Lord Duckhunter

I'm in Dublin for the first game of the season, so I'm hoping Wigan away, or maybe Reading home.

The Labour Govt were going to allow a vote on 3 regional assemblies, in North East England, North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber. All Labour supporting areas, but I guess that was just a coincidence???? They suffered a humilating defeat in the 1st one (The North east voted 78% against) so quietly dropped the other proposed votes.It has however, allowed them to defend themselves agains various arguements. When asked about the West Lothian question you will hear Labour spokesmen saying that an attempt to answer that (English regional assemblies) was rejected by the voters. You even had an example of this on QT this week. John Prescott was asked why we cant have an in/out Euro vote, and replied that Labour were for referendum and to prove it quoted the one held in the North east. I'm all for the break up of the UK and The Jocks going their own way, I'm even behind the Labour idea of regional assemblies in England. The Jocks can keep their oil, and us in the South can keep all our tax revenues.

To be fair to salmond, he was not the only one. The Lib/Dems, Useful idiots in the Tory party like Clarke & Hestletine, and a large portion of the Labour party & unions wanted to join. They still refuse to rule out joining even now. In '99 Blair called Tories oppossed to the single currency, "extremists".

Parliament did vote in another direction for the English. This vote included Scottish MP's.

She's up the duff I believe.

Also, Boscombe would have sold to Peterborough or wanted the Skate money up front, if there was no FCR.They would not take the risk of selling and not receiving all their money. Nobody would sign for them and nobody will sell to them (unless paid upfront)

The reason for the FCR is to stop the domino effect of one club going pop and bringing down others with it. An example would go along these lines. Skates owe Boscombe for Pearce, they dont pay the amount owing. Boscombe go into admin, but they owe Crawley for Tubbs, Crawley owe Sailsbury for Tubbs and on and on. There is such a fine line between clubs being solvent and not, that they have to ensure that they receive the full amount. My solution would be for CLUBS to be part of the FCR, but not indivdual players. This would at a stroke mean that better run clubs would sign the better players and basket caeses would be punished for not running the club in the correct manner (punishment being that nobody in their right mind will sign for them).There was an agent on Talksport 6 months ago saying that if the FCR was abolished, then no agent would send a player to Pompey. Norris' agent must have known what was going on, but didn't give a **** as whatever happened, both him and Norris would get paid. Bring in my version of the rule, and Norris would take a smaller salary at a better run club.

In my experience it's not the people who are out and out lazy that are the problem, those type of people are normally quite easy to "manage" out of any business. The problem is the people who do the bare minimum, they turn up on time, dont take much sick, and keep their noses clean. However, they effect morale, frustrate people and generally cause issues. These are the hardest to shift, as many will have been there a long time. I only have knowledge of big companies, but I've found weak management has allowed these people to just drift along. Not a problem in good times but a pain in the arse now. The Company I work for has made a conscious decision not to recruit until these people are dealt with. The hierarchy believe that the Company have enough hours to do what we need, but that only applies if everybody is highly skilled and highly motivated. Therefore my department is struggling because I have a few of these ******s that I inherited from my weak predecessor. There are 2 types of performance issues Conduct or Capability. Conduct is easy to deal with, but capability is much harder particulary if they've been doing the job for years and "getting away with it". I also have people who thought they were doing a good job, until I told them otherwise. And in one case, I had a employee who had been there 13 years, and nobody had discussed his performance in all that time. These new rules would be a god send to me, as I could clear out my dead wood and start again. However, I dont agree with them. Unscrupulous employers or Managers could get rid of people without due procees, pressure could be put on people to work overtime or through breaks and I've seen too many people promoted on the back of friendship to believe that cronyism and personalities wont be involved in sacking people. At the end of the day, a decent manager will be able to judge anyone after 11 months. When I do recruit it's fixed term 6 month contracts, which I renew if they're good and then make a decision after 11 months. If you cant judge someone's suitability after 11 months, then you cant really call yourself a Manager. Sex discrimination/harressment is not covered in all this, so unfortuatly you cant go round pinching the areses of the new female staff.......

Montpellier is my very fav French City, set in a fantastic area of the Country. Me and Mrs Duck love it down there.

They have still got some complete ****ing idiot supporters, this was what one posted at news of Ashdown & Rocha's release. "Very surprised to read this - I would have thought that they should have at least been offered a new contract, albeit on reduced terms. I thought Ashdown played brilliantly towards the season end, especially at St. Fairys Stadium, where some of his saves were "world class". What a shame they are departing. I presume that MA has even better players lined up to replace them ?" I Presume that MA has even better players lined up to replace them?-What is the clown on?

I dont buy this, NC wants to spend big and Adkins wants to be sensible. There's not a Manager alive who would try and persuade the Chairman to put his money away. If there is anything in it, it's more likely to be that NC doesn't think Nigel has the clout or pull to bring big players in, but I dont believe for one minute that given the chance Nigel would say, "No Mr chairman, we need to build slowly and be sensible". I can see it now, "Nigel we need a top class international Keeper, and I'm willing to fund him", "No, I'm happy with Kelvin, he's a good lad". IF.... NC is offering to take us to another level money wise, and Nigel is resisting, then he needs to be moved on. But, I dont buy that theory. There's no doubt that NC is ruthless, bad start and Nige will be toast. Let's hope that Nigel hits the ground running becaues I'd love to see him here for a decade or so.

