Gringo

Obviously the players get better commercial deals if they are in the england squad, so does ol rednose put the pressure on the manager to get his players a run out

Its opposite for Fergie, doubt he wants them to play international football

I'm sure he loves the peripheral players like smalling, jones, wellbeck (just like wes, ben and phil ugly before them) getting a call up - it's good for the manure brand and it gives them some game time - and it adds value to having a manure contract. That's why he's pushing for a call up for cleverly.

To have all 3 out at the time that the economy is going tits up shows that they have a complete disregard for what is happening.

What has changed in the UK economy in the past week that requires their action or presence?

Memories of Humpage and Kalli, 470 4th wicket stand vs Lancs. And Warks went and lost that match.

If they cancelled their holidays what exactly do we expect they'd be doing? Photo opportunities and giving speeches "that this problem didn't start here". I don't see how having either of the chuckle brother in downing street is going to stop the euro implosion.

So three weeks training with rio has turned phil jones into an england international. Just like smalling got a call up following a move up the M5. Obviously the players get better commercial deals if they are in the england squad, so does ol rednose put the pressure on the manager to get his players a run out (under the threat of rio being told to act injured again) or has three weeks training with manure really improved jones that much?

I'm not sure what benefit would be obtained from having the stuffed shirts around at this time.

thebeeb"]Global stock markets slump on eurozone debt fears

Global shares have dropped sharply for the second day as fears about the eurozone debt crisis intensified.

New York's Dow Jones index fell more than 3% in early trading, while Frankfurt's Dax and London's FTSE 100 indexes dropped almost 3.5%.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso's warning that the sovereign debt crisis is spreading spooked the markets.

Meanwhile, the price of gold hit a new record high of $1,677 an ounce.

More weak jobs data from the US also raised concerns about the strength of the economic recovery there.

Banks were hit particularly hard, with Lloyds Banking Group down 9.9% and Royal Bank of Scotland falling 7% in London, Societe Generale losing 6.9% in Paris and Commerzbank dropping 6.8% in Frankfurt.

The safety net looking a little less safe? The ECB are doing their best to keep bond prices up and making sure you can sell at a decent price.

torygraph"]"I never said that the SMP had been interrupted," Mr Trichet said in reply to a question on the ECB's Securities Markets Programme that bought around €74bn in public debt so as to support the financial system with liquidity.

He added: "I wouldn't be surprised if by end of this press conference something happens." When asked to confirm the ECB had in fact begun to buy government bonds, he said: "I thought I confirmed in advance."

Mr Trichet said that the bank's governing council voted overwhelmingly on a decision to renew the purchases. The council was not unanimous but "we were an overwhelming majority on the operation as regards this bond purchases".

According to Reuters, traders said they saw the ECB buying Portuguese and Irish government bonds in the secondary market, although not those of Italy and Spain, which have also been hit hard by the debt crisis.

Recently, Italian bonds, as well as those of Spain, have seen their prices fall, driving up the interest yields that governments face to finance their debt. Rising yields drove Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailout loans from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund.

Based on the normal risk factors it would be hard to understand why Italy and Spain are currently thought so much more at risk than they were a month ago. Outside of the normal factors - you have the bailout. As Moody's ratings agency reflected

torygraphagain"]Moody's said it had put Spain, which has a Aa2 rating, under review for a possible downgrade amid fears about the rapidly spreading European debt crisis. The rating agency said that last week's efforts by eurozone leaders had "not relieved market concerns" over Spain and other sovereigns – and had potentially made matters worse.

The agency had concerns over Spain's "funding pressures" as well as the "challenges" Madrid faces in meeting its tough austerity targets in a "weak growth environment".

But in addition, last week's rescue mission set "a precedent for private sector participation in future sovereign debt restructurings". In addition, although relief had been pledged via the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF),

He has a history of saying negative things about Villa and often features in the press criticising some aspect or other of the club.

I remember him criticising ol cuddly ellis, but not Villa.

More bad apples

Cleveland Police Chief Constable Sean Price arrested

Cleveland Police's chief constable and his deputy have been arrested in an investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption, the BBC understands.

Well not all the tories proposals are bad or mad

beeb"]Ministers should consider pulling the plug on the central part of the NHS IT programme in England, MPs say.

The Public Accounts Committee said mounting problems with the electronic records system were making the £7bn project "unworkable".

The group said the scheme - aimed at reducing the use of paper files - was beset by delays and uncertainty.

If it was stopped, the remaining budget could then be spent on a better system, they said.

E-records are part of the overall £11.4bn IT programme.

The scheme was launched in 2002 with the aim of revolutionising the way the health service uses technology.

It includes developments such as digital X-rays and fast internet connections.

Under the e-records scheme, every patient was to get an electronic file that could be used when they were treated in the NHS.

Undoubtedly it will still go ahead, as the main benefit of the e-records system is as an enabler for the privatisation of services.

We will not finish 8th next season.

Top six in any order will be ; Manure, Citeh, Chelsea, Arsenal, Plop, Spurtz

Next group will be ; Evernot, Blunderland, Fulham, Stoke, Villa, Baggies, Newcastle, Bolton

Third tier ; Wolves, Blackburn, Wigan, QPR, Norwich, Swansea

So the first six will finish above us as will Evernot, Fulham, Stoke and Blunderland (IMO). For me we are fighting with Bolton, Newcastle and Baggies for 11th

Last couple of seasons for comparison (purely subjective of course)

Another dodgy pitch @ Liverppol - so 189 is probably a good score.

