JackFrost

Er, you do realise that the Azov Battalion are armed and financed by Ukraine's interior ministry? They are a multinational far-right militia, better trained and better equipped than the Ukrainian defence forces themselves even if they of a vastly inferior number. Even the Western press acknowledge them to be neo-Nazi. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11025137/Ukraine-crisis-the-neo-Nazi-brigade-fighting-pro-Russian-separatists.html http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis If anyone hasn't seen it, Ross Kemp covered this conflict pretty well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkVillekTVg

Coutinho and the referee won them the match. Why on earth did Mane not start? Forster isn't as bad as people make out. We're not scoring any goals because we don't shoot and our set pieces are abysmal The over-reliance on Pelle/no plan B has cost us a Champions League spot. Our formation isn't working. Djuricic looks good but we needed a poacher. They didn't defend well because they didn't need to defend well to win that match.

Easy. 1) We don't shoot 2) The referee has bottled every key decision that should have gone our way

TBF even if we'd got one of those penalties we'd have most probably passed it out to the wing

Anyone?

There tends to be a riot at most AFCONs. African football is riddled with corruption and poor organisation. I remember about 10 years ago Tunisia (the host nation) were given a goal when their player was about 6 yards offside and the team of the opposing bench ran on the pitch and surrounded the referee. On another topic, anyone see Asamoah Gyan nearly get castrated by the Guinea goalkeeper the other day? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kXlnUYfKSs

Their trying to provoke a reaction. Islamic (effective hijack of the word 'Islamic') State are a death cult, hellbent on creating a lawless utopia of medievil-era deprivation where they control everything through an absurd interpretation of the Koran. For instance they will insist that all women wear the burqa whilst believing they maintain the right to brutally rape whichever one of their 8 wives they fancy at any given moment. Even Al-Qaeda have condemned and disassociated themselves from IS because they consider them too extreme. They openly flaunt their barbarity and brutality to create chaos, an environment on which groups like them thrive. Once they've provoked the reaction they'll use it to recruit countless more psychopaths and brainwashable/vulnerable individuals to join the fight against "the West's war on Islam". It's worked ever since they established themselves during the Iraq War.

LOL in the 50th minute my friend said Shelvey was going to score an 82nd minute winner. He was only a minute out. Fair play to them, they've defended too well. Ashley Williams has been brilliant. Our crossing has been so poor it's actually made Fabianski look dominant. We're too slow and predictable in the final third, and far too pre-occupied with trying to walk it in the net.

Exactly

No, but they need to base a manifesto around some sort of consistent political ideology, which goes deeper than jumping on the bandwagon of any popular alternative viewpoint and basing a policy around it. (See Lib Dems/tuition fees and how that went) I would agree that the main parties have been very complacent when it comes to UKIP but they are only going to be a relative fad. UKIP is wholly reliant on EU scepticism, playing the anti-establishment card and Nigel Farage. The party has no discipline or deep ideology, their only success has come from politically established defectors from other parties fooling the general populace they are in some way "new". The party is largely made up of recycled oddballs that have left other parties and don't even sing from the same hymn sheet. The problem UKIP has is that in a few years time the wider public will have known them in mainstream politics for a number of years and their anti-establishment rhetoric won't work. The EU will gradually sort some of their mess out and UKIP's selling point will increasingly become an insignificance. Even if UKIP achieve major success in May, they'll just go the same way as the Lib Dems.

Nigel 'Everything's the EU's fault' Farage has also been an MEP since the 1990s. Their a party that's merely written their entire manifesto based around what disillusioned established party voters want to hear. Complete with a leader clever enough to con a significant amount of the electorate into thinking any of it will actually work. The more power they get, the more they'll be found out.

I'm glad I've found someone else who thinks that guy has the most horrendous sounding laugh imaginable.

Nope not concerned at all. He's making a good contribution to the team and he's going through a patch where it just isn't happening for him. I believe he'd hit the woodwork more times than any other player this season. It'll come.

