Tory MP belittles Marcus Rashford

Merry VoleMerry Vole Shipmate
Can't quite believe I've just read this on BBC News website:

Natalie Elphicke apologised after GB News got the story that she had privately messaged friends that Rashford should have 'spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics'.
Of course the Tories would never play politics....
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Comments

  • If Tory MPs spent more time feeding the poor, footballers might be able to concentrate on kicking a ball.
  • Merry VoleMerry Vole Shipmate
    I think you need to think how your comment could be interpreted
  • Okay... I'm willing to listen, but I'm pretty certain there's literally one interpretation here, given the context of Elphicke's message.
  • Merry VoleMerry Vole Shipmate
    I meant to say *misinterpreted* -that his efforts to get poor children fed could have affected his concentration on his football. Which of course you and I don't believe for a minute.

    (Like others, I think Southgate erred in putting young players on right at the end of the game just to take penalties)
  • I mean, it might have done - but if I'm busy doing the thing that is most definitely that other person's job, them criticising me for picking up the slack that they shouldn't have left, is honestly going to get more than a rude gesture from me.
  • Ethne AlbaEthne Alba Shipmate
    Why am I not at all surprised by this comment from a Tory MP…
  • AragwenAragwen Shipmate Posts: 16
    I'm not a Tory MP but I agree with her-perhaps he didn't have enough time to practise penalties despite him earning £200,000 a week to play football.
  • :flushed:

    I think @Aragwen has just donned a great big target on their back...
  • That's rather like arguing that Matteo Berrenttini didn't have enough time to practice his forehand smash.

    And Elphicke's criticism might have more validity if Rashford wasn't one of the cornerstones of his club's continued and repeated success, for which they reward him handsomely. Clearly, he can play football. Elphicke's abilities are definitely more questionable.
  • Meanwhile, a relevant comment from @Curiosity killed, on the Football thread in the Circus:

    Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford have done far more this year for the young people in the country than the Government has, with Rashford's campaigns to get young people fed (it's still happening this summer holidays), and Sancho building a football ground for kids in South London. And the team were going to give a huge chunk of their prize money to NHS charities if they'd won.
  • AragwenAragwen Shipmate Posts: 16
    Doc Tor wrote: »
    That's rather like arguing that Matteo Berrenttini didn't have enough time to practice his forehand smash.

    And Elphicke's criticism might have more validity if Rashford wasn't one of the cornerstones of his club's continued and repeated success, for which they reward him handsomely. Clearly, he can play football. Elphicke's abilities are definitely more questionable.

    Does he deliver boxes of food and advise the government? Serious, I've never heard of him.
  • AragwenAragwen Shipmate Posts: 16
    edited July 12

    :flushed:

    I think @Aragwen has just donned a great big target on their back...

    That's okay, been a psychiatric nurse for many years so I am well used to being insulted.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 12
    :lol:
  • Merry Vole wrote: »
    I meant to say *misinterpreted* -that his efforts to get poor children fed could have affected his concentration on his football. Which of course you and I don't believe for a minute.

    It's obvious nonsense. It's completely clear that the time that Mr. Rashford spent on hungry children came out of the time that some of his colleagues spend on wine, women, and song, and not out of his practice time.
    Merry Vole wrote: »
    (Like others, I think Southgate erred in putting young players on right at the end of the game just to take penalties)

    An uncharitable man might point out that Mr. Southgate is experienced at missing penalties :naughty:
  • Just when you think the Tories can't possibly sink any lower, Natalie Elphicke crawls out from the bottom of the slime-pit of English *politics*.

    What is perhaps even more disturbing is that she appears to have a fan club.
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Shipmate
    edited July 13
    Aragwen wrote: »
    I'm not a Tory MP but I agree with her-perhaps he didn't have enough time to practise penalties despite him earning £200,000 a week to play football.

    I presume Natalie Elphicke works as an MP every hour of every working day then?

    You can't practice flat out all day, it's to his credit that this is how he chooses to spend his *free* time.