Gold has just been on Talk Sport saying "there could have been another 7,000 West Ham supporters here, if only someone had listened" Does anyone know what that was about?

I always thought winning the play offs would be the best way up, but after the Cov game I've changed my mind. Nothing could come close to that feeling, and waiting another 3 weeks would have hospitalised me............

I thought it was just West Ham fans who were obsessed with the "West Ham" way. From what I saw today, West Ham played no different than Reading or countless other Championship sides, they certainly played a lot more football than Stoke did when they got promoted. They dont play as much football as us, or Wigan or Blackpool, but they play pretty much like half a dozen Premiership sides. David Moyes gets praised to the hilt for sending teams out to play the Fat Sam way. In my opinion had Di Cannio been Manager and they played like they did today, nobody would have said a thing. They reminded me of Alan Pardew's West Ham today.

There's one player who is seriously under achieving. I really think he's got the ability to be a monster in the Premiership, but someone needs to get hold of him. I would have quite liked them to have failed today and maybe Nigel could have got him on the bus. I reckon Nigel could bring the best out of him.

The first 2 goals were more or less identical,from both sides. The second was a decent long pass after Nolan made a good run in behind the defence. Blackpool played some pretty stuff, in front of the West Ham defence. I doubt if that's much comfort to their supporters when the season kicks off next season.I didn't think West Ham played too much long ball, I thought they were ok, certainly not as bad as some sides.

Wonder what Venkys think about Fat Sam replacing their side in the top flight. My only thought is "are you watching Rupert Lowe". Keep most of your best players, get a premiership Manager and you have a chance of going up within the parachute period. And dont give me the old pony about what would have happened to them had they not gone up with that expense. Number 1; they did go back up and number 2; We got ****ed anyway, despite taking the "sensible" approach.

It's either for more money, or he's been tapped up. If Rickie scores a hatful next season and then wants move, good luck to him. When we signed him, I never thought he'd play in the Premier League. So even 1 season is a bonus in my mind.

Ince looked good. I like the look of the centre half as well, not the big dummy, but the other one. Good back up for our 2.

There were tips on Martin Lewis' money saving site posted by a sky employee. It's certain times of the week and on certain days it is better to call. The retention team have a certain amount of discount to give away each month. the guy posted dont call at the start of their month, as they want to hold some back and dont call at the end, as it might have run out.Tell them how much you love Sky but just can not afford it. I followed his advise, and called saying my Mrs was up the duff and not working. they gave me half price for the period she was on "maternity" leave. I think it was a year, but cant quite remember. Sometimes doesn't work, told a mate and he did the same, they said "fine" and were going to cancel it. He had to call back and say he changed his mind.So it doesn't always work, look up Martin Lewis' advise on when to call.

Did anyone see Steve Cropper on the Ronnie Wood show the other night (great show most weeks). He also told the story of "hold on I'm coming". Issack Hayes and David Porter had the rift but no words. Porter went for a **** and Hayes thought he was taking too long, when he shouted "hurry up", the reply was "hold on, I'm coming", and the song had the words.......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1VCjsHE6k0&feature=related

There was a guy on Newsnight on Weds, Terry Smith. He said that people were deluded if they think that by spending more you could create growth.He said that the previous Labour Govt spent £2.18 for every £1 of growth, even before the downturn, and this is just not sustainable. It is kicking the can down the road, it may get you elected but somebody else will have to deal with your deficit later down the line. He was not a politican and saved his main contempt for the Tory on there. He explained ( and the Tory, despite his bluster, couldn't counter the arguement) that this Govt was cutting spending by just 1.5% in 2011-12 ( I think he said it was 0.7% of GDP), and that spending was 50% higher in real terms than it was 10 years ago. He went on that that amount is hardly "Austerity", and that you can not cut Govt spending unless you have real cuts in welfare and NHS spending, everything else is just tinkering around the edges. He also said that we never came out of recession, but that £500bn of deficit spending & £325bn of Quantitative Easing enabled us to inch over that particular line. His recipe, is to cut spending dramatically enough to be able to cut taxes for people and Companies.

The story Stax put out was Memphis Group, but I read an article saying it was because a friend owned an MG. According to that article, Stax put out the story Memphis Group in case of any trademark infringement claims by the car Company.

Dont know if this has been posted yet. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/balram-chainrai-submits-his-bid-to-buy-pompey-1-3860834

A lot of people dont know that was Booker T & The Mg's. They were seriously underrated, particulary Steve Cropper. He wrote or part wrote Green Onions, Sitting on the dock of the bay,midnight hour,Knock on wood. Not forgetting backing the worlds greatest ever soul singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGv0Thu3Gas