JackFrost

Are people still actually trying to have rational debates with alpine?

I remember going on a guided tour of St. Marys as part of a Radio Solent giveaway or something back then, and the tour guide saying what an amazing player Cedric Baseya was going to be in a few years. Now plying his trade in the lower half of Bulgaria's top league. Also we actually signed Vincent Pericard on loan Didn't we also have a goalkeeping crisis at one point? I seem to remember our 3rd choice keeper Michael Poke got injured in one game and our 16 year old 4th choice keeper refused to come on. Then we signed Richard Wright on loan who did a good job from what I remember.

Sums up a large part of Burley's time here to a tee

Indeed, and Burley thought the best way to solve our severe shortage in defence was to sign a load of midfielders. I seem to remember Jason Euell played at CB that year as well

He did. Then again, that's what Suarex wanted him to do.

You back to supporting England again?

Rooney has class but in an England shirt he's a jobber. Gerrard now is a waste of space. Age has removed him of all his drive and pace, and he's only in the squad to sell shirts. We've got a few players with some pace and. . . that's about it.

Pirlo's been the best player on the pitch by a mile

Pirlo's a year older than Gerrard and the difference in class between them is very noticeable

1. You're saying a guy who described himself as a socialist during the Labour leadership campaign, "is not left wing by any stretch of the imagination"? 2. His father was a Marxist 3. True but he's hardly an extreme-right fascist

More like, completely predictable. There's so much politicking and corruption in African football that the above story is actually a regular one involving various African teams before World Cups and Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and there'll be more to it than meets the eye. The amount of matches I've seen in the AFCON over the years that have been blatantly rigged and have descended into complete farce. The tournament's worth watching purely for entertainment value.

Edgar Davids just threw a punch

Headline on BBC "England held despite Rooney strike" Good god. . .

Italy 1-1 Luxembourg FT

Italy have just conceded an 85th minute equalizer against Luxembourg

QT seriously need to stop with the stunts like putting Barton on. I fell asleep halfway through. Louise "The Establishment" Bours just went on and on

That won't make a blind bit of difference. The key is Ralph & Les get in to replace the players that leave. Rickie is 32, he has 2-3 years left in him at this level at best. Sadly I think he'll flop at Liverpool because age is catching up with him and he needs the week-in week-out competition against PL teams which he won't get whilst sat on the bench watching Luis Suarez. That's his decision but Krueger et al. will ultimately show their credentials as to who we get in to replace him. I'll be judging this off-season by what team line-up we have in the first game of next season, not purely by what players leave. If sufficient replacements aren't bought in then we'll have a problem. For every Nigel Adkins there is a Mauricio Pochettino.

The consequences of a severely under-developed culture in today's developed world, with it's modern resources. There was a time when we brutally murdered young women when we were executing 'witches'. Sadly there are places around the world that still haven't culturally developed at all from those times.

Spot on. I think in future years an interesting and very challenging final year question in a philosophy degree would be, "Michael Gove, Explain"

The UK claims they own the Falklands because they've administered them continually from 1833. Argentina claims they own the Falklands because they acquired them from Spain in 1816 and the UK illegally occupied them in 1833.

A fair post and I probably read too much into your comment about the Euro election result being a lot more than just a protest vote. I will maintain they'd have never won the election without the protest vote because they hoovered it up entirely and in the long-run they'll be battling with the Lib-Dems and possibly Greens for 3rd place, who will all head towards similar voting figures. Looking at the results I also think UKIP stole roughly the same amount of votes off the Tories and Labour. People think that Labour are certs to win the next election but I don't think they are electable on their own. It's just a vision of Miliband and Balls spending 5 years coming up with social-class pops at the Tories whilst the economy collapses behind them. My guess is a Con-Lab coalition with Ed taking on the tea-boy role, as Cameron's recent 'stand up to the EU' stance will do just enough.

