Stephen Pepper

75% of fans oppose VAR in Premier League, says FSA bbc.in/416aTW2

If you read nothing else today about the Iran war, read this:

When I was growing up, pubs would often be rammed until closing time (not so much during the week, but certainly at weekends). The bell for “last orders” would usually spark a rush to the bar. These days, even the most popular pubs seem to start emptying out around 8.00-9.00pm, including on Fridays and Saturdays. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Is there a reason for it?

Absolute slam dunk no brainer

I think there’s a claim that Worcestershire sauce is, along with football, the English language and the business suit, one of our most important cultural exports.

The current state of the Royal Navy: 2 aircraft carriers — neither operational. 6 Type 45 destroyers (our most powerful warships) — one operational (in Cyprus). 7 Type 23 frigates (less powerful, much older) — three operational 5 Astute class nuke-powered subs — one operational (in Arabian Sea?). Surely those responsible for this appalling state of unreadiness (a national embarrassment if ever there was one)— political, civilian and military — should be fired/charged. Their incompetence has effectively left us without a navy. Quite an achievement for an ancient island nation.

Repost if you agree!

Jim Hacker: Humphrey, we have to do something about Iran. Sir Humphrey Appleby: Prime Minister, the government is already doing a great deal. Jim Hacker: Such as? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Monitoring developments, coordinating with allies, reviewing contingency plans and expressing concern. Jim Hacker: That all sounds like nothing, Humphrey. Sir Humphrey Appleby: On the contrary, Prime Minister. In diplomacy it is vital to appear active without becoming involved. Jim Hacker: The Americans are bombing things, the Iranians are firing missiles, the Strait of Hormuz is practically closed and we’re… appearing active? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Precisely. Jim Hacker: Innocent people are dying, Humphrey! Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, Prime Minister. That is why the Foreign Office is drafting a very strongly worded statement about it. Jim Hacker: A statement won’t stop a war. Sir Humphrey Appleby: No, Prime Minister, but it will ensure that we are on record as having been extremely concerned while it was happening. Bernard Woolley: If I may, Prime Minister — the Cabinet Office has identified six possible courses of action. Jim Hacker: Good! What are they? Bernard Woolley: We can condemn the escalation, call for restraint, urge negotiations, support our allies, assist defensive operations or participate directly. Jim Hacker: And what do they recommend? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Supporting our allies. Jim Hacker: That sounds suspiciously like participating. Sir Humphrey Appleby: Oh no, Prime Minister. Participating means fighting. Supporting merely means allowing others to fight from places that technically belong to us. Jim Hacker: Humphrey, if Iranian missiles hit one of our bases, we’ll be in the war anyway! Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, Prime Minister, but we shall have entered it with the invaluable diplomatic advantage of being surprised. Bernard Woolley: It’s generally considered the safest way to enter a war, Prime Minister. Jim Hacker: How on earth can that be safe? Sir Humphrey Appleby: Because if the war goes badly, we can say we never meant to join it. And if it goes well, we can say we were there all along.

🔷Iran has been a leading sponsor of international terrorism for 47 years 🔷Iran has continued with its nuclear weapons program despite all efforts to curtail it 🔷Iran supplied the Taliban with weapons and explosives that killed 450+ British soldiers in Afghanistan 🔷 Iran has directly attacked British bases in Cyprus and Diego Garcia and has previously attacked British and American interests through its proxies 🔷 Iran cannot live in peace with its Middle East neighbours and has attacked many of them without provocation, even before the current operation against it 🔷 Iran planned, funded, and facilitated the October 7 attack against Israel, knowing full well that it would precipitate a wider conflict in Gaza and immense human suffering 🔷Iran continues to oppress its own people and regularly executes children under the age of 16 simply for expressing their opinions 🔷 Iran has a totalitarian theocratic regime opposed to the democratic freedoms we take for granted - it doesn’t believe in the rights of the individual 🔷 Iran hates Western values and has consistently tried to undermine us in our own countries through gray zone disinformation campaigns By any reasonable definition under international law, Iran is a rogue state. I don’t approve of the way in which Trump decided to pursue his policy against Iran - without getting prior support from America’s allies - but I am with him all the way for deciding to get rid of the evil and despotic religious maniacs who have made life so miserable for so many. The world will be a safer place. Also, if, as a result of regime change, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and other religions will develop a greater tolerance for each other, this will be a worthwhile secondary outcome. In summary, Trump’s personality and unconventional approach to government are divisive, but on Iran he is right and deserves the full support of Europe.

War Resolve In the past, casualties were the important and real limiting factor in any war. Today, people are worked up over a transitory increase in the price of gasoline and the most evil regime on earth is banking its survival on the West being more concerned about money than lives. Consequently they even execute teenagers without fair trials to create fear among the population to prevent an uprising. And the global anger is over gas prices not the executions. It will take resolve to see it through. The Iranians appear to have enough command and control left to launch desperate attacks on the region and suppress people at home. The aims of the operation have not been met until that chain is broken and the regime can no longer inflict terror on the world. And that may well take another month or so to accomplish and so the world will have to decide if it can withstand a temporary bump in gas prices to rid us of one of its most evil actors whose despicable actions are even more evident each passing day. Hopefully we can find that resolve because the good of ridding the world of this regime, ending its terror network and ending its threats against the West far outweigh a spike at the pump that will quickly be forgotten once this is finished.

