moonraker

Watch it on I player

Excellent series, George's final comments truly represent Great Britian and why it truly is Great.

Sat in a fornmal dinner next to WH STH we have both been glued to the updates, I am the one drinking lots of port. We are top of the league

CB I take your point. There are other factors but in relation to mercantile tonnage the countries you name are flags of conveininece and owners choose them not becuase the Flag brings protection or high standards of regulation but because they can avoid regulations and hence cost associated with ship maintenace and crewing. One of the reasosn shipping companies chosse the UK flag is becuase the RN provides a better level of protection than many other flag states. It could therefore be argued that a reduction in the RN may lead to a reduction in the mercantile fleet and a loss of revenue to UK, another case of shooting yourself in the foot, politicians are good at that.

They are neutral country with no military alliances they have liitle or no strategic value, politically, militarily or economically. Their only contribution to any interantional military opertaiosn is UN peace keeping and a small commitment to the EU battlegroup requirment (neaver deployed). In respect of the UK flagged commercial ships v Eire the RN have 9,566,275 tons deadweight of shipping opertaing globally to protect whilst Eire has no more than 500,000 tons most of which operates within European and North atlantic waters.

Here in lies an RN problem at any one time between 25 and 50 % of all UK servicemen in Afgahnisatn are RN, the Army take all the 'good PR' and get the public and political support. Tee RN Medical, FAA, Supply, marines, etc. are esential to opertaion Herrick.

Dont let facts get in the way then DD Ive been at the Navy game for 40 yeasr and the tories are no freinds of teh RN.

John Knott (not the MOD) was repsonsible for the planned cuts to the RN that were stopped because of teh FI invasion. His plans were focused on ASW only, no carriers or amphibious capabilty. If the Agentianians had delayed 18 months we would never have got them back. As one who served throughout the eighties and some of the seventies and nineties you do not need to struggle anymore to find some one who thought the RN was worse under Maggie, and as one who has worked in the defence industry since leaving the RN in 93 (made redunadnt, volunatarialy as I saw the writing on the wall, by the tories, when was the last time a labour governament made a serviceman redundant?) the 13 years of Labour were quite good. A great payrise yes that was staggered in its introduction after Thatcher had made and election promise never to do this. DD you really should check your facts instead of realying on old sailors dits.

Slightly off topic but to educate DD the figures for the demise of teh RN are Royal Navy Surface Fleet 1979 - The Greedy Tories – 18 Years - started with 68 ships Royal Navy Surface Fleet 1997 – The Looney Left 13 Years - started with 36 surface ships Royal Navy Surface Fleet 2010 – The Greedy Tories - started with 29 ships Tories One year on Royal Navy Surface Fleet 25 ships Royal Navy Submarine Fleet 1979 - The Greedy Tories – 18 Years 31 submarines Royal Navy Submarine Fleet 1997 – The Looney Left 13 Years – started with 16 submarines Royal Navy Submarine Fleet 2010 - 1 Year - started with 11 submarines Tories One year on Royal Navy Submarines 11 submarines So whilst governments of both shades have reduced the size of the RN the Blue corner has been by far the most effective, in there 17 years from 1979 the surface fleet reduced by 47% and the submarine fleet by 48%, their latest efforts have already seen a 14% reduction in the surface fleet. In the red corner their record in the 13 years from 1997 is 20% reduction in the surface fleet and 22% reduction in the submarines. The manpower figures don’t favor the blue corner either in 1979 the RN establishment was over 70k by the time the Blues left office it was less than 40k. Note Surface Ship figures do not include MPH vessels.

(and Thatcher)

History seems to mean nothing to the likes of DD, but for liberal and labour governments he and his fellow naval ratings would still be subject to the cat. On secound thoughts not such a bad idea.

Whilst my distaste for Saggy does not go as far as some, he is not the man for the job and as has been pointed out he is essentially a wheeler dealer money spender and those attributes are of little use as a national manager. Like others seeing him fail would bring some satsifaction.