    The distinct impression given is that you and her would be happier if he was like footballers of old and spent his time picking up a drink/drug/gambling habit instead.
  • The point made often that I saw was that if Elphicke had done her job, Rashford would not have had to do it for her.
    Aragwen wrote: »

    Does he deliver boxes of food and advise the government? Serious, I've never heard of him.

    Parading your ignorance here is not really a good look. You are quite welcome to be as thick and stupid as pig shit if you want, but seeking to claim that as a positive is not really as good as you seem to think.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    She's the one who got her seat because her (now) ex-husband was convicted of indecently assaulting some of his staff. He was reputed to have chased a young woman shouting "I'm a naughty Tory, I'm a naughty Tory".

  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 13
    Not a great judge of character then.

  • An interesting parallel development: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57778668
  • Yes. Other reports say that Beloved Leader is also being criticised for pretending to be anti-racist...
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited July 13
    It seems clear that the Tories see politics as something to be criticised if it isn't them doing it and it is expressing opinions they don't like.
    Elphicke has apologised for her "private" message. So she is allowed to say what she thinks if we, her employers, don't find out.
    Politics is for all of us, woman. This is a democracy that is better than Athens, because it includes everyone. And even there, all those entitled to be involved were expected to be involved. Not criticised for criticising Pericles.

    I used to want to go back to live in Dover. Not any more.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 13
    Here's a piece from the Guardian, about Beloved Leader and GoHome Secretary:
    https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/12/tory-mp-sorry-jibe-marcus-rashford-euros-penalty-miss
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    It’s the word ‘politics’ which gets to me the most.

    Supporting anti-racism isn’t (shouldn’t be) a matter of politics but of sheer decent humanity.

    I have no interest in football but I was brought up in 1960s South Africa and I know that sports boycotts and gestures have a huge effect on countries and people. To call it ‘politics’ is to diminish the importance of the horror of racism.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 13
    This.

    Alas, though, the Tories, along with their toadies and lickspittles, don't, won't, or can't understand it...
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Oh dear not looking good for Hijab postboxes Johnson.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Merry Vole wrote: »
    Can't quite believe I've just read this on BBC News website:

    Natalie Elphicke apologised after GB News got the story that she had privately messaged friends that Rashford should have 'spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics'.
    Of course the Tories would never play politics....

    I would argue the biggest problems with politics are (1) the belief that it's a profession and hence something that us 'amateurs' have no business being involved in; and (2) the belief that it's a game.

    So she's not only a complete jerk, she's emblematic of everything that's wrong with politics.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 13
    Well said!

    What useless role models politicians (or most of them) are. Articulate people, showing compassion, and doing something useful with their lives, are far better...
  • AnselminaAnselmina Shipmate
    I'm surprised at the acres of lack of self-awareness behind Elphicke's phrase 'is it ungenerous to suggest Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game.... etc'. Basically she's saying that 'Winning at football - really important. Feeding hungry kids - not so much.' Even a stupid person should know better than to state their mind on things like this so obviously. Oh, I know it could be argued, well, Rashford is a footballer so he should be sticking to football. But if that's the case, why did we have to rely on footballers to feed Britain's hungry schoolchildren when allegedly there was a Government elected and paid for by our taxes who were supposed to do the job?

    And the idea that succeeding in feeding children, where the Government had failed (not that it was particularly trying) is 'playing politics'? Interesting definition of 'playing' at something. Did the country really vote for a Government so that they could vote down - as they initially did - food for hungry kids? Is that the definition of 'real' politics?

    Mind you. Elphicke has had a rough year. Her former Tory MP husband, self proclaimed 'naughty Tory' Charlie, was convicted last year for sexual harrassment and she had to do the 'supportive wife' thing. I hope nobody was unkind enough to say something like 'is it ungenerous to suggest that a wife should be spending more time perfecting her role as helpmeet to her husband than playing politics'? Elphicke herself clearly equates the loss of effectiveness in one area of life with an inappropriate engagement in another area. Maybe she really does know whereof she speaks?!

