Lord Duckhunter

There is an interesting programme on talksport Sunday nights called The Press Pass, this was bought up last night.Matt Dickinson of the Times, said that "American owners" of Premier League clubs are pushing for a franchise system, like the NFL. He said it was one of the things things that attracted them in the first place. With it, they then feel that they can work a wages cap and continue to make money year on year with no worry of relegation.

Compared to the other dross on show, he looks different class. Not that it means much, the rest are hopeless.

Shocking game, shocking atmosphere......... They really are poor......... What on earth has happened to Liam Lawerence, he's flushed his career down the toilet, he is awful........

Not too sure what result I want for the Skates tonight. Couple of good results and Gray could get the job.

If we win Tuesday, it'll be a great week. Lose Tuesday and todays result will look disappointing. Watching the stream, we edged it and maybe should have won.

Our young people are being conned by the system into believing that going to Uni, will give them a great start and a decent job. Universities should be a place for the elite, they should be where the very brightest and able children go from all walks of life go( I'm not saying you are not, by the way). By deciding that it is a good thing for 50% of our children to attend Uni, that has been watered down.There was never any thought of me going to Uni, I was just not one of the elite at my school, just an average pupil. Nowadays average pupils attend Uni and run up huge debts for the privilage of doing so. Govt's of both colours did not acheive this near 50% mark, by raising standards so high that 50% of our children could be considered elite, but by changing Polytechnic's into uni's, by designing degrees for the average pupil and by generally dumbing down the requirements to be a Uni student. It is not the Children's fault, as I said, they have been conned. The attraction for the Govt (of both colours) is they can chant the mantra that "more people benefit from uni education", and it also keeps many off the unemployment register ( a win/win).

Rightly rape victims are treated differently than victims of other crimes and the same should apply to the defendant, until he is found guilty. It seems bizzare that the papers cant print true stories about people like Ryan Giggs, but can print the names of people who maybe completely innocent of this crime.

The freemarket has to work in the media. Apart from the BBC (which I object paying for, but that's for another thread) the media is governed by the rules of demand. Anyone can set up a paper or buy an existing title. Why are there no left wing right on papers that sell as many copies as the Mail, telegraph and Sun. Perhaps it's because nobody would buy it. You could put a pair of tits on page 3,4 & 5 of the Guardian, but as long as Polly Toynbee is spouting her nonsense, nobodys going to buy it, except a few sandal wearers and tree huggers.

There's nothing you can do about it, save ban media or ban elections. My view as a freemarket supporter is that the media (except the BBC) is governed by the free market. How many people were really disgusted with the phone tapping, yet how many cancelled their Sky subscription? People buy the Mail, Sun and Telegraph, they have a choice. If they didn't like/agree with most they write, they would have the circulation figs of the Guardian...........

What nonsense. Who are you to decide how other people arrive at their opinions? Perhaps yours were delivered to you by the BBC, or a work collague, or a member of your family, I dont know and I dont really care, they count as much as any member's of the "great unwashed" do. Why do you assume that any right wing opinions are "delivered" to people, but your "right on Leftie views" are a result of your highly intelligent mind and formed by principles?

I'm not happy with any sort of election system for the European Parliament, because I dont want us in the EU. However, if we had a vote to determine which system to use, I would accept the will of the British people. I would not try and tell them they were, conned,stupid, lied to, or compalin about the amount of money spent on the campaign.Especially if my side of the arguement was defeated in a manner bordering on humilation.I would sit back and think about why I was so out of touch with what the people want..............

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.