WhatAboutTheFinish

I'm going with rugby - Top 14 Handicap, Grenoble +12.5 to beat Stade - 4/5

As I am off work now for a couple of weeks (and having recently read an article on the power of crowds) I thought I would lay down a little challenge to my fellow gambling VT'ers. All I need you to do is pick one winner a day for 10 consecutive days. The rules of the contest are this: You make one selection (before 13:00) for any event that day (or for within the next 24hrs) Your selection can be from any sport (racing, footy etc) so long as prices are available at my chosen bookie (probably bet365) Your selection must have minimum odds of 1/2 (racing bets will be placed at SP to prevent any arguments) I will stake you (so you've nothing to lose) for 2 quid and roll any winnings on to your next selection. If anybody makes it through the 10 days then we will go 50/50 on any winnings. If not then at least it should be fun to see who can go deepest. If anyone could come up with an even money winner each day that should return over 2k!! (i'm not expecting a huge number of takers as not many people frequent this thread but I better limit the number of entrants...lets say to 10 for the sake of admin and my pocket) So who is going to start me off?

Exactly! Which is why if we get offered anywhere near it, we should take it!

You seem to be basing your responses to my posts on the basis that this is fact! I think I gave reasons why I felt a change of identity was in the best interests of the child. Now, those reasons may be misguided or erroneous but they certainly had nothing to do with the suppositions you went on to make. Oh and just for the sake of clarity, I have no personal interest in the names of the women, merely a passing interest in an even application of the penal code.

That's why we are mooting it right? I believe that the children have a right to a degree of privacy and to live their life free of hassle. I am not sure that protecting the mother's identities is the correct way to go about it. Let's remember we are talking about very young children. The retention of their current identities indicates to me that they intend on being homed within their current local neighbourhood. A neighbourhood where despite any media ban every person will know exactly, or will have very strong suspicions, who they are. When they go to school, the chances are, every parent will know their back story, if every parent knows, soon every other child knows. You think in these circumstances they will care if some guy in Inverness knows too? If they are not staying in the area, my question is why not just give them a new name and a clean break?

This seems to be missing my point on so many levels, but as a simple answer to your question, no! All I've questioned is the consistency in the weight of punishment. Could you explain to me why we needed to know Ian Watkin's name? Is that to make HIS life more difficult, protect the public or satisfy public curiosity?

Well if you had commited a crime and had the choice of a one year sentence with your name and picture on the front page of every newspaper in the country for a fortnight or two years with complete anonymity, which would you choose? I guess in an ideal world people serve their time in prison and then are released with a clean slate, we all know the reality is very different. Watkins will live the rest of his life, including his time inside, (and maybe justly so) in constant fear of retribution. Many other people have to carry around the burden of their crime for the rest of their life. The women in this case, who in my eyes commited a worse crime, are being excused from this element of punishment on a technicality. I don't think that is right.

Because it creates a two-tier criminal justice system?

Ok, I'll rephrase. Will the children be returned to the mothers? I'm struggling to see why the anonymity of the mothers needs to be protected. If the children have been taken into care and the authorities are concerned about the children children growing up with the stigma of this event, why not just change their identity? I mean how difficult is that for a child under 5?

So are these babies still with the mothers or have they been taken into care?

In all fairness what else is there to do at VP other than moan? Sit back and enjoy the quality of play on offer? Marvel at how the opposition have regained their form? Sit in silence and resentment? I'm not one of those vocal in my discontent or frustration but I can understand the people who are.

Would you take a swap Lambo to Spurs, AVB to Villa?

The song Tears is actually one of my guilty pleasures and might even make it into my Desert Islands Discs! I think I'm right in saying it was the biggest selling non Beatles track of the 60's and I'm always suprised noone has ever heard of it!

When people say the greatest and define it with a multitude of people it's time to look at the dictionary definition of superlative a bit more.

Woah woah woah! Just before we try to turn this into an "oh he said something bad about Nelson Mandela, he must be a racist and supporter of apartheid" thread, I just want to make clear that is not my belief AT ALL!! I have the greatest respect for Nelson Mandela as a statesman and as a guy. However he was limited in his achievements and abilities. The truth being, however unpalatable it may be, that the transition from old regime to new was not particularly well managed under his watch. I don't see how anybody can adjudge that the oft quoted stats of average life expectancy dropping by 10 years or the doubling of the number of people living in poverty as a rip roaring success, in fact I can't see it as anything but abject failure. I have lived and worked in SA and I have no intention of getting into a 'I have more friends than you' contest with you Drat, I understand you are voicing an opinion based on what you have experienced, I am doing the same. I hope your horse isn't so high that you think other people can't have differing views to your own without branding them as ignorant or racist. Oh and on the terrorist point, it's a merely a question of semantics. The dictionary defines terrorism as 'the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims', on that basis, yes I do think Mandela was a terrorist. Whether I think he was justified is a completely different question.

I'm sorry Drat but to label people as 'ignorant' whilst gushing one-eyed eulogies about how Mandela turned South Africa into some kind of modern day utopia is laughable. No-one can argue that he was a great statesman (maybe the best advert for the prison system there has ever been! ) but many of the changes that have occurred in South Africa have NOT been positive. Clearly you were living in a different part of SA to me, but if you can find any South African, race issues aside, who can say that any area of government/government services including administration, finance, corruption, healthcare, education, policing, security, infrastructure etc have significantly improved over the last 20 years then I would love to hear their arguments.

When I heard the commentator say last night "Villa's unbeaten run stretches to 5 games" my initial reaction was 'That can't be right!'. I still needed to convince myself after looking back at the results!!

I think he means Morgan's Bay from his description.

Columbia and Helena?

Close enough for me!

That's a great shout from the Moonman! Keep them coming! Oh and I missed one... DVMHABB

OK, I'm appealing to the VT collective intelligence here. I've got one of those annoying initial based quizes to do but have run into a brick wall even with the use of google! The topic is Christmas Songs and Carols and for those who don't know the format, you are given the intials of the title or first line of a song and you have to say what it is eg: JB would be JIngle Bells, WACIB is When A Child I Born etc I'm 53 out of 60 down but am struggling with; TINR EIERE TBHC IENLDE RCB BCOTA ALY Anybody?

These are no ordinary Gingers! They are descended from the mighty Budini! (No, I've never heard of them either)

I used to work in a Chinese typewriter factory. The job was boring but I did work with plenty of characters.

Well on the basis that whoever bats at 3 will more than likely be facing a very new ball, I think I would prefer to see Root bat at 3. He has shown a willingness to open so coming in (no doubt) after less than 2 overs won't be a problem for him. Bell has struggled at 3 before and we should think hard before unsettling our classiest batsman.