Wes Tender

No, it didn't hurt, as I was able to reason that there were two divisions between us, the England National goalkeeper kept them in the game and late on they introduced players who shouldn't have been on the pitch who made the difference against an aged defence. So really, it was a bad example you made, but you seem reluctant to admit it. I don't accept that the Skates had the worst team that season, any more than West Ham have the worst team this season.

If Huhne's ex-wife has come up with these allegations, then the maxim that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is one that ought to have been considered by him when he decided to play away. If the allegations prove to be groundless, then he has nothing to worry about, apart from the potential loss of votes from an electorate that were pursuaded that he was a family man and the additional votes lost because a section of the electorate will conclude that there is no smoke without fire. But if there is found to be substance in the allegations, then an honourable man would resign as MP. A by-election caused by circumstances like these, might be deemed to be as serious a set of circumstances in many ways as those that gained the Lib Dems the seat in the first place in another by-election.

It isn't relevant because of the two divisions gap between the two sides. Fair enough if you wish to make a comparison between a side in the Championship and one at the bottom of the Premiership on its way down, but that is not the situation that existed between us and the Skates last season. In any event, apart from the England Goalkeeper keeping them in the game, I very much doubt that the Skates would have fared as well against our current team. Were Perry or Thomas the equals of Fonte? Who was our right back that day? Perry or Thomas? Both of them a bit lacking in pace, wouldn't you say? Chamberlain now would have done to them late in the game, what their illegal sub Owusu-Abeyie did to us. And what a subs bench we had, eh? Wotton, James, Gillett and Mills. The current Pompey team or our prospective team for next season only has a bearing in as much as West Ham's finances mirror the parlous state of the Skates' finances, so the likelihood of them keeping most of their team is remote. If the Skates of last season are to be mentioned at all, it is only instructive as an example of how their current team bears almost no resemblance to the one that played us last season.

Where the discussion was about how we might fare against West Ham this coming season, using the Skates 4-1 victory as an example was totally irrelevant, as there was a two division gap between us at the time. I very much doubt that the Skates will be beating us now that we are on the same level as them. And there is no reason why we should not give West Ham a run for their money either, especially as the likelihood is that we will strengthen our team, whereas their team is likely to be weaker.

Great example, comparing a bottom of the Premiership team with a third division team, which as has been mentioned by others dominated them for 70 minutes and might have had the game sewn up, had not that bottom of the Premiership team's England goalkeeper made a string of superb saves. But this third division team actually beat a bottom of the Premiership team in the cup this season.

Actually I just checked something that was niggling at the back of my mind and found what I suspected, that Eastleigh had never been anything else but blue until Milligan lost it to the Lib Dems in that by-election. It had certainly never been Labour, as David Price was its first MP when Eastleigh was formed as a new constituency in 1955. I was also politically active in Eastleigh from about 1968 and remember going to heckle Harold Wilson when he visited Millbrook Estate during the election campaign. As you say, at that point, the Liberals started to gain some success on the Borough Council, gaining Chandlers Ford with Margaret Kyrle and her husband, the mad monk the driving force.

It will make a change if we start the new season with the same manager that we ended the previous one with. I hope that Adkins is here for many years to come, that this is the dawn of a new age of stability and upwards progress. We'll just have to wait and see.

Eastleigh as a constituency had been Conservative since 1955 and David Price held the seat until he retired and Stephen Milligan took over. Milligan was a high-flyer in the party and might well have continued the Conservative hold on Eastleigh, had he not killed himself under those scandalous circumstances. Indeed, even after the electorate caned the Conservatives in the by-election, in subsequent elections, once the protest vote had diminished, it was a very close run thing and arguably the Conservatives lost the vital votes that would have given them victory to firstly the Referendum Party and then UKIP. When Chidgey left and Huhne took over, the additional factor that gave the Lib Dems an advantage, was that Huhne was high profile in his Party. But, as I said, IMO, the mud that has been thrown at him recently, might well have succeeded in scuppering his campaign at the last election, where he portrayed himself as a family man. I believe that the common factor that meant that the Lib Dems vote held up in Eastleigh and Portsmouth South in the Council elections, is that they both have very good local organisations. However, since Hancock's election as MP last May, there has been much media coverage about him that might well damage his chances of re-election the next time.

