Problem Child

I thought he said NI and Wales were too dependant on the government for jobs. The Torys can only effect the public sector jobs, which will have no effect on the private sector. They have said they want to force the banks to lend to small businesses, which will create jobs. There are thousands of entrepreneurs waiting to create jobs. Whereas Labour have said they are going to raise National Insurance, a direct tax that will cost businesses and anyone earning over £20k. Sheer madness - businesses are struggling and more taxes will slow down hiring. So you think its ok for me to support a dole waller three years? There is a lack of good jobs in this country, but I will never be unemployed as i'll clean toilets if it puts food on the table. A labour myth that retards like you lap up. The current threshold is £350,000, which Labour has frozen until 2014. So if your family home is worth more by 2014 you have to sell it....! It's such a small amount of revenue, but dont let that stop your rant. Moreover the shortfall is 1.2 billion which will be leved by the nondom tax. The best policy of all the parties is the Lib Dems' £10k tax free earnings. So if your poor you should vote Lib Dem. He singled out NI and the NE when he was interviewed by Paxman. The private sector doesn’t exist in isolation. Not everybody on unemployment benefit is a dole-waller. I’m not going to rush to judgements but you do sound like the quintessential I’m all right jack fuck everybody else type who could do with a year living on benefits in Cruddas Park to appreciate what a selfish retard you are.

It’s the people who provide the funding that pull the strings, and we haven’t heard a single word on the funding issue in the run up to this election. Who does fund the three main parties? How much money do they invest, and what kind of return are they looking for? Does anybody have any idea?

If your truly undecided you should think what are the 3 most important things that matter to you and review each parties policies on each issue and go with the party that you agree with. No party will ever tick all the boxes but this should give you a good starting point for arriving at your decision. You should also take a good look at the three candidates who are local to you. Has the current mp lived up to their promises from last time? Do they get involved in local issues that matter to you? The wrong thing to do (imo) is base your decision on yesteryear. Example. The unions brought down the last Labour government in 1979. They tried it on with Thatcher and lost. However 30 years later that should have little bearin on the conservatives of today. Its like comparing New Labour to the CND Labour of the 70's Its a shame that so many people like Renton make up their mind on history, rather than current policies. (Hearing Renton talk about the Tories reminds me of a deep south white Granny talking about Negros) Think whats relevant to your life, look at the policies of each party and then decide. Oooh Lets see. Jobs. Cameron is on record saying the NE has too many public sector jobs and is clearly going to do a Maggie and fuck us over again. She destroyed our traditional employment base; he’s going to take away a large chunk of what little is left. The economy. With a conservative government hell bent on creating mass unemployment in the North East the local economy faces complete collapse. No amount of tax breaks for employing a new member of staff is going to make any difference if the region’s disposable income has been drastically reduced. Crime. Goes hand in hand with poverty. Throw in Cameron’s’ stop benefits for the unemployed for three years policy and crime will go through the roof. Even people without jobs have to eat. But hang on, if I inherit a property worth more than £20 zillion quid I won’t have to pay any capital gains tax....get in.

It’s also never mentioned that the club Hall bought was facing bankruptcy as well. Up shit creek without a paddle it was. If the best they did was postpone administration by twenty years and deliver a redevelop the ground then that’s no bad thing. I’m no fan of Hall and Shepherd but they probably did more good than bad.

Brilliant It’s bullshit. I know somebody with no political bias who knew Brown from his days as a Labour back bencher and they say he was a decent lad who genuinely cared about ‘ordinary’ people. He might not be media friendly but who gives a shit, I want my prime minster to be an intelligent man with good intentions – not a plastic tool who just happens to be comfortable in front of the cameras. This is one of the big problems with our democracy. It has ceased to be about policy and has turned into a vacuous image contest. All style and no substance. I might add that I haven’t voted labour for years and won’t be voting for them this time, as has been said none of the parties really have the guts to do what needs to be done to create a sustainable and healthy society instead of doing what needs to be done get elected. You can’t blame them, the media have made the two mutually exclusive.

Well it depends on how you look at it.....Ashley, and this is the only good thing I can say about him, hasnt borrowed a penny that he has put into NUFC. Maybe the fact that he's had to put £111 million into the club should raise the blinkers from some folks eyes....we may have had a couple of FA cup final appearances and and half a dozen great results in the group stages of the champions league to look back fondly upon, but what has been the real price of that to the club?...maybe we were heading for the second division all along, maybe there was always going to be a huge financial reckoning at the club at some point. If the Halls hadnt forced Shep's hand while he was lying in hospital where would we be now?...I'm not saying for a minute Ashley has been good for the club, but a £111 mill "loan"?....I know little of the financial world, but what the fuck has been going on? Is that the bill just to run the club in the last 3 years or was that to take care of the mess it was in when Shep departed? or both? does it include transfer fees paid out? or do the figures not give a strict breakdown of what its gone on? The debt accrued before Ashley arrived bought a brand new stadium and transformed NUFC from a club on the brink of the third division into an established top flight club, not a few decent results in Europe. It’s also worth remembering that a relegation (brought about not by the quality of the squad but becuase of the chaos Ashley’s created) cost the club £50m (Lambias’ words not mine) and the dismissal of Allardyce and Keegan another £10m. Ashley made a bad financial situation a whole lot worse and has only lent the club money to stop his incompetence costing him the £135m he paid for it. Ultimately somebody will have to pay for Ashley’s mistakes, the question is will it be him or us?

bloke in kilt Surprisingly easy, unlike somebody eating a Greggs pasty

Sunderland fat mackem OK, somebody wearing a stupid hat.

