NJS

One of the first times I went to London for a match when I was about 17 I ended up walking from Regent St and towards the Palace and I couldn't help thinking how good it would be to go back in time and ship the workers who paid for it all down there to see the wealth so we could have a French style revolution. Trouble is the peasants in this country have been too beaten down by the whole monarchy/aristocracy bullshit (which is of course is its entire purpose).

NUFC Box Office fuck up? Inevitably. Most of the old codgers with enough points for a derby ticket haven't been to another away game in 10 year. They should base it on the preceding season points total rather than an ongoing accumulated total. As one of those codgers (formerly) I think it should be a mix

Fitch are trying to regain their reputation after quite rightly being called to book for being full of shit during the crunch - I wouldn't trust them to count to 10.

Yep - if the Jews really want to use history to establish so called rights of occupation then why have a cut-off date which suits them? - it reminds me of Griffin's convenient use of 1948 as his "perfect" ethnic make up of Britain. A Failure to recognise ethnic migrations as part of human history needs the ultimate stupidity of religion to make it work - as well as Holocaust sympathy of course.

As Renton said there is a good possibility that its a "simple" matter of Cameron et al being fuckwits. On the other hand maybe they want to proceed with cutting government spending even knowing it will "come good" as you put it as that means more money in tax cuts later. As I've said before that's certainly what Major would have done if he'd won in 97.

I think in general doing someone you don't know a favour as a one-off and charging a few quid isn't that bad in the scheme of things despite what I've said though I wouldn't do it myself. What I don't like is people (including some pretty good friends of mine as it happens) who have such a thing about making a few quid on everything they do that they constantly charge mates £2 or £3 every time they get them a ticket for run of the mill away games. One of my mates is constantly reminded by the rest of us about a £4 quid "booking fee" he once charged someone to swap tickets so the bloke could go in the same section together with his lass.

I think all parties were/are running scared of the markets and almost asking what's okay with them to do - none have/had the courage to suggest anything different. Wanting a "boom" is a bit of a misnomer but even with my very limited economic knowledge I recognise that growth seems to have been "easy" to come by for most of the time that I can remember. Parky and the complete collapse of the system aside, I don't think a defeatist acceptance that any kind of good days can never be achieved again is realistic.

I agree its a strange one considering most of us are only occasional buyers as opposed to the regulars who probably don't pay - you could argue if you only get one twice a year you may as well make it £20 or even £50 - maybe the Irish use the frequency argument to justify charging for GP appointments - something that wouldn't surprise me if the Tories considered it. Another factor is the honesty of pharmacists (and indeed GPs themselves) - I've been given stuff in the past and been told its cheaper than the prescription cost so bought it that way.

Means testing child benefit sounds like a good idea (and I would welcome the exposure of the Mail twats who call anyone on benefits scum but don't mind pocketing it) but I've read that the cost of means testing would be greater than the money saved.

About 6 years ago I sold my ticket foe the whole season (except the derby) to a mate for his kid because he explicitly asked/offered- I think we settled on £20 a game. Apart from that I never charged - including the season before last when I only went to 5 games.

I'd give it to the first face I recognised that didn't have one. I once sold a spare U2 ticket for face value to a fan (and nearly got lynched off the the touts for it) and I even felt guilty about that.

I'd love to see someone have the guts to show this shit up by demanding the US and the rest of the Americas be handed back to the Natives. I also have a nasty streak which would like to see that Spokesbitch who denies torture be waterboarded.

The Wolfman: When I was a kid I remember one xmas BBC2 showed all the Universal monster flicks with Lon Chaney etc and I really enjoyed them (though realise how dated they would look now) and in a way this reminded me of them - overall not bad.

CT while YOU'RE googling grammar, please try "double dip" as well.

RIP Loved the first two albums but the rest were stale - saw them when they were just breaking at an NME tour the night we played Stevenage - a good end to a shit day. Always thought it was harsh they sacked him and when I saw the headline thought it would be a leftover depression job from that but the new band thing suggests something else.

