Happy Face

42,000 to be laid off by MoD http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11570593 That won't help the benefits bill.

It's a month later in the season than this poll.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?...egated&st=0 And the consensus was spot on then. The only top teams we've played are Man U and Man City yet we're still below the mackems who've played Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, West Brom and Barcelona and have hardly won on the road in something like 624 games.

Weird seeing Fergie so gutted. Clearly still likes the lad and holds no grudges. He's told some class players not to let the door hit their arse on the way out. Ince, Van Nistelrooy, Tevez, Beckham, Ronaldo.... none of them got a 6 minute soliloquy as I recall.

The challenge of seeing if he can get £200k a week out of anyone? Whatever happened to that David Beckham lad? I remember one minute he was getting boots thrown at him in the changing room at Man U, the next he disappeared from the spotlight altogether.

A champions league title, 3 league titles, and 2 league cups doesn't match the ambition of a man like Rooney. He must really want the FA cup.

Supplied the crosses that led to both goals on Saturday. I thought Wigan realised he was our only danger man because they were very quick to close him in particular down in numbers whenever he got the ball. Never makes a forward run into space off the ball like. Get's annoying watching him overlap Enrique , stop on the touchline, receive the pass, give it back to Enrique/get fouled (delete as appropriate). Would like to see him keep going and Enrique thread a pass every now and then, but he only seems comfortable trying to go past a defender if he has the ball and can fall over to win a free kick.

I'm exactly 3 times as worried about tax evasion as i am about benefit claims being awarded to undeserving people My pre-occupation is inversley proportional to the pre-ccupation with benefit scroungers in The Sun, Daily Mail et al. People like Christmas Tree read those stories and believe cuts are justified and will hit benefit scroungers who deserve to tighten their belts. We should be demanding the economic policy change to hit the wealthy (who are doing rather well now we're out of recession) with increased taxation, not the poor with devastating across the board cuts.

The system needs a two pronged overhaul; the government needs to review what claimants are legally entitled to and to clamp down on those claiming what they're not entitled to. It shouldn't be more profitable to claim benefits than to work. The problem there is largely to do with the benefits that come with having a family coupled with the high cost of child care for those in work. Benefits need to be cut to a level where people have enough to survive, not to live a comfortable life, the government isn't there to provide the unemployed with a comfortable life, it should be to prevent the unemployed from falling into poverty. Not the poverty whereby the kids don't have a PS3 or a mobile phone but the poverty where they can't afford to eat. I know our perception of what constitutes 'poor' has changed but the government need to look at the basic essentials and no more. And I haven't seen much evidence of the government clamping down on benefit thieves/cheats. I hear about these schemes and how doctors should now be assessing what a claimant can do rather than can't do but I'm not aware of any positive results. About a year ago I attempted to shop some I know for benefit theft using a government website for the purpose. What was done? Fuck all. There needs to be people investigating this, because it just leads to long term unemployment and in turn will lead their kids to believing that it's an acceptable way of life when it simply isn't. While there isn't a perfect system you will always get cases where undeserving people can take advantage as well as where people who should get some help are unable to fit the criteria as laid down.....but you can't have a perfect system. The fact that fraud and mistakes account for less than 3% of the total benefits bill is a pretty good record imo. Mistakes will never be wiped out. Benefit fraud and mistakes cost $5bn (see OP). The Income Tax shortfall shortfall is three times that, £14bn a year... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11411840 Even percentage-wise, it's 3 times the problem benefit fraud is. Uncollected tax amounts to 9% of the £155bn total income tax collected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_t...ingdom#Overview Yet you never see headlines on front pages about wealthy tax cheats living in luxury like you get a bunch of tramps humiliated for scrounging a few quid extra. Working people love to complain about dole scroungers....but they're blatantly a more honest bunch.

I wouldn't even need my psychic ability to have a good chance of knowing that. Honestly I am psychic, I know things will happen before they do all of the time. Why are you always so surprised to be banned then?

I'd play him at RB if everyone was fit but he's still out injured isn't he? According to physioroom..... D Simpson Ankle/Foot Injury 23rd Oct 10 - West Ham S Taylor Shoulder Injury 31st Oct 10 - Mackems S Harper Broken Collar Bone Dec 10 D Gosling ACL Knee Injury Jan 11 H Ben Arfa Broken Leg no return date

Aye just what we need another dour jock cunt in the dug out. Get Peter in. I like Hibs quite obviously they'll stagnate Calderwood for the forseeable future though. ITK totals in the last 12 month must be: Me 5 Craig 2 OC's 0 Typical Hughton gloryhunter, history starts in 2009 does it? I'd keep quiet. Wasn't your last bit of ITK that Guthrie had inspector Taggart round investigating a muhduh? My mates couldn't believe he turned out for us rather than Durham on Saturday after i assured them of the story's veracity.

