Sheaf Saint

Well, I can certainly see the logic of this viewpoint, but I hope this tweeter isn't inferring that it should have been kept under wraps just to protect the sensitivities of serving officers. And, to be fair, there have been numerous cases in much more recent memory that have done far more damage to the public image of the British Police (Ian Tomlinson, the phone-hacking scandal etc...) than this will.

The former Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, who took over a year after the tragedy happened, was interviewed on R4 this morning. When asked at what point he became aware of the extent of the cover up he said it was following the judicial review that took place in 1997, and that he went to great lengths to bring it to light publicly. He left the position the following year.

I am working in Liverpool today. Will be interesting to hear the thoughts of the customers I am seeing. I agree with Frank. Yes, the police made a monumental cock-up, but you also have to question why they were put in the position where they had to make such a decision in the first place. If they hadn't opened the gate there would have been a crush outside - damned if they did, damned if they didn't. I wasn't living in Sheffield at the time, but I know people who were and report seeing large amounts of Liverpool fans leaving the pubs only about 5 minutes before kick-off. The FA had issued warnings not to travel without tickets but clearly there were a number who ignored this and tried to barge their way in once the gates had been opened. They must also take their share of culpability. I guess it must have seemed quite easy for the police to try and shift the blame onto the fans completely. With Heysel still fresh in the memory, the Liverpool fans' reputation preceded them in that era. But the South Yorkshire police also had a terrible reputation following the events at Orgreave during the miners strike in '84, where they again falsified evidence and went to great lengths to cover up their own shortcomings. It was a terrible tragedy that will haunt the survivors and the victims' families for the rest of their lives no doubt, and I can totally understand why people still feel the need for answers 23 years later. I guess the full truth will never come out because I don't think you can pinpoint one single action that was the overall cause of the deaths - it was a culmination of numerous events and therefore impossible to pin the blame on one single person or organisation (as we are so keen on doing in the western world).

Really???... I still remember the day vividly. I was working on site in Acton doing some cabling when we heard the first reports on the radio of a plane hitting the WTC. At first I assumed they meant a light aircraft and I even joked to my workmate that the pilot must have been blind if he didn't see one of the tallest buildings on Earth. Then the whole story started to emerge and we all gathered round a TV in the MD's office and watched in a state of utter bewilderment as the second tower was struck. I'm still far from convinced about the official story behind it though. There are so many holes in it, like the lengthy phone calls apparently made by the passengers on flight 93 despite the FBI's own assertion that the cellular technology of the time making it all but impossible to even connect a call from that altitude, and the super-human flying skills required to make the plane hit the Pentagon in the way that it did. What's obvious from even the slightest bit of research is that the 911 Commission Report was nothing but a whitewash to cover something up. You only have to read a little about the background of Philip Zelikow, the man that GWB hand-picked to lead the 'investigation' to appreciate that. What were they trying to hide? Complicity? Utter incompetence in failure to prevent the attacks? Who knows? (Well Dubya and his mates do, obviously)

Indeed, the whole website has now disappeared. Must all be part of the conspiracy

errr... wrong I'm afraid Delldays. It's the British national anthem, not the English one. Wales, Scotland and NI all have their own anthems, yet we don't. There was an interesting debate about this on R4 not so long ago, inviting people to suggest what the English NA should be if we were to adopt one.

Ha. If you only read the first four words of Esruu's post, it makes it look like he is claiming to be the Japanese national manager!

I often think this myself. I used to love the Wipeout games on the original Playstation and I reckon a new version of that on PS3/XBox/PC would be amazing.

