drat01

Worst player by a country mile was Gerrard. Did nothing whatsoever, failed in his positional role, his tactical role and his role as captain

Just been offered a 50 inch LCD tv for the World Cup for 75 quid . Ok the sound is broken but for that price I thought I could not turn it down

What do you call someone who points out the obvious ? Someone who points out the obvious

He was such a poor joke teller that when he sent out copies of new ones to his closest 10 mates none of them laughed. No pun in ten did

Already a ukip recently elected councillor has been suspended because of homophobic and racist tweets . A racist party with bigot supporters

Mart - your quoting of Jack Straw is taking things massively out of context - something that the right wing have consistently done IMO. The whole thing re multi country business and its placement needs is more freedom against the artificial borders that surround europe. I think it was Lawrence who compared the EU as a Superstate earlier but surely that is exactly what the world is about these days. China, the US, Russia,India etc are superstates. Have you ever worked or lived in Europe? Mass migration of you want to label it happens all of the time - how many French people work in Belgium for example? What about Spaniards in Portugal and vice versa. There are no border controls and the only give away you have is that number plates change colour. What about the Irish working in the UK, should they be "sent home"? Apologies if this comes across wrong but you talking about immigrants when you don't live in the UK remind me of the comments I saw over the last couple of days from UKIP supporters based in Malaga ! - this goes back to economics and the reality still exists that immigration, welfare etc shrink into insignificance against elements like Tax evasion and avoidance

The problem with this is that it's wrong. Nice, but wrong. Why? Firstly because whole swathes of the country are safe seats. It essentially doesn't matter who I vote for, where I live a tory will get in. My only hope is to vote tactically, in an anti tory way. Suppose Labour was to be the closest to my ideas (it isn't, but bear with me), if the only half chance of beating the tory was to vote (say) LibDem, then that's what I'd do. This is the case in many many constituencies. People who don't want the incumbent party have to bite their lips and vote for the one most likely to defeat them, not necessarily their favourite. And Mike's idea sounds great, except it's removing the person standing from the choice, and just going with a party. Again, where I live, the MP got himself in all kinds of scandal with allegations of drugs and a male, er, companion from Brazil. Now many of the locals here might decide they don't want an allegedly, er, unstable person with an alleged liking for Bolivian marching Powder and male "friends" to whom he may have given, co-incidentally, sums of money in exchange for special hugs. They're quite traditional like that round here. So they wouldn't be able to get rid of him Or if I liked 8/10 Labour policies, but absolutely loathed 2 of them, but was OK with 5 Conservative ones, but less keen on 4 and din't like 1, my vote would be for Labour, but actually the 2 policies I hated would stop me voting for them, ever. I know it wasn't a totally serious suggestion, and I like the notion at first glance, but actually it's rubbish Pete - you are arguing a different matter there so it's not wrong as such :-) You know my stance on votes and how all should be equal - PR as such was never given a fair chance for review by the people. In respect to how many of the policies you agree with and make your decision as to who to vote for that is where the common sense comes in - something that we all agree seems to be lacking a lot of the time if we use the comments on social media as some sort of barometer.

Absolutely, and it's depressing. From people regurgitating baseless "facts" about one party or another, to the hilariously bad attempts by all parties to try and use Twitter. When George Orwell wrote 1984, the made up facts and stats he foresaw, and the screens where everybody could see every detail of your movements was clearly Facebook, except we do it out of choice. I have been known in the past while passing the many hours in hotel rooms avoiding the bar and other distractions to have a look at the people who subscribe to the pages and the comments they make. "It's disgusting aint it Trace" "send 'em all home" "they would not let us do it in their country" "can anyone help me on candy crush ......" It's a shame that more is not made of accountability I suppose especially on those who publish things which are clearly borne out of hatred and malice rather than just blind stupidity

