Rayvin

I know but... I mean maybe I'm being overly optimistic but I reckon with investment over a few years and Rafa continuing to develop the team, we could get into a position to win things. Not the League, but a trophy maybe. And if there's any logic in Ashleys mind he'll be aware that £50m a season, paid for by TV money, is worth it compared to risking a loss of £100m every time we go down. I'm just going to hope.

Dunno, sounds alright to me if added to the young player development/sell plan. Even in this day and age. How many PL clubs are exceeding £50m net spend season on season?

I think he'll stay. I really don't think he wants to go and if he can just extract a commitment from Ashley for spending, it doesn't matter if they share the same vision or not. If he gets a commitment that he thinks he can make work, then he'll stay even if Ashley doesn't give a fuck where we finish. £50m a season maybe?

They were dead forever under New Labour as I recall. Then the coalition would never last and the government would fall apart. Then they would never get re-elected. Then they would be torn apart by Brexit. Then they would be torn apart by incompetence. Then Brexit again. Then not actually leaving. And now by Farage. Brexit will be settled by the next GE, the Farage enthusiasts will return to 'hating the left' with renewed zeal, since that's who they think this victory is over, and the Tories will be returned. Labour will fail because they've abandoned the middle class vote, and the left in the country will be split in two.

That's a really useful answer, thanks. I'll raise it with him next time.

The problem is that I've read this statement many times over the years and it never seems to come true.

A silver lining that I'll believe when I see it.

Was talking to my dad about HS2 recently, and he was of the opinion that it was supposed to shave off about 20 mins from Newcastle to London - and that the cost involved in doing it had been described by someone or other from the Lib Dems as 'being equivalent to £500m spent on 114 cities and towns, each'. On that basis, it sounds like a total waste of money.

Where is Labour's support going to come from though? I mean I'm sure as shit not voting for them and I think I was considered to be quite hardcore about my support previously. I think the Tories will get their usual support tbh - this election is consequence free, really. A GE wouldn't be treated the same way.

The long term upshot of all of is that at the next GE, we'll get a minority Tory government.

I can't believe how prolific he is. I mean he's a monumental cunt but he just can't be killed off. He's made a party out of nothing in the space of a few weeks, and now has a poll lead exceeding the combined might of the two heavyweight parties. And if it was just about Brexit, UKIP would have managed that without him. There is something about the guy that makes the stupid flock to him. Change UK must be jealous as fuck. And I can't believe that there is STILL no co-ordinated Remain movement. None of the centre left politicians seem to care about this issue much at all, they all just want to politicise it. Maybe that's Farage's appeal, he doesn't want to politicise it, he just wants to achieve an objective and has his cards on the table. What I would give for Gina Miller or someone on the Remain side to have done the same thing.

So the Nigel Farage Party has 34% in the polls. Which means it is speaking for basically all of the hard Brexit voting population. With that in mind, who in fuck does Labour think it's trying to win over? Are there actually any middle ground Leave voters who are satisfied by Labour's stance? I see Labour is trying to issue a relying cry to Remainers to vote for them in order to stop the far right agenda. Fuck you, Labour. Stop enabling the fucking thing and then you get my vote. Until then, you're on your fucking own.

He was only going to do that if they got promoted. Even though they were certain to go up and one would imagine the club will cost him more if they do.

I mean, Labour are fucked then. I cannot for the life of me understand why he and those around him think that people like me (and indeed most of us on here) are going to support them after their total abandonment of our concerns and principles over this whole issue. I will not vote Labour again until party policy is that we are part of the EU. If that means the Tories are in power for the rest of my life (not that my vote matters anyway), so be it.

Does he not associate monkeys with racism, or did he just forget her African American descent? I had forgotten the latter too. Principally because I passionately do not care about the royal family or whom any of them are fucking. If he's in the same boat as me, I can see how he makes that mistake. If it's the former then he probably actually is a racist. Although at this point, no one should ever use monkeys for humour like this. It's not worth the risk.

The end of the era of Spanish dominance seems to be upon us. Back to the PL it would seem - the TV money talks after all. Was reading through some of the comments on a Barcelona forum and they were absolutely scathing about the team and manager. And in fairness, they're a shadow of what they were - and that shadow only exists at all because Messi is still there (as much as I think that he, like Ronaldo, might be a bit of a flat track bully). I'll be rooting for Ajax to win the whole thing, but if I have to choose between Liverpool and Spurs, it's Liverpool for me. Can't handle Spurs, a team who were measurably inferior to us not long ago, winning a CL.

That was probably the best corner I've ever seen mind

Ok so, I hate Liverpool as much as the next non Liverpool fan. But fucking hell. Hard not to like them after that. Sheer determination.

Would be surprised if the "strong woman" character wasn't eventually made queen, so I'm going to assume she kills Jon in the end and the final scene is Sansa raising the armies of the North to attack kings landing once again, thus starting the whole thing all over again.

Really? It looked pretty fucked to me.. what makes you think it is? I'm starting to think she'll lose all of them tbh. Glorious death though.

Vaguely recall the Tyne Bridge and Quayside being used by Sunderland Uni to attract people to go there, so they're hardly in a position to judge.

I'm not entirely sure about Fish's endgame play for the episode but i still think the battle was fucking stupidly written. I mean it occurred to me in a conversation with someone else that, had Melisandre not lit the swords of the dothraki, they would have charged into the night with literally no ability to see anything, putting them on par with the viewers at least And her doing that looked like it was unplanned as far as the battle strategists were concerned. I could accept the dothraki charging blindly into the night as an act of breaking ranks if there had been evidence through the rest of the show that they have no respect for Jorah or Dany. I could accept Dany flying off into the night pointlessly as an act of grief at watching her army die for no reason if there was evidence through the rest of the show that she was weak and easily rattled. But it still doesn't explain why a footsoldier army stood in front of the trench intended to slow the enemy down (an enemy that they knew had greater numbers and which they wouldn't be able to stand against conventionally, but which had no ranged weaponry), thus having to sacrifice a huge number of its own to retreat over it and then hide inside the castle walls which any sensible tactician would have had the majority of them inside to begin with. Am open to 'logic and tactical experts' pointing out why this was a winning concept though It's not a case of a good plan falling apart as soon as battle starts, its a case of a dumb plan going exactly as you would expect it would as soon as battle starts with the exception of Dany being afk for half of it which was the only bit that seemed to be unforseen. I feel better now

Why has Keir Starmer suddenly gone all quiet on this as well? He's part of that negotiation as I understood it. What on earth have they said to him to get him to back down?

Erm... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/03/rafael-benitez-close-signing-new-contract-newcastle-manager-liverpool Sounds positive..? And I mean it's from Rafa rather than Charnley.

Aye that'll be the case. But it also means, incredibly, that the Tories will be returned to power. It's staggering. They're going to get away with it.