Flashback - that was it, thanks norwaysaint

Here's another Plus4 owner pap. Nopt through choice I must admit - I wanted a C64 for xmas but my mum couldn't afford it so she got me one of these second hand instead. It was infuriating that nobody seemed bothered about making games that could utilise their whole 64KB of memory, but the few that did exist were awesome games. My favourites were Saboteur (the writer of which I had the pleasure of meeting a few years later when working at their offices in Taunton) and ACE: Air Combat Emulator. Like many others on here I have owned a few different platforms over the years, each with their own favourite titles. After the Plus4 I got myself a Sega Master System and loved games like Golden Axe, Thunderblade and a brilliant RPG called Miracle Warriors (which I never completed because I lost the map that came with it). Then onto the Megadrive... Sensible Soccer must have eaten up most of my late teens, along with Desert Strike and Jungle Strike. I loved Dune 2 which gave me my introduction to the RTS genre. One of my favourite games though, and I can never remember the name of it, was a platform game about a bloke stuck on an alien planet and having to go through loads of tasks and kill loads of lizards to get back to Earth. Anyone help me out here? Got a Playstation in about 1996 and mostly played Fifa, Formula One and C&C It was about 1998 when I got my first Windows PC (which had 32MB RAM and a mahoosive 1.6GB HDD!) and not long after Half Life was released, which just blew me away completely. The amount of hours I spent playing online via my old dial-up modem (cost me a fortune in phone bills!) I became a bit of an expert and my brother and a couple of mates and me formed our own clan. I also discovered the awesomeness of playing C&C and Red Alert online against my mates via direct modem connection - always good fun. Then I bought an XBox when they first came out and wasted most of my time getting stoned with my housemate and playing Halo.

Another vote for Everton - but this time it's the 2-2 at the Dell in 1989. We absolutely battered them with shot after shot after shot, and to this day I will still never understand how they held on for a draw. It was almost as if there was some mighty force of nature keeping the ball out of their net. I was just speechless coming away from that game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/19493510 Incredible stuff. It's amazing he survived that accident at all, so massive respect to him.

Have we slipped into a 1930s timewarp?

I watch very little TV these days, but I made a point of watching The Revolution Will Be Televised on BBC3 tonight. I'm really glad I did because it's the funniest thing I have seen on TV for many years. Get it on iplayer if you missed it - well worth a watch.

Whereabouts were you sat for the race?

Not what you really want to see is it!

It could be argued that Blair won that following election not because of his popularity, but because of the general unelectability of the opposition. It's interesting that Blair has fully converted to Catholicism since leaving government. So if his beliefs in this area turn out to be correct, he will serve his sentence in the eternal fires of hell anyway.

Didn't realise his record was that bad. In which case I totally agree a race ban is in order.

Harsh. Might have expected a grid drop at most. Was definitely his fault but if he had been able to carry on yesterday I imagine he would have only got a drive-through rather than a black flag.

OK, now I've had a chance to calm down I will give an objective analysis. In case anybody was still in any doubt about SRL's ability to score goals in this league, that's two already and both against the two best sides in England last season. I always thought Schneiderlin would make his class show in the PL and he didn't disappoint today - I thought he was immense and is my MOTM. Puncheon had a very good game and was unlucky not to get a goal, forcing an excellent save from the Utd keeper. Not entirely sure why people are slating Kelvin for that - he saved a penalty FFS, and he can't really be blamed for any of their goals - he very nearly saved the first one. I am seriously concerned about the rest of our defence though. Fonte is a total liability and Hooiveld has already conceded two needless penalties so far this season (although KD has got him off the hook both times so far). Fox was anonymous today - Gave Valencia far too much time and space every time he got forward, and didn't contribute anything going forward either - very poor. Clyne was the only defender who came out of that game with any real credit. As for United though - aside from RVP they were very average and were there for the taking I thought, so it's especially frustrating that we came so close and ballsed it up defensively from a commanding position. Overall, there was a lot to be positive about, and we gave Utd's defence a real game which they may not have been expecting. If we can sort out the defensive issues and play like we did today going forward, I have no doubt we will be fine this year. But the commentator on the stream I was watching came out with a rather alarming statistic - that no newly promoted team has ever lost their first three games and survived!

Really? I'm absolutely certain he isn't up to it. Him and Fox are going to cost us a lot of goals this season.

Great to see Jenson find some pace in his car at last. He's been really struggling to get it working for him since winning the opening race, but if Maclaren can maintain that performance over the second half of the season then both he and Lewis could still challenge for the title I reckon.

It's amazing that a pathetic non-story from a vile, worthless rag like The Star has provoked so many responses. I wouldn't even use that 'newspaper' to wipe my arse with.

Indeed, it is. But hopefully it may result in a season like the one we had during the Chris Nicholl era, where we conceded quite a lot of goals, but more often than not scored more. Will make for an entertaining season I reckon, and win or lose, that's what it's really all about for us the fans.

Thanks for your contribution Billy. Good luck at Forest. I really hoped you would be given a good chance to prove yourself in the PL, and maybe one day you still will, be it with Saints or another club.