CHAPEL END CHARLIE

Is it feasible that revolutionary forces were responsible for the suspected WMD attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus last Wednesday in a (deeply cynical) attempt to manipulate the outside world into intervening in this conflict? Well maybe I suppose. Is there any apparent hard evidence to support that conclusion? I have yet to see any. What we can say with a degree of confidence is that the Assad regime is currently refusing to allow UN monitoring teams access to the scene of the crime - this is surely suggestive. There is also video evidence* of military helicopters dropping unidentified smoke/gas emitting canister like objects on the town of Saraqeb on the 29th of April this year - subsequently victims were hospitalized with symptoms that look to me consistent with exposure to a Mustard Gas attack. As the rebels don't have a air force ... well lets just say that too looks pretty suggestive does it not? It is a matter of record that the Syrian government has admitted it does indeed posses a chemical capability. It is also beyond all doubt that this government is quite prepared to attack its own people with conventional explosive based munitions, inflicting mass casualties on both rebel fighters and innocent civilians alike. So who on here could really claim the Syrian government is so very scrupulous and moral a organization that it would not be prepared to go further in a attempt to cling onto power? So the Assad regime would therefore appear to possess the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit this warcrime then. In a court of law those elements very often lead to a guilty verdict do they not? *

Incomprehensible post.

Good luck to him. But looking back on his (somewhat infrequent) appearances here I can't honesty say I myself would go so far as to lavish superlatives such as 'great' or 'fantastic' to this particular player. But each to his own I suppose.

Excellent news - not only do I not have to go to work next week, but I'm also free from the worry of finding the rent money this month. I bag a top bunk in the newly renamed 'Guly Wing' at HMP Parkhurst.

Easy thread. 1 - Having to be me 24/7 - it's really not a much of a larf. 2 - So called work 'colleges' who instead of working with you, actually take every opportunity to screw you over. 3 - People who mess with your stuff - scumbags the lot of them. 4 - Managers who don't know their Arsenal from their Alloa Athletic. 5 - A certain five year old girl who had a panic attack just because she had a tiny bit of soot in her eye - yes I mean you Molly 6 - The motor insurance industry. 7 - Bicyclists and motorcyclists who don't consider that the Highway Code need apply to them. 8 - TV chefs - a bunch of bastards 9 - Spending £6bn to build two vast 65,000 ton aircraft carriers, but then not buying enough aircraft to go on them. 10 - France

Good thread this. So after a long period of dismal decline, the wheel of fate's remorseless rotation brought us the Leibherr era, a period that has turned out to be a 'golden age' for this wonderful old football club then? You know thinking about, and despite a few bumps along the way, that might just be right I suppose. Long may it last, but beware my fellow Saint fans because gold is also the colour of sunset ...

But it is the states business to protect its citizens from harming themselves, as far as practicably possible in this culture anyway. That's why school kids can't legally buy booze, there are speed limits on our Motorways, and the sale of automatic weapons to the general public is prohibited. Long live the 'nanny state' I reckon. But let's say your free market were to become a reality. As you know in a free market the laws of supply and demand state that as the supply of any commodity increases then the price must inevitably come down. So this particular (somewhat Thatcherite) policy of deregulation ensures both a plentiful, and a increasingly cheap, supply of recreational drugs (substances that come within the definition of a poison) is available to all. Oh hooray. But what we need is more/better drug education in this country I hear you say. Well the truth is we have been earnestly teaching our kids about the harm smoking tobacco will certainly do to their bodies for decades now. The (very) mixed success of that policy can be observed outside the gates of any secondary school at going home time. The truth is we may not be a mature enough society to handle the freedoms you advocate I'm sorry to say. For the life of me I can't see why making drugs even more freely available than they already are is going to make this society a better place to live in. .

What a bizarre post. On this basis you could argue that the entire criminal justice system serves no good purpose because crime has not been eradicated. Why imprison a thief when there will always be another thief ready to take his place eh? No, we persecute crime not because we expect to entirely eradicate it, but rather by enforcing the law we aim to deter criminality, to punish the guilty and avoid a state of lawless anarchy arising. Above all the principle purpose of the criminal justice system is to reduce the scale of the damage done to society from what it might otherwise be. As for our tendency for self harm being a 'insolvable' problem, human nature being what it is you may be right here. But there is a key difference between a problem being a insolvable one, and it being regarded as a uncontainable one. But ultimately society cannot protect everyone from themselves at all times. That obvious truth however does not mean your (highly uncharacteristic I must say) free market or laissez faire approach advocated here would (I feel) be seen as a acceptable policy by the vast majority of reasonable people.

