moonraker

History is apt to re[eat itself, amd leaving the fighting to others is all very well until the others don't fight. It is sad but true the world is dangerous place and you deplete your defences at your peril.

The decision will rest on successor which I believe means we will need 4 Vanguards into the 2020's to maintain CASD, OCEAN and QE are not the same thing and QE will not be operational until at least 2019.

For an underwater casino surely you need a Naval Architect!

Chambers was not starting quality , or at least was not perceived as such at the beginning of the season. I did not suggest all sides had a 25 man squad only that that was the limit, neither did I assume that 25 are of the same standard across clubs , the opposite in fact. My point was how do you judge the whole squads strength when size is essentially the same. It is easy to identify individual positions where the backup or alternative is as or nearly as good as the first choice, however no team has two first 11’s.

Just how does one squad measure 'strength in depth' serious question, if all sides have the same squad size, 25, then they have the same depth. So how do you measure the strength element and what are the SI units of measurement. One of the areas we do well is to include genuine fresh home grown talent in the squad nearly every year, this has a significant effect on the perception of squad strength. At the beginning of last year a number of areas R and L back had a youngsters were the as backups, in mid-field a young skate was included. On the face of it this weakened our squad, yet the reality was that not only were they up to the Job 2 of them are now playing for traditional top 4 sides, have they weakened their squads? I often read on here how a number of players at Chelski and MC and others are bench warmers, and yet these are the self same players who provide the 'strength in depth'. The truth is all teams are vulnerable to injuries, Scouse and Sturridge have demonstrated that, Chelsea Costa or MC Aguero any one, they would cope but they would be lesser teams. Add to this the additional demands of the CL for the big boys and who knows what little old Southampton could pull off.

We are where we are, 2nd can we stay there yes, but very unlikely, so what is likely. Top 8 at least as likely as Chelsea winning the title, top 6 more likely than Liverpool finishing top 4, top 4 more likely than MU finishing top 2. The oft repeated words of caution is that we haven’t played any of the big boys yet (Scouse and NLY excepted), so what, you get the same 3 points for beating QPR as you do for beating Chelsea. If we were to loose to all the top 6 H&A (who are they by the way? Chelsea, MC and Arse + ????) that still leaves 78 points up for grabs which is 5th based on last season, win 2/3rds and that’s 52 points plus 8 draws and you’ve got 60, still not enough for 7th last season, however convert 2 of the 12 games against top 6 to wins and you have 66 or 7th. Alternatively based on last season where we got 56 points for W15, D 11, L12, if we turn 4 loses and 4 draws into wins its 72 or 5th, I really believe this is achievable but top 4 needs another season, which is great as the journey to PL dominance continues and always enjoy the journey as much as arriving at a destination.

Well it is certainly a mess, and I totally agree with your sentiments.

There is obviously a regulation that led to this. It will have been agreed without full understanding of the consequences. It is nonsense, the politicians in Europe must stand up tell the Bureaucrats that the regulation be suspended until elected representatives have had sufficient time to review it. This is great opportunity for Dave to p**s on UKIP’s chips.

Ottawa, condolences for the passing of your brother. The cheapest way from HROW to KC would be to use the tube, not the Heathrow Express via Paddington

About sums it up.

Bit of both, Bath is not a good example in terms of other cities experience with migrants, my daughter used to live in Peterborough so I have some experience of the problem!!! But Bath is an example that migrants can 'integrate' without the issues UKIP ride on the back off. You seem to have a problem with something you call the 'White Middle Class' what is this, if as you seem to have deduced I belong and by association other residents in my street are likely to belong then thats fine as its a great place to live and there are no visible UKIP supporters. The problem is we are not all white we have a wide range of jobs, Lorry Driver, Civil Servants, Painters and Decorators, Engineers, a Small Shop Keeper, Retired, Builders, oh and those bastions of the middle class Teachers, a Doctor, a Solicitor and an Architect. Is there a whiff of envy or is just good old fashioned stereotyping in your assertions.

Not surprised about the council housing, my wife used to be a housing officer for BANES we have a friend who has council flat in the Circus. The reason the Council (CURO) have these properties is that they were going for a song in 50's and 60's when none of the well off wanted to live in period properties. Oh and none of the migrants in my street are Eastern European, Swedish, Italian, French (x2) and Greek. There has been a large Italian community in Bath for long time, the Italian government even finance an Italian teacher at St Gregory's RC School (or at least used to).

