ecuk268

Do you think it's a bit late to be naming the ground? It's been the Rose Bowl for so long and that's how everyone refers to it. A bit like when Rupert wanted the Friends Provident Stadium. Everyone still called it St Marys. I suppose that the sponsor pays for his name to appear in newspaper reports and on TV. The ordinary fan will still call it the Rose Bowl.

So, if Cameron fell on his sword, who'd they pick as new leader?

My lad started around 7 years old. This was in the mid 90's when MLT was in his prime and I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the kids at his junior school were Saints fans, very few Man U glory hunters. Has it been the same in the last few years when we've been in the doldrums or have they been swayed by the more "glamorous" clubs?

Same for me but at the end of the 50's. Dad would lift me over the turnstile and I'd sit on his lap up in the East Stand. Loved it from the first game (I think we lost to Port Vale). Had a brief lessening of enthusiasm in my teens due to something called "girls" but soon saw the light and have never looked back.

Wellys. Must be black and muddy and with the tops folded over.

I was paying £220 with Tesco. Renewal was £380. Went to Aviva and got it back down to £220. When I rang Tesco to cancel, they said they could maybe come down a bit. I told them that if they can't give me the best price at renewal time then I wasn't interested. They rely on people's complacency. Loyalty doesn't pay - always shop around.

Some classics last night: "Does anyone speak Mexican?" "Didn't Columbus bring back the potato?" "Byron wrote around the same time as Shakespeare" What does "el" (spanish) mean?

NI have their backs against the wall and will try any trick in the book the discredit their critics and try to shift attention elsewhere. At long last both Labour and Tory politicians see the chance to rid themselves of Murdoch's influence, and it's also spreading to the US where corporate wrongdoing is taken a lot more seriously than here. I was amused listening to copper Andy Hayman being grilled by the Select Committee. When asked why he didn't investigate NI more thoroughly in 2006, he said that they didn't co-operate (so he gave up?). I hope that's not how he treats all suspects in major crimes. He also saw nothing wrong in having dinner with the people he was supposed to be investigating.

If you take the trouble to read Brown's statement, he says that he's not making any allegations, but that he was upset that these details were being made public. The Sun told him that they were going to publish it and that there was not much that he could do about it. I suppose they took the fact that they had told him as "authorization". Interesting article by Lord Ashcroft sympathizing with Brown and saying that the going rate for obtaining someone's medical records is about £200.

The difference being that there's been no evidence against Baldwin.......................yet.

Lebensraum

Agreed. I always thought he was a bit of a gormless prat, but he was very good last night and fought his corner well.

IT Project Leader in a chemical plant that is on the verge of exploding.

Nutty Boris Johnson was on R4 this morning saying what a wonderful chap that Rupert Murdoch is and how much he's done for British journalism. This is the same Boris Johnson who said last year that claims of phone hacking were "codswallop" and that it was all a stunt cooked up by the Labour Party.

As DSM has said, only the Police or Local Authorities can issue parking fines. Tell them to bugger off.

Advertisers are deserting in numbers. Ford, Renault, Vauxhall, Halifax, The Co-op and Virgin so far.

To be fair to the Tories (and I don't say that very often), Blair's mob were the same. I was amazed to hear on R4 on Sunday a member of one of the Select Committees say that they didn't put Ms Brookes under too much pressure because of unspoken threats that their private lives would be delved into and any past "problems" splashed all over the tabloids.

I see that there's an emergency debate in the Commons today this issue. When it was put to a vote, no ministers voted in favour and only a handful of Tories. Surely Murdoch can't have bought all of them?

I was speaking to a girl at work who has just got married. She's lived with her bloke for a few years in a rented flat. I asked if she was looking to buy a house but she said they couldn't afford the deposit. Their honeymoon was 3 weeks in Thailand staying at a number of plush hotels. Last year they went to Bali. We didn't have a honeymoon. Much of our furniture was second-hand and it took about a year to get the carpets. But we did mange to buy our house. It's a question of priorities.

At the end of the 60's, about 9p. I suppose the average wage then was about £12-15 per week.

My granddad was head gardener on a large country estate so I went to work for him in the school holidays. Absolutely loved it. Picking fruit, cutting acres of lawn, preparing his lordships polo practice pitch. Would have loved to have stayed but the money was awful and there were few prospects.

As one of the baby boomers, I'd broadly agree. It's tougher in many ways today. When I left school in the late 60s' the only problem was which job to take. We did have to suffer horrendous interest rates which happened just after we'd bought our house, but inflation (and hence pay rises) soon caused a considerable rise in house prices. When rate came back down, the proportion of my salary going to pay the mortgage was quite a bit less. I remember my granddad telling me how, as a newly married young man in 1910, he lost his job because he argued with his employer. No dole in those days, but he did have a pig which he used to feed on turnips. With no money coming, the pig had to be killed and they lived on that and the turnips for 6 weeks until he got another job. Hard times. No NHS, housing benefit, social security, only the workhouse. You went to the doctor as a last resort because you would have to pay, hence many people put up with quite serious illnesses until it was too late. He lived till he was 90 and his daughter (my mum) got to 96 so it certainly made you tough.

The Beijing - Shanghai High-Speed railway opens today. 820 miles long, average speed of 220 mph and built in just over 3 years. Tickets from £55.

To fund the Sea Museum (£15m) and refurbish Oxford St (£800k) (both unnecessary).

The Chinese don't mess about do they? Shanghai has the worlds largest underground metro. The whole system was built in 20 years and is still expanding. We spend that long on public enquiries.