CB Fry

Whenever you're ready. Who are we negotiating with, what are we negotiating about and what are we negotiating away. Come on, SOG, we're all "round the table" as per your mould breaking idea. What's actually on the table?

What did the IRA want? A united Ireland. What have they got? Power sharing, devolved government and the veteran terrorists have replaced the guns for cozy power and validation. Even at the height of the troubles, who the UK was dealing with was clear and what they wanted was clear. Three words, a united Ireland. We negotiated against that and the negotiations lead to a functioning peace. I'll ask again, third or fourth time now, what do IS want, who do they represent and what are you negotiating away to them. Whenever you're ready. You can stop dishing out obvious platitudes of how war is, like terrible. No one is saying otherwise so stop trying to do your usual act of clambering onto a higher horse than everyone else. Who are we negotiating with and what are we negotiating? Anytime you're ready.

It's easy if you try.

Still grandstanding, then.

Absolutely - ETA, the IRA and the Palestinians all have a specific geographic and/or political aim which even in the height of the violence is still a tangible "thing" that they are fighting for and is an endgame that could be negotiated around. This is patently not the same, not least because there isn't even a group to negotiate with - the 7/7 bombers were British kids, so should the UN start negotiating with the British government to stop it? We don't know yet but I'd wager some if not all of the Paris terrorists are French citizens. It's massively complex and at this point virtually impossible for "the west" to even begin to work out how to stop it. And quite frankly it isn't down to the west to stop it anyway, it's down to the perpetrators to stop killing people. SOG and Chapel End Charlie are doing what they usually do on this forum, making a land grab for the facile moral high ground and making out everyone is somehow prejudiced, not like them. SOG spouts some pointless platitudes about "let's start a peace process" like only he's ever thought of it, while accusing others of wanting to "kill all muslims". CEC wades in just behind accusing others of point scoring. The grandstanding begins again.

Meanwhile, in the point scoring Olympics... That's "engaging in proper debate", right there.

No, I think you've just clinched it.

Oh, right. Set up a peace process and follow it through. Weird really that no one on the planet had thought of that until now. Thank God/Mohammad you're here.

...

I'll ask again. To negotiate what exactly?

Pretty despicable that SadOldGit equates yesterday's events with "all Muslims". Sickening.

To negotiate what exactly? This is not Ireland or the Basque region.

You tell me, you started it.

It was never going to be that, and it wasn't. The news was linking it to Muslim extremists pretty much immediately and they knew more than you did.

The fact there might just be some weeny little differences between British Muslims originating primarily from the Indian subcontinent and French Muslims originating primarily from North Africa is pretty freaking obvious really.

In a shock twist, Islamic State have claimed responsibility for it. Never saw that coming.

The false flaggers already at it on twitter.

I reckon it was, like, the bankers. Or Tories or something.

Is the Tim the former forum stalwart Tijuana "Did I mention I live in America? I live in America. Did I mention it?" Tim?

I couldn't resist it. I've brought back my "Saint George" character for a few more posts. Sometimes it's just too easy to churn out some troll-by-numbers obvious stuff. I always like using the word 'subject' in speech marks, that's a really good one. But sorry I forgot to put in a "limey" or two. Bit rusty after a couple of weeks off.

Who exactly is in this "crop of in form players showing why they deserved to be in the national team"? I'd suggest none of them, none of them are as good as a young Scholes, Beckham, Ferdindand or Cole. Or indeed the young Wayne Rooney. Whichever players you're talking about, they're nothing more than the "why are we still playing this lot" of five or six years time. We are rapidly turning into Scotland, there's no golden generation that Roy is not picking on purpose.

If the Echo ran a negative story about the disgraceful seat pricing for the last match of the season, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Yeah, but, like, Everton.

....and sometimes this thread descends into exaggerated melodrama. Come off it.

Who are we going to sell Tadic and Betrand to? With four years left Virgil would be costing someone thirty odd million, which no one is going to pay. Mane will go somewhere but not convinced anyone any good actually wants Victor. Pelle is only going to to Serie A so just depends how much the likes of Juve want him. I suspect not that much, especially at his age. If finishing seventh in the Premier League is treading water then you're probably supporting the wrong club.