The decision to build additional seating capacity is very difficult and can not be based simply on hard evidence, its chicken and egg without the capacity you don’t know what you can achieve. When we moved from the Dell I seem to remember the Business Case was based remaining in the Prem on average crowds of circa 25k. Reality in the prem was somewhat different average crowds circa 30k. As a non ST holder I attend 6 - 8 games (league position irrelevant) a season. When in the prem this needed careful planning and tended to be for the less glamorous games as getting tickets was easier. One problem with glamour games is that whilst they don’t sell out totally often all that is available is odd single seat which do not appeal to families or groups of mates. Also I have friends who whilst not die hard saints fans enjoy attending Saint Mary’s especially when we were in the prem but are put off by the not being able to get walk ups or last minute tickets. Expansion, as is every business investment, a risk but you will not increase support without it and increased support leads to more that just gate receipts it will increase merchandise, sponsorship, TV revenue etc. There are thousands of potential "customers" out there and I truly believe that average gates approaching 40k in the prem regardless of position are realistic, moving beyond that would require on the pitch success the like of which we have not seen since 1984.

If its greed he must be a Tory, in reality he is talented player who waned to play at the highets level.

I believe NA will stay with us for a long time. As many above have pointed out the really big teams would not be interested until he has some European experience. Other big clubs TH, AV, Toon, Everton might be interested if we were promoted but everthing NA has done and said indictaes he likes to finish what he starts and promotion to the PL is only the next step. As to Liverpool, being a fan has very little relevance even if they wanted him, very few Mangaers or Players are employed by the Club they 'support', managers esepicially need a degree of detachment. I see several parralels with LM, minmal playing achivemnet, plucked from an unfashionable Licolnshire Club, excellent man mangement, able to get the best out of players the only thing he hasnt done according to LMs blueprint is bring in older slightly over the hill top class players e.g. Osgood, Rodrigues, George etc.

This site among with many others seems to disagree with you. Is the exclusion of Finland from Scandinavia a Norwegian thing?

Oh and for me Svensson he was missed the most.

Yes he is, Finland is classified as a Scandinavian country

Youre far to nosey

The fan base and access to games (ground) capacity are key issues for English clubs. The top 5-6 PL teams have significantly larger fan bases and bigger capacities even tough Liverpool and TH both need new grounds and are searching for a solution. Catchment area is only the starting point for attracting fans I would surmise that the top 5-6 PL teams have more fans outside their geographical catchment area than within it. The reason fan base is key is more than just attendance and ground capacity it impacts on corporate, sponsorship and merchandising, to compete financially in the CL as a PL team you must maximise all of these. So the question for us "real" fans is what sort of club we want, if its CL football and top 6 PL then there will have to be some significant changes in the culture and character of SFC. It is only the arrival of NC that has given any validity to this discussion; people must therefore believe he can achieve something more than mid table mediocrity. The other challenge is that you have to dislodge and incumbent and they will not go quietly

The assessment has nothing to do with real football, it is straightforward statistical analysis. It does not take any account of individual club factors. How many of the clubs previously finishing 2nd in L1 have played (29 years) in the Premiership, how many of them had a real premiership set up in terms of Stadium, Training Facilities, support, academy and not least financial backing. The start we have had has been fantastic and provides a great platform for the rest of the season, however the majority of us are sensible enough to recognise that this is all it is, automatic promotion is possible but there is a long long way to go, hopefully we will be the exception to the bookies statistical rule!

Although born and bred in a small north Wiltshire village, my dad is from Southampton and as nipper in the 60's one of the most exciting things for me and my siblings was visiting our grandparents in the big city, well Woolston. My dad played for Southampton Schoolboys before WWII and took me to the dell for the first time in the mid 60's. My schoolmates supported a real range of teams but Spurs and Utd were popular due to their double and European cups respectively. Two local teams Swindon and Bristol Rovers (Bristol City were not represented) had a few fans, one particular Rovers fans dad had a mini bus and would fill it with kids to go to Rovers so for my teenage years I saw far more of Rovers than Saints, but Rovers were only ever 2nd to Saints and still are. The Rovers fan is now their Fans Director and has hardly missed Rovers game in 30 years. All my of my children support Saints, sadly my stepson is a Liverpool fan (he actually goes to Anfield regularly) but Saints are his 2nd team and comes with me and my youngest son 3 or 4 times a season. I now have a battle to ensure my step grandson makes the right choice.

Generally the BB's benefitted from the post war technological and welfare revolution however to dispel a few myths, whilst university was free and grants were common less than 10% benefited and the majority of those were middle class and upper class, the 11 plus decided ones fate very early in life, secondary modern schools were nor designed to foster intellectual or academic success, whilst jobs were easy to come by you had to be very respectful and do as you were told.

This would be a great signing, he was excellent when he was on loan, he also played for NA at Scunny on loan and was voted player of the season.

Gurkha Field Kitchen on the Falklands, combination of 3 days of ration packs and being utterly starving but it tasted out of this world, not just the best curry ever possibly one of the best meals ever.