Lighthouse

It’s not exactly an abstract concept. I’ve just been on the EasyJet website, picked a random Saturday in June and flights from Gatwick to Mallorca. There were four and a pop up said you can also fly from Luton, from where there were a further three. That’s seven flights a day, just from one airline at two of the six London airports. Factor in all the airlines at all six airports and you’re well into double figures. My point is, you’d never notice if there were only 13 flights from London instead of 14 but if there’s one more from Southampton you do. Anyway this is all completely trivial; Covid has wiped out enough flights in the UK to cover SOU for the next 100 years.

No because that’s a 7 hour drive minimum, which is clearly prohibitive. One hour to Heathrow or 1.5 to Gatwick isn’t going to put people off going away for the weekend. A lot of London commuters do that every week anyway. I do think people need to take a certain amount of responsibility and jetting off somewhere for a break once a month would go against that but to basically say get rid of SOU completely so we can save the environment is a fallacy. That’s what will happen without the runway extension, it’s just not viable without Flybe.

You make it sound like Christmas (which is kind of a taboo subject on this forum) but I admire your enthusiasm! Come on Saints!

Wasn’t there some criteria whereby he wouldn’t have to do it if South Korea won some competition? I’m sure that was news 2/3 years ago.

Why do you assume it’ll be more jets? What if instead of 8 flights to Mallorca from London per day, its 7 and one from Southampton, with much shorter and fewer car journeys each way? Trying to save the planet by refusing new runway construction would be like removing 2 lanes from either side of the M25 to reduce car journeys.

How?

I wonder which chart hit from days gone by is going to be re-released and/or performed at the funeral. My money's on Ebeneezer Goode '21 being the top selling single of the year.

It wasn’t £30m, you’re making exactly the same mistake as this guy called Glasgow Saint, who used to post on here. According to most sources at the time the total fee was nearer £36-38m with add ons, which he will have almost certainly have triggered given that they have won everything since he went there and he’s been banging them in.

I don’t think anything using our airport is going to make any more noise than some chav with a sh*tty exhaust mod driving down the street. They aren’t going to be particularly frequent either.

He's basically right though, you don't save the planet through crippling infrastructure, you do it with bio-fuels, alternative energy and increasingly modern and sophisticated aircraft. More flights from SOU will save hundreds of journeys a day to and from Heathrow and Gatwick.

Gets approval for a small but significant runway expansion. If this gets built it’ll be a huge boost for our local travel options and the jobs associated with them. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/19223841.southampton-airport-runway-plans-approved-three-days-debate/

I think it just says a lot about Arsenal and where they are now TBH. It's the twilight of the season and they're in the top half on goal difference, in a nothing fight over 9-11th with Leeds and Villa.

Live and Let Die is on ITV4, that’s a decent enough Bond yarn for a couple of hours.

I doubt he’s going to be buried under a football pitch TBH.

Stop being silly, West Brom are the danger team now, after smashing Chelsea last week.

Depending on which scientist you listen to, the vaccines offer around 65% immunity, around three weeks after having the first jab. Given that a significant proportion of football attendees are younger men, under 40, who we won’t even make a start on giving their first does to until well into May, then yes; a packed out football stadium a month later is probably pushing your luck. Anyway, you carry on being upset about that if it bothers you so much. I’m going to enjoy the haircut, massage, day out shopping, round of golf and meet up with my mates in a beer garden I’ve got planned (all in the next six days).

I don't know how to put this without sounding sarcastic but the clue is in the word 'Euro'. After the UK, the countries in Europe with the highest vaccination rates are Malta, Serbia, Hungary, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania and Denmark. They're the only countries who've vaccinated more than 20% of their population and out of those only Hungary and Denmark actually qualified. That 20% is almost entirely senior citizens who don't go jetting around Europe to watch football games anyway. So no, we're unlikely to see tens of thousands of Russians, Ukrainians and Croats (who will be pretty much entirely unvaccinated) packing out stadiums across Europe in three months time. If that bothers you then I'm sorry, you'll have to live with it.

Now. That's why we're opening everything up again. I don't get your point, you're arguing as if we've all had vaccines and the government has told us we're staying locked down for the rest of the year. That's clearly not the case, we're opening everything up. The vaccines have given us back freedoms currently being denied to most of Europe and we're well on course to get more of them back in the coming months. But we aren't, why are you saying this? We've even been given exact dates - April 12th, May 17th and June 21st - for what we can expect to happen. Again, we are allowed to mix with people, why would you pretend we can't? On Monday you'll be allowed in beer gardens, shops and meet ups in gardens. Even stadium gatherings are being trialed too. There will be limited numbers allowed into football matches in 10 days time to check on the effects of mixing and the logistics of running events this way. I've booked tickets for the British Grand Prix and I see no reason why I wont be able to use them. Also not true. The rest of the world is pretty much buggered with Corona and if we want to travel to it, we're going to have to take suitable precautions in the coming months. We're being told that if we all take our vaccines, maintain social distancing and wear masks where possible, we can basically return to almost normality over the next two months and 13 days. Beyond that... well we'll see but let's not pretend the vaccines have achieved nothing and we're all going to be locked in our homes for the next five years.

No but you should wear a seat belt, drive within the speed limits and not drink before hand. No but you should stop, look both ways and only cross somewhere where it's safe and you have a clear view. That's basically what we're being asked to do in the medium term. Take reasonable precautions to try and reduce the risk of transmission as much as possible. Having to stand outside TK Maxx for 5 minutes and wear a mask when you go inside isn't going to hurt anyone, or take away their job. I don't know why people see this as being so unreasonable when 90% of the rest of the world is ridden with COVID and unvaccinated.

Because he’s already a weak point in a team which could be fighting relegation next season. We’ve been here before and it’s a false economy. We got relegated before clinging to the idea that ‘experienced pros’ like Telfer, Dodd, Delap, Claus and Le Saux could still do a job in defence and fleshing out the squad with cheap bargains like Yahia, Van Damme and Kenton.

Because he’s going to be 32 in summer and clearly has lost the energy and intensity needed to play our system effectively, as demonstrated by KWP. The Bertrand were watching right now is the better than anything he’s going to produce over the next two years and he’s already past his prime. I don’t really understand the desire to have so many ‘experienced pros’, ‘good lads in the dressing room’ and ‘players who love the club’. We need decent players with the drive and desire to prove themselves, if players are just happy to be here, it’s usually because they won’t get a better offer from elsewhere. The best seasons in recent history came from the likes of Lallana, Lovren, J Rod, Toby, VvD, Mané, Morgan, Wanyama, Shaw and Clyne trying to put themselves in the shop window for bigger clubs. Personally, I prefer it.

Strangely, when you tell under 30s they could get a blood clot from shovelling burgers down their neck every day, they don’t seem to care as much.

Would I want him as out main goal getter? No. Is he better than Long, Ormerod and a whole bunch of crap, nineties strikers? Yes Overall, he's probably on par with someone like Gabbiadini except better suited to a high-tempo, pressing game. He'll do for me.

I find it amazing that some people still haven't realised that using the Holocaust in any reference, anecdote or analogy almost always ends badly. Yes, I get that it wasn't a direct comparison but using the Gestapo as a metaphor for not being allowed in the pub is just asinine. It's the same with Gina Carano, the actress who was fired from Star Wars. I have no reason to believe either of them are genuinely anti-Semitic but unless you have a pretty sizable body-count to back it up, don't use the Holocaust to score cheap drama points on the internet.

They might have had a better chance of staying up if Bristol City hadn’t taken an extra 6 points from someone. Oh well.