John Boy Saint

Just smoothing the way for Independence.

thanks

Jeez for a bloke who has admitted that he was 4 when Maggie came to power, you certainly are having a lot of fun with this subject matter. I have been through the towns decimated by the closing of the highest employer be it steel, coal, cars. I had to try and sell my wares in those towns I was in my very early twenties, it was pretty bloody depressing to do and see. But hey I lived in the "affluent" south of England I could escape I could trundle home to "normality". I felt for those people, but being one of Maggies Children I am probably to some a bit of a hard faced bastard when it comes to self preservation, when I got kicked severely in the nuts I did what the Chingford Skinhead said and got on my bike and did something about it, but that didn't stop me feeling for the poor sods who did not have the opportunities or didn't know where those opportunities were to escape the vortex they were in. Negative equity and soaring interest rates that saw letter for the next mortgage payment that was nearly as much as my monthly salary before I had even thought about eating, all in Maggies tenure, and as a result of the actions of her governments policies. Did anyone give a toss at my plight the, cold sweats, the fear of losing my house: No. Was I luckier with the opportunities available to me compared to those who had lost the only way of life they had known for years: Too bloody right.................... Hey I can't hide from it but I certainly dont need someone questioning my solidarity with other peoples suffering. Just as footnote my Father was from a Coal mining Family not a million miles from your stated location, they were private mines that the NUM tried to interfere with to no avail, but the fall out from the closures and cheap imports saw them eventually close prematurely, so my empathy runs a little deeper than you realise................. blimey I got lucky there too as I was en-route into the that side of the families line of work until I got nudged in another direction.

Like someone said some pretty poor comments on here, quite funny that The Sun newspaper, one that you would feel would have a predominantly anti Maggie readership have conducted a poll asking whether she was good for the country 50% said yes 34% said no (16% probably didnt understand the question) so even from beyond the grave she nails another landslide. What is also funny is those who are painting her as a nasty piece of work, are delivering their thoughts with quite a bit of vicious vitriol. If we were fans of a northern Mining town team you would expect no less, but for fans of a team in the South of England the axe to grind in her direction is pretty feeble. Unless of course you were denied your seat on the gravy train that existed down the docks. To get this back on track marking her passing in a football stadium is not the best idea

So how do the Stadiums owned by the Cities and Towns stack up with this in the German Bundesliga?

For those who might be interested it is repeated tonight at 11:35 on ITV. Even Bazza might find out that she wasn't just parachuted in for a bit giggle.

I would like to do that ferry route one day, just the cost in the summer ain't cheap, be nice if those loverly Tesco Clubcard people could get friendly with Brittany Ferries. As for the comment by Art regarding the criminal gangs, they still exist however the French got a little embarrassed by the frequency a few years back and clamped down, so it is not a highway man behind every tree. On the Toll motorways as you are videoed in and out of the Peage sections and in and out of many Aires these criminals don't like that. Just as you would here be a little bit smart. Walk round your car if you have left it alone check the tyres etc. In Spain use the service facilities in shifts. When you see massive signs advising you to stop no more than 7 minutes on the Motorway Laybys in 6 different languages including the local one you know you should just hang on a little longer for the full facility service area.

Scargill thought he could take on the Government and democracy, and in the process of let many of those funding his Empire building exercise down. Even Kinnock "thanked him for losing him the election". As for selling the Silverware, having taken over healthy economy Gordon Brown still managed to piddle the bulk of the healthy Gold reserves up the wall. So it's amazing that one woman can stop this country going down the drain in the 80s, yet even from behind the veil of a Labour Government (who never wasted a penny:ever) she still manages lead this country to the dogs. Woohoo you got a bite!!

Have an annual pilgrimage to the Costa Brava each year, travel via the Tunnel (use your Tesco club card vouchers to cheapen the cost). Normally get into France around 9am Shop briefly for Wine, then having been stuck round Paris so many times, route via Rouen, Dreux, everaux, Chartres then on to the A10 in a directly southerly direction (gets a bit monotonous around 3pm flat and straight) go all the way to Issoire south of Clermont Ferrand (from here the A75 to the A9 is free Millau aside). Stop over at Issoire we got there at just before 6pm last year. I hasten to add that I drive 40k miles a year so drive consistently for hours at a time with ease. Left the hotel at 07:15 stop for breakfast 30mins, we were getting off the AP7,which goes all the way to the very bottom of Spain, at Junction 6 just after Midday. It was raining so I put my Bosses villa at La Manga 800 junctions further south into the Sat-Nav just see what time we would get there as it was warmer, ETA was set at 8:30pm. Marbella must be another 4-5 hours further on!! if you have less than 3 weeks I would fly to Southern Spain as the drive home would possibly negate the benefit of the Holiday.

