trousers

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2013/04/the-philpott-case-should-prompt-debate-about-britains-underclass/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/hbos/9971610/Dont-blame-the-HBOS-bankers-blame-the-politicians-who-cosied-up-to-them.html

Biggest hurdle to this working? Apathy.

Happy Birthday Pompey http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/LatestNews/news/Happy-Birthday-Pompey-4279.aspx "the period that followed was the finest in the club’s history" Yep, I'm sure those businesses, tax payers and charities owed c.£150m agree with that...

Tory Treasury ‏@ToryTreasury7m Balls considering changing deficit ratio and abandoning ring-fences. So Lab planning tax rises & cutting the NHS... http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/04/labour-deficit-reduction-plan-election …

...

It's only "ouch" if people form their opinions based on headlines rather than the detail...ah...yes... I see what you mean...

Don't disagree with you and, yep, the root cause here is someone with an evil mentality wanting to control everyone and everything in his path. I think it's right to look at the environments these people operate in and ask ourselves whether 'society' was in any small way making it easier for him to operate in the way he did. Whether we like it or not evil people do use children as pawns in their em quest to control and the more pawns they are able to 'afford' the more controlling they can become. I just don't think we should make it easy for these scumbags to be scumbags.

Yep, agree that Osborne, like all politicians, said what his 'audience' wanted to hear. Whether it was a reasonable thing to say is a matter of opinion I guess

I use the Photon app - works really well

That was one of the conclusions that one of the documentaries I watched came to so I'm drawing on that really rather than coming to my own conclusion. I guess there were many contributory factors going on here, including the 'control mentality' aspect, which is why calling for 'a debate in the country' about it is a good thing IMO. The 'debate' may well conclude the welfare system had nothing whatsoever to do with why he had the kids in the first place and treated them like pawns but until we have that debate we'll be no closer to knowing the motivations of scum like this.

He wasn't claiming that there was a direct 'cause and effect' link to this man's lifestyle choice and the tragic death of these children. He was saying there should be a discussion in the country as to whether the system encourages SOME people to create a scenario whereby something like this is more likely to happen. I guess I'll be accused of being callous by stripping away the emotional aspect of the situation (just because I look at something logically doesn't mean I'm unaware of the emotional side of the story) but if you watch the various documentaries about this bloke, it's quite clear the only reason all those children were conceived in the first place is because he saw them as a source of income. The stark, unemotional, reality is that those 6 kids would never have been born to die in a house fire if 'the system' wasn't so easily milkable. So, you can't say there's NO connection whatsoever. Of course, the reason people get "outraged" by the likes of Osborne daring to make a connection is because the implication is that they are tarring every welfare claimant with the same brush. Of course "the system" doesn't produce evil scum like this bloke - he would have turned out evil whether there was a system to milk for money or not. So, by 'mending' the welfare system you're never going to rid society of scum like this but you MAY channel their evil in a direction that doesn't involve the sad loss of 6 innocent kids.

Just watched the Adkins pre-match press conference and he was asked at the end: "Do you think Southampton will stay up?". His answer...."yes, they'll finish in the top ten"

To me it depends if they measure the success against the expectations of each team across the month - I think, overall, Pochettino's Southampton exceeded expectations more than Moyes' Everton did in the same period. Yes, we've got an ugly result in there but the unbeaten run of Norwich away and Liverpool + Chelsea at home 'beats' 3 Everton home wins, two of which they would have been expected to win, IMO

Yes, you're right, I'm guilty of sometimes using the same type of inflammatory and "childish" language that I get bombarded with in Facebookland and the like. I guess its human nature to semi-consciously head down the "if you can't beat them join them" path in a debate scenario. At least it perhaps proves there's a modicum of human-esque behaviour somewhere in the depths of my murky mind...

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/comment/alex-massie-uk-says-yes-to-benefit-cuts-1-2875649

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/alex-massie/2013/04/welfare-reform-is-this-governments-most-difficult-but-most-popular-policy/ http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-article/8880981/welfare-that-works/

Neil Allen ‏@pn_neil_allen15h So both The Sun and The Mirror duped by fake Kanu account. Fact is he took #Pompey to FL tribunal over disputed £3m. And didn’t get much!

They still emptied the public purse, and borrowed when that run out, like a good old fashioned Labour government...

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/a-message-to-the-fans-040413-751885.aspx

Voiceover: "No team in 12th place after 31 games has ever been relegated" - that had a nice ring to it

Just a wild guess from me based on a hunch. Whatever the outcome it should still provide enough entertainment next season.

Yep, makes sense thinking about it. Which is actually why I think Pochettino stands a good chance of winning it this time.

Aren't the Labour Party the only alternative to what's currently happening? I think its reasonable to look at the one and only alternative when the current approach isn't working. That's simple problem/solution analysis, isn't it? My job: Computer software isn't working...either fix it or evaluate an alternative solution.