trousers

Not surprising given the weather forecast

On here or in the real world....?

I'm pro FPTP, but with constituencies more balanced than they are now (in terms of number of voters per constituency)

Won't be personal use if he coincidentally has a company meeting in the vicinity on the same day...

And not forgetting we've lost 5 league game this season on a saturday when there hasn't been a preceding midweek game...

The Arsenal OS hinting that he's here to get first team experience rather than just keeping the bench warm..... http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/shea-joins-southampton-on-loan "James will now hope to taste competitive action with the Saints"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjGRBFd7mQ

2+2=5 alert.... This perhaps suggests our dialogue with Arsenal (re: Chamberlain) during the transfer window was more amicable than Cortese's Daily Telegraph interview portrayed....?

Saints have signed goalkeeper James Shea on loan from Arsenal following an injury to Bartosz Bialkowski. Shea, 19, has joined for one month and goes straight into the squad for Saturday's trip to Rochdale. The young 'keeper is known for his superb shot-stopping ability, and he has recently signed a contract extension with the Gunners, who rate the youngster highly.

All 50 goals now on one Saints Player video: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/player/LatestNews/0,,10280~2296589~1,00.html

I don't know what industry you're in or which part of local government you work for but I've seen similar, if not harsher, wage freezes and budget cuts over the last 5+ years in the private sector (within my industry). This doesn't make the fact the public sector are now 'catching up' with the cost rationalisation that has happened in the private sector any more palatable of course but.....perhaps....it does put the current public spending cuts into some kind of perspective.

Sorry to hear about your personal circumstances which, of course, don't fit into my somewhat generic devil's advocate replay of the Daily Mail article. Looking at your role though, if there is enough "essential" work to keep 4 people fully occupied then on the surface it seems like a false economy to be laying off 1 out of those 4 people. Perhaps 'the powers that be' see the overall service provided by your team/department as "essential" but feel that the work coming up can be carried out by 3 rather than 4 people? Has the team always comprised of 4 people during your 28 years or has it fluctuated depending on the local government workloads? I work for a small-ish (15 man) software company and our headcount fluctuates up or down by 3 or 4 employees on a year-by-year basis depending on demand. That's seen as 'normal' in my industry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1358099/Whatever-happened-Sheffield-Wednesday.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358144/Labours-3m-town-hall-jobs-bonanza-employed-deliver-frontline-services.html#ixzz1EIw22soW "Figures revealed in Parliament – separately from the LGA statistics – showed that town hall jobs hit 2.9million under Labour, up 179,000 from 1997. That means that even if disputed trade union claims that 162,000 local government posts are now under threat are true, local government employment would still be higher than it was when Labour came to power. Overall, 57 per cent of all the jobs created under Labour were state or ‘para-state’ jobs, meaning they are dependent on public spending."

They could still do this, albeit indirectly....

It doesn't have to be 'officially' associated with this forum though. But, as I say, there is nowt stopping members of this forum coming together one day in May and playing a game of football against people who happen to use a.n. other forum. If I was the organisers of this event I would concentrate on raising as much money for charity as possible rather than worrying about the cosmetic exercise of some kind of official endorsement. It's only a couple of Internet forums. Nothing to trouble the United Nations with.

Surely people can set up a team called "SaintsWeb Forum Posters" if they want to? It just won't be endorsed and/or organised by the forum owners. Or am I missing something simple...?

It would cost the clubs involved a paltry c.£1m to subsidise/cash-back the ticket prices down to a more reasonable level if they cared about their fans....

I'm not against neutral tickets being flogged at 'market prices' as they will be gobbled up by corporates whether they were set at £10 or £1000 each. I do however think £80 for fans of the two finalists is over the top. That said, perhaps the mega rich clubs who reach the final will step in and subsidise the cost of a ticket for their fans....? Oink, oink. Flap, flap....

Aldershot?!! How very dare you!

I believe he was referring to the 'Surrey Hills' area....which I can see in the distance out of my Hampshire window...

Has anyone else spotted a correlation between those of us located in, or near, Surrey and the top 5% of intellects on this forum?

I have a Surrey post-code (Guildford) but live in 'Ampshire

;-)

Observationalists can't be 'losers'. I leave that privilege to those with opinions....