Whereas the last Conservative government sold off our telecoms industry, our water, our electricity and our gas to fund regressive tax reductions. Oh, and they also replaced our manufacturing industry with a service sector economy and promoted a society based on greed. It was the banks that bankrupted the country not the current government, guess which party deregulated the banking sector?

But this has been such a great season! Has it? Is our lowest finishing position in nearly twenty years really great? We’ve won a lot of games with the highest paid squad in second division history, but it’ll be very different next season. Repeating this year’s transfer strategy could see us fighting an uphill battle with a team whose confidence has been wrecked by the time the January transfer window opens.

That’s not going to happen is it? We’ll be scouting for players at clubs facing administration and footballers nearing the end of their contract who think £15k a week is top whack.

Funny thing is I was just saying to someone the other week how I didn't know what their plan was going to be as there were no major industries in the NE left they could destroy - then he came out with his "too much public sector" and I thought "Ah". In some ways we’ve only got ourselves to blame for being a relentlessly staunch labour area. Wannabe prime ministers would never publically say I’m going to take a sledge hammer to public services in a number of key marginal constituencies. The labour party aren’t much better; they just take us for granted. PR has its drawbacks but at least every vote counts. Unlike FPTP, where a party can end up with a huge majority even though 70% of the electorate thought they were full of shit.

Don't know what they mean by tools to maintain discipline but there will be challanges to any and all of those in 2 minutes flat. The cane and the strap? It's all bollock. The conservative policies at this election are based on the same principles they’re always based on - help the wealthy, shit on the poor. The North East will take a right kicking if they form the next government.

Is the ST renewal deadline usually this early? I don’t recall it ever being before the season has finished. In other news, NUFC’s last set of accounts have finally been submitted to Companies House and should be available via their website some time after the weekend. Sure to be interesting reading.

Rio Coker / Sidwell? Both have good engines and might be within our wage cap.

Seriously man, how many other clubs have failed to stick to their intended launch date this week? Preston for example. What a fucking shambles.... The email asking season ticket holders to take part in the kit launch went out on the 16th. UK airspace was closed on the 15th. Was it cancelled today?

With other words: Expect us to play a lot of dull and unsuccessful football as the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, Hull etc... This could come directly from the Sam Allardyce and Graeme Souness textbooks of football murder. What else can we do? The current squad isn’t PL quality and the club is skint. If we are going to survive scrapping it out is the only option. It might have been different if we’d adopted WBA’s approach to getting prompted, but we didn’t.

Regarding the second bit, this is a real 2nd chance for MA to bury a lot of skeletons and start to build bridges. I think he realises now that actions rather than words is the currency at St James's Park. It is and I think he’ll take it. Not huge spending but sufficiently ambitious to buy him enough goodwill to see him through the crap that will come when he reverts to type.

I’d like to know what Hughton thinks the supporters expectations are, as far as I can tell most are expecting the team to struggle but stay up. This summer is Ashley’s big PR opportunity. On the back of promotion a decent net spend would win round many of the doubters and probably secure another season of TV money. He’d have to be a grade A prick to gamble (again) on spending the bare minimum he thinks he can get away with.

Or ignore it so it goes away. Sound advice, but anyone who feels compelled to reply - don’t play the game. This stuff is all about generating hits, they want us to be enraged and sign up so we can comment. It’s good for the stats they wave under the noses of potential advertisers. Contact the editor instead. He’s the one who deemed Mike Dennis’s sackless rant fit for publication. He’s the one must have sat there and read what is essentially a brainless rant and thought ‘yeah that’s a well researched and intelligent contribution to the Express’s output.’ I’m not sure who the online sports editor is, but Geoff Marsh is the editor for the website and can be contacted at online editor express contacts

So they date quickly. The last thing the kit manufacturer’s want is a shirt that's good for more than two years.

The naming rights to the ground will be sold to an Asian fast food company and we’ll be able to buy Geordie Noodles from the kiosks. Jackie Milburn’s statue will be put up for auction on EBay, and Lambias will challenge Mark Jenson to a televised fist fight hosted by Alan Carr to decide who was responsible for the inevitable season ticket processing fiasco. Or, we’ll be linked with loads of brand name players but end up selling Steven Taylor to Everton and scouring the world for out of contract players with exotic names who will sign up on the minimum wage.

This wouldn’t be Harry putting the pressure on Sunderland to up their bid for Hutton would it? Pay a bit more and seal the deal before he signs for the enemy.

My first away game I was about where the 'r' in Liverpool is. Roeder’s back-heel in the corner sticks in the mind.

The Hall/Shepherd business model only came off the rails when Souness wasted £50m. Before that it had helped NUFC make huge strides forward on the pitch and delivered a new stadium without running up unmanageable debts. The play it safe model is equally vulnerable to one manager fucking it all up, or one owner as last season proved. The difference is one of ambition and given the choice I’d rather see the club go for it. Only we can’t because the cost of relegation has set us back years and it’ll take a long period of spending next to nowt before we recover. Thanks Mike.