trousers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12882499 Cabin crew at British Airways have voted eight-to-one in favour of new strike action. The vote opens the possibility of strikes over Easter, although union sources have previously played down the prospect of any April walk-out. The ballot was a rerun of an invalid vote held before Christmas.

I did search for alternative reports and views on Miliband's appearance at a "no cuts" rally but the left wing media seem very reluctant to highlight his speech for some unfathomable reason.... FFS ;-)

Lallana

Not true. Although I do use that ID exclusively to post nonsense. Granted, it's the one I use the most.

4 of my accounts post exclusively on the lounge and 3 of my accounts post exclusively on the main board. The other 7 are split evenly across all of the forums.

'Ed Miliband's attempts to compare the cause of the protesters to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa was a grotesque piece of hyperbole.' 'Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, addressed Saturday's TUC "rally against the cuts" purporting to represent the "mainstream majority". He doesn't – any more than the thugs who caused mayhem in central London stand for anything other than a predilection for criminal violence. Mr Miliband is entitled to make a speech attacking Government economic policy just as the public sector unions are free to demonstrate against what they consider to be an unwarranted attack on the pay and conditions of their members. But they cannot get away unchallenged with the assertion that they represent anything other than the sectional interests of a client state built up by the last Labour government at great cost to the nation's financial health. Furthermore, Mr Miliband's attempts to compare the cause of the protesters to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa or the campaign for civil rights in America was a grotesque piece of hyperbole that has prompted even his own colleagues to question his judgment.' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8410498/TUC-protest-march-Ed-Miliband-does-not-speak-for-the-country.html

Fait points. Perhaps the word I was looking for was 'gullible' rather than 'stupid'. Edit: and if it was all so obvious, why did successive governments (Tory and Labour) do nothing to stop it?

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. For one, I wasn't duped. I've always set my own risk thresholds when borrowing money. I certainly steered clear of those 100%+ mortgages and maxing out on credit cards, etc, even though it was tempting at the time to keep up with my peers. Instead I settled for a much smaller house than some friends/colleagues saddled themselves with. I'll leave you to guess who is better off now.... Just because some people aren't savvy enough to work out they're being duped doesn't mean that they ('the general public') should dissolve themselves of any blame whatsoever. We all played our part, no matter how small, in the banking 'game'....the Tories, Labour, the bankers, the general public. All of us. Just my opinion of course.

And the point that most people conveniently gloss over is that no-one forced the general public at gunpoint to take out loans they couldn't afford. Yes, the banks were stupid to loan money to the general public who couldn't afford to pay it back, but the general public we're equally stupid to take the money in the first place. We are, indeed, all in this together...

That teach you to give your name as "Mr M Le Tissier" over the phone... ;-))

Oh, just thought of another Blue Peter related regret....Leslie Judd

Goldie (Blue Peter dog) My one regret was never seeing Shep in the flesh.

Source?

He comes across well on here... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2324020,00.html

Maybe this puts our position into some kind of perspective....? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/12859667.stm 10:34 GMT, Friday, 25 March 2011 Colchester United boss John Ward has been told his playing budget will be reduced next season. U's chairman Robbie Cowling, who props up the club financially, has told Ward he wants to make cutbacks. "We are going to look at downsizing in terms of the finances side," the U's manager told BBC Essex.

Aye. Doesn't sound good. But, there again, we were on a similar brink before our takeover. "There seem to be three possible outcomes. Mastpoint either comes good and produces an alternative buyer, or it relents and accepts the purchasers' offer. The third is for the matter swiftly to head to court. If the administrator fails to persuade the courts that the Mastpoint stance is an unnecessary obstruction then Plymouth are likely to disappear. It has got that bad."

And here's all the games being played (involving our promotion rivals) before we next play.... Friday, 25 March 2011 Bristol Rovers v Peterborough, 19:45 MK Dons v Walsall, 19:45 Saturday, 26 March 2011 Bournemouth v Charlton, 13:00 Brighton v Swindon, 13:00 Leyton Orient v Yeovil, 13:00 Sunday, 27 March 2011 Huddersfield v Notts County, 16:00 Tuesday, 29 March 2011 Dag & Red v Brighton, 19:45 Friday, 1 April 2011 Peterborough v Bournemouth, 19:45 One thing seems pretty sure, Brighton ought to be home and hosed before we next play....

Friday, 25 March 2011 Brentford v Carlisle, 19:45 Bristol Rovers v Peterborough, 19:45 Hartlepool v Rochdale, 19:45 MK Dons v Walsall, 19:45 Funnier things have happened.....Ken Dodd, for example.

If my understanding is correct, I think Hypo and a few others are looking at the last 10 games and simply thinking that, out of two decent players at this level, they'd have taken someone with Howard's experience over Stephen's potential as the 'ideal' solution for a midfielder to add that extra ounce of steel to the midfield during the run in. I don't think there's any slagging off of Stephens, or the decision to bring him here, per se.

I understand where Hypo is coming from. I don't necessarily agree with the viewpoint, as a whole, but I can respect it.

I heard he was born on Boxing Day. Hence the confusion. It was actually Saint Stephen's Day. I'm here all week

Who?

I'd be interested to see how many cards Peterborough have. I think they have a 'get stuck in' mentality and look at how many goal chances they create week in, week out. (yes, I know that we typically create more chances than we did against Charlton so that game might be a bad example for me to use)

I've just watched the full 90 minutes of the Charlton game on Saints player (a strange experience without commentary) and the main observation I had was that we rarely tackle our opponents when they get possession in midfield. Instead, we seem to track them until either they run out of danger or make an error and lose possession. I've not been able to get to many Saints games this season so not sure if this is typical of the way we play? I think this could help explain why we seem to have few chances in the first half of many games. At Charlton, due to the lack of tackles in midfield we rarely created chances on the counter attack. Was this a one-off observation at Charlton or do we 'track' rather than 'tackle' opposing players more often than not? Watching the whole 90 minutes on video highlighted more than ever to me that we need someone who gets 'stuck in' in midfield.

Any parallels to be drawn with Etuhu being jailed today? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12846460