Whitey Grandad

There would be different queues for EU and non-EU.

I very clearly asked if they were. My last words were 'weren't they?' So were they not?

Well I'm not any clearer. All I was saying that we neither want nor need the American system here. That is far more rigorous than ours As I said previously I can't see any serious problems with travel either in or out of the EU but I would expect it to take a little longer if we did not hold an EU passport. We stopped actually keeping records of who came and left the country in the 1960s which is a shame. Nowadays over 250m international passengers use our airports each year and once they are in the UK, even on a limited-time visa there is no mechanism for tracing and ejecting those who overstay their allowed time.

The US requires fingerprints. Even with a modern passport you still have to check that the person matches the document. Have you tried the automatic system for machine readable passports at Gatwick? It uses facial recognition, takes forever and needs a supervisor to show how to use it. It's much quicker to go through the manned channels.

Yes I agree, there does at face value appear to see some variation in interpretations but almost every incident is different. The FA (and FIFA) do go to great lengths to try to get some consistency through regular seminars and training sessions but at the end of the day it's going to come down to one person's decision and cannot be decided by a majority vote of a committee. There are some situations where if you had 100 referees 50 would decide one way and the rest the other.

But these weren't mistakes by any stretch, were they?

Always sad to lose a member. You are all friends in one way or another. My condolences to her family.

It's very difficult to stop these large multinationals from doing it through transfer pricing or a number of other measures and it needs international cooperation which the EU has been working on for some time. We're all still waiting for the budget details but I believe there was something in there about restricting allowances against debt interest payments.

Well, yes they can. A cruise ship arriving is hardly a surprise. To be fair, I have always found them friendly and welcoming but my experiences have varied on breezing through to waiting in line for a couple of hours and this goes back several decades over entries direct by aircraft from the UK and from Canada and New Zealand. All I am saying is that I don't believe the US system would work for us and neither do I believe it necessary. I wouldn't foresee any problems in any future arrangements.

No, no and thrice no. An official makes a decision that you don't like. That doesn't mean that he is wrong, it's his opinion. There is no right of appeal in football (during the game). If you don't like it then play some other game. I'll be honest and say that I've only seen the Huth incident so far but from what I've read none of these decisions would ever be overturned by video referral. Video referrals have ruined cricket and rugby. Basically, all you are says no is that you didn't like a decision and you would prefer a different one.

I'm not talking about working there, just going as a tourist. You need to apply for an ESTA first which is valid for two years but you still need to join the queues. Maybe if you arrive by plane and there aren't too many of you its not so much of a problem but when a cruise ship turns up with a few thousand passengers and crew it's a different story. Yes, 'dabs' are fingerprints. Must be my London background showing through.

I sincerely hope not. If you've ever queued for two hours at US Customs and Border Protection to get your dabs taken you'll understand why we don't want that.

He's a professional footballer who's paid a lot of money. If that means that he spends a season on the bench he should be grateful.

Oh purrrlease. We can't score a proper goal because we can't finish simple chances or even get enough shots on target so we end up moaning that an unbiased referee doesn't award us an iffy penalty decision because he really wants Leicester to win the title? We just weren't good enough and didn't want it as much as the other team. We should sort that out before we start clutching at straws in the wind.

Nah, far too close to give that.

For those of us on the other side of the world with poor Internet connections can I please ask that somebody put the score in the topic title? Please, pretty please

Nothing beats a settled team.

Don't misquote me when it isn't true.

Er... no. How do employment tribunals help the government? There were too many people making vexatious claims.

S V F M

That is my great fear. It's often the case that once a team is down they start to play with more confidence. Let's hope for a nervous drawn-out death

Well that settles it. Three points it is then

The position of our economy depends a lot on the exchange rate. As far as 'foreign' footballers are concerned they come here because the money is so good. I don't know how that might change if the value of the £ plummeted. I suspect that the riches of the Premier League would still temp them mightily.

There was some talk on Radio 4 yesterday about subsidies which is why I raised the issue. We're getting a bit off topic here but it does seem ironic at a time when many want us to leave the EU because they say that we are governed from Brussels yet CMD is apparently responsible for such a low tariff on Chinese steel. The other issue is that one reason that steel production here is so expensive is because of the high energy costs due to the Climate Change Levy yet the Chinese can burn all the coal that they want in order to dump all their cheap steel on us. A lack of major construction projects is also another reason for the low demand for steel in Britain.

The problem is where do you stop. There have been plenty of small manufacturing businesses go under over the last couple of decades but nobody was calling for them to get government subsidies. I might agree that steel manufacturing is of national importance but to what extent should fellow citizens support an industry that's losing a million pounds a day?