Verbal

Not true Grandad. And if TDD can spout about being there so can I. Only my presence was less than helpful. Back in the late eighties, I was at a research station that had been continuously recording ice temperatures for about 30 years. I had an electrician with me (from Portsmouth, as it happens), who plugged in a light and blew all the fuses. So there's this Norwegian research station in Svalbard with a continuous record of ice...except for half an hour twenty years ago. Still trust their results than the observations of the ice and stuff that TDD bumped into.

What did you measure the 'ice and stuff' with exactly? And over how many decades?

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain

They will, Nick. 31 Jan at the latest. Promise.

Did Daniel Azougy tell you that?

Dinenage Trench Foot?

Daren, I wasn't seeking to blame anyone and I understand where you're coming from. But you're quite mistaken to believe that you're isolated on this issue. I think most people (if not everyone) know full well that 19C was shockingly wrong, and should really have respectfully withdrawn the original comments. I just think - as your reply suggests - that reliving the incident so 'publicly' isn't helping anyone, not least of all you.

Lawson's 'scpeticism' amount to no more than the hopeful belief that 'I can't possibly see how puny little humankind could cause climate change.' It's about on a par with believing the earth HAS to be flat because he can't see how we would fall off otherwise. Quite pathetic really - and his lack of engagement with the scientific argument is, of course, to be expected.

The problem is, 19, BA higher-ups have a long track (and I think now criminal) record of harassment, false inducement, black propaganda, etc - not only against some of its employees and other airlines, but against a few of its complaining customers too. It is truly a sick company. So FF's suspicions are probably well founded, even if his line of argument about the strike isn't, imo.

Beckford is suffering a bit of wobble in form according to my gloomy Leeds supporting friend.

Not really. If you replace the names of those on the board at Watford with 'Wilde', 'Crouch' and 'Lowe', you'll get a sense of what's happening - just another tiresome example of ego rage.

And herein lies one huge problem. With a certain strike due at any time in the New Year, who on earth is going to buy a BA ticket in the near future. Even a diehard BA enthusiast - the few that are left - would hesitate. The strike was going to be bad enough - but the threat of a strike could be even worse for the company. Which is why Duncan, I don't buy the logic of this: 'However, there were vestiges of the defiant mood that saw thousands of cabin crew cheer the announcement of a strike vote. "This psychological warfare has been going on all year and more," wrote one BA employee. "If we have to wait a few more weeks – so be it." Writing on the website, Duncan Holley, secretary of Bassa, blamed Unite for "losing the PR initiative" amid a welter of negative publicity over the comparatively high earnings of BA crew. However, he urged members to vote again for a long strike when a reballot was held. "Let's not look back except to learn and let's not recriminate. This will still be the biggest battle and it is one that has to be won," he said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/17/ba-cabin-crew-union-strike Unless you and the dinosaurs in BA management can solve this very, very quickly, there will be no BA to fight.

Agreed. Coal is no easy solution. And carbon capture is still a way from being economically (or technically) viable on the sorts of scales we're talking about.

Can't you two just drop it?

A doubt, according to Pardew.

Then you and Uday Hussain - Saddam's nasty little son - have something in common. Before the war, when Bush gave Saddam 24 hours to get out of Iraq, Uday gave Bush 24 hours to get out of America.

I can't remember where I saw it, but a Premier League spokesman was quoted today as saying that the league couldn't countenance a Premier League team causing a Football League club to go into administration. I think he's referring to Watford. That would indeed be shocking - and hopefully a sign that Pompey won't be easily let off the hook over the £10 million-worth of debts that need to be repaid within the month. I'm sticking with my end of January prediction for Adminsitration at Pompey. It can't possibly go on beyond that.

No, at half time. EDIT: FULL time!

Where?

BA are the Royal Mail of the skies - appalling industrial relations and on the brink of extinction. BA's problems are so bad, and so numerous, that I for one won't travel on them unless someone else has paid the ticket. I had to fly them to and from Frankfurt yesterday, and all the usual old problems were on display - both flights were late (the outbound because they underestimated the loading time and missed their take-off slot), the cabin crew were, as usual, contemptuous towards its customers, and the planes were cramped and unpleasant (certainly compared to the aircraft operated by a low-fares airline like EasyJet). BA has outlived its usefulness to everyone except some probably desperate shareholders. The union members who congratulated wildly on winning the strike ballot clearly have other job opportunities on their minds (because they can't have been thinking of the 900,000 passengers who'd paid their wages with bookings, only to have their holidays ruined). The dinosaur-like management has a history of oppressiveness and abuse that extends beyond their own employees to customers who have displeased them in some way (including some spectacularly nasty threats aimed a few years back at a passenger who complained about finding glass in his food). And their aircraft fleet is creakingly old, expensive to maintain and not fit for purpose. Good riddance. (The Royal Mail, on the other hand, I'd miss!)

No, it didn't.

Interesting, I'm sure - but writing solipsistic posts like this demonstrates a kind of selfishness that's quite revealing. Regardless of what you want, what about those who are engaged by the coverage in the Echo and elsewhere?

Wes, I'm really surprised that you've fallen into line with the Party of God on this, with the fatuous argument about how the club's continuing public silence on this means that we can't draw any conclusions. This is a trivial and local incident in the grander scheme of things, and involves a newspaper that isn't popular on here. But it really is astonishing to see how easily people might be to sacrifice good journalism in the face of the kind of pressures that Wilko quite rightly complains about in the wider world. Sadly, we live in a world where the information presented to the public is increasingly sanitised by corporations and governments, and where sanctions are sought against journalists, photographers and others don't toe the party line. And sometimes, the best friends are those ready to tell others when they're wrong or have failed to understand something. In this case, no one has suggested other than that an embargo was imposed selectively and after the fact. That is not how embargoes work, nor how they should work. This is a storm in a teacup which should be settled by the end of the week. Anything else would suggest some peevish egos at work. But I have faith...

The Macbook Pro is the best buy on there, imo. I can get the education discount and I'm VAT registered. Just thinking...

It does, hypo. And the FL approved the owners after secret meetings with people on the board at Notts Clo who basically showed the FL bits of paper suggesting who the true owners were. The FL has never revealed who these people were - nor have they said why they believed these people had any credibility whatsoever, despite a welter of newspaper reports saying that Qadbak were about as legit as a three dollar bill. So evidently bad is Qadbak's track record that the FIA banned them from owning a Formula One team. Which is a bit of a reality check - the FIA has more moral backbone than Mawhinney's Football League.