🚨 Labour’s Grooming Gang Inquiry Has Been Deliberately Delayed Until After The Next Election 🚨 I took the time to read through the latest details of this so called national inquiry properly, not headlines, not spin, the actual substance, and here is the reality. On 8 January 2025, the Government rejected calls for a new national grooming gang inquiry, arguing the focus should instead be on implementing previous recommendations. Then on 14 June 2025, Keir Starmer stood there and announced a National Grooming Gang Inquiry. Six months later, on 9 December 2025, Anne Longfield was appointed to lead it. And now, months on from that announcement, this is where we actually are. The Terms of Reference are still not finalised. Still being drafted. Still being negotiated. Anne Longfield herself has admitted the draft is not strong enough and not detailed enough, and she did not even write it. If the person leading the inquiry is telling you it is weak, then it is weak. Even now the wording around one of the most critical issues, ethnicity, race and religion, only says the inquiry “should” look at it. Not will. Not must. That is not a technicality, that is a loophole. It means it can still be watered down. This is being sold as a national inquiry, yet only a single digit number of areas will actually receive full local investigations. The rest of the country, dozens of affected towns and thousands of victims, will be pushed into a general call for evidence. That is not full exposure, that is containment. There is currently no advisory panel in place. The previous one has been disbanded. The legal team is still being hired. This is not a system ready to deliver justice, it is a system still being built behind closed doors. They have also made it clear the Terms of Reference will define what the inquiry does, and only after that will survivors be brought in to shape how it is done. That is completely backwards. Victims should be shaping the scope, not just the process. We are told there will be no no go zones, but there is no explanation of how that is enforced, who decides it, or what happens when it is challenged. Without that, it is just words. And here is the part they do not want you focusing on. The inquiry will start in April 2026, run for three years, and the final report will not be published until after the next General Election. That is not a coincidence. That is a political decision. Labour has structured this so the consequences land after the public have already voted. That is not about justice, that is about control. This inquiry has potential, but right now it is too slow, too limited, too vague, and far too politically convenient to deliver the accountability victims deserve. I am not interested in what they promise. I am interested in what they deliver. Right now, this is not good enough!

I’m going to continue posting this video every week for the rest of my life 😂🤣

Melika Azizi is 18 years old. The regime wants her dead because she isn't afraid of them. ​While the world slept, they raided her home. While they beat her in Lakan Prison, she held her head high. When the judge handed down a death sentence, she didn't beg for her life—she demanded justice for the fallen. ​"How can I stay silent?" she asked. ​We cannot be the ones who stay silent while they try to hang a teenager for her bravery. Silence is a death sentence. Noise is a lifeline. ​ACT NOW: Save this post. Share it. Tag three friends who will help spread her name. We have to make the cost of executing her higher than the cost of letting her go. ​#MelikaAzizi #SaveMelika #StopExecutionsInIran #HumanRights

It’s time to ban Iran from international sports They just executed a young wrestler, have allegedly kidnapped and threatened families of Iranian women footballers. They have no place in sport - all those that represent them are acting as mouthpieces for a barbaric regime

“As I watch the events unfold in the Middle East and the reaction to the predictable weaponisation of the oil price, and listen to the red-faced, wet-palmed performances in Westminster, I recall the raised voice of the then-UK Defence Secretary Des Browne in 2007, when he insisted to me as Commanding Officer 22 SAS that, in spite of all the intelligence and evidence to the contrary, ‘Iran is not Britain’s enemy in Southern Iraq’. He was wrong about that then, just as those are today who still maintain that the IRGC is not a terrorist organisation. Or who insist that negotiating with Iran will deliver anything other than further death and more humiliation. Or indeed that failing to support the US does anything other than strengthen Tehran’s hand. Sometimes, the pearl-clutching international  ‘conflict resolution’ experts are wrong. And the only way to salve any dignity as a nation or as an individual is to face the evil and fight”.

An Al Jazeera opinion piece on the American and Israel attacks on Iran — and how hugely successful and organized they have been — is somehow better analyzed than any American media piece I’ve read on Iran. Seriously, read it: aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/…

Professional footballers took the knee every game for criminal druggie George Floyd. Yet not one of them has it in them to condemn the Iranian regime that is kidnapping the family members of their women’s team - to lure them home to face severe punishment. Shameful. Gutless in fact. My latest express.co.uk/news/world/218…

@Joanna__Hardy Brilliant thread - exposing the potential danger to anyone if these idiotic reforms are passed. Well done! 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻

Hello, there 👋 Have you heard David Lammy MP and Sarah Sackman MP talking about people stealing bottles of whisky and swiping mobile telephones as examples of people who should not get jury trials? Well. I’d like to tell you a story. 🪡 🧵

@spectator @KarlTurnerMP Brilliant podcast informative and great to see such passion over a tremendously important issue. My take is that Danny Shaw’s initial stance was it was needed to reduce the backlog (it won’t) but under fire he retreated to ‘it’s a matter of principal’. Karl Turner a clear winner

On Coffee House Shots: is the government right to restrict jury trials? In quite a heated discussion, Karl Turner MP and former Labour adviser Danny Shaw explain why they've each come to their own, different conclusion about the merits of the Bill. @KarlTurnerMP | @IsabelHardman spectator.com/podcast/is-the…