Howmanheyman

Is Alan Davies an actual comedian or is he just one of Stephen Fry's mates who Fry fancies?

I prefer Cardiff, to be honest.

RIP

Sorry Meenz, it has to be a proper fortnight in the sun, somewhere like Spain or Greece, not Milan, New York or Ja-pa-an. Enjoy Lanzarote, if you're in Teguise, go to a cafe run by a couple from Southampton, the tightest cafe owners I've ever met with the shittest breakfast I've ever had on holiday and awful Daily mail-type patter.

Most Americans I've ever met have been canny enough people but it has to be said, their sports are a fucking joke. I still laugh at SSN when they copy the stats obsession that a lot of US sports have on their news channel. Lovely looking lass presenter: "Well Scott Parker made twenty attempted tackles in their match last night, five of which were successful, his arse to grass ratio was 75% which is only second to Cattermole of Sunderland". Who gives a fuck, man!

So no fucka on here goes to Benidorm, Greece or Majorca?

Down the way, where the nights are gay And the sun shines brightly on the mountain top I took a trip on a sailing ship And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop And I'm sad to say I'm on my way I wont be back for many a day My heart is down My head is turning around I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town But this year I'm going to Mexico, Mate.

Got to say I don't fancy us at all, don't know if it'll be Colo's absence, an early kick off, Liverpool trying to make a point and upping their game, Bellamy or Carroll scoring, I just don't know. Goes without saying I hope we show SKY, ( who I expect to go into full-on LFC arselicking mode should they beat us), that we are the better side and send them packing. At work again though and we don't seem to do so bad when this happens, Arsenal away 1-0, Man Utd 3-0, Boro away 3-1 and 4-1, and last week at WBA spring to mind.

Premier League form guide; Arsenal - WWWWWWW Man Utd - DWWWWWW Man City - WWWWLWD NUFC - WLDDLWW Liverpool - ROFLMAO Think Bellamy will damage us if he plays, haven't a good feeling about this one for some reason.

Never thought I'd smile at anything to do with Phil Collins! (Apart from the Nonce-sense, of course).

The Miners were well paid as were the Shipyard workers. I've seen a couple of ex-workmates working in Morrison's and ASDA. They'll be on at least half the annual salary they were getting when I worked with them a few years ago at another well known Tyneside employer that is no longer there, (Tyne Brewery). Maybe the Miners and the rest of the poor fuckers losing their jobs in the manufacturing industry knew what jobs were left were at a minimum wage level or below as the minimum wage didn't exist then. Not everyone is cut out or indeed wanted to go to 'Uni' or get on their bikes and leave their hometown.

Happy birthday, Hog.

Other countries took a longer view - including of course the Germans but also the Scandanvian countries. Of course 30 years on I can see that a lot of those industries aren't viable but the big mistake was to kill them stone dead with no plan for an alternative. There are two views (well probably more) - one that it was a deliberate move to destroy union power - now possibly there was too much but again I would have favoured reform over a longer period. Another view was that she needed mass unemployment to drive down wages and control the money supply - of course this has now been taken up across other parts of the world and persists today. The argument then goes where better to take so much unemployment than areas that never vote for you - sound familiar? I can see with the benefit of hindsight that reform of manufacturing was necessary. However as I said other countries adapted, retrained and modernised whereas the Tories had the attitude of "the private sector will prevail" - I think the North East naturally turned to the public sector for security but have now been shit on again by the idealogy. The embrace of the service sector (of course Blair/Brown were just as bad) has added to the problem. Most of all the thing that got me at the time was the absolute relish she showed while destroying lives - backed up by the upper class cunts cheering her on whose sons are now in charge. It's tough that another generation have had to be shown what they are like but when the "opposition's" best plan is to be just slightly less bastard like I see no hope. Absolutely spot on. Ever seen the likes of Mckenzie wanking on about destroying the miners, anyone on the dole being labelled as scroungers by Luton's chairman and Tory MP. Tebbit sneering for the unemployed to 'get on their bikes' and look for a job, so basically make towns and cities ghost towns. Selling off all the countries assets for a quick buck to the private sector for less than their real worth and fobbing people with cheap shares to have a holiday with as national assets were stripped for short term gain. Don't get me wrong, they're all slippery bastards but her party and her era, there was no pretence, they despised the likes of Tyneside and Merseyside, she single handedly paid fortunes out to the police, money was no object, moved the Met up the country and beat the shit out of the strikers. She fucking relished the Argentinians invading the Falklands, there's evidence the government knew the Argentinians were planning something but she rode to election success on the back of the conflict, bit of a cheek when you consider how close Britain was to losing it due to the enormous cuts her party had made to the forces. Her and Tebbitt were evil. The likes of what I would consider to be NUFC's core support meant fuck all to her and unemployment was 'a price worth paying'. Fuck her.

My Dad left the armed forces before Maggie came to power so just had to settle for two years out of work and being called a 'moaning minnie' as her legacy to him and his young family.

A minutes applause followed by 'ding dong the witch is dead'?

Would there be a minutes silence? I hope not as from a football point of view she was no friend of our national game let alone Tyneside.

Rosies pre-match for at least one pint I'd say.

at this thread, like.

Nightmare I don't know how them and Arsenal have coped if I'm honest. Stoic.

Hope you had a good one lads!

I'm a Project Manager too as it happens. Yesterday I was off work and my project was to get my Mam to babysit my daughters whilst me and the missus went out for a few drinks and some food. I managed it no bother at all.

Large boy's what?

Police in Wearside had a spate of reports last night of a mysterious noise wailing 'BEEP BEEP BEEP'. After investigations it was confirmed the noise was the open top Wembley bus reversing back into Silksworth bus depot.

Ere-a Marra, dina tak the piss out of our Mal!