blandy

There are kind of two different things here. One good, one bad. You’d hope, surely, that the head of the European Central Bank would be an experienced banker. You’d hope that people advising on banking and currency changes would have a background in those areas. Experts are useful. Like when in the U.K. if an MP has been a doctor or teacher or whatever, get them involved with health or education, because they know about those areas. The potentially bad thing would be if the experts were all coming from the one single bank, Goldman Sachs. You’d hope there would be a range of relevant experience, different banks, different government posts, professors, civil servants. But your point that 2 people involved with the ECB have a banking background isn’t really much of a criticism, is it?

Something of a, er, blow, for Gobblers Knob, Utah.

They get right on his wick

I once got a Northern Fail train from Preston back to Lytham, summertime a few years back. After the footy, I think, or maybe cricket. Anyway, for whatever reason the train went at breakneck speed through every stop (not stopping) on the line, fair rattling along, going past people waiting on the platforms at 70 miles an hour or whatever - startled looks all round. It got to Blackpool North (end of the line). Sat there for 15 minutes, then another driver got on, and it trundled back, stopping most stops on the way and I was eventually able to get off at Lytham. There was no announcement, no explanation, nothing. Bloke must have been on a promise or something.

I know, it's come to some rotten state when Northern rail makes merseyrail look half decent. It's not a rail service it's a disgrace.

Ooh. I'd love to go see that. I just fancy a nice night out in Liverpool, tonight, maybe take in some music.... I'll get the reliable Northern rail train service there and back... 6 piggin' months this has been going on. Words removed.

Probably about as much as the totally contradictory lines coming out of the Labour one about Brexit referendums last week. The media collectively isn't as sharp focused as it ought to be.

Definitely. I’d say the idea of revolutionising the club is more than attractive, it’s essential, both for fans and owners. How and who to employ to do that is the challenging first step. I’d be concerned if we got in people who’d want to live in London, take the money and not be wholeheartedly committed. Not saying that would the case with your combo, but it might be...who knows

The negative side isn't base on nothing. Which isn't to say that there couldn't be a positive outcome...but most people I think would accept that he's untried, untested and unfamiliar with this division? The positives, as I said above is this type of gamble has worked in the past, at for example Chelsea. There are a long list of great players who haven't hacked it at all as managers. It's fine to be excited about such a possibility. But equally, I can remember being, er, chastised for my concerns about and "not getting behind" SB before he was appointed. For once in my life I was exactly right that time. Other times I've been wrong (more often). But go back and read any thread speculating on a new manager and you'll see a mix of views about different possibilities. Some people end up right, and some wrong. I get the desire to be positive and hope for better results and football and future - I share it. Equally, it's not exactly unique to have concerns about an untested candidate. Any appointment is a risk, and most end up as failures to one degree or another. I hope whoever it is does really well. I just can't think of any comparable situations where a big name untried manager has stormed it in the way you hope and revolutionises a club. Even going abroad, and looking at the top managers now, most were unknowns, or never World class players, when they started managing. Klopp, Mourinho, Guardiola (good player)...most are not world cup winners. But to end on a positive, willingness to start lower down is a good sign, and he would attract players and assistants through reputation. So here's hoping for the best, Jas.

Possibly. I'm not wise enough to know one way or the other, but you're right in so much as no one has any evidence either way, but there's clearly a big risk with a totally untried candidate. They have worked elsewhere in the past - Ruud Gullit, for example - similar big name reputation as a player, able to attract other players similarly well known and good quality. But that was at a London Club in big league, not Championship, and Brum, which is a harder sell. The thing that strikes me is we have new owners with no experience, a CEO with some Prem. league experience, but not masses - 4 years across Liverpool and Chelsea, is it? So the concern is that there's a high risk of making a duff appointment through lack of knowledge, couple with whoever, good or bad, comes in will have to deal with the unbalanced squad Bruce has left - Piles of right backs, midfielders and forwards, and few centre backs, left backs or decent 'keepers. Whoever it is will struggle to fix that mess in the short term. Bruce's biggest failing IMO is what we've got as a squad - he had too much choice, really - given too much rope, so he didn't work with what he had, so much as discard that player and get another, then another, then another. There is no short term fix, and FFP is going to bite. The need is to rebuild with fewer players, but fitting a profile that is of good quality, good age and capable of playing a style that will both gain promotion and then allow us to stay up. There's no coaching staff, and reduced scouting available to whoever it is, too. I think the most likely outcome is someone expensive, with no experience and they're going to struggle and we'll get caught up in the same cycle again. Hope I'm wrong.

I love 'em. It's brilliant. Fantastic spectacle.

The healthy alternative would be a nice can of spesh in the bracing, clean fresh air.

I read a thing about this the other day. Here's an extract.

Russian GRU caught trying to hack OPCW when it was investigating Skripal attack and Douma attack. What motive could these spies from innocent Russia possibly have? The scale of Russian support for Assad's use of CWs and its own use of them in targetted assassination attempts is beginning to be brought much more clearly in to the daylight. About time, too.