To be fair, it's not as grim as people saying that they WOULD vote for Labour for any reason whatsoever. I know you are joking Mart but has there ever been anyone who said that? I remember Tony once stating he would rather be dead than vote Red and I know that from your Tax avoidance non UK residence you favour the Tory party :-) Surely the whole point being raised is evaluating what the political parties are claiming to stand for, what chance of them delivering on those policies that you agree with etc. I know I certainly look at what they all claim they will do and have yet to find any time that Labour did not tick most of the boxes for me and what concerns me. It's certainly saddening and depressing when you see people on FB for example peddling some of the crap from "groups" like that Britain First and the like and then believing it to be real, when a quick google search shows it to be typically right wing racist bile. Interesting Ian, as I encountered one of those Red Labour FB thingys that was basically trying to discredit and misrepresent UKIP. This was being spread by a teacher relative and her mates, all of whom are constant nomads and presently enjoying a tax free existence in Saudi Arabia. When asked whether they would like to submit a fair proportion of their income to HMRC, they all went very quiet. Not very social for socialists, I thought I think UKIP do a fine job of discrediting themselves without the need for any opposition to them doing so - and really do we need the stupidity of labels like Red this etc? - the whole Red Ed thing is such a nonsense and adds nothing to any debate or setting of credibility. How did you know they were Socialist's by the way? Being a socialist can mean many things to many people most of them different much in the same was as I could label a few Fascists etc. (Edit: before anyone comments about my use of Gideon - despite it was his given name I have it on very good authority that some in the Gvmt departments call him that also to wind him up :-) ) Facebook as a political tool and to a lesser degree the other social media outlets due to them limiting the content, is now becoming a very dangerous thing.

To be fair, it's not as grim as people saying that they WOULD vote for Labour for any reason whatsoever. I know you are joking Mart but has there ever been anyone who said that? I remember Tony once stating he would rather be dead than vote Red and I know that from your Tax avoidance non UK residence you favour the Tory party :-) Surely the whole point being raised is evaluating what the political parties are claiming to stand for, what chance of them delivering on those policies that you agree with etc. I know I certainly look at what they all claim they will do and have yet to find any time that Labour did not tick most of the boxes for me and what concerns me. It's certainly saddening and depressing when you see people on FB for example peddling some of the crap from "groups" like that Britain First and the like and then believing it to be real, when a quick google search shows it to be typically right wing racist bile.

I have the good fortune (IMO) to have worked all over the world with a very high % of it in and / or with European colleagues. My work week involves dealing with people from Europe on a daily basis and I always find it interesting to understand a bit more of the culture of each of the areas - note use Germany as an example where you cannot say that all of it acts in the same way hence the reference to area rather than the artificial borders that are countries. Religion pays a big part for example when I am dealing with customers and colleagues in the US, especially the south. In Israel, religion is obviously a key part of that state and you have to understand this. Italy has this catholic stance for obvious reasons. Russian customers and colleagues have a totally different way of working (this in Moscow certainly). The point is we concentrate far too much on grouping people into categories without understanding the circumstances that motivate their lives and the areas they live in

Oh if I had to choose than milliband all day. But its true (sky and other media sources conducted polls proving this) that the public image of Milliband is doing more harm than good for labour and yes he does come across as a very awkard guy. As much as I want to vote labour, I just cant vote for this buffoon. You are not voting for him though are you unless you live in Doncaster and that is what the Donnie bit means? - if so fancy a beer before the Chesterfield pre season match? :-) I wish people would actually start to look at policy and impact as a way of voting but as you said before that probably wont happen these days. I suppose when you see the MP's etc resorting to personal abuse (see Gideon attack on Brown previously as a perfect example) as a way of influencing then you know the slippery path towards the abyss that is US style politics is getting slippier and more increased. I rarely watch QT these days because of the idiocy of the whole show that some feel they have to put on, I prefer to read what was said rather than how the person looked etc

Eh? - All of the parties disclosed policies as part of the run up to last weeks elections. UKIP chose not to because they basically have nothing or realise they will be seriously exposed if they do so. Going on what UKIP have stated before, what their members have been reported on saying in the press over the past few years its pretty easy to draw up some accurate idea of what motivates them and their supporters I would suggest. I agree with your comment re Celebrity and am a long time hater of the Pop Idol political views that seem to hold so much influence. (Note: I can't see how you can state that though and then make the comment re Milliband just a few sentences later !) - also interesting that you fail to comment on Cameron .... :-)

