Mr Kelly's Virtual Classroom

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Yes, music radio is back in this episode for anchor.fm listeners with a Spotify Premium account. 

Pick The Music Now - Hit the Voice Comment link and leave your music request and even dedicate to someone or some cause.  

The transition to music has begun as I have once again linked up with Spotify Premium to play a mix of music that you hopefully enjoy while also commenting on my own life journey alongside my interests in sport, current affairs and politics. 

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Here we go 110 episodes I never would have thought it possible. Firstly, to the win in Europe for Manchester United There is so much negativity on here about this result... 'Look. If you can't enjoy a 3-0 win in which all your forwards score moral boosting goals and the youngest of them takes another step forward then maybe football and United is not for you...? With an average age of 21, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer unleashed a Manchester United forward line that looks every bit the future of the club. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood fired United into the knockout stages of the Europa League – but, more importantly, offered a tantalising glimpse of what Old Trafford could come to expect from this thrilling front three. All pace, movement, menace and technique – they are the epitome of the modern-day attack. And though still raw – Greenwood has just turned 18, while the veteran of the group, Martial, is still only 23 – they could well be the basis on which Solskjaer builds his United revolution. Against Partizan Belgrade they clicked in a manner in which United simply haven't this term – each scoring picture-book goals and creating enough chances to make a 3-0 score-line even more emphatic. The question now is whether Solskjaer is prepared to stick with an attack that scored two first half goals at home for the first time since January? Also, is this side beginning to move out from the shadow of the absent Paul Pogba and gain an identity and playing style that matches with their enthusiasm for football rather than their social media presence?

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In the first part of this Episode I consider the breaking news that Cian McBride has opted to join AFL side Essendon on a two year contract and the fact that this is a blow to both the County Team and also his club St Ultan's going forward. The highly rated eighteen year old was set to be part of the Royal's set up on their return to the top flight in the National league in 2020. The 6ft 5in youngster impressed at trails in Dublin last monthe and was quickly recruited. 

Essendon general manager, Adrian Dodoro stated that 'Cian had impressed with his athleticism for his height by recording a six minute, seventeen second 2KM time trial along with 2.99 seconds in the 20m sprint'. 

It of course is a blow to both his club and county and it is another example of the young talent that is now being targeted by Australian Football and as a consequence lost to our own home games. While larger counties may be able to absorb such losses, smaller counties loose the top young talent and also then struggle to find any continual means of gaining on those already dominating the 'top end' of the GAA hierarchy. 

The whole issue around replays in club championships and eventual sudden death playoffs was once again to the fore this weekend in Ulster but are they a legal way to decide a game? 

There is some confusion over the actual legalities of the so called penalty shoot out, as it has hastily replaced the free kick shoot out and may not have been ratified properly! 

The question is and there enough legal buffs around the halls of GAA clubs etc to test this out, are the results of games decided in this way open to an appeal from the losing side?

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 In today's episode I examine the Facebook & Twitter moves over political advertising on their respective platforms. I also reference the fact that John Bercow steps down as Speaker of the House of Commons after 10 years in post. 

Also in the initial phases of Electoral jousting we are still in Europe as another promised deadline passes us by...on and on we go hopefully there will be some light at the end of the tunnel and Santa Claus can deliver a credible Parliamentary majority to allow us all to move on. 

This episode is one that I have put together over my Halloween break and consists of a number of topic areas that have drawn my interest no doubt there will be many twists and turns in the election campaign before we conclude on the 12th of December and that leads me nicely into the next scary date on the calendar..Friday the 13th of December will be the date for a New Prime Minister to take the walk up Downing Street and into Number 10, yes, it's been a year of strange deadlines and dates!!

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Yes it's finally here the Halloween Holiday, this last week seemed like it was forever and lots of teachers that I talked to felt the same. Even though we all agreed that the actual period between coming back to school and this the first recognized break has really flown. Halloween recognised as the time for Ghosts and Ghouls also had a far greater significance this year as it is meant to be the deadline for Brexit. Boris Johnson pledged to take the United Kingdom out of Europe on 31st October with or without a deal and it's looking extremely unlikely that this timetable will actually fall into place due to many factors. 

However, the Brexit deal that he negotiated has caused consternation among the Unionist community in Northern Ireland as they feel betrayed and used as a bargaining chip. I have included a number of clips of various politicians speaking on these issues as part of this episode to give some clarity around why this is the case. Essentially the Boris Deal has led to a friction-less border on the island of Ireland as enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement and has resulted in essentially a customs/VAT border in the Irish Sea. 

This has enraged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as everything that they stand for is bound up in their link with the United Kingdom and indeed their 'confidence & supply' voting arrangements with the minority Conservative Government have helped Boris get to this point.  Indeed the same Boris spoke at last years DUP Party Conference and guaranteed no change to Northern Ireland's position within the union. It can be a little hard to work out what the DUP actually want on occasions and perhaps they have had a dose of their own medicine as Boris has played fast and loose with them throughout and it looks like he has sold them out.  