Top clubs are interested in signing top young talent - 'twas ever thus. However as long as Luke is happy to stay here, and I see no indication that he is not, then he's going nowhere. The days when plucky little Southampton where your typical selling club every time a semi decent offer comes along are gone now ... well until the money runs out anyway.

Well Pap, nations all over the world have indeed examined the recreational drug use issue and (with a relatively small number of exceptions) they have decided that this behavior should remain prohibited to one degree or another. The reasons for that near universal trend are surely quite clear to all - a good example being last nights BBC3 documentary on the terrible effects he new 'yaba' craze (pills made from a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine) is inflicting on Thailand's youth. Why on Earth would any responsible government want to tolerate such a dangerous and destructive narcotic? As for other harmful human activities such as alcohol abuse or tobacco addition, no one could disagree that these substances too represent a real public health problem. However you could argue that there is a significant difference in that these substances do tend to kill over a long period of time (typically many decades in the case of tobacco) while a teenager taking his/her very first sniff of glue, or pill, is at real risk of being killed almost instantly should their bodies suffer a extreme adverse reaction. But the real reason we continue to tolerate alcohol and cigarettes, while drug abuse is still penalised, is primarily a cultural one. Because there is a long established precedent of those (legal) substances being considered an acceptable feature of everyday life for millions of people, the natural human resistance to change means they remain in widespread use. Yes looked at with a sense of Olympian detachment that is a utterly illogical behavior, but as society is comprised of utterly illogical Homosapiens such outcomes must be expected I suppose. After all if the world were to became some totally rational place over night we might have to abolish our wonderful Royal Family - and I'm sure you will agree with me that would just never do.

Anywhichway you cut it, MP has (on paper anyway) quite the best squad any Saints manager has had to select from - certainly in my memory anyway. Even our potential bench looks pretty strong.

As the Duke of Wellington almost said: "I don't know what effect this team will have upon the opposition, but by God they frighten me"

From the Chairman down to the manager and most of the players, this club is too handsome by half if you ask me, It sometimes looks like we are attempting to assemble a bloody boy band rather than a football team. This Osveldo bloke looks like Johnny Depp! Come back Ian Dowie I say. But never mind, there are still plenty of pug-ugly buggers in the stands happy to maintain the traditional standards of hideousness that British men are internationally renowned for.

Aye. The question is by no means an unreasonable one. Football clubs (even those with wealthy and indulgent owners) should in the long run make a profit or at least break even. The scars of receivership cut deep and have yet to fully heal over for some of us.

What a odd thread. This player has hardly put a foot wrong during his time here, so why some are now choosing to question his ability is something of a mystery to this fan. Not a man-mountain obviously and not best suited to being played out of position perhaps, but in his favored CB spot a clever and able International well up to the standard expected at this level IMO. I fully expect him to line up alongside Lovern on Saturday - and to be frank I don't intend to spend a single minute worrying about that prospect. For that matter (after a bit of a shaky start) Jose Fonte has adjusted well to the demands of the PL and even Jos is pretty decent cover on his day.

He may not be the most enthusiastic player to ever arrive here, but his class is obvious. Spending our (by which we mean Liebherr) money on signing 3 quality players, rather than half a dozen decent ones, just has to be the way forward I'd say - how fortunate this club is to be in such a envious situation. Is this now the best Saints squad most of us have seen during our lifetimes? I reckon so.

I dare say everyone reading this will be pleased to see so many of our academy players coming through - I know I am. However do we really think that JWP has done enough yet to truly earn a starting place ahead of established players such as Jack Cork or Steven Davis, or was he perhaps selected to further this stated club policy? If the manager genuinely thinks he's the best option he has on the day then that's all well and good. If however (and it is a 'if') MP is being pressured to select a certain number of Academy players for each game, then I'm not so sure that would be a good thing.

You can tell that MP is now getting 'ahead' of his interpreter when it comes to understanding the questions put to him in English. It's not a ideal situation that our manager continues to conduct his press interviews via a interrupter, but I'm struggling to care all that much frankly.

Early days of course but based on the Solent commentary it sounded like our PL débutantes - Chambers, Lovern and Wanyama had strong games. I'm pleased for all of them of course, especially young Calum Chambers. If memory serves we got tonked in this fixture last season, so todays (narrow) victory looks to be a good sign for the shape of things to come. If you defend your goal well, as we seem to have today unlike the early games of last season, than almost anything is possible. Really looking forward to Sunderland next week.

