M to increase stadium capacity and to build a new training ground failed to convince the supporters to support the rebranding but the plans were eventually dropped.
There seems to be an uneasy truce between the supporters and Tan at present, even as the Premier League memories fade away. It may be the calm before the storm but he has remained at the helm for 16 years which, in football terms, is almost an entire geological period. But be sure that a storm will hit if, as appears possible, last year’s promotion to The Championship is reversed by an immediate relegation.
Boro finds itself playing one of the early games of Matchday 11 (when did that numbering of the weeks/rounds of games begin?) on Saturday. That is hot on the heels of a really good performance in the 1-0 win at home to Wolves last Saturday and after the game at Stoke on Tuesday 13th October. The Wolves game saw 52% Boro possession against high-calibre opposition (last season we saw, several times: “ridiculous percent” possession stats but often unaccompanied by a sufficient number of goals scored).
Against Wolves, one of the pre-season favourites to accompany West Ham to the Promised Land, Will Lankshear bagged the winning goal, a leaping header from the left-footed cross by Tommy Conway (who will NOT be on Trippier’s Christmas Card list after his regular embarrassment by our Scottish left-winger). Cozier-Duberry also looked lively, but most welcome was the clean sheet and a defence that looked as though it finally meant business.
Cardiff City, on the other hand, last Saturday suffered a 2-1 reverse away at Blackburn Rovers despite having 59% possession. No gloating at the back! Boro had suffered exactly the same fate despite 71% possession in August even after having taken the lead at Ewood Park! Stop me, long-term followers, if you’ve heard that before from a red and white perspective, even if we have now hopefully banished that apparent inevitability.
So, by way of summary, in terms of recent results we see the following:
BORO:
Oct 13 - Stoke 2 -3 Boro (W)
Oct 10 - Boro 1-0 Wolves (W)
Sep 19 - Birmingham 2-2 Boro (D)
Sep 15 - Boro 2-2 Millwall (D)
Sep 12 - Boro 4-3 Norwich (W)
Sep 5 - QPR 0-1 Boro (W)
(Played 10, W6, D3, L1, GD +6).
21 points and placed No 2 in the table as I type this.
CARDIFF:
Oct 13 -- Cardiff 5-1 Watford (W)
Oct 10 – Blackburn 2-1 Cardiff (L)
Sep 19 -- Cardiff 3-1 Charlton (W)
Sep 12 -- Bolton 1-0 Cardiff (L)
Sep 8 -- Cardiff 1-1 Stoke (D)
Sep 5 -- Portsmouth 2-0 Cardiff (L)
Sep 2 -- QPR 2-1 Cardiff (L)
(Played 10, W2, D4, L4, GD +1)
10 points and placed No 18 in the table as I type this.
You will appreciate that with both Boro and Cardiff playing on Tuesday and this match being listed on Saturday, there will not be much chance to go into detail. However, at Stoke City (high-flying in the recent form table) Boro went ahead three times, but conceded twice, the winning goal scored by Borges in injury time (90+1) after earlier goals by MoM Brittain and by Lankshear (of course!). Boro had a “typical” 66% possession with 20 shots (9 on target) whilst Stoke had 8 shots but only 1 on target which was scored by Bozenick – the other goal being an off target shot deflected into goal by Borges.
Meanwhile as Boro took home the points from Stoke, Cardiff with 58% possession thumped hapless Watford at home 5-1. Before we start to worry too much about Cardiff’s striking power it is right to point out that Cardiff took apart a team in dire form as, after beating Preston on 8 September, Watford has subsequently fallen to 4 consecutive defeats. Those were against Stoke at home 2-1, away to Bristol 1-0, and at home to Burnley 4-0 before the annihilation at Cardiff. Perhaps the result was more a comment on the parlous state of Watford’s team than a comment on the quality of Cardiff’s.
Cardiff City’s Jack Moylan has 3 goals from midfield so far this season and his midfield colleague Cian Ashford has 2, along with striker Yousef Salech. No other player has scored more than once so far. It would be good to see Aidan Morris and Seb Berhalter dictating the early tempo against Cardiff. Hopefully overlapping runs from Callum Brittain, possibly even from Neto Borges, as well as wing-work from Cozier-Duberry and from Tommy Conway should provide more than Cardiff full-backs Perry Ng and Joel Bagan can handle and, if those balls find their way to Lankshear, I suspect the division’s most deadly striker will do what is needed.