It should come from taxes, IMO. Both for political reasons and for financial reasons. Major trans-national companies, Amazon, Apple, Google etc. don't pay enough tax and they harm high street vendors in most instances. Them getting fairly taxed ought to be a priority. We've seen Amazon up wages as a result of a growing realisation of their exploitative conditions for workers, and the tide needs to turn more. SO it's both a good signal to address the imbalance they have and also good financially to use that extra tax revenue to do "good" things, including for example childcare to create jobs and help people with young kids themselves find work. Funding it from more debt does no one any favours.

Possibly, yeah. I was thinking that people who don't mind her, mostly feel sorry for her. Maybe jigging will add to that warmth.for those people, maybe they will go the opposite way and say "actually...cringe...she doesn't help herself" Who knows.

That's true. And it covers two seperate things - 1. money and other resources and 2. media planted or led care stories. The second one can be ignored in terms of the first. The allocation of resources, and there is a limit on them, both financial and human is the main one, obviiously. Things like brexit and losing "unskilled" EU or other nation workers due to immigration controls that both Labour and the tories want will clearly work against actually making this idea work (the 30 hour childcase idea). Equally, the budget financially, as MacDonell and Hammond etc. acknowledge has to be costed. The tories did things the wrong was round, as per other threads - curtting when they should have been stimulating growth by investing in infrastructure etc. and now, eventually, they're thinking about responding to Labour's "appeal" by opening the taps, when the opposite ought to have been happening if they'd initially invested. Whoeever governs next, they are faced with the mess caused by Osborne and Hammond to a lesser extent. Realistically money for childcare (good) will have to come from somewhere - other planned expenditure, new debt, higher taxes, whatever. Labour policy is to keep trident, not bombing people will not save money (it'll cost money). Morally it'd be nice not to have us bomb people perhaps. Though bombing ISIS nobbers in Iraq and Syria has its upsides. It's not a crystal clear issue and isn't realistically going to make a jot of difference in terms of childcare or not in the UK.

Thing is Tone, I'd wager good coin that she was "advised" (badly) to do that. Sure she took the ultimate decision to go with it, but....it was unlikely to play well with anyone but her keenest fan.

It's still a big collection of arses.

No, I don't think they would. I think that's a stereotype that's utterly misplaced. It's immensely wrong, IMO. Aside from the obvious point that re the Fracking, both at PNR (as detailed above, it was rejected at every level by councils) but also elsewhere councils and councillors are bang against it - even tory ones, and have even been on the protest lines trying to disrupt and stop it, we can also look at Sheffield and the trees. Again, Sheffield council has said they were forced into putting out the highways contract to contractors, by Tory Gov't diktat. For al ltheir deviousl lying and anti democratic and bullying behaviour, there's no hint of a suggestion they've been that way because Capitalism and big business... I grant you the Minister for being a tory bastard may think or say "profits", but I suspect it's not really that, even. Future board positions post political career, or party donations, or favours returned. These are much more likely motivators at that level, IMO.

Indeed. And it's not just bad decisions, it's almost always compunded by hypocrisy and double standards. So multiple tiers of councils and huge swathes of local residents, plus climate scientists and climate treaty obligations decide against fracking permission, and be over-ruled by a bastard tory minister, but it takes a mere hint of complaint about a wind turbine by a single soul and that's that stopped. Or like you said about nuclear plants and waste... It's a rigged system and then it's compounded by law enforcement being politicised and used as a weapon against legitimate protests.

I know that's obviously tongue in cheek satirical, but the thing is, for me anyway, it's nothing to do with big business in terms of the protests. The protests in the case of Sheffield, and PNR are and were because of broken democracy. PNR fracking - the parish council voted to decline permission for it, then the local council, district council, County council - all declined permission. Sajid Javid of the tory bastard gov't just overruled the lot of them and the will of the local people. With Sheffield, the local labour bastard council outsourced highway maintenance to Amey plc and hid the details from the population, and then when the population started getting antsy about the trees in their streets being chopped down despite being perfectly healthy, the council continued to be bastards and lied and hid detail about what they'd done. Many of the protesters have more of an issue with whatever level of Gov't and its bad behaviour than with businesses*. The courts aren't IMO being used to protect businesses, they're being used to protect, ultimately, Ministers or Council Leaders. If councillors and MPs did their jobs properly then the likes of Cuadrilla and Amey wouldn't have a viable business concerning fracking or tree felling and they'd stop. *I have a problem with the businesses, too

How many teams lose a play-off final or just miss out and then tank the next season? It's a frequent thing. The exceptions tend to be the ones such as Brighton who both play a type of football that is better than many teams at this level can match AND who keep the squad together with just a bit of freshening up, so Brighton, for example. It's a big swing in confidence and impetus. Add on top of that as you rightly say Paul, IMO, the transfer thing, JT going ...etc and played in a mix of positions with ever changing selections. He's doing pretty well IMO, without tearing up any trees. It'll come.

Luluc. Lovely

Yeah. None of that fancy foreign muck. Gimme Pizza any day of the week.