I don't trust them but that doesn't mean I would relish their failure. Of course I would measure their success by the effects rather than the bare numbers.

Yes but surely the aftermath of Canada's cuts coincided with worldwide growth. It reminds me of blinkered Tories who think Thatcher's policies made Britain the only country to "boom" in the 80s when Germany and France did as well without the pain she inflicted. Making savings with efficiency drives sounds good in theory but as the bit about waiting times and infection rates show, you need to be careful you don't go too far. Obviously the question is do we trust the Tories, even with Liberal shackles, to not be over harsh?

2012 - usual Emmerich brain dead enjoyable destruction - spoiled by the happy ending.

What bothers me in the light of the obvious fact that the £6bn is a drop in the ocean is that it seems to be pandering to the markets and ensuring they feel as if the right thing is being done rather than actually thinking about the best strategy. One thing that was suggested in the run up to the election by Labour was to shift the balance of the economy back to manufacturing and away from finance and though realising that would be a tough task, it would have the benefit of having more of an ability to stick two fingers up to a sector which has too much power. Honestly, if that was possible it would have done already. It simply is basic economics that we cant make stuff as cheap as third world countries. My view is that "The Markets" are simply looking back to the 80's and remembering the Tories took the hard decisions and got the public finances back under control. They know they are prepared to do it again. There will be very few winners, only losers unfortunately. I think they took the easy way out in "allowing" the finance sector to boom while not giving a shit about manufacturing (That's Labour as well as Tories) but I don't agree with a defeatist "China will build it all" mentality - I think there is a place for stuff like renewable energy technology and even "local" goods to be made here if it makes economic sense. By the latter I mean in terms of the related benefits of the jobs on the whole economy as I mentioned in relation to mining before. As for the Markets they act on very short term bases and I'm sure they don't really understand what the cuts will mean - they just look back on a shallow level and think "Hmm Thatcher sorted it so it then so it's bound to work now" without any idea about how the world has changed. As I said before theres not that much left in places like the NE that they can cut any more.

What bothers me in the light of the obvious fact that the £6bn is a drop in the ocean is that it seems to be pandering to the markets and ensuring they feel as if the right thing is being done rather than actually thinking about the best strategy. One thing that was suggested in the run up to the election by Labour was to shift the balance of the economy back to manufacturing and away from finance and though realising that would be a tough task, it would have the benefit of having more of an ability to stick two fingers up to a sector which has too much power.

Watched Cass yesterday - probably the best of the hooligan films I've seen so far (still to see Awaydays) although the reason it was better was probably due to it being more of a drama rather than just fights.

The CGT tax change affects 130,000 people - Cameron wants to protect them as a priority over millions of others - same old cunts.

The way I understand it CT is that up until the credit crunch, the deficit and the total debt were considered perfectly manageable - just like a family who has a mortgage and maybe other loans but has a decent total income so everything's okay. The mistake that was made which I think most people accept is that it was assumed the golden age of financial services was unassailable - not many people were predicting such a shitstorm even if in hindsight is seems obvious. I still don't think that going all out to pay off all the debts as soon as possible is the right strategy as I think it will do a lot more harm. I'd rather see a measured approach which says it will be paid off as and when we can afford it. Of course obvious wins like cancelling Trident should be part of that.

As I said, I think they do have advance knowledge - I thought it was designed to provoke debate rather than provide info. Even if they don't, someone in that position should/would have a team who think "Ah MP, for Houghton and Sunderland, I wonder what she'll be asking" and wouldn't have to go a million miles to anticipate a question on jobs or even Nissan. Of course it may be that they just haven't decided on the grant issue which would be fair enough in the timeframe and I wouldn't see anything wrong in him saying that - the fact that he averted the question suggests an answer he didn't want to give as I said.

As far as I'm aware, all initial questions for PMQT are pre-registered - so either his office screwed up or he had to say he didn't know because he wanted to avoid giving the actual answer - probably -"Of course we're cutting the grant - What point of we're going to fuck the NE over again did you not understand"?