One would like to think an early start to the game will not mean a sluggish Boro opening, with players still rubbing metaphorical sleep from their eyes. I know the Swedes have their own sauna culture but are not quite as hard-core as the people of Finland. My research suggests the Swedish bastu is often run at a “mild” 70-80C compared to the furnace-heat that is worshipped in Finland. With sunny intervals and 12C predicted for Saturday there will be no opportunity for Kim Hellberg to organise a snow-bath for the players to pile into as they exit the sauna, to make sure they are FULLY awake!
Boro will need to seize the initiative and make it count in terms of goals scored. Cardiff’s players may be buoyed up by their goal-fest against Watford but putting the ball in their net might quickly deflate that balloon. Boro should be a very different proposition to Watford. Points won now represent points banked in the race for promotion. I would very much prefer to be ahead of the pack rather than chasing. I am happy to watch others trying to play “catch-up” providing that Boro is safely out of reach.
If Cardiff’s defence proves difficult to break down, hopefully Boro’s players can summon up a degree of Finnish sisu to help get the team through the challenge ahead.
(And by the way, Jarkko, my camping mates and I sometimes play Molkky, especially if we are at Beadnell on the Northumberland Coast where we camp in July/August for 23+ nights).
I predict not a riot, but 2-0 to Boro and another clean sheet, but I hope for a bigger margin. And I hope Jarkko can celebrate with quite a few squares of Fazer Blue.
And how many degrees of separation? There are links between @Selwynoz and Finland, too. The Finnish Ambassador to the Court of St James’s since 2025 (ie Finland’s Ambassador to the UK) is Teemu Turunen, who shares his name with a Finnish footballer and an ice hockey player. The Ambassador studied for a Master of Studies (MSt) in International Relations at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Forever Dormo. 14 October 2026.
Thanks, Dormo, for a War and Peace of an opener. Stylishly written, as ever, and a smooth and interesting read. Many thanks
A powerful opener, really interesting and thorough. WA wnderful read, thank you!
UTB,
John
Thanks FD, for a great Start(er) (or, given the clever use of content, maybe that should be a great Finnish!).
Thanks FD for an extensive opener. Looks like being an interesting game on Saturday. Looking at the stats, it is a game between teams with the highest average shots per game, Cardiff 18 against Middlesbrough 17.4. Cardiff have the highest possession % in the League at 59.1 against our 56.8. Moylan has the highest average shots per game in the League with 4.2, Will Lankshear is our leader with 3.4 per game. So Cardiff may be a better team than their league possession might suggest.
Lovely opener Dormo and it's about time we got a decent result against Cardiff (I'm still in 2008 mode when I think of them).
Madly, I think we very much need to win. Last night's Championship results went against us and realistically, any of the top 10 are genuine promotion contenders. The division this season is as tough/tougher probably, than it's been for a long while and any slip lets two or three others in immediately.
If we (sadly) assume West Ham will take a top two slot, then promotion is a difficult ask for anyone. Next season though may be even worse if City drop with another established PL club which already looks possible.
Thank goodness we're getting the results that we are when I feel we are yet to gel. Focus is paramount and a scrappy 1-0 in added time on Saturday would be welcome indeed.
I agree, RL. It's all about getting the three points to achieve a Championship Top Two spot. And, if we manage that by the end of the season, being in the Premier League would be all about getting enough points to stay up. Perhaps we're beyond the stage where good football, good performances and excitement matter. From here on it will be all about "getting the points".
"Did you enjoy the match, Dear?"
""No. But we got a point in a scrappy game and we're on track to finish 16th in the Premier League. Crack open the Bollinger!"
Before I read Dormo's opener. Just been looking at last night's Championship results and was certainly worried to see West Ham win 6-0 at Lincoln - however, noticed that Lincoln had 2 players sent off before a quarter of the game had been played and the score remained 0-0 until the stroke of HT. Also noticed Swansea host West Ham on Saturday so a chance for Boro to either go top or increase the gap on the Hammers - whose next game after that is against Southampton.
Thanks FD for a cracking opener; let’s hope Boro Finnish as well as you did.