They consistently cry they want Northern Ireland to be the 'same as' the rest of the United Kingdom and yet within Northern Ireland they back different laws with regard to LGBT rights, same sex marriage, abortion and language acts and they also misquote the Good Friday Agreement as and when it suits they are against it but at this juncture they are now looking to use it to stop this East/West trade barrier, this very same agreement that they refused to sign up to or back from its inception!

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Join in on any of the topics discussed on this episode or indeed topics that you would like discussed in future episodes.  

In this episode I look at the leaders of the two so called Super-Powers and the men at the top.  

This is a tale of two cynics: Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. They’re equally volatile and dangerous, but they afflict their two nations differently.  Trump is a president who says a hurricane is threatening Alabama when, actually, it isn't; who believes wind turbines cause cancer; who purges references to climate change in government reports; and on, and on.  

He doesn’t read, and he likes to be surrounded by ignoramuses. Few of his lieutenants are appointed for their expertise. Dr. Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon, knows nothing about housing policy; Betsy DeVos is the Education secretary who visited the nation’s largest school district and didn't stop at a single public school.  

And few of Trump’s notions are original:  They are the fancies of his evangelical-oligarchic-Fox News alliance, who believe that climate change is either nonexistent or part of the cosmic order of things, that America is “infested” by nonwhites, that open-carry gun laws save lives, and so on. Trump stands out as a weirdo.  His contempt for knowledge would not fly at the top of any serious business, yet he has come from a business background. His economic advisers are outliers. 

And his reversals cause whiplash.  When Trump named Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, for instance, he commended him for his “tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics.” When he fired Tillerson after a year in office, he tweeted that Tillerson was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell.”  

Boris Johnson, is also given to wild spins with a distinct lack of respect for what is true.  Johnson and most of his predecessors learned the arts of debate, slapdash generalization and high-level schmoozing at Oxford.  Johnson even knows how to go lowbrow, having recently boasted: “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets.”  

He undoubtedly is overseeing a political strategy similar to Donald Trump, as 22 of his own party lost the whip after voting to stop a no-deal Brexit, his response was “Trumpian” in terms of the type of language being used and the overall tone of debate.  At divisive Downing Street, briefings he uses words like 'collaborator' and riles up party activists in a way that all belong to a strategy that corresponds more to Trump than to the long tradition of the Conservatives particularly Winston Churchill, whom he often compares himself to.  

It is easy to liken Johnson and Trump, “They are very different personalities but in terms of political strategy, what we see from No 10 is divisive and exercising the base and that is very similar to Donald Trump.  Today, both countries are deeply riven socially — between winners and losers of globalization, between rural and urban voters, and between generations. 

These divisions also cut through their main political parties.  In this polarized environment, many British and American politicians have concluded that they must ride the populist tiger rather than search for votes in a barren center ground. Compromise offers few rewards now, and moderates seem to have left the field.  Are we the electorate indeed reaping what we have sown by allowing politics to become like this because of our choices?  Also, the lack of credible alternatives is frightening in a time when both nations need a coherent opposition both are frighteningly unavailable. 

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 United draw with Liverpool and it left a bitter sweet taste, if you'd offered me a draw before the game I'd have taken it but having watched it I ended up a little disappointed. Sometimes, a team's prospects cannot be boiled down to the outcome of one game. As tempting as it is to assess Liverpool's title credentials or Manchester United's ability to kick-start their faltering season after the 1-1 draw, sometimes the outcome is nothing more than what it is: the result at the end of 90 minutes. Some will suggest that Liverpool displayed the hallmark of champions by getting a 1-1 draw on a bad day, but that's an easy cliche to trot out. As Klopp said, Liverpool grabbed a point and nothing more. And just as this result does not offer a crystal ball into Liverpool's future, the performance produced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's players should not be used as a yardstick for the rest of their season either. However, as a Utd supporter I am more than happy with the way the team acquitted themselves and again I saw evidence of the fact that this team is so much more fluid when Pogba is not at the heart of things. In my opinion he slows things down, where those quick transitions yesterday were the bedrock of the attack and also the reason for disorganization in the Liverpool back line, Pogba does not add that when he plays in central midfield. Liverpool’s winning run ended at 17, one short of the record, but they will be happy enough after Adam Lallana’s late equalizer put them six points clear at the top. Although it was a scruffy game of few chances, there was always something going on and it was fascinating tactically. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer set United up expertly in the first half, with a 3-4-1-2 formation and split strikers, but they ran out of steam in the second. Solskjaer was arguably too passive with his substitutions, although he didn’t have many options. And while Liverpool were nowhere near their awesome best, they probably deserved a draw for their persistence and territorial dominance. There was VAR controversy, inevitably, and some of the usual derby needle, Daniel James in particular on the receiving end of a few hefty challenges! United looked deflated because of the late equalizer and as a fan I to was disappointed but  when the dust settles, they will reflect on a pretty good day.  Marcus Rashford on the talismanic  side of immense, and there were plenty of signs that United are going in the right direction. In this case, admittedly, that means moving from 14th to 13th in the league, but fourth place is still a realistic ambition but in order to achieve it every game has become a cup tie from now until the actual one against Chelsea in the FA Cup.