Pointing out that many more people die from drink rather than drug abuse in this country is both statistically accurate and reasonable. Attempting to employ that statistic to ague that potentially harmful recreational drug use should therefore be legalised is however a non sequitur. Better surely to argue that the terrible suffering cause to so many by alcoholism proves we should redouble our efforts to treat that addiction problem does it not? It does not follow that just because one particular Human activity is relatively less harmful to society than another, we should therefore ignore the obvious public health issues, abandon all restrictions and allow a 'free-for-all' situation to arise as regards to drug abuse. I ask anyone on here with children in their care whether they would really be perfectly happy to see narcotics become even more easily accessible to them? The rebellious and self destructive elements of Human nature being what they are, the war against drugs may never be won - I'm not even sure the term 'war' is the right analogy anyway. But a alternate policy of unconditional surrender doesn't seem all that attractive either does it ...

Doctor Who - Terror of the Autons (1971) My occasional immersions in the strange world of old Who has now progressed sufficiently to reach a era that I'm quite old enough to actually remember! The plastic fantastic Autons proved to be a big success in Jon Pertwee's first story - Spearhead From Space - especially those unforgettable scenes when shop window mannequins suddenly come alive and go on the rampage. So not for the first (or last) time they were brought back to terrify a unsuspecting nation all over again. But this story is perhaps best remembered for the introduction of two new characters. 'Jo Grant' (Katy Manning) signed on as the Doctor's latest young assistant and I must say she and Pertwee immediately form a sweet and convincing pseudo Father/Daughter relationship that is a pleasure to see. Just as significantly Roger Delgado makes his debut as the charming, but utterly evil 'Master'. The producers had come to realise that Pertwee's Doctor resembles Sherlock Holmes in some ways, so it was but a short step from there to conclude that this Holmes-like Doctor needed a equally intelligent Moriarty like figure to challenge him. The resulting partnership of these Ying/Yang Timelord's made would form a cornerstone of the earthbound 'UNIT era' Doctor Who - a period in the shows long history that is still fondly remembered by this fan. As for this story, cheap and unsophisticated compared to todays TV of course, but judged by the more innocent standards of the day Terror still has plenty of genuinely good moments I thought. In particular the hideous toy doll the Master employs to kill off a stroppy businessman and the scene when the Auton Policemen abduct the Doctor and Jo being especially memorable. This series also greatly benefits from BBC management at last agreeing to reduce story length from a unwieldy seven episodes, down to a much more audience friendly four ... ... oh and beware the Masters comfy chair!

Of course it's expedient for employers to impose a effective annual wage cut on their employees and then tell them to 'take it or leave it' because someone else will be happy to do the job instead it if they dare object. Speaking from personal experience, my employer stared imposing exactly this policy on their staff years before the great '2008/9 credit crunch' even started. I have just received 3 (small) pay rises in 12 years at my current workplace - and I had to kick up a fuss to get even that. The trouble is it's not the middle and upper classes but rather those at the bottom of society who will bare the brunt of this pain. If you are lucky enough to be healthy, young, and possess a set of skills the job market demands then you could probably find another job with relative ease. The better off earning £30/40/50k a year can frankly take no pay rise for a year or two without feeling much real financial pain from the experience. If you are on half that amount however - or less - then real suffering will ensue. With a precedent of static/declining wages now set there is no guarantee that 'normal service' will be resumed once the recovery properly gathers pace. As the gap between the rice and poor widens even further the consequences of the stress this unwelcome 'new deal' will impose on society will one day be felt - it's unlikely to be a pretty sight.

Like many a Saints fan worldwide I too am basking in the reflected glory of Sir Rickie's triumph this morning. Bloody brilliant wasn't it? Having done a bit of packing myself (though not Beetroot's) I must say seeing this genuine working class hero get to where he is now has been a especially pleasing experience - a proper 'Roy of the Rovers' story if ever I saw one. Time will tell how far SRL goes with the national team, but one thing I know for sure is that no one can ever take that one perfect moment in time away from him.

I'd love to see us sign a top class striker, added to the good players we already have such an addition could well nigh guarantee our PL survival and (quite possibly) push us up into a top ten finish this season. What I'm not so in love with is seeing this grand old club trying to persuade a series of reluctant foreign players to sign on who fundamentally don't really want to come here because they don't happen to think we're 'big' enough for them. If we do end up signing this particular Carlos Kickaball then he better start sweating blood for this club because a long hot summer of all this tiresome 'will he/won't he' business is starting to to seriously irritate me now.

I agree. I also wonder if the missing 13 year old in the news lately had been a boy, whether that story too would have received quite the same amount of coverage.