I am with the other posters who have said we need to maintain the momentum as this is an even tougher league this season than last.
Cardiff will not be a pushover but we need to start beating teams like them, Portsmouth, Bristol City and Blackburn, especially at home.
We can’t expect to win them all so it’s about minimising the losses.
I will be disappointed if we don’t take all three points and expect Conway and McGree to be returned to the starting line up. 😎
Great stuff Dormo a thoroughly enjoyable eclectic read, which I read with a cup of coffee - I used to be a tea drinker but since Mrs Werder has had a penchant for buying fancy coffee machines over the years (currently an Italian De'Longhi), it's just like drinking in a cafe.
Anyway, it's one of those games you'd expect Boro to win but all but one of Boro's six victories this season have been by a single goal - three by goals in the 91st minute (include both my preview wins) - so we can take nothing for granted.
It would be nice to have a comfortable win for a change and the next few fixtures certainly look winnable on paper - plus with West Ham playing Swansea then the Saints, maybe we can give ourselves something to defend as the nights draw in!
@forever-dormo That’s my fear if we win promotion, although I accept that attaining settled PL status is possible, however unlikely.
In my 50s, I used to go Mountain Biking every weekend with my business partner. It was a great way of de-stressing, whilst also giving us time to discuss work over a pub lunch or coffee and cake.
One year, we happened across a Trailquest (orienteering on a bike) event taking place on the West Pennine Moors and decided to enter in the Veterans Team category. It was fun at first, but then took over our weekends - we took part every week all over the Lake District, North Yorkshire and Lancashire and actually finished runners up in our category - but it took all the fun out of the trips.
All we did was take part or train for Trailquest events with no time to taste the coffee or smell the flowers. Any chilled aspect was gone, to be replaced with ruthless competitiveness and weekends became as stressful as work.
Eventually, we both agreed to go back to cycling for fun and equilibrium was restored.
I’m really enjoying KH’s tenure at the Boro - we win more than we lose, play attractive football and have many admirers in the Championship. I’m not sure things will be as much fun if we get promoted.
Adding my thanks to FD for a great supersub appearance. A most enjoyable read as Mrs Powmill and I let the train take the strain between Nîmes and Bordeaux. We were at a familly wedding on the Côte d'Azure on Saturday (a non too shabby event at the Casino in Menton), so I missed the Wolves game. Made our way by train to Nîmes for three nights where I followed most of the Stoke game on the BBC app. Nîmes, by the way is a beautiful little city, chock full of impressive Roman remains and highly recommended if you ever venture in this direction. Now heading towards Bordeaux, through the Parc Naturel de Gascogne (to keep this an authentic Boro related post!!) On which journey I have taken the opportunity to catch up on the highlights from both games. Very satisfying, but while yes, Ayling, what was that clearance against Stoke, you have to say he was covering for the absense of a certain anonymous goalkeeper who should have been there to collect an easy ball in open space in what should rightfully be his domain..... so Vitek's fault more than Bill's as far as I am concerned!!!
Anyway, we shall have a couple of nights in Bordeaux, maybe taking in a trip to St Emillion tomorrow to take in the sites and sample the wares. Then the long train journey to Pornichet on Saturday to visit more family and celebrate some 60th birthdays, so will miss seeing Boro bury the Cardiff memories ☹️. Flying home to Scotland at the end of next week.
This holiday has been made all the more enjoyable thanks to two great wins. A scrappy 1-0 would round it off nicely on Saturday, but Boro under KH don't do scrappy do they.
We went top in October under Jack Charlton..... here is hoping.
@powmillnaemore We stayed in Nimes a few years back, by default, because of severe cancellations at Marseille back to Malaga. We had to train back home and Nimes was the nearest main station to Madrid and onto Malaga.
As for Bordeaux, if you can fit it in, see the Les Bassins de Lumieres, located in the “U Boat Pens” built bu the Nazi’s during WW2. Fantastic light show.
@pedro thanks for the tip. My wife, quite literally just now, picked that out as something for us to do!! I will let you know if we do.
On a previous visit we have toured the u-boat pens at St Nazaire, which has a vintage (French) submarine you can go on board and look around. I could never imagine spending weeks or months at sea on board one of those. My highest regard for all our (and other) submariners.
