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Might Mike Ashley, in fact, be a genius?

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    Well this is hugely depressing

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      Originally posted by Jobi1 View Post

      Would there possibly be some element that US authorities, financial/federal and/or sporting, would be less keen to authorise such an investment than their British counterparts?

      (Genuine question - I have absolutely no idea)
      Unfortunately doubtful with respect to the Saudis given their "strategic" relationship. Would likely be different for other countries. Abramovich and Usmanov, for instance, periodically appear on "should be subject to sanctions" lists, but have yet to make one formally.

      The more likely outcome would be that the other owners would simply refuse to approve the sale, given that less politically problematic buyers are almost always available.

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        I've always associated the drink Black Velvet with the death of a cabinet minister's daughter at Oxford in the '80s (it was prominently mentioned as part of the booze/drugs menu involved). This reappearance isn't doing anything to rehabilitate its image, even if it wasn't so clearly less than the sum of its parts.

        A friend's colleague up there has been circulating a photo of her teenage son with an actual tea towel arranged over his head in a gesture of welcome and celebration to the new proprietors.

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          As an aside, I presume the Rueben brothers' property portfolio in the north-east will expand nicely now.

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            I'm sure that they are made up with the lack of relative scrutiny.

            Is the Canadian Whisky not sold in the UK?



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              Prime shitposting

              https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/1446371180479459343

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                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                Is the Canadian Whisky not sold in the UK?
                I have never seen it but don't pay close attention to the whisky aisles.

                A quick look suggests that you might find it in a specialist shop but that it isn't generally available.

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                  Behold, some more of that Real Opposition:

                  https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1446372287922516005

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                    Not for me to hold any form of opinion on any matter more controversial than some fucking alpaca

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                      Originally posted by JM Footzee View Post
                      As an aside, whenever I go to City I'm always puzzled that opposition fans don't weaponise the whole "owned by a repressive state" thing. I mean, it would be incredibly hypocritical given most fanbases would respond positively to oodles of state wealth, and distasteful to use the torture of real people for petty footballing reasons but... when has that stopped anyone?
                      They want it to be them. Most football fans don't want football to be run properly, they just want some bitcoin billionaire Heinrich Himmler to take over their club and buy sergio aguero and success, and they'll happily tell anyone that politics and football should be kept separate. Football fans can't taunt city for having genocidal owners, because it might be them defending genocide next.

                      Just look at those newcastle fans at the ground singing about how they've got their club back. Those people have a vote, (though likely not for long) those people can drive cars, and have children. It's terrifying

                      One interesting point I heard yesterday was that it took a solid five years before the man city fanbase online became a broiling septic tank of QAnon style madmen and trolls. Some Newcastle fans were trolling and abusing khashoggi's widow online before the takeover.

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                        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                        Not for me to hold any form of opinion on any matter more controversial than some fucking alpaca
                        He does have an opinion on Israel.

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                          Just been talking to a friend and colleague about something else, but we ended up talking a lot about this as he lives in Newcastle (but is a Leicester fan). He says it's been stunning how many liberal and left wing fans he knows are elated by this. I sent him BDG;s bullshit rodeo strip and he thought it was superb, and has already forwarded it on to many

                          (He also said to watch out for the next game - home to Spurs he thinks - because he is sure that loads of fans will wear tea-towels on their heads, and think it's a gesture of positive happiness and not some kind of offensive semi-racist crap from about 5 different angles)

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                            Originally posted by Sits View Post
                            My son has supported NUFC since he was a young boy and Shearer was up front. This morning he’s ordered his first Borussia Dortmund shirt.
                            Good for him. More of this.

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                              Oh and he also told me that in fact Saudi Arabia already own half the city, and a lot of the property around St James park. The Labour Council has welcomed this takeover apparently, but given the fact just mentioned, he suspects they have basically no choice (though he doesn't discount the possibility that they are just scum)

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                                Any idea what he means by "Saudi Arabia own half the city"?

                                I seriously doubt that the Saudi state (either directly, through the sovereign wealth fund or through princes' direct investments) do. Is it Saudi institutions? Gulf institutions? People with tea towels on their head?

                                Commercial property in Newcastle just strikes me as a weird diversification target for a petrostate, though it may be even more interesting if there is an actual focus on the city and region. A quick search is overwhelmed by results about the football club, even if one tries to focus only on property and real estate (the Reubens involvement doesn't help in that respect).

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                                  I once heard someone tell a tale about the political sociology of the NE, and the failure to develop an industrial bourgeoisie in the face of an aristocratic elite who successfully transitioned - via mining - from land rent power to industrial ownership power, and the concomitant residual ties that those long-standing elites had over the workers leading to the development of a labour movement noted for its forelock tugging and loyalty to boss fiefdoms. I've been thinking a lot about that today.

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                                    I've heard that with regard to the elite as well. The pattern is quite different from that of Lancashire, for example.

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                                      I was thinking about ewoks celebrating the destruction of the death star and feasting on stormtroopers flesh as the first of a trillion tonnes of metal starts to fall on their lush forest moon.

                                      That and all the songs about getting their club back made me think of the idealised Iraqis of Donald rumsfelds imagination.

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                                        Did they control the shipbuilding/shipping industry and trade on the Tyne as well?

                                        Interesting that mining industries owned by chinless inbred walled off forest owning bastards in my neck of the woods conversely led to West Fife being maybe the most longstanding Communist/hard left leaning part of Britain.
                                        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 08-10-2021, 15:24.

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                                          My recollection is that there was some overlap, but not a complete one

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                                            The pattern is quite different from that of Lancashire, for example.
                                            Might Irish immigration have contributed to a greater sense of rebelliousness and tumultuousness in the 19th-century north-west? Though the NE was pretty solid in the miners' strike in a way, say, Nottinghamshire was not.

                                            Anyway, surely the property deals to watch revolve around the Rueben brothers, who already own the city's racecourse and lots of property in Newcastle. They'll surely now have local politicians at their beck and call in terms of advancing said property interests.

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                                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                              Any idea what he means by "Saudi Arabia own half the city"?

                                              I seriously doubt that the Saudi state (either directly, through the sovereign wealth fund or through princes' direct investments) do. Is it Saudi institutions? Gulf institutions? People with tea towels on their head?

                                              Commercial property in Newcastle just strikes me as a weird diversification target for a petrostate, though it may be even more interesting if there is an actual focus on the city and region. A quick search is overwhelmed by results about the football club, even if one tries to focus only on property and real estate (the Reubens involvement doesn't help in that respect).
                                              We didn't get into it. We actually had a work reason to talk. I'll ask him

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                                                Thanks

                                                FWIW, the Fund's website doesn't mention international property investments at all

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                                                  Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                                  Commercial property in Newcastle just strikes me as a weird diversification target for a petrostate, though it may be even more interesting if there is an actual focus on the city and region. A quick search is overwhelmed by results about the football club, even if one tries to focus only on property and real estate (the Reubens involvement doesn't help in that respect).
                                                  well why wouldn't they have started buying up property all over the city. They were always going to buy this club as soon as they stopped stealing from Bein Sports, and there has to be the sportswashing regeneration like with Man city and PSG, and Newcastle is a prime target for "Levelling up" which as far as I can see boils down to trying to kick off regional spectulative property bubbles, based on foreign money like in Manchester.

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                                                    Because I can't find any mention of it happening

                                                    I also wasn't aware of Paris being a major regeneration target

                                                    Do you have any idea of what you are talking about?

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