Minty

I can't believe it took someone 44 posts to get there... Poor old Alps!

Fingers more like...

In the meantime, I managed to get a sneak peak of the new analysis suite being installed at St Mary's:

Yeah, just to clarify, Matt does have a Twitter account but not a Facebook page, but he has stopped using it recently. As his son said this morning to someone who enquired: @MitchLeTiss42 has he left twitter 2? @jonhughes1510 yes John he has gotten bored with it I think just loved tweeting about #saintsfc going up 2011. #skateswerecomingforyou

If only I could read... long day. Ignore me.

And confirmed by his son not to be:

King's Fund report on leadership in the NHS, released today. Some very interesting and pertinent observations (as you would hope): http://bit.ly/ls4oIj Including: "The coalition government's current plan to cut administration costs by 33 per cent and the number of management posts by 45 per cent must be revisited. There is no persuasive evidence that the NHS is over-managed, and a good deal of evidence that it may be under-managed. While administration and management costs will have to take at least their fair share of the pain as real-terms growth in NHS spending ceases, a more sophisticated approach to the reduction in both is needed." "There is appreciable evidence that the NHS is over-administered as a result of extensive, overlapping and duplicating demands from both regulators and performance managers. There has not been a substantive review of the information demands placed on the service and its providers for many years. A review leading to a rationalisation of those demands is essential." "In the light of a run of serious failures of both leadership and management in the NHS, the commission acknowledges the need for a more effective mechanism to debar individuals who have clearly been culpable from holding executive positions in health care." I wonder if and how the Government will try and ignore this report...

Yorks 355ao We're 21/0 off 8.4 as I type. Let's see if and when we collapse...

This is usually quite good to watch with extended highlights of our home games, but the one put up this evening of the Walsall game and subsequent celebrations is simply brilliant. Footage from in the changing room and balcony, players singing 'We don't care about you' amongst others songs, all the Solent interviews and an awesome view of the fans on the pitch. Hearing the interviews in context and seeing what the players could see, and sensing the buzz that was created... you can't help but feel really positive about Saints right now, and you could hear it in the players voices. We're on the crest of a wave right now, and I'm looking forward to the ride!

I was born in Hythe. Should I support Hythe and Dibden only? Or maybe AFC Totton, a bit further, but not as far as Southampton? I didn't realise there was a rule about what club we should support. Just ignore him. Most people support their nearest *professional* club, AND sometimes their local semi-pro/other Saturday afternoon teams.

Some brilliant official photos...

I only have one thing to contribute to this thread:

407/6 now. Some batting points! lol

Very similar in style I believe, we'll never know, and I'm sure each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I think The9 echos my feelings... we have been promoted under Adkins and look forward to him taking us further, but I'll always have time and respect for Pearson and his style of management and would welcome him back should we ever have a vacancy.

I think the interpretation was that you were agreeing with OldNick saying that he 'could not cope' with Greens running the country, and therefore you were also adding 'loony left and extreme right' to that, whereas you were (I think) just pointing out that under PR all colours would have more influence.

I'm not sure the Greens will gain a huge amount - and I say that as party member. It's a shame that people like yourself can't see beyond tags like 'treehugger' however and look at some of the policies they have. I'm not expecting you to agree with them necessarily, but if you're going to criticise a party, better to do it on substantive grounds rather than generalisations that only seem to highlight your ignorance of the party.

Let's just say that SaintsWeb never disappoints...

As I've said before, I have no issue with people voting no for genuine reasons based on the perceived merits, or otherwise, of the two systems. But some of the above posts are quite sad IMO.

At least Griffiths has upped his game a bit this morning, taking 3 wickets in the first session, Sussex now 342/6.

Not sure it's a dig as such, just a question as to whether something more permanent is appropriate. Each to their own. The flag doesn't preclude a statue or renaming of a stand in the future, if it is deemed appropriate. They however need more planning and agreement, whereas a flag can be used relatively quickly and easily in comparison.

I've had similar discussions with close friends too... I generally support more left wing policies, but there are some Tory policies I agree with. Even MP's within a party don't agree with all their central policies. This is why I struggle to understand those with entrenched positions about any given party, and despair when political discussions (especially historical ones) focus on the personalities and generalisations rather than looking at policy and outcome on an individual basis.

Fair enough, as solentstars says, at least you're being honest. Shame that you're so blinkered about left wing politics that you can't even debate them, but we'll save that for another day!

I believe that we obsess far too much about individual strands of our lives. We all have individual characteristics that make different health problems more or less likely depending on the food we eat (or don't eat), exercise we do (or don't do), places we live (or don't live) etc, etc. My advice is simply this: Don't worry about it. Excesses are generally bad, but if you have a balanced diet and do sufficient exercise to keep a healthy BMI then you just need to enjoy your life and when your time comes, your time comes. Take 5 minutes to sit down and ask yourself: Am I happy? Do I feel healthy? Do I think I look healthy? It doesn't matter what anyone else tells you, you'll do what you feel is best. Reading articles like that all day just make people paranoid, especially when the media spin is put on it, usually taking the headline bits and twisting them out of context so they are different to the original findings! Science is always discovering new things and changing it's mind... that's science for you. If you worried about all these kind of articles you'd probably die far, far earlier because of stress than what they actually warn about.

I don't always agree with FF either, but I've never quite understood why manji has such an issue with him. He posts in good faith, and it's up to individual posters to decide whether they believe him or not based on their own perception and knowledge of things.

In the same way that anybody voting Yes must accept that the voting public have expessed their wishes democratically and they must accept the result and stop their bleating if the result is that the vote is for leaving things as they are. Neither is quite true and, with respect, it's a fairly typical example of how each side unfairly tries to deride the other. If someone votes no, that doesn't necessarily mean they are happy with FPTP or think that it is the best system and therefore have 'no right to ever again complain'. They are simply voting against AV at the present time. And whichever option wins, thankfully the democracy that we live in means supporters of the opposite, 'losing' view at this referendum are perfectly entitled to campaign and try to raise the issue again in the future, be it the same or modified.