Lord Duckhunter

I cant help thinking he'd make a good England Manager.His whole style of management is suited to what I think is needed in an international manager. You just need to create an enviorment where players want to play. You dont need to look to the future (particulary at his age) and there's no need to coach players to become better.Whatever anyone says, players do appear to respect him and want to play for him, and most of the country would be behind him. The whole thing hangs on this court case, found not guilty and he's a shoe in. The FA have no morals now, gone are the days when they got rid of Venables because he was "dodgy". However dodgy Redknapp is (and they know he is) they'll hide behind "he was found innocent". To be honest with you, I couldn't care less whether he's made Manager or not, I stopped caring about England a long time ago..........

You can see even on this thread how the Pro Europeans seem unable to accept the will of the people, and keep trying to tell us what is best for us. They would make really good members of the EU council as added to this, is their inability to accept the first result of a referendum. Unfortunatly for them the AV vote was not the Lisbon or Nice treaty and we were not told to keep voting until we got the result they wanted.Bloody hell, they've come up with more excuses than Wurzel does when the Skate's lose. It wasn't even close, it's like complaining about the ref after a 7-0 drubbing.

Exactly, he's a modern day Ted Heath. He's basically bought into the present Political Consensus. Nothing radical here, just an extension of Blair's free market approach to schools and hospitals and a slightly tighter squeeze than Labour would have given us. We're still letting too many prisoners out early, letting too many people in, ignoring too many crimes, letting Europe tell us what to do, taxing the people too heavily, over burdening business with too much red tape and spending too much money on welfare and hand outs for people who dont deserve it.

There are vast swathes of the Tory party that are oppossed to the EU out of principle. Somehow a myth has devoloped that people like Clarke, Hestletine and Patten are the moderate's and people like Redwood are loons. Just because he looks strange, on Europe and the Euro, Redwood and his ilk were right, and Ken "Man of the people" Clarke was wrong. Had the "moderates" got their way, we'd be in the Euro by now. Even after the ERM fiasco idiots like Clarke and Hestletine still looked at Europe and the Euro through rose tinted glasses. They damaged the party by portraying anyone oppossed to "The Project" as right wing nutters and the pro European BBC lapped it up. James Goldsmith was right, and what good did it do the Torys pandering to the likes of Clarke and Hestletine, nothing, they are still unable to win an election outright for the 20 years since Hestletine, Clarke, Major and all the other political pigmies moved the party to the "centre".

The 4-1 away was the most spineless performance I've ever seen, a bloody disgrace. That said, I wouldn't swap that with the pain they suffered for all those years. I was into my 40's before I saw them finish above us, even once. That really is going some and sent loads of 40/50 something Skates into therapy...........

This is why we'll never get a vote on Europe. Plain and simple, nothing to do with principles, just politics. The establishment have deemed we're best off in Europe and are scared the peasant's will upset the apple cart.Just like public opinion on hanging changed over the years, they're hoping that they can ride out this storm and that future generations will come to see the European project as a wonderful thing.Personally, I think opinion is travelling the other way, and if they wanted to maintan or place in the EU, should have held a vote 10 years ago and killed it for another 20 years(as the Torys have done with PR)

Looking back through this thread, Pedg has given me a great idea to save money in these times of austerity. Let's just vote for our local council, then the councillor's elected could appoint our MP's & MEP's. It would save millions on General election and European election costs,and would still be democratic because the councillor's were elected by us in the first place.

It was part of the coalition agreement and therefore agreed by the Lib/Dems in return for their support. If PR meant so much to them they should have had the balls to demend one in return for their support.It is them you should be having your digs at, not the Torys.

Is the House of Lords "elected", as most of the peers are chosen by elected parties?

The Lib/Dem manifesto had a committment to an in/out vote, so how is that a vote to stay in the EU?

Nobody has, the vote was whether to remain in a common market.

At the moment members of both partys are governed and run by the whips and the party machines. Strip that away and their real thoughts will come through. The last campaign was free of party influence and members were allowed to campaign for either side. Once free of these ties a lot (particulary Tory) senior figures would campaign for an out vote. We were lied to last time, and people who remember , wont get fooled again.

That's correct, to their shame the Tory party (with the support of all the other main parties) rammed through Maastricht and gave away vast amounts of our sovereignty. People like Ken Clarke, Chris Patten and Hestletine held the party to ransom, and John Major was not strong enough to sort them out. The ironic thing is that the people who were right about Europe and the Euro were portrayed as loons and right wing nutters and the ones who were wrong (as we now know) were "moderates".The British people are now coming round to this way of thinking, and any vote would end us with us leaving (hense the reason we wont get one) Brown said all along that he was not against the Euro in principle, it was just the timing he oppossed. Had his economic tests been met, he would have signed (or attemptted to) us up. As sane people pointed out at the time ecomonic tests were no way to weigh up the pros and cons. The ecomony is cyclical and whilst joining the euro may be right one year (ie, the tests are all in favour) but wrong 10 years later. The only people who were right were the ones against it in principle. The principle being, you can not have a single currency covering several differant countries and governments.

What have you got against the British people's opinion? One man's lie is another man's fact. I heard plenty of what I consider lies from the pro AV side. If your going to deny people votes on the basis of truth, uncertainty and doubt, let's do away with General elections and just let clever people like you decide our leaders.

