1976_Child

Well I did say it wasn't precise but still, if the 1976 figures are correct then it does at least show that the 'good old days of yaw' were actually not that much cheaper.

I did a survey of ticket prices with a mate about a year ago. We tried to determine if, relative to income, the ticket price in 2007 was higher than in 1976. My mate started going to the Dell in 1976. He was just out of school and had his first regular income. He recalls - and I wasn't there so will have to take his word for it - that a ticket to a league game in 1976 was £3. He was earning £24 a week, and again as I wasn't too interested in money back then I couldn't say if this was average for a school leaver doing manual labour or not. So the ratio of ticket/income in 1976 was 1:8 Nowadays a ticket costs £24 and a young lad just out of school could - if he was prepared to graft - earn £200 doing manual labour. The present day ratio is, drum roll please, also 1:8 (rounded). So there we have it, a not very precise but yet informative analysis that, relative to income, ticket prices have not actually gone up. Waiting to hear that my 1976 figures are incorrect...

what about me? where's my kudos for calling u hitler?

f@ck off you're all Nazis and the OP is Hitler.

Dumb question but is Super Kel actually English? I had him down as Irish/Welsh - but only 'cause of his name...

"Will ST holders be able to by extra tickets for Man Utd? " Why would I wan't to buy Man Utd any tickets? They can buy their own bloody tickets!

or it might just mean that Sir Fergie likes the way the young nippers play their footie and makes an on the spot cash offer to Rupert. Window will be open by the game. Surman might start the game playing for us, a quick chat with Duckhunter and he starts the second half for Utd. ;)

yeah, kinda agree althought St Paul does raise a good point. What is the point of membership if you then have to wait inline with the rest of the general sale purchasers. I think the idea should be this: ST holders should be guarenteed their seat up until the tickets go on general sale. Any STs in the Northam which will be moved for away seating should be offered a seat regardless. ST holders should also be able to get upto a certain number of additional tickets. Members should then get a head start on the Mob and should not have to prove any further level of support. For games like these (big ones) then the general sale should be first of all to fans who have proved they do turn up and support on a more frequent basis. When the FA draw gives you a potential golden egg like this the club has got to milk it for all it is worth..

nah. this one will be a sell out with in minutes of going on general sale. Even if Saints fans don't rush to get a ticket (which I reckon they will) then there will be plenty of so-called distance Manure supporters (the sort that couldn't even place Cottonopolis on the map) who will want to sit in the Home section. It will be full. I'll bet the rest of my banana on it. and adding an extra 12000 tickets sold for just this one game will bring more than £200k into the bank. Just what we need at the moment. Win or lose the game this is a financial win for the club.

Time to start practicing our corners!

Ok, Ok, so my head has been burried in the sand this weekend. Only just logged on and saw the news. What a draw! And even better news, all our lads will be playing 150% for every match in December to make sure they get in the starting eleven on the big day! So, are the stay away fans going to turn out for the game? I reckon... Certainly be a full St Mary's for a change. Ahhh the joys of being a season ticket holder... Up the Saints!

Weston, let me ask you a question: Do you think it is easier to move up the social ladder in 2008 than it was in 1997? In other words, do you think social mobility - the ability to better oneself - is easier now or harder? I know which one I would say. From bitter experience social mobility has got a lot more difficult. that is why I am so angry. It is not the situation i am in per se, but it IS because I can not, in all honestly, see anyway that it will be able to improve. I have no house, not a penny of savings (except in my tax account!!), I don't even know what a pension looks like, I am working harder and harder, 15 hour days, and getting NO WHERE. It is very angry-making, believe me. I am very scared about the future. And I am a qualified worker in the IT industry! God knows how people with no GCSEs are getting by. They really don't have a chance.

Yes it is. I have seen it with my own eyes. And that is why the utterly repulsive BNP is gaining in those areas where it happens. Perhaps if the main parties woke up to how ****ed of people are with it then the Nazis might not be making such grounds. This is not a white versus others issue. It is an issue of fairness and an appreciation that the country can't keep on soaking up 200,000 people a year without there being serious strain on resources

Because I can't even afford the air fare, let alone have the requisite funds to allow me in. Another difference between Canada/Aus and Britain is that you have to prove you have enough cash to last for a year with out a job with out being a drain on the new country. How different it is here! Just walk through passport control with no money at all and you are entitled to all we have to offer: get your kids taught, get free health, get a house etc. If I had 20,000 quid I would be on the next plane out of here. I don't so I have to stay.

Well as it happens I used to be involved in politics. I have also written to my MP on several occasions and even gone to meet him at one of his surgeries. Lots of nodding and sympathy - my issue was not recession-related - but nothing got done. Sorry mate, but I don't think I am alone in thinking that most politicians are self-serving and don't really give a toss about you or me. For Christ's sake they even vote on their own pay!! The fact that the labour goverment under Blair has also moved to more of an executive based government rather than a parliamentary democracy. And as for being lied to about the Iraq war... i have not and never will forgive them for misleading me. There never were any weapons of mass destruction. Blair LIED to the country and got away with it. A really sordid episode.