  • Ms Elphicke may not have had a great deal of experience as an MP herself, whilst married to the aptly-named Charlie, but that doesn't excuse her from being an egregious Tory toady and lickspittle.

    Put 'em all on the new royal yacht HMS Unnecessary, and send 'em all as far away as possible from our once fair shores.
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Put 'em all on the new royal yacht HMS Unnecessary, and send 'em all as far away as possible from our once fair shores.

    ...and push them away any time they come close to shore?
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 13
    O indeed. Why, HMS Unnecessary could become the Flying Dutchman of the future!

    It would make a good fillum...in the Horror genre, of course.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Ms Elphicke may not have had a great deal of experience as an MP herself, whilst married to the aptly-named Charlie, but that doesn't excuse her from being an egregious Tory toady and lickspittle.

    Put 'em all on the new royal yacht HMS Unnecessary, and send 'em all as far away as possible from our once fair shores.

    Who is "all"?
  • Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.

    Right. And you're going to replace them in Parliament with...?
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 13
    Why would I want to replace them with anything?
    :naughty:
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    orfeo wrote: »
    Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.

    Right. And you're going to replace them in Parliament with...?

    I interpreted Bishop Finger's post as a more literary way of saying something like "I wish they'd all just fuck off and die." Not expressing an actual desire for the MPs to be forcibly removed from office.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    orfeo wrote: »
    Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.

    Right. And you're going to replace them in Parliament with...?

    With Marcus Rashford, obviously. No more Tory arses, and the children of the UK get all their square meals. What's not to like?
  • stetson wrote: »
    orfeo wrote: »
    Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.

    Right. And you're going to replace them in Parliament with...?

    I interpreted Bishop Finger's post as a more literary way of saying something like "I wish they'd all just fuck off and die." Not expressing an actual desire for the MPs to be forcibly removed from office.

    Exactly.
    orfeo wrote: »
    Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs.

    Right. And you're going to replace them in Parliament with...?

    With Marcus Rashford, obviously. No more Tory arses, and the children of the UK get all their square meals. What's not to like?

    Good idea!


  • With Marcus Rashford, obviously. No more Tory arses, and the children of the UK get all their square meals. What's not to like?

    Mr. Rashford appears to be a well-meaning young man who is willing to listen to advice. Doesn't that make him rather overqualified?
  • With Marcus Rashford, obviously. No more Tory arses, and the children of the UK get all their square meals. What's not to like?

    Mr. Rashford appears to be a well-meaning young man who is willing to listen to advice. Doesn't that make him rather overqualified?

    Compared (of course) to the current gang of gobshites, yes.
  • Marcus Rashford’s Twitter account, showing the messages of support and thanks left on the mural of him which had been vandalised, is quite something.

    It was the “Thank you for all our dinners” on a little yellow post it that brought a tear to the eye.
  • Matthew 7:16
    Ye shall know them by their fruits.
  • It really hurts me to say anything nice about a Man United player, but Marcus Rashford is a great footballer and a thoroughly decent human being. I also agree with Merry Vole that it might have been better to make the final substitutions a bit earlier in the game. But then I'm not the England manager so my opinions on the matter are very cheap and easy to come by.
  • Unlike Tory MPs whose opinions are sold to the highest bidder.
  • I'd class that remark as satire, except that it's true...
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Why would I want to replace them with anything?
    :naughty:

    Well you need a Parliament. It just doesn’t have to be full of politicians in the professional sense.
  • No, true. Maybe the Tories, banished to the stormy deep, could be replaced by Green MPs?

    Yes, I know - in my dreams...
  • The original comment was "Racist Tory MPs and their fan-clubs." Half the time (possibly more) I think the fan-clubs are more of a problem than the MPs themselves. There are a lot of decent Tory MPs (likely including those who voted against killing people by cutting funding for overseas aid), and some who act in unreasonable ways because of the pressure that comes from the fan-clubs of the lunatics. MPs shouldn't be pressurised into making racist statements, or otherwise acting stupidly and destructively, by newspaper editors and bloggers let alone by trolls on Twitter.
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