@martin-bellamy - That's the dilemma, isn't it? Stay in The Championship and be competitive, have a chance to beat the vast majority of the teams we play (even if we fail to achieve those victories), have a flirt with promotion but, even if we fail, to know that we will win more than we lose and there's always the HOPE of glory. OR achieve the promotion target and then realise that, having scaled Mont Blanc, there was always K2 hiding in the clouds behind in a distinctly threatening manner.
The joy of successfully scaling the summit, followed by the realisation it was going to get REALLY tough from then onwards. No time to smile at the climb already undertaken because the NEXT climb was going to be life-threatening. You might want to achieve it but there will be costs...
@powmillnaemore - VERY reminiscent of a school holiday decades ago! A trip to Arles and its Roman amphitheatre, a trip to Nimes and the Pont du Gard and a stay in Menton on the coast with a sandy beach and lots of ice creams. And that from a lad for whom travelling south of Sheffield would be daring!
@forever-dormo I am thanking my dear friend. I thought there were quite a many tasks for me in the rota, so I thought I share a few with Dormo. So that you do not get bored if I wrote them too often. But I will write the Derby preview I am due next.
I liked the starter except when you wrote about the temperature of 17 degrees on Teesside. As you said, we can feel the winter coming on here, though.
Last Saturday it was just 5 degrees when I was playing golf with my wife. Quite normal temperature in October. But in the middle of Finland it was already snowing!
Winter arrived with a rush in Puolanka, Kainuu, as a snow depth of up to 20 centimeters was measured at the local station on Saturday. Other stations thereabouts stayed at more modest numbers, around 2 to 6 centimeters. The Finnish Meteorological Institute’s official criterion for the first snow of the season is that a snow layer at least one centimeter thick is measured at a weather station at 8:00 AM.
This now melted away in a day, but the days are getting shorter. Today it was 10 degrees that I considered rather mild.
But as said, I am grateful for the help from Dormo (I know his name and address) but keep the others guessing. I have even been to his pub a few times. A place where I saw the great Gordon McQueen a couple of times. I am very sorry to hear his passing away quite recently. I used to read his column in the Shoot! magazine (as well as Andy Gray's) and was happy I was able thank Gordon for his English lectures for me!
Anyway, it has been a brilliant week with the Legacy Game and wins over Wolves and at Stoke. It hasn't been so good for a while as a Boro fan. Let's hope a nice result will be followed next.
Up the Boro!
Thanks for a very thorough, interesting and informative starter, Dormo. I particularly appreciated the comparisons between the growth of Middlesbrough and Cardiff.
Of course, I’m hoping that there will be a growth (however minor) in Boro’s positive goal difference on Saturday with an accompanying decline in Cardiff’s. But as others have said, this won’t be an easy game despite the respective league positions of the two clubs. This could be a banana skin we need to avoid slipping on. A sluggish Boro start could play right into the Bluebirds’ hands (feet?) On the other hand, if we start like we did at Stoke, we should be alright.
@jarkko - It was a pleasure, mate! Enjoy all the retirement activities Eija will have stored up for you! And let's hope Boro can round off the week with 3 points. A few goals to top up the Goal Difference column would be nice, too!
Sorry to complain again, but does anyone have the address of Boris Johnson?
As Boro celebrated 150 years recently, I decided to order a 150 Years PinBadge and Keyring Set and the red Legacy Game Shirt. They costed GBP 15 and 40 respectively. For the postage to Finland, I paid BGP 13.
Now the items are in the customs here in Finland. To receive my goods from the UK, I needed to do the following:
- sign in to my bank to get to the customs' webpage
- do the tolling
- sign in to my bank to pay the fee of 22.50 € of toll
- sign in to my bank to get to the Finnish Post Office's webpage
- handle the cost of the PO here (bring it to the custom and keep it in stock). That was 3.10 €
So, in all I paid extra 25 € compared to the situation before Boris Johnson became a prime minister. And I am disappointed with myself as It had promised never to order anything from the UK again. It cost me a lot more to order from the UK than the EU and it takes me more time with customs and local post than the actual ordering. An extra hour to do the tolling. 😣
But that is what your politicians thought was good for your country and companies in there. I hope your NHS is working better now with the "saved" money from leaving the EU.
