pap

True, but the welfare system needs a proper look at anyway. The missus and I would actually be better off if we didn't live together, and not just financially. She's after going back to work. There are numerous schemes available, but because she has stayed at home looking after the kids on my income (and didn't sign on), she's entitled to feck all.

That thread over on North Stand Chat is very good, half full of people saying that they have 100% ( or even more ) ability in Gus' ability to put it right, many others saying that the man had no plan B. Another difference between Brighton and Southampton is that we'll still have the same manager in Feb!

This looks the absolute nuts. Honestly didn't think I'd be this excited for GTA again after the underwhelming fourth instalment. Completely agree with St Marco. Better graphics maybe, but GTAIV felt like a massive step backward for the series.

Very cool. Didn't even know that was an option. They obviously didn't fancy me for the job

Oh, and I don't trust the match engine "motivation" feature either. I've taken people off for "Playing without confidence" - as soon as they're subbed, they've either "Played okay" or "Had a good game".

I set a scout to look at the English Reserves league. Went to click on 'Reports', and while the name information was there, nothing else (club, position, etc) could be seen. During some of the press conferences, I've been quizzed about players who were reportedly just injured that were actually in full health. The 'Team Meeting' feature seems to be hit and miss - ended up royally p*ssing off my side for a couple of comments. Players moaning about wanting to leave the club, but going absolutely apesh*t when you offer them mutual termination. Scouts basically reaching a limit of players that they can find, and finding no-one else ( even though there are plenty of other players they haven't looked at ).

Finished my first season last night. No reloading, and a respectable first in the Champ with around six points to spare. There is a lot to like in this release, but there is also a lot to fix. I'm actually considering waiting for the next patch, which is par for the course these days. I expect it is worse in a game like FM because some of the sheer volume of variables and choice involved. Must be really difficult to QA.

Even if they do get married, it's still crap if they are good mates (which is kinda why I asked). Imagine the conversation when your mate comes to visit. "So, did she ever let you take her up the...." Ahem.

This reflects my experience in the main. Whenever I get cold called from overseas, I mess the caller up by mentioning things that they would be unlikely to know about. I once spent fifteen minutes on the blower with a lady who was trying to sell me a mobile phone insisting that another provider had called me the night before, only they had promised to chuck in a "free stoat" and I wasn't interested until her deal had some parity. Eventually, the poor lady asked "what is stoat", to which I replied "a small riverside mammal!" on a guff of laughs. A good way to unsettle male callers is to ask them if they would like to go dancing. I nicked that from Charlie Brooker, who harrassed some tech support lines years back. Oh, and I have been personally plagued with Jehovah's Witnesses. I have to say, my last response was very rude. "Yep, yep, it's all fun and games until a relative needs a blood transfusion". Bam. Honestly, it's not being rude that's the problem. Every minute you're polite is another minute you let them prey on your humanity and ultimately get their way. I like to think I'm doing them a service by not giving them that opportunity. Hopefully, each knockback just adds one more notch to the "feck this for a game of soldiers" count. Might eventually lead to them finding a better way to make a living. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

How good a mate is he?

It's nicely organised around our area, and the kids love it. However, scouse nippers would go for Embassy Number One over Bensons. I also insist on Cains as it is the local brewery.

Yup, extrapolating the one experience to be the whole experience. That bloke aside, fans in general genuinely don't realise that we've got danger all over the park.

I think a lot of it is ignorance. They haven't seen much of us lately, certainly not the team that was being forged in League One. They're probably doing the math:- Newly promoted side + We're ace, innit = 0 - 3 away win! *Some other variables, like numerous St Marys based spankings, not included in the above equation.

I must admit, one of my post-match rituals is finding a complete match thread on the other team's forums. They typically start with a few bullish predictions of victory, someone will mention that at some point, Southampton will go plummeting down the league. The match thread normally has several expletives punctuating the commentary as our goals fly in, while the aftermath is a bitter dissection of how bad their own team was. The Southampton vs Boro thread ( already linked elsewhere on SaintsWeb ) is a classic example. I'm pretty sure that Championship managers are learning to fear the mighty Saints FC, especially at Fort St Marys. The fans, especially our keyboard warrior counterparts, are something else. How long will it take before they realise that getting "accidentally hammered by Southampton" really isn't an accident?

Which I believe we'll start to pick up. Sometimes, results do not go the way they should. We deserved at least a point against Leicester and all three against Derby. The team continued to compete in both of those games until the very end. I think we need to be a lot more disciplined in the first half away ( we conceded very early goals at Leicester and Derby, which ultimately cost us points ). Don't think this will be lost on the management either. They evaluate every game and I have every confidence that Nige and co will nip the stupid mistakes in the bud.

Well, it happens all the time. Do you honestly think that the Murdoch kids would be in such high flying positions within News International if not for dear old dad? What about people born into the Rothschild or Rockefeller families? I know that you're talking specifics with regard to the monarchy, and forgive me if I am over-generalising, but it seems to me that the bone of contention here is people getting something others cannot because of who their parents are. Being born into any of the family empires I've just mentioned would give you massive advantages over 99.99999% of the rest of the world.

I have a lot of sympathy for your position, 1976_Child. Where do you stand on the wider concept of inherited status? Hereditary peers are an obvious example, but even a child born into wealth is going to have a lot of advantages over a kid who is raised in relative squalor.

San Andreas Mod for GTAIV PC. Dunno how good it is.

Ravanelli - "I come to England because I am still hungry" (for cash) Emerson - "My wife is ill. She doesn't like Middlesbrough as she feels it is too cold. I find it hard to concentrate on football as my wife is unhappy living in Middlesbrough."

The interesting thing is, Labour would have gotten away with this, because the modern party has never really been anti-EU. How disenfranchised must Tory voters be at the moment? Lied to again and again by the people who are supposed to be looking out for them.

I don't think that anyone could take issue with big bonuses if they were commensurate with what a director brings to his or her company. The problem is, directorship isn't really about competence in many organisations. It's about getting on with other directors, and keeping the crap away from your door. Another problem is that once you get one bad director, you start to collect others like lint. No-one wants to have people around them that make them look bad. Solution? Hire numpties and mask their deficiencies as "vision" ( until you have a big feck-up to reassign ).

Amazing, really. Following Monday's debate, it now appears that those countries in the Eurozone are going for tighter integration. Given this major change in the makeup of the EU, will Cameron and co give us a referendum when the plans are finalised?

Well, mandatory means as a rule. Using your squiffy pugilist as an example, he would get a life sentence for getting convicted for two 'scraps' (e.g. whatever form of violent assault you're euphemising ). The question is, would he be as slap-happy after his Skol if he knew his life could be at stake?

Listening to 6'o'clock news on Radio 4. Apparently, the Government is looking to introduce mandatory life sentences for anyone who is convicted of a sexual or violent offence for a second time. Good deterrent?

I think £145.50 per year to avoid doing bird is excellent value. The quality programming at the BBC is an added bonus.