Not at all In my White Middle Class street of 30 hoses 5 are occupied by EU migrants, its irrelevant that the 'ethnic mix' is driven by the Universities their still people, their still of various ethenticities and they still live in Bath. Bath Saint is very selective in his examples of areas within Bath, my whole point is that the migrants in Bath have not formed ghettos, as to pushing out the local working class folk to Twerton they have been their for at least 100 years together with Oldfield Park (despite the students),Southdown Odd Down and Weston. Like any City Bath has a few unsavoury areas Fox Hill fits the bill as does Whiteway and parts of Southdown.

Im not sure what you mean by affected by mass migration, my point was Bath has a healthy immigrant population i.e. not born in Britain and we do not have problems. Please provide a definition for mass immigration.

So what should it say? and what are you basing your assertions on? For England and Wales 86% of the population are classified as "White British and White other" so Bath is not exactly bucking the national trend by being a Bastion of White Britishness. Only London and the West Midlands are signifcantly different. It was not about ethnicity is was about nationality and my statement referred to a healthy multi national population not a healthy multi ethnic population, the census quite clearly illustrates that BANES has a healthy multi national population. You didn’t answer my questions How well do you know Bath? have you lived here? what is a hub of multi-cultural immigration? provide some answers and I might take you seriously

Met Read at a party once he was an absolute tool, obviously hasn’t changed

Why? How well do you Bath? have you lived here? Please explain what a 'hub of multi-cultural immigration' is. BANES (the Census district for Bath, 2011 Census), with the exception of Chinese, is not in the top 25% for most ethnic groups it is in the mid range for all others. It is also worth noting that as BANES apart form Bath and Keynsham is essentially Rural the actual figures for the City of Bath are likely to be higher, this tends to support my claim that the City has a healthy multi national population, the one exception is that Gypsy or Irish Traveller are in the bottom 25% I assume they all down the M27. Interesting to know the corresponding figures for Southampton. Sorry if this bursts your common none Bathonian perception of my beautiful city.

Uh, whats that got to do with anything, my job is in Bath and I originate from jiust outside the City so its a resonable place for me to live. Bath has avery healthy muti national population, the key it is not dominated by one particular group and we dont have specific areas of the city where they all live, i.e. they aree integrated. The reception Forage got when he came, the guy on youtube is still getting through all the beer donated to him, is testament to the multi national harmony in this fair city!

No I don’t agree, your 'if' is the key word, previous doomsayers have been proven wrong, Forage showed himself up when he claimed 20 million or so Rumanians were on there way. The EU freedom of movement (not immigration or migration) allows all EU citizens to live and work where they choose. There is a constant flow across Europe, none more significant than Brits heading for sunnier climes around the Mediterranean, bringing back all of the retired folk would certainly impose a severe strain on the NHS. To believe we can just shut up shop is at best naïve. The United Kingdom has a proud and enviable history of welcoming and accommodating newcomers, our culture and history have been enriched and in many cases made by these newcomers.

Eyes dry I just cant stand the throw back to the politics of phoney nationalism and patriotism that UKIP purports to represent. It is UKIP that is out of touch the world is more connected more integrated and more tolerant while UKIP want to pull up the draw bridge and pretend we as nation can ignore the rest of the world.

????? I thought this was about UKIP not the others w/o certainly have their problems but you'd be hard pressed to find many verifiable racist, sexist quotes from them.

I'm hardly dave, I don't expect Nick Robinson will turn up to interview me anytime soon. While there is not a lot I agree on with dave he was right on UKIP, Ken Clarke was right on the money this morning on R 4

Why? How does my opinion help forage? It's not an attitude it's a point of view based on personal experience.

There nothing different about Farage he's a f**cking banker. While I am thoroughly fed up with career politicians they are preferable to most of the representatives of UKIP I have seen, they are mostly little Englanders, narrow minded bigots, thick middle class wanabees or barly disguised racists. They often fall at the first fence and quote ridiculous and unverifiable statistics from the Daily Fail book of facts. We need new politicians who are competent and educated, don't look to UKIP for them.

And me