Dickie

I find this article a bit unsettling - what about the 52 per cent who voted out? A lot of them are clearly fucked off with the way things are, otherwise they wouldn't have voted to change it, and it's quite clear that this crisis has been years in the making - i.e. during the years when the author was going to raves and "becoming lecturers, nurses, systems analysts and engineers". Aye let's just go back to the way things were and ignore the existence of the 52 per cent of people in this country who don't think like us and we'll let Murdoch et al continue to decide our futures. I voted Remain by the way, mainly for the same selfish reasons as the author. i.e. to safeguard my own career and relatively comfortable existence, but to say we want things to go back to how they were is pretty contemptuous of the people who have let it be known that they want some fundamental changes.

For the last few months I've been weighing up a potential move abroad for personal reasons. It has actually been on the cards for a few years but this year was always going to be when I either made the move or decided to stick it here. Have been in two minds because realistically the long term prospects of the job I have my eye on abroad wouldn't have been as good as if I carried on my current career path here. Before Friday it would have been a real agonising decision - moving abroad would essentially have been sacrificing my career to some (possibly very large) extent. Last Friday's result has basically made the decision for me - prospects here for me post-Brexit will be shite so if I end up getting the job I won't think twice about taking it.

I'm still erring on the side of Corbyn, although I do understand and appreciate the argument made by lots of people that he is unelectable. The reason I'm not convinced he should go is that I still think he genuinely wants the best for people in this country rather than being driven by personal ambition, not sure I could say the same for any the ones who've indulged in all this self-serving skullduggery. It's true that the party seems to be tearing itself apart, but he's not the one doing the tearing to be fair to him, he's just doing what he was elected to do - lead the party the way he thinks is right. He might well be unelectable in a GE, but what's to say he wouldn't have been electable if all the snakes had gotten behind him right form the start? They could be putting forward a really strong left leaning message to the public now to capitalise on the capitulation of the tories while hammering UKIP, Johnson, Gove, Murdoch et al for being the lying bastards they are.

On a personal level this is scary, heartbreaking and infuriating in the extreme. Seen as part of the wider scheme of things, it's completely mind-boggling. UK universities have done so well out of EU funding and have managed to trade on former glories and prestige to make them an attractive proposition for EU grants, collaborations and researchers, and to therefore continue to access a very large slice of the EU pot. This has in turn kept them productive, competitive and prestigious, and the cycle continues. That is, it did before Friday. If anyone thinks a Tory government is now going to make up for these funding losses they have no idea what they're talking about. I don't blame people like CT for voting Leave. It's clear they just didn't understand what they were voting for and what the ramifications would be. But it really is almost beyond belief that something as monumentally stupid as this could have been allowed to happen. We're all fucked.

My sentiments exactly - self-serving, careerist snakes

Cheers mate, aye an already uncertain sector has just become a hundred times more uncertain

No idea - as with everything else now, it's totally uncertain - but I would have assumed so. That's also going to hit UK universities, because they've benefited from being able to attract top people from around Europe with the promise of excellent conditions and good salaries.

This is a fucking disaster. Personally I am livid because I work in science research, totally publicly (mostly European) funded. My career prospects and my prospect of one day getting a full time lecturer position have just taken a massive nose dive because UK universities are going to be fucked. I've grafted my bollocks off for over 10 years and, although I hope I'm overreacting, the future looks very worrying. I don't blame the people who voted, they're mostly victims of the same system that has been slowly screwing them for 30 odd years, but I just wish there was a bit less gullibility around and I'm fuming at Cameron, Farage, Johnson, Murdoch and all the rest of the horrible wankers who've either allowed or actively encouraged this to happen. It's so frustrating to know that it was mostly older people who voted for this as well, i.e. the people who have to live with the consequences for the shortest time. Depressing as fuck, Christ knows what's going to happen to this country now but it just feels like really dark times are on the way.

I think people will vote to leave unfortunately. Drove up and down m5 and m6 this weekend for a weekend in the lakes (I live in South Wales) and every 10-20 miles or so there's a billboard or trailer or some such proclaiming Vote Leave along with some lowest common denominator guff like "Take Britain Back" or "Support Briatin Not Brussels". At first it just seemed laughable but after a couple hundred miles on motorways that were absolutely choc full of morons (judging by driving behaviour) I became convinced that these tactics, along with the lame Remain campaign and other propagandering in the mainstream media, will work a treat and the result will be Leave.

