Lord Duckhunter

You were talking nonsense when you appeared to be blaming the tory party for peoples perceptions, as you now appear to be backtracking from that position i take it you agree with my point that its basically apolitical.

What a load of nonsense. People have believed these things for years, its not that they suddenly started thinking this way 3 years ago. People were just as ignorant under labour and daily mirror readers just as ignorant as sun readers. Take the crime stat, who deceives the public the Tory party who want people to think its down or labour who want people to think its going up. If Cameron stands up at pmq tomorrow and says crime is down, what is red ed going to say " you're right Dave"?

I'll have a go. 1. Teenage pregnancy-Never really thought about it, but I would have guessed around a tiny % 2. Crime- Personally I think the figures are fiddled, there are too many stakeholders from Governments to Coppers who have a vested interest in ensuring the crime figures come down. depends on too many things from how it's reported , to what exactly constitutes a crime. I feel that people don't report stuff they would of 40 years ago. A lot of petty vandalism goes unreported and any drop in theft from cars is more to do with advances in technology than any positive action. If a bloke vandalises 4 cars in an evening is it four crimes or one? So I'm in the 58% bracket here. 3. JSA to pensions-Anyone who thinks we spend more on JSA than pensions is clearly an idiot. 4. Benefit fraud- The official figures are an "estimate", by the very nature of benefit fraud I seriously doubt the authorities have any sort of clue as to what the figure is. I suspect it's more widesporead than estimates, but that it's real low level stuff. It all depends on how you define "fraud". If someone on JSA sells a load of gear on ebay, should they declare any profits?Strictly speaking is that benefit fraud? 5. Foreign aid-Again, if you don't know the figure you're a bit of a numpty, seeing as the Government have pledged ( they may even have legigslated ) that we will spend a certain % of GDP. 6. Religion & Muslims-That'll really depend where you live. My guess would be lower because there aren't any round here. If the 5% are concentrated in 30% of the country, the people in the 30% are obviously going to have a higher figure. As for Christians, I'm surprised it's so high, but is it people who call themselves Christians or people who go to church? 7. Immigration-Same as above. 8. Age-That did surprise me, I'd have guessed around a third. 9. Benefit bill- Anyone with half a brain could work out that delaying pensions will save the most money. 10. Voting-Again I would have put it around the guess figure of 40% , so was surprised it was 65%.

I find it odd that none of the other couples said anything at the time. Had we been meeting a couple and they'd left their kids at home alone, I'd have said something. It seemed a really "normal" thing for them to do, I bet there aren't many parents if any on here that have done the same thing.

I may have missed it, but I'm yet to see any sort of admission of wrong doing on the part of the McCann's. They were in the wrong to leave their children alone, yet don't seem to be able to admit the fact. For all the **** ups the police made, had they stayed at home with their children or taken them out with them (what most normal people do) they would still have their daughter. Had this been some chav's from a sink estate, I've no doubt they would have been hounded by the press and had their remaining children taken off them. That said, they must be going through hell every day (made worse by the fact that deep down they must know they contributed to this) and I hope these new lines of enquiry lead us to the truth.

My heart says he can do a job in centre mid , helping shut up shop or covering for cork & ms on a temporary basis, but my head says no. The way we play he'll get roasted at full back and surely we have enough centre halves not to need a utility player as back up. As a defensive midfielder, he's not an improvement on what we have. If you stand still, you get overtaken nowadays, and he is not an improvement. Sad, as the guy was terribly underused for a couple of seasons by certain of our managers Seems like a good bloke who ended up with a half decent perm career, but not with us unfortunately.

If people are that bothered about stripes , advertising and badges ECT, why don't they just buy a retro 1960/70's one from toffs.

It's the same every ****ing week, some numb nuts (usally a leftie) giving us their life story and telling us how the government's let them down. "What are they doing to help me do xyz". If I was Dimble I'd ban any personal woe is me tales from the show. Any Questions on R4 is so much better because the audiance just ask the questions and then stfu. You also don't get halfwits like Russell brand giving us their take on the economy.

I do wonder whether lefties actually realise that there are other health care systems in the world. All they ever seem to talk about is the NHS or USA , as if that's the only choice.