Music after a goal is naff, I dont want it, it's a bloody joke. Whilst we're at it, I hate the players coming out the tunnel together and shaking hands, they need to run out behind the captain who carries the ball, and just run to their end. I also hate the jumping up and down on a bloody podium, with fireworks and all that nonsense going off, whilst "We are the Champions" or some other rubbish is played in the background. What's wrong with a lap of honour, with stragglers falling behind, cup put on goalscorers head, and a few impronto team photos? And the bloody TV should not interview players and Managers on the pitch..............

Europe wouldn't stop trading with us just because we left the EU. It's a global economy now and any loss of money through leaving would be balanced out by not paying millions and millions in every year. That's just my opinion, and others have theirs. Why are the Euro loons so afraid of airing theirs, persuading people and putting their opinions to the vote? Any vote would be covered by strict election law, we could have a debate and let the British people decide. I know it's not very "European" to want a say in how we're governed,but I guess I'm just old fashioned.

So what you are saying is that the average man should be denied a vote on Europe because he is too stupid to understand and is easily led by some national papers. You on the other hand understand perfectly as I presume all the other pro Europeans do. Remind me again where all these knowledable pro Europeans stood on the issue of the Euro, and where the ranting leader writers of the Mail and Express stood? Everytime greater powers are given to the EU member countries are either denied a vote, or given one, but told to vote again until they get the right result. For 15 years running the EU accounts have not be signed off by auditors, and yet we keep pouring our hard earned money down that particular drain WITHOUT A SAY. In 50 years time when the whole thing has fallen apart our children will shake their heads in disbelief that so called knowledable people thought this a good idea.

Difference is UKIP what their views put to the test with a vote. And I would hardly call the party that came second in the last European elections a "select few", what does that make the pro European Lib/Dems and Labour parties which came 3rd and 4th?

The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its present guise in 1993, it was a far cry from what was voted on previously. If we follow your theory, we could have further European Federalism, or even join the Euro without the need for a vote, on the basis that we were asked if we wanted to leave an entirely different organsation, with different members 40+ years ago. It is that sort of thinking and arguement that has rail roaded us into where we are today. The European project has never been about what the people of Europe want (particulary UK)but about what a few select band of fanatics think is best for us.

We were given a vote on remaining in a "common market". The present EU is a long long way from the "common market" that we were given a vote on. The whole thing has been one big con job, and Tory Euro loons like Heath, Hestletine, Patten and Clake have made it worse by stiffling opposition from within the party.From the very outset the British people were misled. Had they realised their fishing industry would be decimated,vast areas of Sovereignty would be lost, countries like Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, and Slovenia would join.They would have voted to come out. The very same people who have championed further European integration for years were the same idiots who wanted us to join the Euro.

Complete and utter rubbish, the only changes that are being made will rebalance the constituency sizes, as the system is skewed towards Labour at present. The only reason the changes will work in the Torys favour is because the system is so unfair against them at present.If the present constituency sizes was so biased in favour of the Torys, the BBC and lefties in the media would have a field day. Had Labour done as well as the Torys in the last election, they would have won a landslide. How on earth can that be fair? Constituancies should be of equal size population wise. The number of MP's should be reduced now that there is devolution for all but the English. I thought we had a vote on changing the electrol system, and FPTP won by a landslide.

The whole Party conference season is a complete and utter waste of time. They used to be about the grass roots and discuss policies, now they're so tightly stage managed, they are pointless. Labour dont want their comrade's getting too much airtime, the Torys dont want Europe mentioned and even the Libs have stopped wearing sandals.The whole thing is just a massive jolly, and whose picking up the security bill?

The problem Labour had is Gordon Brown spent 10 years crushing anybody with any leadership qualities in case they stood against him. I've got no time for David Milliband as he should have moved against Brown when Parnell quit. Like Portillo 20 years ago, he tried to box clever, look loyal, and lacked the balls to stand up and be counted. You need a strong opposition to keep a Govt in check, particulary when the Govt is the other 2 main parties. Neither Ed will be able to provide it. On the wider point of career politicans, they can not be a good thing, whether left or right.I want me leaders to have run a business, or led a union, or faced some of the hardships that we have to face. I would like to see more retired police chiefs, doctors, businessmen, shop stewards, and other high flyers from various walks of life, enter Westminister. Unfortunatly, the pay is poor and the work/life balance awful, so it will put these types off. You only end up with rich Etonians or Oxford PPE graduates, who have never done a days work in their life.

I agree, I find Liverpool a fantastic football city, because of the respect for the past from both red and blue parts of the city.If I was running the club I'd have Lawrie sat in the most important seat in the stadium and let him have whatever he wants for free. However, I'd be more like Eddie Mitchell and the first "LD out" chant and I'd be over offering the fans outside.I would love the club to do a lot more to honour the past, but you can't expect foregin busnessmen to feel as passionate about it as we do.

Claridge was alos head and shoulders above anyone else at the Sakte forum last season. Asking "why would anyone buy your club" and similar unbiased statements. He upset the Blue Few who felt he should have been more positive about their club. Claridge says it how it is, and I wish there were more like him.