Danny Murphy: takes some doing to be a boring, bitter little twat after you've spent 15 years of your life playing football every day and ended up a millionaire in the process. Clueless fuckin glake. Howay Rafa you fucking beauty

Get in there Rafa, best thing to happen to the club for years. If they back him for the next couple of years and don't do owt characteristically moronic we should most definitely be on the up again

I'm not bothered about his supposed aggression - he's kept it mostly in check this season. I like to see players with a bit of edge, and the best ones mostly have it, especially when they're young. If anything I'd say he's been a bit too soft - for the size of him he gets pushed off the ball very easily, and I'd be slightly more worried about the fact that over the course of the season he didn't look to be getting the hang of the league any better, either in terms of hold up play or taking his chances. However he's still young and has been playing in a struggling side, so I think we should all give him more time. I've said before that taller strikers often come into their prime a bit later than the quicker, more technical ones, so hopefully he's still got plenty of time to develop, especially if he gets a good manager like Rafa. Having said all that, the tackle on Sun was terrible - I hope we don't see any more of them, and the less said about the embarrassing histrionics afterwards the better.

Saw The Smiths Indeed on Saturday night, the best tribute band I've ever seen, absolutely spot on. That's the 2nd time I've seen them, first time was fairly empty but this time was a sell-out.

Aye you're right there, I didn't think that bit through. Instinctively you'd still think that a better team would open up better opportunities to make profit, but the club has been profitable enough in Ashley's eyes for the last few years despite the performance of the team and that's the whole problem.

I think it's still more likely that he'll leave, unfortunately. He's saying all the right things but it still boils down to Ashley having the sense and humility to know that giving control to someone like Rafa is the only way he's ever going to make the club as good and (more importantly for him) profitable as it can be. It is a positive sign that they're talking to Rafa, but I dread to think what kind of nonsense they're proposing in those meetings. And then of course, even if they do agree to Rafa's terms, can he trust them to honour them? As we know, the answer to that is most probably no. All we can hope is that the penny has dropped and they realise they need a proper manager. We can take a shred of optimism from the money they've spent recently on Thauvin, Mitrovic, Saivet, Shelvey, Wijnaldum and Townsend, not to mention Rafa's own contract. The positivity in the stands yesterday is what this club is all about. The game has changed, the demographic of the crowds have changed, and to a large extent the attitudes of the people in the region towards the club have changed, but despite that and despite everything Ashley has done in the last 7 or so years, the potential of the club is still there. I do believe Rafa believes that as well, the question remains can he convince the cynical, incompetent wankers above him.

I don't think I'll ever be able to understand why a Crystal Palace (or Aston Villa, or any other club hundreds of miles from Newcastle) would give a rats arse about NUFC, let alone delight in our relegation. It's genuinely baffling.

OK cheers. I do remember him - I used to read this forum from time to time without ever posting and I do remember LeazesMag as it seemed he was always having a barney with all and sundry.

Ah, looking at the previous post I am guessing Gemmill is the so-call accountant

Yes, similar situation - we could have had more out of Bellamy, he was brilliant for us and never really reached the same level after he left (unusually for us - we're used to players improving once they leave). Who's the so-called accountant? I think I've missed something...

Aye that's what I remember hearing at the time. I also remember at the time giving Colo and Pardew the benefit of the doubt cos Colo seemed to be the main man in the squad and had come off a couple of brilliant seasons and we'd had that 5th under Pardew, plus Ben Arfa didn't exactly have a great track record discipline-wise. In hindsight it's so frustrating to think we never got more out of a talent like Ben Arfa, especially if it was Colo's doing to get rid of him, given how inconsistent and flakey he subsequently became and what a total tool Pardew turned out to be.

I normally take anything in the Mail with a massive pinch of salt but if there's any truth in that and he does stay it will massively take the sting out of relegation for me. Going down and keeping Benitez there on a mission to rebuild the club would be preferable to staying up with McLaren. Of course even if it is true it could still very well end in tears a few months down the line if Rafa finds out he's been lied to regarding transfer budget/control of footballing matters etc. Very sceptical until it is actually announced though - can't really see why a bloke with the opportunities he's bound to have in the summer would work for Ashley in the English 2nd division.

Didn't somebody on here say they had an in-the-know mate who said he's not popular at all with the rest of the squad? Would love to know what's gone on behind the scenes with him over the last few years - ever since that carry on with his missus going back to Argentina and then his fatha trying to engineer him a move back to Cordoba or wherever it was, he's been an odd case. Add to that the rumours about him being influential in getting Ben Arfa hoyed out, there's a lot more to his time here than meets the eye. This last absence has been highly suspicious as well. Pity cos for those couple of years after we went down he was a proper Rolls Royce defender.

How is that an "attack"? Pathetic.