Anyone who saw that half wit Brand on question time must realise he's a clueless one trick pony. I thought they'd scrapped the bottom of the barrel with John lydon ( or whatever his stupid made up name is ) Id rather listen to the political thoughts of Eric Joyce at chucking out time, than take political lectures from that ****ing unfunny lanky streak of ****

I won't believe its unpopular until I see Kirk and dad wearing red and white stripes , pictured boycotting the mega store.

Paul mariner was a good bloke, had a few nights out with him as my mate knew him. Don't know if he did any charity stuff, but he liked a bevy, hard rock and had an eye for the ladies.

The country spends enough money, it is just spread too thinly. This means that the things that rely on government money are always lurching from one crisis to another.If government money was targetted better and if there wasn't so much waste , then we would have a fairer society. We have a society that wants its arse wiped by our glorious leaders. Everybody is looking to government to answer all their problems and provide money on the basis of want, rather than need.

Why give the guy a load of abuse, if you don't like his thread don't comment on it. Much as I loved lawrie, those type of signings belong in a bygone era. The only ones worth signing are a giggs , scholes, or carragher and they can choose their moment to leave the game safe in the knowledge they don't need one more pay day. The managers who have tried it lately are redknapp and pulis, but people like Owen & Ryan nelson are just a waste of money. Look at fat frank or John terry , 30 years ago Chelsea would have binned them, now they can manage them through squad rotation and when the time comes to go , they'll go to the middle east, USA or retire. I would love a jimmy case, kk or a Peter Osgood, but the games changed .

I thought it was a Stoke training session.

Leeds played in blue and white, then blue, before Don Revie changed it to the all white we now associate with them. This looks like the one from about '85, not one of my favourites but better than some of the striped efforts we've had over the years. Last years grow on me and I hope this one will as well. At the end of the day, the thing that ****es me off, isn't the kit design but the price and the constant renewing of kits every season.The design is just opinions and the sales figures will indicate popularity in the club's eyes not a poll of people signed up on here. There will be 3 groups; People who don't like it, but buy it anyway. People who like it and buy it, and people who don't like it but would have bought it had it been striped. Until the third group outweigh the first two the club wont give a ****.

1. Abbey Road-The Beatles 2. The Band-The Band 3. Shotgun Willie-Willie Nelson 4.Down by the jetty-Dr Feelgood 5. Mad dogs & Englishmen-Joe Cocker

Real ale

Damn nuisance these election results aren't they? In future how do we assess whether a government has any business being in power. My suggestion is the party leaders pop round yours for a cuppa and a chat and you decree who forms the government.Much more legitimate than bothering with counting votes ,and in this age of austerity a lot cheaper.

It is a fact that money purchase schemes need less employers Contibutions than a defined benefit one. That's why they are dying out in the private sector. As the taxpayer is the employer of public sector workers, closing defined benefit pensions and starting mps will save the tax payer money but still leave public sector workers with an equivalent pension to nearly all private sector workers.

No drama, provided they are not called "self funded". Do you accept that if defined benefit schemes in the public sector were closed it would save the tax payer money, whilst giving public sector workers similar pension provisions as the vast majority of tax payers have ?

My son has a private pension. That is self funded. Mine is funded by myself and my company so is not self funded. Yours is funded by you and the tax payer so is not self funded.

The tax payer will always have to contribute to Public sector pensions, I cant see how any normal person could disagree with that. However, surely it's a legitimate question as to whether they should continue to fund a defined benefit scheme or move to a money purchase one which will save them a lot of money. It is also incorrect to call them "self funded" .

Do these companies you quote offer their employees a defined benefit scheme? Perhaps they closed them to keep their costs down and make the business more profitable. This is turn has meant they can keep the cost of your shopping lower. And , to go back to Bazza's earlier point. If you don't like your money going towards the Sainsburys pension, don't shop there. How does Bazza do the same to public sector pensions? If they put the price of a loaf up 50% to help fund pensions, you could walk away. If Bazza's taxes go up to fund a defined benefit pension in the public sector, what can he do?

Of course it makes a difference. My employer decided that they couldn't afford to continue to fund a defined benefit pension, so pulled the plug on it. There are a lot of people that believe the country (your employer) cant afford to continue to fund a defined benefit pension, but woe betide the Government that tries to pull the plug on them. I get the need to honour the pensions people signed up to (despite the fact that a huge number of private employers, including mine, didn't honour their commitment) but they should be closed to new entrants. Still at least I learnt something today. "Self funded" in public sector speak means funded by the employee and the tax payer.