We all knew outside the UK that Brexit was not clever, but your politicians chose differently. It was never going to be a solution to the "boat problem" as EU is something different. But these things look like happening. See what is happening in the USA with their Boris Johnson - aka Donald Trump.
Sorry for my rant, but it is Middlesbrough FC Retail and Boro who is suffering financially. Still- Up the Boro!
PS. I won't order goods again from the UK. So you won't hear me ranting about this again.
@jarkko Next time, just ask one of us to buy the items for you and we’ll stick them in the post as a gift.
Obviously, as I’ve made my feelings well known about the B debacle, I entirely agree with you about the folly of the blond haired buffoon.
Sorry you’ve had this issue. Every week we hear yet more horror stories resulting from Brexit, which was frankly a huge act of self harm for the UK.
@forever-dormo. I fully accept both your view and Martin’s on being promoted to the PL and the likely outcome but why can we not become the next Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford.
After all we are called Boro so we should be able to emulate those teams. 😉😎
@Jarkko - Sorry to hear about your customs "issues". There are many reasons to criticise BJ. I'm sure he'd be good fun for an hour or two at a table in the pub but you wouldn't want to leave the evening's drinks on a tab until you left because you might well end up holding the tab yourself ("I thought he'd just gone to the loo but, yes, I see his coat has gone...."). His middle name isn't "Reliable". But I think to compare him with Agent Orange is extreme.
I don't think there was any risk BJ would undermine the best part of 80 years' relations between the USA on one side and Europe & the rest of the democratic West on the other side, and his instincts on Ukraine (where he remains admired for his pro-Ukraine stance and actions) were correct.
But, yes, he is neither a Churchill nor a Thatcher. He has, though, been a very Naughty Boy on occasions.
... but it was "OUR" self harm, using "OUR SOVEREIGN RIGHT" to self harm and no one knows better how to self harm than we do.... no red tape there, not even to hold our nose in place while it spites our face....Sorry you’ve had this issue. Every week we hear yet more horror stories resulting from Brexit, which was frankly a huge act of self harm for the UK.
The most insane thing any nation state could have done and done on the strength of 37.5%of the electorate voting for it. I have no idea how David Cameron can live with himself. Our country was run by buffoons ......
Sorry. Had to get that off my chest
@jarkko. I hope I don’t have the same experience as I am waiting for a legacy shirt and a mug; I have had confirmation of despatch but no mention of customs, yet!
I recently purchased a golf gadget from the UK which enabled me to tee up my golf ball without bending as I have a spinal problem which has recently stopped me from bending far enough to put the tee in the ground and the ball on top.
It cost £79 and then another £47 to cover postage and customs duty; when it arrived in Spain I had a mountain of paperwork to complete before it was released!
As you say, Brexit and the politicians have a lot to answer for including those of us who voted to leave because we were conned by a bunch of charlatans; I thoroughly regret my decision! 😎
@k-p-in-spain - I would be delighted if Boro were promoted and then became the next Brighton (in a football sense), Bournemouth or Brentford. They are obviously well run and with excellent scouting/recruitment which helps them pay their way to compete against the Big Boys!
Incidentally for someone so closely linked with the UK leaving the EU, to which you might have expected him to be devoted in view of his background, BJ has what is described as a "notably diverse and international heritage'. He has described his own lineage as that of a "one-man melting pot", including English, Turkish, German, French and Russian-Jewish roots.
There are prominent politicians and foreign aristocracy mixed in his past before the family came to the UK. His paternal great-grandfather fled from Turkey to the UK in the early 20th century and changed his name to Johnson during WW1 to avoid anti-Turkish sentiment. His maternal grandmother experienced her own mother, born in Lithuania, emigrate to the USA.
BJ, born in Manhattan, had joint UK/USA nationality until he surrendered his USA passport (he would otherwise have been liable for US taxes on land sales). There are some who'd say he is more of a USA patriot than Agent Orange has ever been.
I hope to live long enough to see the long line of PhDs and books written about the current presidency. The whole story would be considered too ridiculous for Hollywood and that is before the end game has played out!
@k-p-in-spain Full marks for that admission, KP. I wish some politicians could be as brave as to admit they got it wrong.