I'm not so sure that he would have been an MP had these allegations been in the public domain at the time of the General Election, which would have rendered this recent speculation about his future career prospects futile. Regardless of whether the source of these allegations was his bitter ex-wife or not, if true, the attempt to avoid a speeding fine by getting somebody else to take the fine and points on his behalf, is a criminal offence. The affair with another woman if hidden from his wife, thus entailing lies and deceit, is just symptomatic of a lack of moral fibre. Arguably, if one is capable of this sort of behaviour, then it might indicate the possibility that other matters involving ethical standards or personal integrity could also be compromised. Here, the Parliamentary expenses scandal springs to mind. Although not one of the major offenders, nevertheless, multi-millionaire Huhne still managed several column inches in the Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5314093/Chris-Huhne-a-multi-millionaire-but-you-buy-his-chocolate-HobNobs-MPs-expenses.html

The early stages are the only ones worth watching, because the f***wits are the pure comedy value. When they are gone, the programme becomes much duller. Mind you, the early stages also includes some nice eye candy females too, like that one who was the PM in the first episode. A pity though to have to listen to the drivel that came out of her mouth.

The Fox and Hounds / Lone Barn at Hungerford Bottom, Bursledon and also the Jolly Sailor close by too.

What a shame he couldn't have been kept on, for the pure comedy value.

Andc why is it on the Radio Solent logo where they display all of the places they cover, much more prominence is given to Skatesmouth?

Put the dummy back in his mouth.

What's it to do with us? We can exercise our right not to go there as tourists, but if you are so prissy about these things, then you'd end up staying in England and moaning about the injustices, poor food and service over here. Anyway, if you read Phil's remarks properly, I don't see him saying that we ought to accept these things, just to be aware of them. As to the comment on the logic that we'd never have ended slavery if we had taken that attitude then, it was we as a nation that exploited slavery to our own ends, so we had some influence on ending it and because of our Colonial might, we were also able to end Suttee and Thuggee in India. So what exactly do you propose we do to stop sex trafficking in Moldova, bride trafficking in India, bonded labour in Dubai, etc? Impose trade embargos? Interfere in the internal politics of another country? Send in a Gun Boat?

I loved the irony of Sugar relating how he rushed out to phone Sky to tell them that ITV had beat their offer and Sky duly came back and raised the bar by some distance. And then he has the temerity effectively to blame everybody else for the parlous state of the game's financial plight, overlooking the part he paid in it all. Otherwise though, a great programme.

So you know for a certain fact that PR would win a referendum vote, do you? You know no such thing. It might be what you might cream yourself over, but I don't believe for one second that the voting public have any appetite for it at all.

Well, here in West End it hasn't rained for the past couple of hours and the sun is trying to break through. My lawn certainly doesn't look waterlogged. Plus it is warm, so it should dry out quite quickly, provided that there isn't a deluge before the match. I have no worries about it being called off.

Ah!. So now it's a few more hours, maybe even more than a few if the ballot has to be counted several times. But still, all this extra time will not cost a penny extra, as the personnel involved are paid per session. The electorate are getting great value from these people. I think it's a shame that we didn't go for this AV system.

Oh well, how unfair life is, eh? Here we are, shackled with this dreadfully unfair electoral system and the public are just not intelligent enough to have followed the simple facts put across by the Yes campaign. How could they have been so gullible to fall for all those lies and the deceitful way that the No campaign was run? I feel so sorry for that nice Nick Clegg. I hope that his party aren't too hard on him, as it wasn't his fault for wanting to improve the chances of them being elected.

Yup. ****ing down, with some thunder and lightning to boot.

I was musing about the situation in Scotland today and wondered what would be the outcome of a Referendum on Scotland leaving the Union. In many ways, because of the unfairness of the West Lothian question, unless that was addressed so that Scottish MPs did not have any say in English matters, I would then favour the Union being dissolved. However, I was wondering about a situation whereby perhaps there were devolved Parliaments for each of the constituent Countries of the UK and some sort of UK Parliament to deal with matters of defence, foreign policy, etc. Maybe the House of Lords could be replaced with some sort of elected Senate to act as the UK Parliament.

Who?

Had the taster menu at Le Manoir, Raymond Blanc's place for my 50th. That was over £220 (including one bottle of wine) for two nearly a dozen years ago, but very, very good. A couple of more local restaurants that have good food at decent prices and which have been mentioned elsewhere, Egan's at Lymington and Truffles in Fareham.

I thought that it was to be 300 square metres. That's nine times bigger, isn't it? The Skate's flag was 40 x 20 feet = 800 square feet, so ours at 2700 square feet, will be nearly three and a half times bigger.