Ah ! I didnt realise they had dodgy pitches there, so take your point.

However, I wonder if they will have 8 points deducted for it - like we did :evil:

Completely different - Warks were fined for a badly prepared pitch, the liverpool pitch is a results pitch. That's the advantage a home team are allowed - I didn't mean to infer underhand methods - 'dodgy' probably an incorrect choice. "Another 'lively' pitch" would have been more approproate.

Yep, great result for England and another great result is possible for The Bears against Wankashire - excellent performance from Neil Carter to put us in a strong position.

Another dodgy pitch @ Liverppol - so 189 is probably a good score.

The second in our newish series of Monthly Polls on the Manager. Poll open until end of August.

Results since last poll: WWL

The winds of change seem to be blowing towards the east

HSBC to axe 25,000 jobs (not UK) despite pre-tax profits rise

Banking giant HSBC has said it will cut 25,000 jobs by 2013 and exit operations in 20 countries as it looks to save billions of dollars.

.....

As well as the job cuts, bank said it is closing its retail banking operations in Russia and Poland and selling three insurance businesses as part of pre-announced plans to save $2.5bn-$3.5bn by 2013.

On Sunday, it announced the sale of 195 US retail branches, primarily in New York, to First Niagara Bank for about $1bn.

None of them. Most shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a TV job, and none should be anywhere near a sports channel, bunch of clueless idiots. BBC is just as bad with half their sports presenters having no clue as to what has happened in any particular event. You should all go back to watching topless darts.

Yep it's all a stage managed crisis detracting people away from real issues. It is important in that it marks a change in the way the US conservative parties manage their images with respect to the people who keep them in power. It's a bit of a game, but no one in the financial sector is seriously worried about the outcome.

Not strictly OT Gringo, that has nothing to do with cannabis.

Well it has a little to do with thread, a lot is about the legality, but Aye - it was the most appropriate thread I could find

Trying to eradicate supply

The point of the thread is that the nutter politicians aren't trying to eridicate supply - they're funding it through guns and reaping the profits through laundering the money. The state, if not the politicians is in cohorts with the drug suppliers on one hand, and pretending to fight them with the other.

We could also look at the bountiful increase in drugs supply following similar US support in afghanistan. But the neo cons would start waving the sabres.

So, drug wars.

We sell them the guns

What embassy officials did not know was that at least some of the weapons they were noticing were guns that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had allowed straw purchasers to buy as part of a sting operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. Ultimately, ATF lost track of an estimated 1,700 guns as they flowed into Mexico.

We launder their money

More shocking, and more important, the bank was sanctioned for failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn – a sum equivalent to one-third of Mexico's gross national product – into dollar accounts from so-called casas de cambio (CDCs) in Mexico, currency exchange houses with which the bank did business

and they kill themselves

Police in Mexico say a suspected cartel leader they arrested on Friday has confessed to ordering the murder of 1,500 people in northern Chihuahua state.

The drug war in operation.

I like Mexico, it's a lovely land. I left before Calderon came to power. When he did (funded by bush and the CIA) I was castigated on these forums for being a sore loser.

The death tolls in mexico from the drugs war have increassed 10 fold since the pre-calderon state.

And the supply of drugs coming out of mexico has fallen natch, just fewer people controlling the supply lines.

So moving on a few months, we have the military supressing protest in egypt, the libyan rebels now granted billions in free wealth starting to murder their own and the syrians laying waste to their own rebel towns.

It would appear that the west should be freezing more assets, particulary those of the egyptian generals and the syrian govt instead of releasing assets to unelected shambles. There are unconfirmed reports of NATO bombing libyan water pipes, and then bombing the factories that maintain the pipes and then confirmed reports of NATO bombing TV stations - how does that fit with the no-lie zone policy?

It all smells rather rancid.

Well thanks for the spelling coreczion ;P

Out of the 8 sky presenters, all international cricketers, only shane 'spirit of the law' warne felt bell was hard done by. I think there'll be some questions asked about the entourage who visited dhoni in order to ask him to review his appeal. If we're playing by the spirit of the law, then anderson really shouldn't be going off for a rest a few overs before the new ball is ready.

Yeah but he really should start shaving - that tache is embaressing.

Interesting. Do you think when we bought him it was mainly for his tackling? If not, why did you worry about this (IMO largely imagined and certainly overrexaggerated) "bottling" out of tackles rather than just sit back and enjoy his ball control, passing and crossing skills?

What bothered me more about downing was in his first season here, was not bottling tackles, it was taking himself out of harms way. In those few months there were times when it needed someone at the backpost to stick their foot or their head in for goal scoring opportunities. And he bottled all of them. Those few opportunities, the odd goal could have changed a lot about that season. He's a wuss. Good money for him.

Prior has come out to bat with vengeance, the episode may well have fired up the team.

Chances that Bell goes first ball he faces after tea?

Edit: Fortunately he doesn't.

I half expected him just to sky one and give them a free chance.