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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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  1. This dispriting run of results, with what is perhaps the most expensive squad in the division, is I suppose a remarkable achievement of sorts. Despite that RM seems intent on sticking to his football philosophy (rightly or wrongly) and methinks the club will give him more time to turn things around - but it goes without saying that football is all about results and obviously that familiar old clock is ticking down to midnight now. The next question is who would replace him if it came to that - what decent employed manager would leave any club quite this early in the season? And that appointed would of course be made by the same people who though RM was the right man for the job.
  2. It's not all his fault of course, but methinks the decision to rely upon this young and inexperienced goal keeper was - arguably - one of the principle factors behind last season's utter disaster. I'm also thinking that Bazunu is showing every sign of costing us a golden promotion opportunity this season, unless something changes that is. It's well nigh incomprehensible to me why we have placed ourselves in danger of repeating last season's critical error - I can only think that our coaching staff must be seeing something in him that a ordinary fan,such as myself, just can't. But right or wrong surly signing a experienced - that is top of the championship level at least - back up keeper should really have been very near the top of our transfer priority list given the generous amount of money available.
  3. Me and the boy's first game for quite a while and our first home win since the old king died (well almost). How great it was to see the saints again and get back into the Saturday football habit. As for the game, I haven't read what everyone else has been saying but for me the manager got the starting line up all wrong frankly. Indeed, there were so many changes, with so many "squad" players introduced, the fact that we obviously struggled horrendously in the first half was as predictable as anything could ever be in football. This team selection was tantamount to a insult to both the competition and the opposition and after the first 45 minutes we had exactly what we deserved. The second saw better players introduced and we got much better as a result - what a great goal from Armstrong. But amongst all the drama and celebration of a hard fought victory the impression that we "got away with one" today is hard to deny.
  4. With this fixture postponed - and with more to come perhaps - are the club likely to offer fans ticket refunds if they can't make the revised match dates?
  5. More re the air fitting scenes depicted in Dunkirk:
  6. How can you possibly "crack" a position that doesn't even exist? Some write as if the monumental problem of negotiating our departure from the EU is akin to some kind of 'war effort' with Britain's people and government all united in a common purpose against a common enemy. That alas is very clearly not the case here is it? Indeed, half the nation - the younger and better educated half in the main - didn't in fact vote to leave the EU and they cannot just be ignored as if they have become irrelevant somehow. While the public seems to be split (more or less) 50/50 on the question, there seems little reason to doubt that both houses of parliament would vote overwhelmingly to remain in the EU were parliament alone given the responsibility of deciding the issue - which many might think they should be in a parliamentary democracy such as ours. Even the 'them and us' style language I see employed now re our new relationship with the rest of Europe is a pretty good illustration of exactly why we joined the European community in the first place and also why our political class should never have risked placing this nation into the appalling lose/lose situation it now faces. Even if the Brexit negotiations go well then all we have to look forward to is that the coming damage to our society and economy is limited. If the negotiations continue as badly as they have started ... well the next decades may be a pretty grim time in this nation's long history. So I ask myself how can what is a manifestly a DISUNITED nation be reasonably expected to present anything resembling a united face in the Brexit process?
  7. I too have seen 'Dunkirk' - and left the cinema feeling rather more irritated than impressed with it. At this distance in time from the event it is admittedly a difficult task to make what should be a entertaining and historically accurate war film, especially if the budget available isn't a huge 'Hollywood blockbuster' style one. Nevertheless, if you are going to make any serious film about this crucial aspect of our national story then there is surely a implicit duty on the film-maker to get the film as faithful to the actual wartime event as it possibly can be. I don't think Director Christopher Nolan and his collaborators achieved than aim satisfactory. The film is divided into three sections dealing with the how the battle was experienced from the differing perspectives of young British soldiers trapped on the beach, RAF Spitfire pilots attempting to provide them with some degree of air-cover, and one of those iconic civilian small boat crews engaged in the rescue operation - the latter of course our defining national image of Dunkirk. Dealing with these aspects of the story in turn, for some reason our solders are all depicted as venal types hell-bent on securing their own personal survival at almost any cost. OK, I suppose 'looking after number one' is a valid enough human behaviour in war (or any other) time. But methinks soldiers can also be disciplined, courageous and even self-sacrificing at times - not that you would comprehend that truth by seeing this film. Another serious flaw with 'Dunkirk' is that at no time did it look like there were hundreds of thousands of men stranded on that beach as there were in reality. Too often the director chose to employ panoramic long shots that while attractive from a cinematic viewpoint only served to betray the lack of resources available to him. Modern CGI effects might have been employed more to make it appear that more men, ships and aircraft were on screen, but presumably were unaffordable. Blatantly including modern container handling cranes in a film set in the 1940 is inexcusable I my view. The air battles depicted are crippled by the small number of WWII aircraft available to film makers now, for example the same lone Heinkel bomber is shot down about a dozen times. I must also add that - as superb as it undoubtedly was - in reality the Spitfire did not field the seemingly inexcusable supply of ammunition depicted in this film! If you have ever seen the older 'Battle of Britain' film then you will know how air warfare really should be depicted on film. Much the same problem exists with attempting to realistically portray 1940 era warships - the small boats seen are fine but to work around the lack of authentic warships post-war vessels are tarted up to vaguely resemble their WWII counterparts - many may not mind this but the resultant mock-ups look so unrealistic they irritated me no end. This film isn't all bad of course, indeed despite being constantly annoyed by it 'Dunkirk' will entertain many and it did hold my attention throughout. Many of the big set-piece scenes are quite effective - the sinking of the hospital ship alongside the mole for instance - and Mark Rylance is always worth watching. However, the overwhelming impression this film left me with is one of disappointment. 4/10.
