NJS

Take away the 52 week emphasis and that sums up how I feel - though I doin't actively hope that England lose.

Lefties in general love knocking Israel while giving Muslims a bit of an easy ride - I think because they see right wing anti-muslim feeling as something to be opposed. I on the other hand see religious fuckwittery on both sides which I have no respect for so tend to call cuntery on both sides (or at least I try to).

I'd echo that the joke would be okay if you knew her better - I work with Germans and have exchanged good war jokes/comments with a few but only with ones I knew well ehough to joke about general things as well.

That well known English indigenous animal the Lion - always thought it was out of place - should have used bears or wolves.

How does that fit with his big society ethos which seeks a reduced role for government? Do you think he wants to spend the same money on less things (not exactly a bad idea) or perhaps he actually wants more scope in the future for tax cuts? Not realising a Tory's entire purpose is lower tax for the rich is what's really beyond stupid.

The "We are..." he spouts always gets a "no, you're a fucking actor" from me. The "77 out of 111 women agreed" bugs me as well.

Okay maybe not at a personal level but I still think any regulation of the City or the banks as people have called for with hindsight would have been met with "Old labour, attacking business as usual". I may have been the right thing to do (though of course it would have reduced income as well) but politically it would have been suicide. The Tories would never have even contemplated it.

Of course Joe Public himself has to shoulder some blame for revelling in the credit provided by that deregulation. As I've said before if Brown had at any time said "I'm going to massively limit personal credit and lending" he would have been crucified.

The shares will depend on timing but I've mentioned before that a lot of the loans given wwre at 11% which will raise a fortune - not sure if it's counted though.

There's a lot of shit being taked about "millions of pointless public sector jobs" being created by Labour - I saw some figures yesterday which showed the percentage of public workers of all jobs and its been pretty set at about 20% even going back through Major's time. If the bank bailout is included then the figures will go "off the scale" if it isn't then they won't.

I was a bit disappointed with Jon Stewart's bit on Helen Thomas (though perfectly understand it at the same time given he's Jewish) but he made the same mistake of ignoring the "and America and everywhere else" part of the quote. He did say it was more of a case of seeing someone you respected fuck up I suppose.

A complete cut in the defence budget is unfeasible, but I'd withdraw from all Afghanistan and not get involved in any future conflicts wherever possible immediately. That, or education and health. Not a difficult decision for me. I probably agree a total cut is not on but the thrust of the argument that if every other government department has to justify every penny they spend then the armed forces shouldn't be exempt from that is a good one. Of course it would take balls the size of Buster Gonad to stand up to the generals and the ensuing shit storm but vague enemies and threats should be explained and justified.

Being offered £150 quid without naming your price and being tempted to take it is one thing (though still dodgy), setting your price at that in the first place is another and a cunt's trick imo.

Theres an article in the Guardian this morning which I agree with which would give LM an instant stroke - a suggestion that if Osbourne want's to talk about "once in a lifetime" changes then why not completely cut the defence budget - ie to zero. £45bn per year.

That game wasn't even sold out though I can't remember tbh - note it was the one the year after (when Gillespie got fucked) when the building work meant even fewer tickets but at least then they did base it on the points.

Don't horses have an annual breeding cycle which means the mares are only in heat for a month or so? If I'm right I guess that excuses walking round with a hard on just in case.

I'm not sure what it's like now that they have 75k but I went to Old Trafford on spec in 94 when the allocation was reduced and Fletcher gave all the tickets to his mates. The car park outside the Munich clock became a feeding frenzy akin to those scenes with crocs where someone hoys meat in among a few when someone announced they had a ticket and were surrounded by people bidding for it. There were of course packs of touts hunting for people with spares while this was going on. I had to leave - it was fucking sickening. (BTW I'd guess 90% of the bidders were Irish)

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). ;) Fuck me you must be a right trotsky or summit 17 in London for your first toon match and your thinking about the down trodden workers from up north. One of the first - it was an overnight job, wandering the streets after the market pubs shut and before the normal ones opened. Have I not mentioned my desire to see the first one thousand people in line to the throne executed before? (Now a named list of 1454 thanks to Wikipedia).

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.