CHAPEL END CHARLIE

1 - The reason BAE did not bid for this work is because they are fully committed to building our new aircraft carriers until 2016-18 2 - Even had we the spare capacity to build these ships here, it would still have been massively cheaper to give the job to the Koreans 3 - The purpose of the defence budget is to facilitate the defence of the nation - not to prop up failing industry's. The decision to construct the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's 4 new 'MARS' class oilers aboard almost certainly offers the Navy the best chance of getting these much needed new tankers on time and budget, while simultaneously providing the hard pressed UK tax payer with proper value for money for once.

It has been a part of my secret agenda to get Brett Omerod back here for years now, so the fact that you can see through me quite so easily gives me cause for alarm - damn you pesky kids !!!!!

In your view it's not even worth remembering this players contribution in getting us where we are today ?

Fox is very good going forward as our last game conclusively showed, but defensively there's a hell of a lot of empty space on our right at times. Now that's OK against the likes of Derby, but against better sides we're going to get hurt. ..... oh it's worth remembering that Dan Harding played a big part in getting this club where it is today.

I tend to agree. The Sino-US relationship is a complex and interrelated one, with the US (to some extent) reliant on cheap Chinese imports, while huge Chinese investments in the US would potentially be at risk in any future confrontation. Furthermore most of China's vast international trade depends upon their ability to ship their manufactured goods by sea. It is only a small exaggeration to say that the mighty United States Navy today almost literally 'rules the waves' in a similar manner to which our Royal Navy once did during the 'Pax Britannica' era. To this day it is control of the world's seaways - not the size of your army - that remains the surest test of who is a real superpower, and who isn't yet. However, that is not to say this current balance of economic & military power can endure indefinitely because the pendulum of world power is swinging remorselessly ...... to the East.

Empathetic (and important) result even if the scoreline makes our performance seem rather more polished than it perhaps was at times. Being back top of the league again transfers some of the pressure back onto our rivals once more - which is just where I like it. Three Good Lallana - my MOTM again & it's getting hard to say anything new about him - just a very special player Jos Hooiveld - I'm starting to think he could become a cult hero here, why Celtic let him go so cheaply is beyond me Well done to both Tadanari Lee & Aaron Martin - both excellent goals but Lee's in particular will live long in the memory Three Bad The sooner Frazer Richardson is back the better, because today I thought Dan Harding looked quite the stand-in RB he is. It's not just us playing well - I reckon Derby are a true mediocre mid table team regardless of who they're playing We can only hope the injuries (?) to Hooiveld and Sharpe are minor matters

As I write this I'm half watching a awful Michael Winner/Charles Bronson movie called 'The Stone Killer' I recorded last night. I do feel pretty guilty about it, but unfortunately I'm without any of the compensating 'pleasure' such unadulterated trash is supposed to deliver. Indeed, I hope there is a special corner of Room 101 reserved for Mr Winner and all his works.

As the ever sinister Borg Collective no doubt had a implant designed for just this eventuality, I would suspect that SoN may well win this surprisingly pervey contest of yours. But if I were you I'd make it a best of 3 competition .......

I seem to remember that ENT episode too Pap, and I strongly suspect that you may well not be alone in having the lovely Miss Blalock invade your dreams. Now I like T'Pol and I like Seven of Nine as well, but which one is best ? There's only one way to find out ........ fight !!!!!!!

*Sci-fi nerd alert condition RED* The Vulcan sex drive is normally pretty dormant it would seem but during the 'Pon Farr' their once every 7 year mating season (re TOS episode 'Amok Time') they do go into 'heat' as it were and it can become highly active - violently so in fact. Although Spock is half Human, Vulcan's do suffer from extreme emotional impulses of all kinds, but as a absolute necessity they have learnt to suppress them behind a impressive wall of logic. Traditionally the Enterprise crew member most attracted to Spock was not Uhura (I always thought Kirk floated her boat) but the wonderful Nurse Chapel of course - ah but that's another story ........ ps - any allegation that my sex life resembles that of a Vulcan male is of course strenuously denied.