Have to agreed with that, When she came to power I was at an age where I was just becoming politically aware, and like many have said this country was going down the drain. Not only was rubbish piling up in the streets but many were unable to bury their loved ones who had passed away. The Unions had the country by the short and curlys, I recall car park votes to strike on TV where the show of hands was the ballot and the show of hands NOT to strike was visibly greater than those who wanted to. In Southampton I had an uncle who worked down the docks, the amount of times he would be home early because of strike action, if the mob rule of the Unions had not been broken by her hard line stance, Southampton would not be the successful city it is now. Whilst some of her policy's will never go down well, understandably, in some parts of the country. And some commentators above have posted that she is responsible for some of the woes today, if she hadn't been so bloody minded we would be in much more sorry state than we find ourselves today, just look at the grief in the Eurozone funny how we dodged that. I wonder how many of the older posters who saw the sorry state we were in when she took up her tenure, had a feeling of deja vu when it's was revealed in a note in the treasury after the last election that read something like: Good Luck - there is nothing left. The one thing that Mrs Thatchers policy's did do was to make us as politically aware as we are today, which is why some many of us have a cynical view of politics today. She did a damn sight more good than bad. RIP

I was surprised Shearer didn't re tell his story about when he was a nipper with us in a training game and found himself 1 on 1 with John Burridge. Shearer said he thought he had better pull out of the impending challenge for fear of damaging our number 1 goalie, apparently Budgie grabbed hold of Shearer and told him to never pull out of a 1 on 1 with a keeper as they expect to get hit. They say you have to be slightly un hinged to be a goalie, and Boruc fits that bill. I think the water bottle incident was a defining moment, as he was flapping at fresh air so many times up to the point where he was getting the bird from the fans, his reaction was not professional, but I think the investigation (which had more to do with a young steward being brushed by the bottle) was a bit of a wake up call for him, as when he returned he certainly was meaner and leaner. Good on him.

On Radio 5 earlier he was blowing sunshine up our backsides: just hope he predicts a 2-3 win for Wet Spam next week.

Always been impressed, absolute steal at the generous £750k we gave Rangers. In fear of being slapped down the only analogy I can think of is: a cultured intelligent Richard Chaplow.

What a nasty attack of Schadenfreude! I would have thought Newcastle would be a bit of a giggle!

Why not, plenty of games left, be a giggle to see in all done in one game.

Seems to be in the genetic make up of Saints, donkeys years ago even when we were nowhere near the danger zone, we would lose against a teams below us and my Grandad would always comment "typical Saints beat the teams above them, struggle against the ones below them: been the same for years". That was back in the 80s.

Thank you Shroppie: the home measure fog was beginning to descend when I posted so missed out the punchline warm up.

The FA Cup should be the Full Stop to the domestic season.

If he wants out can't see The Don letting him go for a loss. So unless he pulls his finger out he will be festering here for a while, also can't see The Sheriff or The Don tolerating a Billy big Bo11ocks attitude from anyone regardless of their price tag.

Anyone see the Karren Brady interview with Piers Morgan, quite interesting when you see how young she was when put in charge of Birmingham City regardless of what you may instantly think of her it's pretty impressive. I liked the yarn about going on the team bus to Newcastle using the toilet on the bus, on the way back to her seat one of the players shouted out " I can see your Tits from here!", the next week She sold that player to Tranmere and she never heard a sexist comment after that. Even rinsed Barry Fry early on and earned his respect, which from the outside is no mean feat.

Nice strike

Martin Keown in the Daily Snail on Saturday is just as bad he has us down for a plucky defeat nearly every Saturday. Although the guest pundit who is a current playing professional is a bit more realistic for us, Jack Cork had a go a couple of weeks back. Last Saturday Craig Bellamy had a go: Keown had us down for a 1-2 defeat Bellamy 1-3. This Saturday should be interesting as our game is one of those you can't realistically call due to the all the luggage surrounding it: so I guess he will go with the draw.

What nice well spoken young man.

The route to the final when the group stages are over in 4 games time looks interesting: and very open. http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/barclays-u21-premier-league-tables.html?paramYouthStage=KNOCKOUT

Needs flash, there is a way of doing it which someone on here is bound to be able to apply.