trousers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/dec/08/uk.australia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1386262/Alastair-Campbell-did-mislead-Iraq-inquiry-claims-general.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/3130348/The-scandals-that-brought-Peter-Mandelson-down-twice-before.html

http://www.labour-watch.com/sleaze.htm

The dilema could be worse. You could be a woman.

I had a spot of fortune (for once) with my remortgage a few years ago....switched to an HSBC "0.89% above base rate tracker" deal just before interest rates tumbled....my payments fell from c. £600 pcm to c. £150 pcm on a c. £120k mortgage. There's a potential pitfall looming in that I've adjusted my cost of living accordingly, so would be somewhat stuffed if interest rates leapt up again, but I can't see that happening for at least a year or so.

Reading 2 Saints 1 :-(

Water cress thread

Cos?

Pearly gates. Angels playing harps. Chap with a white beard and white cloak. Heaven!!!

Most amusing moment of the night for me was when my West Ham supporting friend leapt of of his seat (block 14) shouting "YESSSSS!!" when he thought West Ham's effort after Fonte's slip-up had gone in. Cue a furtive look around at thousands of Saints fans staring quizzically at his reaction to a lucky Saints escape...

Slightly negative thought of the day... The only trouble with 'flying high' at this time of the season is that most of us have probably gone from a "I'd be content with a decent top half finish this season" mindset to a "I'd be disappointed now if we don't get promoted after that start" mindset. The bar of expectation has been raised. (not a bad thing per se)

We were 'clinging on' to a certain degree towards the end. Well, I was sitting there for the last 10 minutes with my head in my hands praying we could keep them out. Maybe not 'clinging' but they had chances to pull it level towards the end.

Not be sure whether you were coming or going...?

Just back from the game. Superb atmosphere. Saints deserved the win although I always felt West Ham had an equaliser in them so nail biting stuff towards the end. Our 'near miss' passing out of our own penalty area gives me heart palpitations a lot of the time but I guess I can live with that if we keep winning :-)

Pootle from The Flumps for me please Baj (Pootle's the little one on the right playing the whistle)

I just tried Googling that. Three words: Thanks a bunch

If anyone ever doubted the tabloids' ability to twist people's actual words.....exhibit A m'lud :-) Still, at least the Mirror were right about "Chamberlain leaving Southampton imminently".....they were saying that for best part of 12 months.... ;-)

We played well against Derby but didn't win.

If it's good enough for a certain football team....

That bit highlighted in bold seems a little subjective to me. Just because the police that didn't "impress" him thought differently to those that did "impress" him does that make their account any more acurate? I guess it depends what aspect of their character he was "impressed" by

Is it Dusty Bin?

Game sold out

I have no reason to specifically doubt the findings of the Taylor report, but, at a philosophical level, isn't blind faith that any given official report is 100% correct as blinkered as someone who choses point blank to believe it? A report produced by a human being isn't guaranteed to be 100% accurate all of the time I would venture. As I say, I've no reason to doubt any aspect of the Taylor report per se.

I accept it wasn't one of my better analogies (which isn't saying much!) but I was posing the analogy-led question more from a human instinct point of view. I still think in most 'tragic accident' scenarios, people instinctively direct their angst at the metaphorical 'man behind the wheel' rather than the faulty underlying systems and authorities. The Hillsborough disaster however tends to buck this trend of thought. Just an opinion of course.