Rayvin

Hope she's ok, that's a mental thing to happen in this country. Also very stridently hope it's nothing to do with the referendum or what little sanity remains in the whole thing is going to unravel very quickly.

Good grief... that's not related to the referendum is it?

Gordon Brown did for the Scotland issue, but I don't think he'd have quite the same appeal for this one...

Agreed on Cameron. It's utterly unbelievable that he's taken us to this point. I feel for EU citizens in this country as well, must be horrifying seeing all of this. I know a few Spanish people who are very, very worried.

Marina Hyde is literally the only likeable columnist in the Guardian these days. Aside from that, this whole thing is an utter farce now. The country deserves to be taken out back and shot if it votes to leave. Which is convenient, as that's basically what will happen.

There are literally no words for how shit Man Utd's commercial department are. Unbelievable.

Now that we have a bit more dialogue with you on here, what actually is your issue with spaces after full stops?

Happy Birthday mate!

Really pleased I don't bother with this shite anymore... England are the most perpetual disappointment imaginable.

The fateful day when Gordon Brown of all people saved the Union... bizarre stuff. The thing is though, it's hard to blame a lot of the Brexiters - clearly they aren't all raving, racist loonies - the people to blame here are ultimately the fucking government. Why did we need to do this? If they weren't trying to score petty political points, this never would have happened. People aren't well informed enough to vote on shit like this - I would argue by design. And frankly, I would include myself in that. Normally this works out for the political elite as they can manipulate people into basically anything. Except this time when they've woefully underestimated how badly the general public want to give someone in the establishment, anyone, an absolute kicking.

To be fair, the Germans said a lot of nice things about us in that article. All he said on the single market is that the EU would have to respect our sovereignty, and that we would have chosen to reject both the EU and single market together. So we would be choosing to exit it, not them expelling us. This is going to be a total disaster isn't it...

Schauble has come out today and said that we won't be able to join the free market if we vote out. Shouldn't that point be enough? Given that Leave is adamant that we will, and now we're being told that we wouldn't be able to. That's it. Game over man, game over. If we vote out, we're fucking out.

What specifically has turned you?

Sorry, I've had a couple.

Though to be fair, Cameron has made such a balls up of this whole thing I'm not surprised In is hemorrhaging votes

Is that because of all the rational arguments put forward for staying in? At least you're consistent.

13m is better than 8m I guess. That said, fuck off Pardew.

Presumably coming as no surprise to anyone, Sunderland is one of the most Eurosceptic cities in the country, because: “We’re being taken over by foreigners,” he said. “People from Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria – they all end up living here.” Smoking under a plastic shelter away from an unseasonably arctic wind, a colleague, Mark Willshire, pointed out that none of those countries were actually in the EU. But Winyard’s mind was made up: “My great grandad fought for British independence. We shouldn’t let foreigners take over now.” And of course: Kevin Guthry, 59, who is on the Nissan apprenticeship scheme as a condition of collecting jobseeker’s allowance, said he too would be voting to leave. “Look at all these lads,” he said, gesturing with his lit cigarette, “these lads are here because they can’t get real jobs because of all the immigrants.” Guthry is a life-time Labour voter, but not any more. “I don’t like the new leader. It’ll be Ukip for me next time.” Working at Nissan not being a real job, apparently.

Fair enough then, I see what you're saying.

Dunno you know, most of the board meetings I end up going to are populated by people who don't have a huge amount of intelligence. I think Ashley is a particularly poor example mind you, but being a CEO doesn't make you intelligent. I don't think my CEO is massively intelligent, but he'd sure as shit not come out with "I can't control what goes on in my company". That's what he's fucking there to do Granted his staff can make mistakes and he doesn't have individual oversight, but he has more control than anyone else there - he needs proper reporting mechanisms to flag these issues up long before something like a Parliamentary committee is required. My guess is he has no interest in how various aspects of his company operate and, as with Newcastle, looks only to the bottom line. I suspect he's going to resign as CEO at SD and hand over to someone who would spend more time being bothered about these details. Ultimately, his issue is that he can't be arsed with it.

I remember that too Was the Spurs game I think? They clearly pay no attention whatsoever. Hopefully it's the same for everyone and not just us though.

That point on its own is absolutely laughable As if any CEO can reasonably argue that point and not expect to be sacked the next day. If I went into work and claimed that the departments I was responsible for hadn't been performing, but that it wasn't my fault because there were too many to keep on top of, I'd be sacked and replaced with someone who could keep on top of them. Ashley is immune to this of course, given his stake in the company, but still.

This is starting to worry me actually. Is he failing so badly that he's starting to draw sympathy...? The Guardian seems to think this might be the case.