Nigel Ridpath - now over on Bsky

Now over on Bsky - nigelx31.bsky.social

That's the thing with England. You never know which team's going to turn up ... #FRAvENG

The whole of Scotland will be cheering on the English in Paris next weekend .... #SCOvFRA

@Alison22N Is that Alison of N&B back in the day?

My book - The Time Traveller's Guide to Management - is available for pre-order now on Amazon. Just search my name. I'm holding a launch party in London. Early bird tickets still available: tickettailor.com/events/sunbear… Let's party like it's 1577!

@Fezcast_SSA The younger players are glimmers of hope. Tiz & Roti in particular. BUT, Malins can't defend, Faz is so slow, IVZ is ponderous. My backline would be Charlie, Fergus, Tomkins, Loz, Roti, Elliot, Daley.

@Fezcast_SSA Time for rethink.

A disappointing result in our final pool game. Sarries fans let us have your #ThreeWordReviews Well read out the best in next Wednesday's show

@RugbySaracens @PremSportsTV My thoughts exactly.

Comms hell The Glasgow Warriors versus Saracens game is not going well so far but this @PremSportsTV commentary team is tough listening. When Andy Goode is the most reasonable one you know the others are being extra partisan. Is there some radio comms or is that just a bad?

@donmcgowan Anybody who didn't have him down as the worst sort of conniving weasel, needs a word with themselves. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could comfortably spit out a rat.

This admits that Jenrick and Reform have been actively working to undermine the Parliamentary system. Four months of Jenrick acting as a double agent for Reform and spying on Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. There’s got to be a law against that. Surely?

@donmcgowan I think this is the year. He's going to do badly in the mid-terms, so he'll do all the worst stuff in 2026.

Health-wise, I don’t see him lasting the full term. That makes what Barry says even more worrying. Trump is going to plough through as much international vandalism as he can, as quickly as he can. Scary times.

@saracen1971 @TimHobden1 @Fezcast_SSA Wasn't there today, but last week at a sold out match against the champions was flat as a pancake.

@TimHobden1 @Fezcast_SSA Was very flat in places. Not sure 1pm gets the juices flowing. Although some of that attacking play should...

Champions cup campaign up and running #SarriesFamily. Lets have your #ThreeWordReviews

@LT_RugbyLyf @EnglandRugby @QuilterNations Probably Earl. But Fordy has been class.

It’s time to nominate your @QuilterNations Player of the Series 🌟 Comment your choice below 👇

Loving the orchestral 'Enjoy the Silence' in the #CelebrityTraitors final. #DepecheMode

@donmcgowan @reformparty_uk Laudanum anyone?

Half-term for me and the boy this week, so I'm less engaged right now. But … am I right in thinking that @reformparty_uk held ANOTHER press conference today? This time to allow Prue Leith's son and ex Tory MP, to say that he'd rewrite the Ministerial Code to allow MPs to ignore international law. Riiiight. Sure, Danny. Is that a fascist designation? ✅ Oh wait, he also wrote a blog. Have you seen it? It's hard work, I have to say. Not least because of the horrific web page formatting. H/T to @janewest73 for sending this over to me. But I read it. Here are my key takeaways. It opens with the heading: The British Malaise. The opening section repeats Reform's continual slagging off of the country they espouse to be so patriotic to. “Mad Dogmas and immigration” — Noël Coward, he is not. I'm not going to summarise the whole thing because, in essence, I can paraphrase the entire 3,046 words in a few sentences. Firstly, the language used is flowery, purple and ancient at points. I'm not sure if he wants to be an 18th century romantic poet, or a teenage goth. Lord Byron or Wednesday Adams? The next thing that jumps out are the constant references to 'Zia, Nigel and I'. Aside from the fact that I'm unsure if he thinks Yusuf is an MP … the lack of Tice's name and, more laughably, Lee Anderson's, is very telling. Nigel, Zia and Danny sitting in a tree etc. It feels like he's been given a second chance and is throwing everything at this relationship. His second heading is: Grip the Machine. Wowsers! Erotic and steampunk. Maybe it's more Byron after all. A quote from said section: “The restoration of the authority and responsibility of ministers starts with resuming authority and responsibility over their own officials.” Anyone? Now, as I've previously written on this place, I didn't study English past GCSE level, but I don't think A-level grades are required to dissect that little nugget of repetition and befuddlement. He's included some really low-res graphs from Tufton Street; natch. Then a badly cropped screenshot of a map that he'd highlighted some buildings on. This, apparently, would make £100m of savings by not renewing their leases. He doesn't, of course, record the costs involved of either relocating hundreds of civil servants, or making them redundant. The last two sections are some hot waffle about Cromwell and his New Model Army [great band — terrible army], and then it ends with some textbook Reform begging bowl rhetoric. Oh, and criticism of Boris Johnson and Brexit. Danny Kruger was a parliamentary secretary and SpAd to Boris Johnson in 2019. He voted for Brexit. 'When he later became an MP (for Devizes in 2019), he continued to advocate strongly for Brexit, supporting Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement and positioning himself among the more socially conservative, pro-Brexit wing of the Conservative Party.' In essence, it's more of the same from Reform's new addition. Waffle and deflect. He wrote just over 3,000 words and, effectively, said nothing. Have a lovely evening.

I think it's time for #strictly to preclude any celeb who has been paid to dance in their career to date. It's not what the show is about. #scd

@sarriessupport @RugbySaracens @OfficialNSSC Can't wait. ⚫️🔴

@RugbySaracens It’s Friday night…. Travel safely everyone 🚊 🚗 🚌 🏍️ 🚛 🚁 Always a pleasure to visit the Gardens 🏟️ We’ll be there and we will be LOUD 🗣️⚫️🔴 See you later @OfficialNSSC 😇 #SarriesFamily #SSAway

💫 Off to the Gardens #FridayNightLights. Big stage. Strong squad. Tough opponents. Caluori keeps his place after five tries last week. Three changes to the starting XV: Dan for George, AOC for Earl & JackB for Cinti. And McFarland’s back 👏 Bring the noise #SarriesFamily ⚫️🔴

@metalhorsemusic @YouTube Frustration is one of the best album openers ever.

#ripdaveball I could play any Soft Cell song written by Dave but i’m going to toast his genius by playing this. To take a cover and make it this wonderful and beat the original takes skill. What! (Extended Version / Remastered 2008) youtu.be/PjEF_ZuLXOU?si… via @YouTube

@WorldAthletics @janemcintyre12 @debsknig

WIN A TRIP TO MONACO ✨ Join the stars of the #AthleticsAwards in Monaco 🙌 1️⃣ Register here 🔗 bit.ly/43lIi0o 2️⃣ Tag two friends in the comments for an extra entry 👇 🗓️ Entries must be submitted by 10 November at 5PM CET.

@nige_h64 That Caluori though .... 😍

Not a fan of the ref here but gross indiscipline from Sale Sharks. A terrible day's work.

@ZoeJardiniere Ahem. 🔶️

If they apply this to farm work, care work, domestic work… well we’re fucked innit. Just join the Green Party. The only ones not too scared of Farage to talk sense.

@Harlequins Fair play, Quins. The better team won today and in the battle of the social media teams you put one on us too. Looking forward to the return leg.

Not today Saracens 🎈🪡 #COYQ | #HARvSAR