trousers

Indeed. There is a (slightly warped) train of thought that says we've probably been too successful in the first 4 months of the season. Had we been coming up on the rails rather than leading the pack the pressure for the remainder of the season would have been less.

Powerful unions that are stuck in the past?

Did anyone ask how or why a parent company that is comprised solely of financially buoyant subsidiary companies can go into administration in the first place?

But is that her fault? If the media and general public didn't whip themselves up into a frenzy everytime someone like Abbot, Clarkson, etc said something clumsy or provocative then it wouldn't become a distraction in the first place. It's the people that get most "offended" by this stuff that actually end up raising the profile of it thus helping to create a situation that they claim to dislike. Try putting a wet blanket on the fire rather than lighter fuel perhaps? Or perhaps that doesn't satisfy people's craving to be offended at least 7 times a day...

Yes. I worked with a Peruvian lady in 2007. Guinea pig is a national dish :-) http://www.shelfordfeast.co.uk/guineapig.html

Short memories about policies? Yes. Short memories about distinctive personality and character traits? No.

Was just about to post a link to a blog written along similar lines when the Clarkson "shoot the strikers" 'furore' broke out. We have indeed turned into a nation of people outraged and offenced at the drop of a hat - not genuine outrage or offence but a 'fall in line' mentality because we're all worried what people will think of us if we don't join in the faux outrage and/or offence. Abbot is no more a racist or bigot than Clarkson but people clamour to find something offensive because they think that's the right thing to do. Of course get angry when someone is murdered due to their skin colour but try putting things into perspective when someone simply utters some clumsy words.

What's wrong about eating dogs anyway? No different to rabbits and guinea pigs IMHO. P.s. Sammy the Saint was parading around the perimeter at the Bristol City game

Source?

Oops, yep. Sorry for the typo ;-)

Meanwhile....Shell closes final salary pension scheme to new recruits....the last major UK company to do so.

BBC News: Leaders of health workers in Unite reject government's final offer on pensions http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16431284

So, who took over from him in October then....? One assumes it was/is an important role....

WH Ireland did post its first profits for 4 years in 2011, so things are on the up for our erstwhile leader....

All I want to know is whether Southampton Football Club is an intrinsically linked subsidiary of an ailing parent company (Mali) or what....? And has anyone checked to see if they've started a "Saints Takeover Saga" thread on Pompey-Online yet...?

Peter Shilton in the 60s if memory serves me correctly. Not sure of the exact year and team we were playing though.

Indeed. Species (including humans) only evolve over millions of years to where they are today because they are ultimately selfish and greedy. It's the less competitive and unselfish species that end up extinct. Survival of the fittest and all that. Capitalism is simply a modern day moniker we give to the the natural state of the human race.

I guess there are different levels of " "offence" then as I simply saw a collection of words that I thought were daft. I know what she says about white people is a clumsy generalisation therefore I see no reason to express 'offence'. Do do so would be me admitting that I was taking her at face value and not seeing the statement for what it was - I.e. Stupid. In other words, i don't feel offended by it because I'm rising above it.

Who did she offend? Can a statement be racist if no-one is offended by it? (I'm not saying that someone hasn't taken genuine offence by what she said but I can't imagine why anyone would. Yes, it was 'daft' and/or 'clumsy', but 'offensive'...?)

Why does AA continue to be overly concerned about the suitability of anyone who buys PFC? He is administrator of CSI and his job is to salvage as much money as possible for CSI's creditor(s). What happens to the subsidiary companies after he has sold them off shouldn't concern him in the slightest (from a business rather than moral perspective....*chortle*) Unless of course the subsidiaries and the parent company are somehow bound so closely together financially that the outcome for one directly affects the outcome for the other....but we all know that isn't the case (*chortle*) so why is the administrator of CSI overly concerned about the future ownership of PFC...? Yours rhetorically....

Fair point. I guess my post had a sprinkling of Devil's Advocate about it.

Never seen at Costa Coffee, Southampton Airport?

I've been working for 25 years and the most I get off in one chunk is 2 weeks. I'm sure someone as fit as a young(ish) professional footballer can cope with the toils of playing football without a 6 week break. IMHO of course.

But wouldn't that be stoking up the racism 'situation' in this country even further? My view is that people often go trawling through what people say with the aim of discovering something offensive rather than being actually offended per se. I don't agree with what Abbott says but there's no way I would find it "offensive" as a white person. Isn't that what racism is all about...saying something about someone's appearance or place of birth that makes someone else genuinely offended (as opposed to believing that they have some sort of civil duty to be offended just because society says that they ought to be). If less people microscoped every word that everyone uttered or wrote then there would be less racial tension in the country.