ecuk268

You talk about the Kennedys (plural), who else apart from Joe was anti-british? Joe was influenced by his admiration for Hitler. When the Blitz started, Kennedy moved out of London while Churchill and the Royals stayed (bringing a remark from a Foreign Office official "I thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy). Shortly after, Kennedy was forced to resign. In fact, before the Blitz, he loved his life in London and his anti-British bias was more about the Irish-American vote and his political ambitions. There's no evidence that his Irish ancestry was behind his views. John Kennedy's sister married a nephew of Macmillan's wife so she wasn't anti-british. If you read Macmillan's memoirs, Kennedy looked upon him as a wise, experienced leader and phoned him regularly for his thoughts.

Joseph Kennedy was, John Kennedy certainly wasn't, having a close relationship with Harold MacMillan.

He was also attacking Obama because a bust of Winston Churchill had been removed from the Oval Office so he must be anti-British. In fact the bust was loaned to Bush by Tony Blair and, when a new President takes office, the previous President's personal effects are removed. There is still another bust of Churchill on display in the White House. I think that Johnson's getting desperate. If the Brexit campaign fails, his hopes of the leadership diminish greatly, so look out for more outlandish statements as June approaches.

Watching Arsenal stroll to victory against West Brom last night,I can't see that Wanyama's passing skills are good enough for them to want him. They should have gone for Morgan, he'd have had more game time there than he gets at Man U.

I see that Messrs Johnson and Farage reckon that Obama doesn't like the UK because his Grandfather was Kenyan and therefore he holds a grudge against us as an ex-colonial country. They don't provide a shred of evidence for this, just scraping the bottom of the racist barrel.

Don't ever get a job with the Samaritans........ "Yeah, well mate I think that suicide's probably your best option...."

I think it's going to be a long, long time before everyone appreciates it.

Because he made one goal and scored one on Saturday whereas against Liverpool he scored one and made the other two, so he was obviously not trying on Saturday (at least, that's how some would see it).

He was also throwing up in the centre circle so obviously not well.

Interesting concept. When assessing the value of a job, think about what the impact would be if all of the people doing that job suddenly stopped. Using that as a criteria, among the highest paid should be doctors and nurses, care workers, teachers, bin men, those in the water and power industries, road haulage, public transport workers and shop assistants. At the lower end I'd put so-called "celebrities" (excluding the genuinely talented ones), the advertising industry, betting companies, and many politicians (the Civil Service actually run the country). I suppose we could do without overpaid footballers as well.

My dad used to know John Hollowbread when he was landlord of the Sun Inn at Romsey. He told him that TP was very much the blue-eyed boy as far as Ted Bates was concerned. When TP walked in to training, Ted usually said something like "Morning Terry, son, how are you? What do you think about today's session?" When John and most of the other players arrived, it was a curt "Morning". It's not surprising that a newly-arrived Lawrie Mac saw him as a threat to his authority.

It's not surprising that Cameron's a bit vague about his tax affairs. According to this interview with The Times, he's not too sure about how many houses he owns: "So how many properties do you own?" “I own a house in North Kensington which you’ve been to and my house in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have.” A house in Cornwall? “No, that is, Samantha used to have a timeshare in South Devon but she doesn’t any more.” And there isn’t a fourth? “I don’t think so – not that I can think of.” Please don’t say, “Not that I can think of.” “You might be… Samantha owns a field in S****horpe but she doesn’t own a house…” The rest of the interview was punctuated with Cameron’s nagging anxiety about how this exchange was going to make him sound: “I was wondering how that will come across as a soundbite”; “‘Not that I can think of’ makes me sound… I am really worried about that…”; “I am still thinking about this house thing”; and his parting shot was: “Do not make me sound like a prat for not knowing how many houses I’ve got.”

A few excerpts on the Echo website. Lawrie's signing copies at St Marys on Saturday morning.

Foreign aid isn't about helping people, it's all about political influence. With this lot in charge, I'm surprised that we're not sending it to Saudi Arabia and China.

Peter Schmeichel was saying on Sky that he thought that Mane should have had a penalty and that handball should always be a foul, intentional or not. He said the same about offsides, none of this interfering with play nonsense which is very subjective.

£20 reduction for me. I'm happy with that.

That's the big test, hanging on to your best players. Looking back, a lot of our players seem to have become unsettled when they make the England squad. Steve Williams, Mark Wright, Danny Wallace, Lallana, Clyne etc. Probably players from the "big" clubs whispering in their ear about how much money they're getting. You're bound to get some tapping up from the richer clubs and it's difficult to keep a player if he wants to go. The fact that you'll most probably be in the Champions League should help but it may come down to wages. I'll take a point on Sunday if it stops Spurs from winning the league.

Ah, but they're "good" Muslims who also happen to buy lots of arms from the UK, never mind that they publicly behead women, crack down hard on the slightest criticism of the ruling family and export the Wahabi brand of intolerant Islam. Interestingly, the ITV/PBS documentary "Saudi Arabia Uncovered" which was shown earlier in the week has been pulled from the ITV website but you can see it on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZK_Jx8VQd0 It's worth a watch to see a true picture of the type of regime Cameron sucks up to.

Probably worried that he didn't have enough change for the Itchen Bridge.

He was helped in the 2nd half by Skrtel coming on. Pelle had him in his pocket and out-muscled him easily.

Anyone else notice Pelle go straight down the tunnel at the final whistle? No celebrating with his team mates. Perhaps he had a dodgy curry last night.

Just finished Mascot by Mark Kurzem. It's the true story of a 5 year-old Russian jewish boy who lives in one of the Baltic states in 1940. When the Germans arrive in his village, his mother tells him to hide in the forest. From there he sees his mother and younger siblings shot by an extermination squad. After wandering in the forest for days he's picked up by a group of Latvian soldiers who are assisting the Germans. He's put with a group of jews who are about to be shot. For some reason a Latvian Sergeant pulls him out of the line and takes him under his wing. He stresses to the boy that he must never tell anyone that he's jewish. The soldiers adopt him as their mascot and make him a uniform like theirs and, after a while, he becomes quite well known and appears in propaganda photos and films. He also witnesses some horrific acts and finds it difficult to reconcile these with the young soldiers who are so kind to him. They all talk to him in the evenings and appear as just lonely, frightened boys who want to go home. As the course of the war changes he spends less time with the soldiers and is put in the care of a Latvian couple who treat him as their son. After the war he makes his way to Australia and raises a family but never tells them about his past. The author is his son who, in the 90's, is studying at Oxford. Bit by bit his father confides in him and tells him that, because he was only 5, he doesn't know the name of his village or where exactly it was. The two of them then embark on a research project and eventually trace many of the people from his past and get to go back to his home village where he meets some of the older residents who remember him and his family. A fascinating tale, part detective story, part history lesson which looks at the war from a different perspective.

Saw him when The Nice came to Southampton Guildhall. Very accomplished keyboard player.

My Dad started taking me to The Dell at the end of the 50's when I was 8. I think it was the early 60's when he decided that we'd go to an away game at Swindon. In those days the team used to go on the train and we were on the same one. It was packed and we had to stand all the way. It seemed to take hours so, to relieve the boredom, we went for a wander up the train. As we walked through the coach where all the players sat, Terry Paine (my absolute hero at the time) smiled at me and said "Alright nipper". I was walking on air for the rest of the trip. Don't remember too much about the match. What I do remember was being allowed to sit on the grass on the edge of the pitch along with a load of other kids.

There used to an urban myth floating around that there was more nutrition in the cardboard box than there was in the cornflakes.