  8. National stereotypes are odious of course, but we can perhaps say that the British have earned for themselves a reputation as a moderate and reasonable people in the main - that approach to life has I think served us pretty well in the past. But it would seem that every now and again we collectively go a bit mad and that hard-earned sense of 'reasonableness' is abandoned for something that looks very much like the extremism and intolerance we might associate with other less fortunate lands than this. Evidence to support this contention can be found below: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/brexit-is-worth-family-members-losing-their-jobs-say-leave-voters-over-65_uk_59806ffae4b00bb8ff3975bb• • Half of Leave voters over the age of 65 would be happy for their family members to lose their jobs in order to ensure Brexit goes ahead. • 61% of people who voted Leave at the referendum think that “significant damage” to the UK economy is a price worth paying for taking Britain out of the EU. • One in three Remain voters (34%), said that “significant damage” economy would be a price worth paying if it meant Brexit was stopped. • One in five Remain voters would happily see the economy suffer “just to teach Leave voters a lesson”. Whichever way you voted last year I think that if you find yourselves agreeing with ANY of the above sentiments then you really need to have a strong word with yourself. That bloody referendum has not only damaged this lovely old nation of ours economically and politically, just as importantly our sense national unity has been harmed as well. Wounds this deep take a long time to heal and always leave a scar I fear.
  9. When seen from the proper perspective a political philosophy employed to justify the waging of expansionist wars or extremist religious beliefs used to excuse terrorist crimes appear to be very much two sides of the same old coin methinks - it's all mass murder at the end of the day is it not? Surely you must have recognised how almost god-like men such as Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler became in the eyes of their most devoted followers. By the way, the current Commander in Chief of the US Air Force describes himself as a Christian for what it is worth.
  10. So if the USAF is not in your view a Christian organisation - because as you say not all its members are indeed Christians - then presumably this also must mean that (for example) the Italian Air Force of WWII cannot be viewed as a instrument of fascism as only a minority of Regia Aeronauctica personnel were also Fascist Party members. This is the underlying logic of your argument here is it not? Research (by the Pew Organisation) shows that some 70% of adult US citizens identify themselves as to some extent followers of the Christian faith. In the light of that obvious reality if some elsewhere in the world choose to see the armed forces of this predominantly Christian nation as essentially Christian in nature then it could be argued that they hold a not entirely unreasonable opinion. This is not by the way a attempt to support or excuse terrorism, but rather a small effort to explain that not everyone in the world sees things from our western, perspective. To better understand the world in all its complexity you must make some effort to see things from "the other side of the hill".
  11. The fact that the modern motor industry is a highly international one with few (if any) vehicles assembled from components sourced from within a single county is well understood. Equally comprehensible I would have thought is the prospect that crashing out of the EU Single Market in the so called "hard Brexit" manner some extremists seem to favour leaves British industry facing a extremely difficult problem exporting to what are by far its biggest markets. If we end up with government having to subsidise industry again, to compensate for a new tariff regime with the EU27 perhaps, then where is the money to come from? If this kind of stuff doesn't worry you then you just don't understand the issue here. This has nothing to do with your 'project fear' or the dark art of spinning - that is the situation we now face.
  12. The above link clearly states that the electric drive-train in question will be manufactured in Germany and then shipped over to Cowley for installation. So while this is a 'good news story' for our threatened automotive sector in the short term, in the longer term BMW could shift production out of the UK with minimal disruption to their electric vehicle plans. #projectcoldhardreality
  13. Evidence that Brexit is indeed already damaging our economy mounts as Morgan Stanley becomes the latest big financial institution to start exporting jobs out of London: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/21/brexit-banking-exodus-theresa-may-morgan-stanley
  14. I must say that while you claim to be agnostic on the issue you come across here as a "Leaver". I seem to recall that one of (the many) arguments put forward re "freedom of movement" was that Brexit would somehow prevent the many millions of Turks who were (apparently) about to descend on our shores from arriving here. You will agree I hope that this particular piece of xenophobic scaremongering was more a clear misrepresentation of the truth rather than another of your "debatable" matters.
  15. Yeah, that is a semi fair point I suppose - had everyone who opposes Brexit somehow all voted Lib-Dem collectively at the last election then we be heading in a different direction now. But you do understand I hope that was never going to happen in the real world where our main opposition party doesn't actually "oppose" Brexit, because its leader dislikes the Single Market for ideological reasons that are very far from why some of those on the right also want us out of the EU. I call this situation "the nexus of crap".
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