Whitey Grandad

That's a different argument. We were looking at the direct cost to the British Government of underwriting the british banking system, on which we shall come out ahead of the game. The global recession has cost almost everybody one hell of a lot more than that. My pension fund is unaffected by any of this, but only because I don't have one. I think you'll find that the colossal overspending in the last 10 years plays a far greater role in the need for higher taxation than dodgy bank investments.

Once the RBS share price reaches about 56p then we have broken even on it.

Nice idea but.... no beaches.

'cause they is uneducated peasants, innit.

Of course, we must never forget the Great Man. Pity though, for many years now I have been studying the world's weather records trying to discover my Shangri La where all can live in comfort, peace and harmony and I can sit peacefully doing my jigsaws. If my wrist holds out that long.

Nothing to do with living in Switzerland, then?

No, it's not just you. I think it may not even be a sell-out.

The banks have to pay very high levels of interest if they draw on the reserves on offer. The maximum liability will never need to be paid, just having the government's signature at the bottom is enough to ensure that. We have picked up a couple of major banking enterprises for a song, becuase they were on their knees and nobody else could afford it. We shall cash in nicely on the deal, at the right time.

That's very true. Banking services are an essential catalyst for trade, but they are as much an overhead as insurance and in no way are they wealth that has been created.

Fair enough. Things have changed. Banks now have to have a greater credit margin, or whatever it's called, a larger part of their assets has to be in cash. They are gradually rebuilding their balance sheets and are unlikely to make the same mistakes as before... ... until the next time. It was a failure of regulation as much as slack banking.

I'm nearly 62 and I run my own business. Two and a half years ago I was close to selling it to my best customer and gently easing myself into a comfortable but not luxurious back seat. Then the credit crunch arrived, my customer got cold feet and sales orders fell off the edge of a cliff, so after living off savings for a couple of years I'm back to where I was about 5 years ago, but poorer. I do have a plan, but it involves working in at least a part-time capacity for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately severe arthritic wear in my right wrist means that CAD work or using a mouse is going to get progressively more difficult, which is a disappointment because I always used to think that if all else failed I could always work with my hands. Oh well, that's getting old for you.

He slipped twice, if I recall correctly, but that's what can happen when you water the pitch at half-time after days of torrential rain. I suppose the pitch is covered? I agree, he doesn't seem overawed and slips comfortably into the role. I'm sure he will turn out ok, but can we afford to wait that long?

Now you're being silly... The £20bn is more than offset by the wasted billions. Besides, there's more to sound government than a Profit & Loss account. As far as bank bonuses go, I find them deeply repulsive. They also encourage excessive risk-taking which was one of the main causes of the collapse in financial confidence.

I really don't think that Pompey players are any more erudite than those at other clubs, TBH.

Oh no! By referring to the Nazis you have now invoked Godwin's Law and the convention is that once this has happened the thread be closed

If so that might be significant. If a player hand in a transfer request then they forego any golden goodbye that they may be entitled to.

Good point. That just about sums it up.

At the moment the British taxpayer is about £20bn up on the deal, and rising.

All these workers that you have named are in the Public Sector so the taxes that they pay are taken out of their salaries which have been paid by taxes on the private sector, which includes bankers.

That's true. There's precious little animation amongst our players, they must be a joy to mark. Perhaps they can learn something from watching Man U and the match won't be a complete waste of time?

All suiccessful teams are founded upon a good defence and when you are building a team you always start from the back and work forwards. Keeping a clean sheet gives you the best chance of winning the game.

If taxes were at a sensible level of, say, 20%, then there would be no need for anybody to try to avoid them.

But at no time in the game did he play the ball out quickly, before the opposition defence had time to get back into position and were still back-pedalling. Now it may be that this is the way that they have been coached, but I do feel that we sometimes need to up the pace of the game in order to put pressure on the other team. This is not the only game where I have noticed how slow we are to get the ball back into play. If the opposition keeper is slow then he gets criticised for time wasting, yet Kelvin takes just as long over his goal kicks.

Maybe, but there's a time and place for the cautious approach. Towards the end of the game I felt that we needed to up the tempo somewhat and Kelvin didn't give me the impression of a man in a hurry.