See Nick Clegg and tuition fees I've previously said I expect them to gain some MPs at the next election. I'm not denying they have a core support, but what they also have is a bandwagon the masses jumped on through a masterstroke of electioneering. Sorry Wes I suggest you go to 11:10 of this clip and hear Farage say it himself. "They (the establishment in his own words) haven't tamed me yet" http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b043b2rs/question-time-08052014 And if you yourself did vote UKIP then you joined Nigel Farage's "People's Army" as he says himself at 4:26 here Need any more examples? Pretending they were anti-establishment is exactly what they did. That's how powerful a good election campaign, a charismatic leader in touch with the public and skilled rhetoric can be. If Nigel Farage's hamster died he could convince people into thinking that was the EU's fault as well. Like I said, all UKIP do is support anything popular regardless of whether it'll work or not. They played a blinder with this election along with the current state of the EU falling wonderfully into their hands. However UKIP aren't the long-term saviours of UK politics you're hoping they are going to be. UKIP will either fizzle out, or they'll get found out.

So the fact that numerous neo-Nazi parties made enormous gains in their respective countries was purely because that's what those people believe in? The last UK government to win a European election while in government was 30 years ago, and that was just after Maggie kicked the Argies out of the Falklands. People always think the Euros are a less relevant election and always use them to send a message against the domestic government at the time, especially with the PR voting system in place It's why the National Front won the French euro election, and why various neo-Nazi/extreme-right parties throughout Europe like Jobbik, the Freedom party and Golden Dawn (parties which make UKIP look socialist) made enormous gains in their respective countries. The populations were voting against their respective governments, not for the political parties they voted for. It's the same over here except UKIP are more mainstream. UKIP have grown steadily since the 1990s but Farage has got it spot on for them over the last few years. UKIP spent their entire election campaign pretending to be anti-establishment and playing for the anti-main party/protest vote. Labour and the Tories then made the mistake of attempting to demonise them and played right into their hands. Europe needs massive reform and UKIP capitalized on it. Fair play to them and to Farage. But to say they didn't win as a result of any protest votes when their whole election campaign was based on "let's create an earthquake in the UK political establishment" is just plain wrong.

The local and European elections have become more about sending a message to the big political parties or government than they are about voting in democratically elected individuals. The local/European elections ARE a protest election, and is a different kettle of fish to a general election. As for who voted for UKIP in protest 1) Labour & the Tories - UKIP spent their entire election campaign pretending to be anti-establishment and it worked a treat. 2) The BNP - The BNP won 2 MEPs because of it and people were actually getting concerned at their 'rise'. UKIP have stolen their entire protest vote. 3) The Lib Dems - Once seen as the protest vote against the 2 main parties, they've crashed & burnt. Agree to an extent, but that's because they support anything that is popular. It's exactly what the Lib Dems spent the previous 2 decades doing and look where that got them. I fully expect UKIP to win some seats in Parliament next year but they'll tail off when the EU gets its house in order and immigration numbers ease. UKIP played a blinder in their electioneering because they hoovered up the anti-EU vote and capitalized on the anti-main party feeling, but the more power they get, the more they'll get found out. UKIP are the Lib Dems mark 2, just on the other side of the political spectrum.

The local and Euro elections are where the opposition traditionally win convincingly. UKIP's rise was predictable (they did come 2nd last time), they'll get a few MPs at the next election but they'll tail off long-term domestically at least. They've stolen the 'protest vote' and played the anti-establishment card to perfection. If in the unlikely scenario they get into any form of power however they'll go the way of the Lib Dems. All they do is support anything that is popular. I'll admit that I'd rather have the Chuckle Brothers running the country than Miliband & Balls but Labour were unconvincing at best. They should have been a solid 5 percentage points clear of the Tories but were only marginally ahead in both elections. For the Tories it went 'ok'. Nothing more, nothing less. UKIP have clearly stolen voters but they'll be pleased being so close to Labour. Green - Did pretty well but they are riding the crest of the anti-fracking vote at the moment. Lib Dems - Completely found out BNP - Just LOL. They managed to crash & burn even with a huge surge in extreme-right voting