Mao Cap

Top guy, is Hutton. Never read a column of his where he hasn't got it spot-on.

Place is the same as it ever was. Indeed, this thread is almost identical to dozens of similar ones on this board and SaintsForever over the past decade.

They're both gimpy...come to think of it I can't remember any party leader who was a real person and not a wimpy Oxbridge type public-school fag. The last one who wasn't was John Smith, I think.

Currently they have a ridiculous rule where a club has to replace terraced areas with seating after three years in the first or second tiers. Of course, modern regulations on the maintenance of terraces, amount of space allotted to each spectator etc. have rendered them no less safe than seats (and a lot better to watch football from than the former terraces which promoted lower league clubs have bolted seats onto, resulting in a stand with cramped conditions and a crap view.) But yeah, the concrete steps magically start biting at peoples' feet after three years, so they have to go. I've been involved with a safe standing group for a few years, but the authorities are extremely pig-headed about acknowledging the need for any change. The English being what they are, any change will take decades rather than years. However, pushing for areas of all-seater grounds where standing is allowed and seats are unreserved is a much more achievable ambition, as is trying to get the stupid regulation outlined above changed.

Well that's what you'd think, but I suspect a number of people would appreciate something other than the identical, bland Blair/Cameron/Miliband types. Political types moan their box off about slimy, insincere "career politicians" but then promptly dismiss as "unelectable" anyone who deviates from this norm. Dear Old Maggie, for example, was an incredibly unlikeable old bag, but she was at least something different - half the population may have loathed her, but the other half f*cking lapped her up.

Maybe she's dead clever but sees no reason to make a show of it? Joking aside I've got a lot of time for Ed Balls. He has an excellent grasp of economics, so much so that his recent analysis of the country's situation even got grudging plaudits from parts of the right-wing press.

Got to hand it to you, Dune-o - you know how to troll

Nope, my name is Paul Krugman. But I share this account with Joseph Stiglitz, Will Hutton, the entire IMF and John Maynard Keynes (though he doesn't post much nowadays). Who are you then big man, now that we're assigning each other imaginary identites? Herbet Hoover? Faggot.

A smattering of oddballs, weirdos and wrong'uns are an essential part of the genuine football experience... That said, those pictures made me feel slightly better about not going tonight (wanted to make the trip but principles about giving Franchise my money prevents me).

Ah yes, the same Ireland that recently had their credit rating downgraded, despite said cost-cutting measures. Mmm, hasn't worked out too well for them.

Hope Barber can keep it cool just for the moment and keep the ascendancy over hotheads like Crow (too militant, though he's always seemed like a top guy to me). Sadly, the effect of the cuts and what it will do to the economy will have to be fully seen and experienced before people see through the smokescreen of bullsh*t thrown up by the right-wing media and understand what this new government is really all about.

These guys -

Good way to get paid all over again and establish a good "tart with a heart" narrative which will hopefully lead into a "career" as a Z-lister. More amused by the parents' apology to be honest - what are they apologising for? Did Rooney bone them as well? The people who I feel most sorry for in all this is the other girls in the brothel. They're only trying to make a living and now the punters are going to dry up like the Sahara, now the selfish cow has blabbed and the place has got a reputation for indiscretion.

West Stand for the first couple of seasons as a kid (first ever game was the last with terracing, one of my abiding regrets is never being in a standing area at the Dell) then Archers Road - Block 2, then 4, then 5. Had some of the happiest memories of my childhood/early adolescence there. Dry in the Bikeshed, it's nice and dry in the Bikeshed

Wearing the same clothes and being into the same music etc. just so you can fit into a certain tribe is just as big a sign of insecurity and problems with forming your own identity as adopting the style of an individual. If you're comfortable in your own skin then you take what you like from the subcultures around you, ignore the Mods v. Rockers type crap that goes along with them and just be a person. That said, the marketing of youth culture as a commodity now successfully stifles any authentic youth subculture (making money out of phoney "rebellion" whilst stopping any genuinely dangerous political sentiments threatening the status quo from taking root amongst the young'uns - the clever buggers in charge learnt a lot from Paris '68 and all that).

The bloke's got a tiny fundie sect a huge amount of publicity with this, will probably increase his church attendances tenfold. Surprised that none of those southern Baptist preacher arseholes have thought this up before, TBH. Their congregations may be thick, but they themselves are very sharp indeed.

Loads of people seem to really dislike Phil Brown. Reasons for this? I haven't paid much attention to the Premiership for a while, and all I know of him is that he once told off the Hull team at half-time on the Man City pitch.

To be fair to the PC Brigade, you also have to give them the credit for the demise of "Love Thy Neighbour" and similar 70s abominations which outnumbered stuff like Fawlty Towers (slightly better but itself one of the most overrated things in history, right up there with The Beatles, Wembley, onions and Winston Churchill) by ten to one.

It's you.

The despicable c*nt needs to watch himself, no doubt the Murdoch media empire has some excellent dirt on him somewhere; will use it too, if he starts throwing tantrums in interviews instead of spouting an endless stream of bullsh*t soundbites fit for Sky Sports News.

There's nothing going on in this country whatsoever, and even journalists realise that there's only so far you can stretch silly-season guff about women putting cats in bins and SamCam's new nipper. So they have to really, really scrape the barrel and report on stuff happening to people who aren't even English. I think they're barmy personally, I'm always up for more filler stories about cute animals.

It's true that older people have a stronger regional accent and the post-war rise of Estuary English, television etc. have made them flatter amongst the young, but there's still marked differences no matter what your age. I knew one bloke I met at university was from Southampton (well Chandler's Ford, near enough) as soon as he started talking because he sounded like people at the football. Constant exposure to Estuary through the exodus from London and the media has made people in the south sound more similar (in the same way that radio programming with strict rules on Standard English sent local dialects into decline) but regional accents will always exist whilst people are brought up by, and spend their formative years with, people with particular speech patterns.

Why film a docile and good-humoured crowd? Waste of damn money.

Make a nailbomb, strap it to yourself and infiiltrate SaintsWeb's Fortress of Darkness. Say that if they don't return your fiver back in ten minutes...KABOOM!

Place is the same as it ever was. It's the nature of message boards that embittered misanthropes with little other social outlet, people on a wind-up and plain old weirdos with a bee in their bonnet about something gain a disproportionately large voice, due to the huge volume of posts they rack up. Popular boards like this one usually have it worst, because with hundreds of users there'll always be someone willing to bite and give trolls the little thrill of satisfaction that comes with knowing they've upset somebody. The only way to stop every thread being derailed into stupid tit-for-tat bullsh*t is to have a mass informal agreement amongst posters that no-one reads or responds to any posts by known trolls, even posts that aren't looking for a bite. With no interaction there's no evidence that you've pished off anyone, so for a winder-upper there's no point in hanging around.