moonraker

A Politician, pity as if some monkeys had been standing I might have preffered one of them, perhaps i'll move to Hartlepool.

To save time I will repost my response to last years post Charlton thread of the same genre "I never cease to be amazed at the self righteous fan police. Whilst I am sure that not all of them are under 25, single, no kids, living within the city, the tone and style of their posts would indicate this profile to be the most prevalent. If attendance is a key guide I am a plastic only 3 games this season, despite over 45 years of support behind me. Why so few visits, I have a round trip of 160 miles to home games, I have family who don’t all share my passion and I also enjoy the egg chasing game and am a season ticket holder at Bath (I missed Saturdays top of the table game to support my football club in its hour of need) I took my eight year old, his 8th game, who said on Saturday when I explained the problems we have, "they can have all my money", he hasn’t taken his new shirt off since Saturday. He is of course currently a plastic, but watch out the self appointed fan police, in 10 years time he will be in the Northam setting the rules for the married over 35’s with kids who live outside the city and don’t quite share his youthful and admirable passion for our fantastic club, you never know some of you may have grown up by then and will be one of his targets." PS. 8 games this season inc Wembley + Cheltenham Freindly

managed 9 in 10 mins, good fun missed Dcra*p and deano

One of those was my last of 6 P&O boats, HMS OTUS, she was saved by the Germans and is now a museum, http://www.hms-otus.com/, still havnt managed visit. I well remember HMS Phoebe F42, aka HMS Hero, my brother was serving in her at the time.

The only matchday entertainment worth having is good football. When we had terracing and stood around for up to 2 hours waiting for kick off the brass band was great!!

Any one travelling from Bath by train? there are engineering works so its a coach to Swindon, I may drive to Chippenham (Dept. 09:07 Arrive 10:39 or 10:04 arrive 11:39) to avoid the coach, 2 spaces in car if any one wants to join me, please PM me

Enjoyable read, never read anything in the press that wasnt error strewn so no surprises there, really enjoyed the last para... "This will eat Portsmouth fans to the bone, but at least they know now it is possible to escape extinction and thrive again, within six months. Or it is, if you have a stadium as good as St Mary's." How true

Not as easy at it sounds, if the treasury are leading some similar to the Canadian model might be the outcome i.e. a single defence force

A very unplesant organisation, there is no justification for this type of protest. The journos assertion that they were football fans is not helpful and very poor reporting

We need home draw that will fill SM, so tht counts the skates out, 10k for an all prem FA cup tie with at least 2k away fans !!!

These comaprisons are always fraught with danger. In the UK the uniformed establishment is very much focused on the front line whilst the tail is served by both Civil Servants and Industry Staff whilst in China and to a lesser degree the US Uniformed staff perform many of the non front line roles so the per captia comparison needs a good degree of qualification. Your spot on about the concern over benfits spending. Whilst I want to live in caring society these levels of spending are outrageous it appears that a 20% cut would repay the deficit in 7 - 10 years without impacting on other services.

+ 1

The UK is not the 2nd largest military spender, its 4th in monetary terms, USA, China and France are above us and in % of GDP the UK is 70th, Rusia is 5th and would be above the UK if they paid their staff anywhere near UK levels.

In terms of amphibious capabilty we actually have far more than at the time of the 1982 Conflict, the problem is we do not have the escorts to protect them or a carrier bourne fighter capbilty, we do however have a fully functioning airbase.

The real issue for the armed forces is maintaining the core capabilities required to Defend the Nation (includes Intelligence, anti terrorism and anti piracy), Support Foreign Policy (Including Disaster Relief), fully meeting our internationally agreed obligations through NATO and other defence treaties. Our US friends are continually gobsmacked by the effect we are able to deliver for the budget, one example is the new QEC carriers, the media leeches keep on about the cost Circa £4.5b for two ships compare this to the cost of a single US CVN Circa £17b. These costs do not include the aircraft. In order to have a sensible debate on the armed forces, as with most public service debates, we need to stop believing the press and start understanding the facts including the value of the UK defence industry to our balance of trade and support to High Value Science, Engineering and Academia.

Definately born in Liverpool, Blackburn Academy, if my family tree researches are good I would bet that his family originate from British Guiana.

Not sure there is any connection, as the son of a Southampton Danns I have done quite a lot of the family tree, back to early 19th C havn't found any connection with Liverpool where I believe Neil is from. Still I have followed his carreer, the surname is pretty unusual, and he has always shown a lot of promise without quite breaking through would love to see him at SM just so my nipper can have his own name on his shirt and a players for the price of one. ,

You should e-mail kerry in the ticket office, i had similar problem and she responded within 24 hrs

Its Danns with two NN's personal point as I share the name and it is always being mis-spelt

The snow must be fuddling folks brains, as a piece of light humour i thought it was one of the best posts about the demise and future of our once Great Neighbours, no nastiness just a good old fashioned pxss take.

I have a few mates who are Gasheads and they certianly rate Lines and would be upset to loose him. Pardew and his advisors will have done their homework on this guy if they believe he can add to the squad then I trust him, how many of tose saying he will not bring anything have watched him more that twice?

Cant be there today due to unneccesary but diplomatically important family stuff!!! Absouloutly gutted, am sure we will bow out of 2009 with bang, play the strongest team and send a message to all those above us, we are heading for the playoffs. Happy New Year to all on the board, the nipper and I will be back at SMs for the Luton game.

Interesting how once previous opponents of the detterent get responsibilty for our security they quickly understand its purpose and importance! As for ensuring a seat at the UN security council yes it certainly does and I for one am glad we have that seat, not for post imperilaist posturing tough. I happen to believe my country has a useful contribution to make, you cant alter history, neither should we be apologists for it. By your logic only the "super powers" would have a seat, sound like a plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst you cant prove a negative, there have been no nuclear engagements since guaranteed mutual destruction courtesy of SSBNs, do you want to take the risk??? The real relic the armed forces are paying for are the RAFs Air Defence Fighters, to complex to expensive and to many of them, prediction on the Battle of Britain anyone!!!

Ron wishing you a very happy Christmas and a wonderfull 2010