I had one eye on the laptop keeping up with the mackems score and that so I might not have given it the attention it deserved. The reviews seemed to be split when it came out.

You hold that man playing the system for £60 a fortnight to a higher standard than companies playing the system to save hundreds of thousands (millions and billions) in taxes? Claiming benefits within the law, actually taking other peoples contributions out of the system is portrayed to be a far worse crime in the media (corporate owned) than playing the system to pay in as little as possible in the first place. That's not surprising because it's something we all see everyday and understand. At least the benefit fiddler has the excuse of being desparate for money though. Creative accountancy is lauded, people are pleased that someone has gotten away with it because they have the intelligence to play the system from the top, rather than the duplicity to play it from the bottom.

Sukiyaki Western Django. Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish, so it's what Takashi Miike considers a Japanese Spaghetti Western. I was really looking forward to it but was ultimately disappointed. It looks lush, loads of his flourishes, but it's just not engaging. The story is basically A Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo (so a japanese remake of an Italian-Spanish remake of a Japanese film), but the stunted English and awful acting make it far less engrossing to watch than either of those. I couldn't wait to get away from the annoying characters....Tarantino being shitest of all.

Because 100% employment is communism and we want to be a capitalist utopia where you are free to fire anyone you want to. That person is entitled to a safety net.

Not sure if I agree. You can spend as much chasing welfare fraud as you save catching individuals. It's paltry sums. Corporate tax evasion is a much more costly crime, and a far more lucrative target.....but the tories have pledged a more conciliatory approach to it, relaxing regulations gladly allowing billions in tax revenue to funnel out. Look at the vodafone case, £1.25bn from a single payer....but it should have been more...they'd set aside £2.2bn. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2bc71748-9686-11...144feab49a.html Haven't seen the Vodafone case but corporation tax evasion is overstated imo. This isn't about companies paying their "fair share" on UK trading profits, it's about corporate groups headquartered in Britain. The Inland Revenue thinks it should be able to tax all overseas profits regardless of whether they're paid back to the UK. However many European and other jurisdictions don't operate on this bases ie Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland. They'll welcome British groups with open arms and they'll still pay their "fair share" of tax on their British profits. In these days of highly mobile capital and labour the question is whether you want corporate groups to be located in Britain with the jobs and spin off business it creates. If the answer is no, we can stick with the present system which has already seen a steady number of British groups relocate to Switzerland, Luxembourg etc. The reality is our tax system is not fit for purpose and needs substantial reform, the Labour govt has known about and ducked this issue for years. It's a doozy like. I'm idealistic and think the government need to be accountable to the people, not to corporate interests. When big business have already kneecapped us, they now hold a gun to our heads saying they'll punish us if we try to hold them accountable. The millions of people that will be plunged into poverty through no fault of their own hold no sway like that. So we have to accept being slapped around like a bitch, cos we can't afford to support ourselves if we leave our abusive spouse. It's the same argument that's seen top rates of tax slashed from 83% in the seventies to 40%....and still the cry from the wealthy is that their obsene incomes are unfairly diminished.

James Zogby is author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters

You are pretty stuck in your ways like.

I'm not chasing you anywhere HF. I just thought the original post of "shocking" was making mountains out of molehills, which is what you lefties tend to do. No offence intended, just my point of view. If anything, the police took him away from any possible danger, For the 10th time....

The Royal Navy's flagship, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, is to be scrapped early as part of the government's defence review, the BBC has learned. The move is part of the price paid by the Royal Navy for the decision to go ahead with two new aircraft carriers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11570593 The social housing budget in England is to be cut by more than 50% in the Spending Review, the BBC understands. Council housing "for life" will also be phased out, with the needs of new council tenants assessed over time. Despite the cuts, ministers are likely to set a target of building 150,000 affordable homes, changing the way councils charge rent to finance them. Tenants will be charged nearer the going market rate, to release cash for the building programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11570923

Said to the mackem in work today i'd rather watch England than Blackburn. Was always going to be shite. I did see a clip of Monday Night Football on SSN though. Andy Gray and Richard Keys were on a strip of astro turf 6 feet by 2 and were recreating the horror challenges of the last few weeks with each other.

do you ? I think it is next to fuck all, to be honest. Hardly on a par with beheading someone for having different views....similar incidents in an Islam state would lead to a beheading or at the very best stoned to death by the mob, with the "police" standing by and watching. How many times? Yes I do. And I agree it's not on a par with beheading someone for holding different views. When did that happen? Of course, I've not once tried to make the comparison.....You have. And I'm not sure what you prove in doing so. Why don't you chase after every other poster like a dog with a bone for suggesting something entirely unrelated is shocking that's not quite up there with your definition?

Keys reads the Daily Mail....and believes it.