Whitey Grandad

State pensions are not welfare. In most cases they have been paid for by contributions. Successive governments have tried to lump them together but that only applies for those who have never contributed over their working life.

Government spending is determined several years in advance. Borrowing was always going to rise no matter who was on power. It would have risen a lot more under Labour and less if we didn't have a coalition.

It's a different world, completely different. Nation states are a relatively modern invention and are now being superceded by supra-national companies.

Very sad.

Well said.

Yep. Yellow card unless it prevents a goal scoring opportunity. In this case he didn't because the ball ended in the net so it should have been a goal and a yellow card. I haven't actually seen the incident so a reference would be useful.

Indeed. All we can hope for is that we get those who do the least damage.

The design and layout must have been approved at an early stage and there are regular inspections. It would need an,almighty balls up but not impossible.

As I always say, you can't generalise...

Indeed he did, at the Dell against Leeds, I think. I was there

A wink is not necessarily a smile.

He'll drop it.

No, but it's offensive to little people.

Me too.

Me too. It means I have to entertain the missus

Despite what we may think of referees they are not that easily conned. There is usually a little shirt tug or arm grab that is not easy for us to see from the stands. Having said that, these professionals spend hours on the training ground practising how to go to ground and make it look like they have been fouled.

That may not have been tactical, maybe Tadic was feeling some tightness, or something.

You'd think he would have learned to run without falling over by now

I appreciate what you're saying, but there is a danger that we can over-analyse things. In my opinion six games are too few to be significant (in the statistical sense). In games won by an odd goal you only need a couple of instances of hitting the woodwork instead of scoring or a penalty not given and you're looking at a swing of a few points.

I'm old enough to remember when there were no such thing as substitutes, and when they were introduced it was only one and he could only replace an injured player. Three substitutes are plenty, all the team need to do is keep one in reserve until the last few minutes. If they decide to use all three then they run the risk of a further injury leaving them short.

Yes

Ok then, ...any meaningful inferences... (I thought I was the senior pedant on here )

Racist is as racist sees.

That's not what I said, as you know very well.

Good call.