I am very sorry to break this to you, but the BNP are perfectly legitimate in our democracy. I am not a student of UKIP policy, as I have not considered voting for them as yet, but my take on them is that they are anti the EU superstate, and anti open borders EU immigration. Maybe the left take that UKIP's anti open borders immigration is also anti-immigration full stop is correct. Or maybe it suits the left agenda to peddle that line. I shall read up on them prior to the next General Election, but there is plenty of time for that yet. Again - your "defence" of UKIP is to resort to a "the left ......" etc. Why is that exactly? The easy and frankly absurd rhetoric (IMO) f words like the EU Superstate plays exactly to the stupidity and borderline racist mutterings that we get from UKIP HQ. Surely mate you know that commerce rules the world now and commerce is certainly not single state. In a simplistic way UKIP want a return to the Little Englander approach of the 1950's which has no place whatsoever in a modern society. EU reform is needed, it's constantly needed because no organisation like that can ever stand still. UKIP are certainly not the way for reform because they are build far too much of prejudice and restriction something that commerce cannot accommodate

I agree with your sentiments and the legitimacy of basic racist policies by organisations such as the BBC is somewhat amazing. The typical UKIP supporter issues rhetoric with little thought about consequence and cause I have found and when you start to question them as is perfectly reasonable there is a typical retort of blaming "foreigners". Questioning of UKIP supporters on key issues such as NHS, Welfare, Taxation, Infrastructure and there is little in the way of a reasoned response. Maybe now there Andy Warhole 10 mins of fame will expose what the party is about and what they stand for?

A dyslexic man walks into a bra... oh dog

This so called 'fashion' of turn ups on shorts - why ? The only person who should possibly want them would be oscar pistorious on a no blade day .

May 26th - forever known as Happy Rotterdam Day

The comments of Gideon are particularly interesting. From the desperation to try and say labour had a disaster, through to his cosy remarks re farrage . Also his total dismissive nature towards the Lib dems who at the end if the day were the ones who have allowed him to cause so much damage show the make up of him and the party he belongs to. The millions that tax avoider Ashcroft and gideons friends in the city have donated to the Tory party have left Cameron overseeing a general election that he could not win and now a set of elections where they are soundly beaten for the right wing vote by a bunch of xenophobic racist political wanaabees .

It's interesting how the media re reporting all of this and the spin they put on it. If you were to believe a lot of the right wing media for example you would think that Labour did disastrously, the Lib dems have been killed off, UKIP have won everything and the Tory party had a letter from their mom so their results can be ignored. When you start looking at the results though a different picture is painted Vote 2014 England Party Councils Seats Party Total Change +/- Total Change +/- lab 81 +6 1891 +292 con 41 -11 1259 -201 ld 6 -2 404 -284 ukip 0 0 157 +155 grn 0 0 35 +17 oth 0 0 111 +21 noc 31 +7 N/A N/A So in reality the only losers as such are the Lib Dems - who lets be honest are totally screwed now as any sort of political force following cuckold Clegg's alliance with his Tory chums and Cameron and the conservative party - yet another election fail. How that then fits in with the media take on it certainly leaves a lot of head scratching. Re UKIP they still have no MP's, no Councils and really through ignorance and deceit (e.g. lack of published policies, lies about immigration, pandering to borderline racist xenophobic views) and are a protest party. The core followers are littered with extreme views and for once I agree with Cameron re the comment about them being ""fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly". Yes at the moment they are grabbing headlines but closer scrutiny of what they actually stand for and what they align to will bring a lot of removal of this support IMO come general election time. Milliband and Cameron have a lot of work to do re their own parties certainly, Clegg might as well start thinking about his next career and Farrage should start to be slightly concerned about how closer scrutiny of his party will map out

dancing?

Ahhh the life of Pi

a aging widdie bend

You don't smoke a roof or a football field? I should hope not

He killed an immigrant?