Whitey Grandad

Why do you think that? No welfare goes to me. I have a modest state pension for which I have made a lifetime of contributions and, well that's it. I have paid a lot of tax and I'm still paying now, plus all the VAT, Council Tax, fuel duty... Even my 95 year old mother pays tax on her (very) modest pension. Do I take it then that you won't draw your OAP when you reach that age? Always assuming that you don't die before that like many of my friends and family who never saw any benefit from their contributions.

Dream on. If you took all their money away there still wouldn't be enough to make any difference. Whatever your feelings about some people earning more than others and the gap between rich and poor, making the rich poorer will not make the poor richer. There are just so few of them and so many of us. By all means soak them and the tax avoiders for all you can get but don't for a minute think that it'll make the slightest difference to ordinary people.

Nah, she'd probably think it was the dog anyway.

Exactly. Those of us who lived through the 50s know austerity when they see it.

Don't fret, best so far, next year will be even better.

Ah well, gloat and hope now. At least our home game with Villa should be a bit easier if they're holding back for the Cup Final. I hope

Speculation here but probably a year before he kicks a ball and then a few months to get back to fully match fit, all being well.

So how does this affect the voting for MOTM?

And speaking English is one of the reasons so many want to come here...

For a club with ambitions it's one step on the road to progress. And stop calling him surly

Getting towards the end of it but you only need one. This is expected to be a quiet year with only one major hurricane but again, you only need one. We were on Bermuda five years ago in mid September and all went well until the big storm that I was keeping my eye on turned into a hurricane and swung straight towards us. We got out a couple of days early on the last plane out. They had been boarding everything up for a few days. It was strange seeing a storm develop so slowly. In the UK a storm blows through quickly but this took a week to build up with the the seas getting steadily bigger until the beach disappeared as the storm slowly crept nearer at 7 mph.

Yes, especially the first.

Nothing much to say, really.

Possibly, but Schneiderlin doesn't head the ball a great deal.

I hate that too. Sometimes I wish the interviewee would just say 'would you please let me finish?'

It's also a problem because we're near the top of the table. If we had reached mid-table security with a few games left then we could afford to give the young and inexperienced a handful of games but whether you're struggling to stay up or fighting for Europe you need the best team out ere for every game.

"It's not enough to succeed. Others must fail". Gore Vidal

My daughter has quite a few shirts from 15 years ago, most of them signed by several players. Any idea of value?

It used to be, but not these days, I'm afraid. Once the defender heads it then we're into another phase. It used to be that there was no such thing as 'played-on' but they keep changing the offside interpretation. I don't like it but it's the same for both teams.

Whereas we, on the other hand, have five seasons going in the other direction.

Yes, I agree with you. Finishing above Liverpool would be nice, though. Of course in this scenario Liverpool would also go into the Europa Cup and we might actually end up being drawn against them in a later round. That's when we get our revenge.

That's the problem with modern media politics. There is no real proper debate about the different options, which to be honest are limited. All we get are sound bites and catchy headline phrases. It's all too much Big Brother or Celebrity Get Me Out of Here for me. Still, let's not kid ourselves. My vote, like my tax contributions, will make bugger all difference.

An interesting point on Radio 4 this morning. With all the targeted advertising and recommendations on social media websites and search engines those who hold a particular political viewpoint will tend to have that view reinforced by the targeted suggestions. This apparently was a factor in Scotland where those who supported one line did not on the whole receive the opposing arguments. This tends to polarise the whole political debate.

On the other hand... If we win the Europa Cup... Let's be more positive!

I watched them beat Norwich last night. Their time-wasting tactics near the end were indeed dis-graceful.