Whitey Grandad

All of 'em. I look forward to being pleasantly surprised when we're top of the table after 10 games, a bit like last season.

How about tossing a coin?

Penalties are meaningless. For a knockout competition they're ok but for the Champions League final it's simple, if it's a draw, nobody wins it.

Up 20 to 25% by my reckoning. If I can be bothered I'll dig out what I paid over the last 10 or 15 seasons. The prices seem high by comparison to many PL clubs of a similar standing.

Adam Beecroft started it all... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148448/Cameron-accused-giving-plans-slash-business-red-tape-author-report-boosting-jobs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Eactly! They should pay to work for me. And bring their own coal.

Yes, in many case it's not worth going to work instead of staying at home. I was talking to a business neighbour yesterday who was complaining that a young chap had just not bothered to turn up for work leaving an expensive piece of machinery idle and a very unhappy customer. When reminded of his responsibilities he just said, 'so what, sack me, I'll get all sorts of money'. They moan because there are all sorts of costs, overheads, red tape, call it what you will, that are time-consuming and of no benefit whatsoever to the business. Why don't they quit and work for someone else? They have long-term contracts for rent, staff contracts, you name it. They can't afford to stop and they earn a pittance if they carry on. Take a look at the number of business start-ups if you want to gauge the true business environment.

Who were they? Were they French, by any chance?

No, the benefits level is effectively higher than the minimum wage. The jobs aren't there, there's a recession on, doncha know?

That's how I see it. The Football League is not an independent body, it is made up of the clubs within it and there must be many who would sit a lot easier if -15 were awarded, always providing it didn't set a precedent that mighty affect them, of course. I see that Luton missed out on promotion again. How much longer in the wilderness for them? Yes, I know they're not Football League any more. I also don't see that -15 would threaten the existence of the club. There are plenty of 'big' clubs who have ended up in the fourth division.

When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.

The smart move would have been to let the French have it.

Went from the Isle of Man to Dublin and back when we were on our honeymoon. Beautiful settled sunny weather on the way over but a raging storm on the way back. There's a message there somewhere.

At last! A sensible use of time.

'tis murder, nothing less.

In some trades it's seven years.

If only... I use a local paint company who are very good. There used to be one in Gosport who were cheap but useless. There is one on the Isle of Wight who are quite good. I thought about using them but it turned out that my regular people were using them for the stuff they couldn't handle. Oh well, perhaps I could move somewhere with a better business environment and lower overheads, France for instance?

I'm with you. I'm almost hoping for torrential rain, if only it didn't ruin my plans for the day.

I speak to many small companies who are having problems meeting my production demands and I ask them why they don't expand. They all say that they don't want the hastle, they don't trust the future, and who are we to tell them they are wrong? It's their business.

It depends entirely on the type of business, of course. Shelf-stacking at Tescos might not take long, paint-spraying, panel-beating, welding, electronic assembly, printed-circuit board design, all have longer periods of training even for those who claim to be experienced.

Everybody I speak to has at least one example to quote. It takes several months to get a new employee trained up to speed and during that time they are taking away the time of an existing experienced employee. That only leaves a very short period to make a decision and getting rid means throwing away all the time invested so far. Remember that you can't make people redundant, only jobs.

More likely not wanting to take on an extra overhead at a time of failing demand.

There's a big difference between large companies and small ones.

You're right, no-one is forced to employ people. The whole point of the proposals is to make small businesses more likely to employ people and everyone should have the right to employ whoever they choose.

That's not the problem, it's the fear of unfair dismissal if you get the slightest detail of the procedure wrong, which would make the dismissal automatically unfair. Don't forget that small businesses don't have a personnel department and access to advice is time-consuming and not cheap.