No. it is not hypocritical in the slightest. If I did leave Britain I would either go to Canada or Australia, both of which have strict immigration policies based on points and ONLY allow you in if they need the talent and skills you would bring. I am a skilled software engineer and i know for a fact that both Canada and Aus are actively trying to lure IT specialists in. The difference between them and Britain could not be starker. We allow anyone, regardless of skill or whether the country needs them. That is why it is not hypocritical. They are actively asking me to go join their country.

Yeah, you are right to a certain degree: recessions can create good opportunities to grow a business but it all depends on having capital to invest. If you are skint then no amount of luck will help. As for us being a low tax country, sorry that is complete nonsense. Maybe as judged by income tax but someone who earns 20k per year will end up paying nearly 50% in taxes in total: income tax, NI, fuels, excise, VAT, council etc.... we are VERY heavily taxed and nothing ever gets any better.

No. I have morals.

Fine in principal but what is stopping me from using my neighbours bin or even putting my rubbish in my car, driving to the edge of town and chucking it out the window. Can't see the idea working in the real world. Now if we had some leadership in government then the best idea would be to legislate against packaging. In the 1950s no one had any rubbish, only compost. Look in your bin and all you will see is packaging.

Respect. Are you on the front line, on the high seas or in the air? It must make your blood boil to realise that the interest payments on Britain's national debt - interest only! - is going to be more than the total defence budget! And the government can't even find enough money to buy the guys in Afghanistan decent land rovers and helicopters. Disgusting isn't it.

1) Can't emigrate. No money. 2) Would love try to change things but no political party even remotely interests me. They all spout such utter self-interested drivel.

I blame all of us for thinking that we can live off debt. I blame the governments - past and present - for progressively wrecking our manufacturing base, which is the only genuine creator of wealth. I blame the greed culture which puts personal consumption above long term prosperity. I blame fat-cats and work-shy lay-abouts. I blame greed. I blame mass immigration for putting an ever increasing strain on the country's resources. 200,000 net increase last year alone!!!! I blame idiots who think that being against mass, uncontrolled immigration is the same as being a card-carrying racist. It isn't. I blame the bloated public sector. Many do worth while jobs but many also do completely non-jobs which we wouldn't miss if they weren't doing them. And I blame the ****ing skates.

I have just had the worst, most depressing two weeks of my life. I am utterly disilusioned about this country. Britain in 2008 is a complete toilet. New labour is as dead as a Dodo. The country is now about as good as bankrupt. There is no way in hell that the country's economy will grow at the rate that Badger Darling thinks it will in 2010/11 which will mean that the country will need to be bailed out by the IMF again. Gordon Brown is possibly the most idiotic charlatan ever to occupy Number 10. He said - and believed - that he had ended Boom and Bust! What a f@cking plonker. We are now in the biggest 'bust' since the last ice age. It doesn't seem to matter how hard I work, I never seem to make enough money. I am never going to be able to buy a house - even if the market crashes - because when the banks start giving out mortgages again they are going to insist on a minimum of 25% deposit. Where the f\/ck am I going to get that sort of money from? Even if I could find a house for £150,000 - fat chance - then I would still need about £40,000 in savings. Christ, I can't even save £100 a month!!! And now the country is bankrupt we will all have to pay substantially more in taxes in the coming years. I don't believe we have been told the whole deal yet either - we are going to be raped for all we've got. I f**king well hate this country. It is a total toilet. The only thing I would miss if I wasn't to live here would be SFC. I am 32 years old and can honestly see no future ahead. So much for progress. We are all ****ed. I mean seriously, I lie awake at night worrying about what how I am going to pay the rent and bills in the new year. I have enough work to cover me until February and then I am homeless and hungry. And the thing that really ****es me off is that I am - and i am not blowing my own trumpet by saying it - a highly qualified self-motivated bloke who has never had a handout from the state and never wants one. This time last year I was looking forward to growing business. I had tonnes of work. I had to turn people away! Now there is absolutely bugger all. How the **** can Darling, Brown and for that matter Cameron and Osborne, understand how the country is feeling when they have rock solid salaries and gold-plated, diamond encrusted pensions? How can the t0ssers who ran the banks into the ground just get up and leave with million pound bonuses? I honestly think we are in for a decade of strife and falling living standards. There are too many people crammed on this small little island, all chasing an ever decreasing amount of work. I think we are in for a civil war. **** this **** hole. I really ****ing hate Britain. If I saw a politician walking down the street I'd go up to him and punch him in the face. **** Britain. we are all ****ed, nothing is Great about Britain anymore.

what a sick world we live in. Just goes to show that the country really is going down the toilet. one trillion pound of national debt, incompetent government, greedy fat-cat bankers, coppers getting eye-watering compensation, unemployment rising and now this sick game. I hate this country. It is a complete sh!t hole. I just wish I could afford to leave. The only thing I would miss is the Saints. The rest of this dung heap latrine is not worth an ounce of rats ****. Anywhere must be better than England in 2008.

Yeah! Well done! Jelle Van Damme. £2.5 million. F@cking useless waste of money. Was Lowe involve with that purchase then?