Ridiculous booking for Pelle

Ah yes the clip in which she became famous

That depends on what you call Islam. All the Muslims I know would condemn this like you or me. Overall I would say moderate Muslims haven't done enough to distance themselves from the extremists , but in one sense it's the moderates that have become victims. The current wave of so-called 'Islamic Extremism' is down to our actions in the Middle East and support of Israel. Even Hamas formed in the late '80s as a direct result of illegal Israeli occupation/war crimes (i.e. long before 9/11 happened) A lot of these extremist groups have since either splintered or have given born to all sorts of individuals with bloodthirsty agenda, that hijack Islam as a justification for their actions. Islamic State aren't new. They first formed in their current state soon after the Iraqi Invasion, and had plans to establish a caliphate in Iraq 10 years ago. In a war-torn region a group like them has the perfect recipe to thrive. Sadly the Western world has watched too many Hollywood films and believe that when an evil dictator is removed it's people become 'liberated' and are 'free'. Unfortunately what actually happens is that a power vacuum is created, people want different things and chaos ensues. (See Iraq, Afghanistan and the Taliban etc. etc.)

See Anders Breivik in Norway, Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, Christian militants in Central African Republic etc.

And is that because it doesn't happen or it doesn't get reported? Do organisations like the LRA in Uganda make you less tolerant of Christianity? I suspect this is some IS splinter group or similar, a group that the vast majority of Muslims would deplore and have nothing to do with like you or me. This is the tragic consequences when sociopaths/psychopaths and religion mix. This is about as representative of Islam as it is the French population. It is down to depraved individuals who hijack and interpret religion in a way that they want to see it, whilst gleefully ignoring anything they find inconvenient. (Like the strict prohibition of violence or murder for example). All to justify their own bloodthirsty agendas. Highly prone to self-delusion they believe they are in a 'war' and they are 'soldiers'. They are fantasists, commonly have very high IQs, and are manipulative to such an extent they can control entire groups of vulnerable/unknowing people. Essentially they live in a parallel world where the world around them is only what they want to see. IS are a death cult, run solely to create a utopia harking back to the dark ages. All for power, control and ego. As for the magazine they made the choice of publishing what they published, but they clearly didn't comprehend the sort of people they were dealing with. My heart goes out to all the friends/relatives of the deceased, I suspect a lot of the victims weren't the ones who decided what the magazine published.

I have never understood how Ricky Gervais has had a career in comedy. Saw him live at some festival once and he was absolutely hopeless. 30 minutes in large parts of the audience were either heckling him or had left.

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/shooting/start-shooting/buying-your-first-gun-2-32354 You've got a choice of nearly 1300 shotguns from the link at the bottom of the page. I just love how people claim an incident like this could never happen over here, then resort immediately to the classic American stereotype whilst demonstrating they don't know the first thing about UK gun laws. Nationality is irrelevant. All it takes is one careless gun owner and one curious child.

Absolute rubbish. It is completely legal to own certain types of guns (e.g. shotguns) as long as they are stored in a secure gun cabinet, which can be at home or even a place of work. Most handguns are now banned, but that was only as a result of Dunblane in '96. Derrick Bird killed 12 and injured 11 in the Cumbria shootings just 5 years ago and his rifle was legally owned. That doesn't mean it can't. More unlikely yes, as I've said there is a difference in culture and a bigger population which makes the chances of it happening over there higher. Try telling to any of the guys I did some work with after retiring a few years ago. After initially moving from one premises to another around 40-50 boxes were left on the floor, waiting to be sorted out. The boss had a 2 year old who was brought in by the grandparents and was left to crawl over and around the boxes. 10 minutes later I moved one of the boxes he'd been leaning over and discovered it contained one of the boss' (legally owned) shotguns that he kept in a cabinet at the old office. The shotgun was loaded and the boss still tried to make out he hadn't done anything wrong. That kid could have fatally injured anyone in that room. All it takes is a careless gun owner and an inquistive kid. It could easily happen over here (albeit less likely, granted) and the classic US gun owner stereotype doesn't necessarily make anyone over here more intelligent. Does the apparently innocent premise of the weekly shop make any difference? 1) can legally store a gun at their house or place of work (providing it's licenced and they have a secured gun cabinet) 2) can be careless 3) can get distracted 4) doesn't mean they have a lot of intelligence You'd be amazed where myself and colleagues have confiscated guns over the years in this country, and the people we've confiscated them from.

Or Derrick Bird, or Raoul Moat, or the people involved in the Monkseaton/Hungerford massacres in the 1980s. It was only after Dunblane (1996) that the gun laws were significantly tightened up over here. Part of it is a cultural issue but an incident like this could easily happen over here. All it needs is a careless gun owner and a curious kid.

A couple of skates I know think Neil Warnock is going to be their next manager

Your first sentence is correct, we were all at the Saints-Chelsea game today.

Went past 2 defenders like they weren't there. The speed and degree he changed the angle of his run was insane.