hutch

...or, alternatively, we voted for somebody to come in and fix it.

I know our stats for this season. The stat I heard quoted was that no newly promoted team with only four points on the board after ten games has ever survived. The suggestion was that other teams had been in that position in previous seasons, but ended up being relegated. You can get to four points by only losing six games out of ten.

Never let the facts get in the way, so I thought it was four points after ten games, which could be only six defeats.

Just send it in by unsolicited fax. That should do the trick.

Smith has a bit of a chequered history, but it's not all bad:

One man's prison is another man's sub-tropical island

... or You were an embarrassment last time. Pleeeeease don't go this time.

I have no idea. Maybe you're right or maybe you're wrong. But that's different from "because he was Catholic" isn't it?

You're probably right that they did, or at the very least turned a blind eye. But it certainly wasn't because they were Catholics.

My guess would probably be earlier implementation of Plan A. Their new "friends" wouldn't let them stay at FP for long anyway. As soon as the next looming property boom kicks in properly they would be relocated anyway, IMO.

For those of us who are old enough, we should remember what a state we were in when she arrived on the scene: Callaghan's legacy The three day week Petrol coupons Grunwick (is that what it was called?) British Leyland Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Scargill & Galtieri came later I didn't agree with everything she did, but Britain was certainly a better place when she stepped down than it was when she was elected. Rest in Peace Mrs. Thatcher

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the Gooners are sitting on £126m cash reserves.

Whilst I think you're right pedg, I would be inclined to use the word "may" rather than "would".

...and then repeat every two years.

and PDT have said they won't buy the club without FP. Not sure why really if they are just a group of fans with the club's best interests at heart.

I knew what you were saying. My point is that sometimes the safe "do nothing just in case" option has worse consequences than the "do something but don't get it quite right" option.

Taking Hypo's point, I don't know either. What I was suggesting was that it should be the subject of real debate, without party politics interfering. Six lives might have been saved if those children had been taken into safe care. Bear in mind you had 14 people living in a 3 bedroom house, including wife and mistress, father with jail time for attempted murder and GBH, accused of rape, and his mrs bending over the snooker table and giving blow jobs to his mates on request. Probably worth the local Social Services having a look don't you think?

There's the problem. I think there are too many people like you (and that's not intended to be a criticism, it's a difficult problem). I consider myself to be a fit parent. I don't know whether I'm a good parent or not. My point was that it's not a real option in the UK, because you don't have a system for it. You are so scared to take a child into safekeeping in case you are accused of being sexist, racist, homophobic or whatever, and even if you do you are even more scared of handing them over to somebody else, either on a temporary or permanent basis, in case anything goes wrong.

Sorry B, but I can't agree with that. The debate should be about why so many idiots who are patently not fit to be parents in the proper and legal sense are left in charge of so many children, and conversely why so many patently fit potential parents are rejected for adoption or fostering because they vote for the wrong political party or have the wrong coloured skin or the responsible social worker just doesn't like them. Solve that and you can go a long way to getting rid of the worst abuses. I agree with that bit. Fit parents?

I prefer the German model. We should get an octopus, it would probably make more sense than most of the pundits anyway.

...or a big pile of rocks, a 14lb sledgehammer, a few rolls of hessian and a needle.

Since the massive hike in parachute money in (I think) 2010, that is the most profitable model (Blackpool anybody?), as long as you get the relegation clauses right in the player contracts. I just hope Cortese doesn't see it the same way I do.

I don't see Adkins focussing on trying to keep them up this year at the exclusion of all else. It really would be a bit of a miracle. As a career move would you choose : a) accept the inevitable, for which you won't be blamed in any way, and carry on building your reputation with a damned good go at promotion to the PL again next season, or b) achieve the impossible, but then spend next season in another dogged fight against relegation I would take a), and then move on after promotion, reputation suitably enhanced. I think he will spend the rest of this season working out the strengths and weaknesses of his players, their fitness, ability to follow instructions, attitude, etc. I think we'll see some experimentation, so don't know what to expect. It will be interesting, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not too worried, and still feel that we owe them one.

I'm sure anybody who has time to go back through the thread will find that Kanu employed a barrister to fight his case, and that barrister went on the record with the claimed amounts.

I don't think we've ever had capital punishment for manslaughter, nor should we. However callous, stupid, misguided or downright evil, I don't think any of them actually intended to kill the kids.