Went to see the award laden black & white silent movie 'The Artist' this afternoon to see what all the fuss was about. Cast very much in the authentic melodramatic style of the early cinema, this is a old fashioned romantic story of a 1920's Hollywood leading man 'George Valentine' (based in part on Rudolf Valentino) and his difficulty in adapting to coming of talkies. Throw in a love affair between him and a feisty young up & coming actress 'Peppy Miller' and that's about it really. Obviously they don't make that many silent movies theses days, so it's a interesting experience seeing a contemporary one in a cinema. I've often heard film buffs say that the pure essence of cinema lays not in dialog but images, and there's much truth in that because I soon found that you can easily adapt to following a story without the assistance of speech. There's was a certain technique to making old silent movies that is faithfully recaptured here. The director must keep it simple, the camera must obviously concentrate on the face of whoever is talking, and the cast must adopt a period mannered acting style (sometimes called 'mugging') so that the plot is conveyed to the audience. The importance of the musical score (it sounded like a Hitchcock film at times) and the sparing use of captions are also key. I found it a rather warm & charming film with excellent performances from it engaging cast (including a v funny dog) but if you asked me if it was as good a movie as its stellar reputation suggests then I'd have to reply in the negative. My problem with this movie is not the silence - you get used to that - but the fact that the plot itself is so very slight that it struggles to hold your attention. To be brutally frank I thought in dragged badly in the middle section, maybe editing it more vigorously might actually have improved it. So at the risk of appearing to be a awful philistine, I have to say I think the academy should look elsewhere for this years best picture award.

I was massively disappointed in Guly do Prado last night - because normally whenever I give a player some stick you can guarantee that they will score soon afterwards - but not on this occasion alas. A hat-trick on Saturday then ........

Not a great result, but not a terrible one either I suppose. A bit of added pressure on the team now as teams currently in the play-off positions erode our lead, but to be perfectly honest I see little or no reason to fear any of them. On to the next game, and three more points I hope.

The Falkland Islands have a long and complicated settlement history, but it seems perfectly clear that under various UN treaties the existing populations acknowledged right to self determination makes our claim legally preeminent under international law.

Why how big of you. Stalin would had had him in the Gulag of course, but I'm glad to see you are still open to bourgeois anti party propaganda.

But I thought you were unique Comrade - the rest of your type died out years ago surely.

I'm somewhat surprised to see that you are a fan of Jorge Borges Comrade Verbal. Although I've only read a few of his books, he was indeed a rather interesting writer. I particularly liked his long term opposition to communism and all that it stood for.

But you have misquoted me. It is a matter of record that I wrote (post 210) that Guly do Prado "played no decisive role in the either of our goals yesterday" - please note the key employment of the adjective here. Now I can see only three possible explanations for your error: A - You failed to read the post in question carefully enough B - In your haste to disagree with me you forgot what I had actually written C - You have deliberately chosen to misrepresent me in a attempt to strengthen your argument As you are without any doubt one of the more interesting contributers to this forum, I shall be charitable and favor explanations A or B over the shabby explanation C. On the wider point, if everyone who gets any sort of touch on the ball in the passage of play before a goal is scored is now considered to have played a "significant" part in said goal then it seems to me that we are in danger of spreading the credit around rather too thinly for my tastes. On this basis Kelvin Davis gets some sort of 'assist' for virtually every goal we ever score, and even the ball boys may sometimes receive a level of credit they probably don't deserve - fine bunch of lads that they undoubtedly are.

I think I'm rather saturated with Saints related news, but thanks anyway and I will check it out in the fullness of time.

Well with the proviso that the story is accurately reported in the first place, then any reasonable person should conclude that this was indeed a case of racial abuse - which all right thinking football fans (and Human beings in general) should abhor of course. There is no place for this attitude in the game anymore and had it happened within my earshot then rest assured this matter would have been brought to the attention of the nearest Steward at the time. As we are on the subject, if I were ever to accuse anyone of a offence quite as profoundly serious as racism then I'd hope I would possess the balls to use that word to their 'face' as it were - rather than hiding behind a pathetic euphemism such as 'agenda' like a miserable little coward.

Aye.

Ah the 'agenda' raises its ugly head again. I can't imagine what my agenda is supposed to be, so why don't you tell me what you think it is and then I can issue the appropriate response.

Let me get this right. My opinion - the opinion of a complete stranger - is a matter so very important to you that you are prepared to spend precious spare time trawling the internet looking for support for your viewpoint ? This seems to me a bit of a overreaction to put it mildly. Again for the last time. Although I always take note of differing opinions, I always post what is my own personal view rather than just parrot the opinions of others. If the Duke of Edinburgh were to have flown into St Marys in a helicopter at half time & personally presented Guly do Pardo with the Queens Award for Industry, that would have been great fun, but it would not have altered what my opinion of his performance was one iota. I can make this no clearer.

Not at all. Well done to him for getting into the right position I suppose, but I witnessed (and what TV evidence conclusively shows) a eminently simple 'bread & butter' pass to Richardson that any non league player could have delivered with ease. If we are to prepared to take something like that as evidence of greatness, then we all better put our boots back on. Now if we are to discuss what Frazer Richardson subsequently did with that simple pass then that was indeed something special. This is the problem with overpraising mediocrity - real ability is in danger of becoming both overlooked and devalued.

Thanks for this thoughtful reply, I shall consider the points you raise carefully.