Makom

Let's see if anyone can spot what the person who wrote Chi Onwurah's Wikipedia page really really cares about.... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chi_Onwurah&oldid=654311597 I thought politicians had their flunkies massaging their Wikipedia pages? Surely she's said/done more than that in 5 years in Parliament? As for this... "Outside of politics Onwurah enjoys music, reading and long walks in the countryside." gotta be a windup, surely?

Couldn't see a thread for this yet. Time to start getting excited I guess. Only a few days away now.... I'm a cheap son of a bitch, so I'll be catching this on the first available free replay. I'm predicting Pacquiao in the 8th.

You can't even really make a case that title sponsorship is essential these days. If you're 'product' is good enough, you can make more than enough money - the Super Bowl being a prime example. It's the not the Doritos Super Bowl or the Super Bowl in association with Pepsi, it's just the Super Bowl. Sure, you can't move for sponsorship being applied to every singe other aspect of it, but when a corporate monster like the NFL makes your 'traditional' competition look cheap and tacky, then you know you've got issues.

Hopefully all the corporate wankers who get the pick of the seats nowadays will be sufficiently confused by this and end up at the wrong north London stadium at 7.20 on a Monday night, or whenever the fuck it is they play the final at now. It's almost desperate the way the FA/broadcasters/pundits have been trying to claim this competition still matters these past few seasons. The reality is, it's become a corporate whore just as much as the PL and CL, and in footballing rivalry/tradition/bragging rights terms, it's their poor relation now, certainly for PL teams anyway.

I never got it meself. I think I was the target age at the time he was famous, but I only remember thinking what the fuck is this shit? A green duck, that can't fly, and for some stupid reason has to wear a nappy? I though he'd already died tbh, I thought he was the guy who fell off his roof adjusting his Sky dish, but that was Rod Hull and Emu now I think about it. That fucker was only slight less annoying, I think that was only because it didn't sing. It was to my great horror to realise recently that ventriloquism was making a comeback with that lass with the annoying monkey and the guy with the skeleton, who both have the cheek to class themselves in the same bracket as stand up comedy. Thank god for multi-channel entertainment, now I can avoid these unfunny fuckers enough so that even their names haven't managed to penetrate my sub-conscious. No chance in Orville's day.

From the panorama peeps: http://electionforecast.co.uk/tables/predicted_vote_by_seat.html For my seat, Newcastle Central, they're predicting a 10% increase in Labour's vote to hold the seat, no change in the Tory vote but seeing them come a distant 2nd, the Lib Dem's crashing from 2nd to 3rd (24% to 7%), and only a 25% increase in the Nazi vote (assuming all the BNP scum transfer to UKIP) which sees them tied for 4th with the same as the Greens, who will supposedly rocket from 1.7% to 7% For those of you with local knowledge, this is for the seat which covers Benwell and Scotswood, Blakelaw, Elswick, Fenham, Kenton, Westgate, West Gosforth and Wingrove wards, so I think you can probably realise why I'm currently making *skeptical cat* face. They seem to be claiming that the only major change in this seat will be a shift of voters from the Lib Dems to Labour and the Greens, at a ratio of roughly 2 to Labour for every 1 to Green. Doesn't seem likely to me, not in a seat which has its fair share of affluent voters, who surely can't be blind to the fact that in this seat, if they didn't want a Labour/SNP government because they're worried about their economic competence or what price the SNP would extract for support, they'd need to stick with the Lib Dems and hope for another ConDem coalition. Indeed, if this turns out to be one of those seats where it's speculated lots of disaffected Labour supporters unhappy because of immigration are about to turn to UKIP, you could even see a Tory getting in here, if enough Lib Dems switch and others desert them to Greens.

How on Earth is Milliband running a perfect campaign? He's done nothing, nada, zero, to ensure he ends up with a majority. He's coasting along in the safety zone. His campaign has either already accepted that they will be wiped out in Scotland, or they're working on the obviously false assumption that a mansion tax or stamp duty change makes his offering look radically different to Gordon Brown in the swing constituencies.

Brand is saying don't vote because none of the people currently on the ballot are worth voting for - his revolution aims to change that, presumably by either creating a new party, or more likely achieving a grass roots change in one of the existing ones. It's obviously true, otherwise he wouldn't have been attacked mercilessly for saying it from both sides of the establishment press, who would rather have you believe that their preferred party is the solution, and aren't above deliberately misrepresenting him to make it sound like he's some kind of hypocrite or anarchist lunatic.

Aired last night: Panorama 'Who's Going to Win the Election' - Richard Bacon w/ Nate Silver. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/six-lessons-nate-silver-uk-election/ Super-nerd Nate Silver famous for nailing the last two US elections, embarrassing both pollsters and pundits, admitted he doesn't have a scooby for the UK election, beyond the fact it won't be a Tory or Labour majority, and the aftermath could be "extremely messy". Most interestingly: "Since 1979, the final U.K. polls have missed the spread between the Labour and Conservative vote by an average of 4 percentage points....It wouldn’t take that much of a late polling shift to make sorting out the election aftermath easier. If the Conservatives beat their current polls by a couple of percentage points, they’ll be close enough to a majority that they could form another coalition with the Liberal Democrats. If Labour beats their polls by the same amount, they’ll have the plurality of seats, and Ed Miliband should have lots of options for how to form a government." I saw the panorama and he made some good points, namely that UKIP's support won't translate into seats and the LibDem slump won't translate into a wipeout. But if you're a follower of UK political punditry, or even just reasonably intelligent, that was hardly news. Disappointing really, the way Panorama trailed this, I was led to believe he was going to give an actual forecast (e.g. 75% chance of Labour getting X seats, SNP getting Y, etc, etc), but he didn't, and it turns out he didn't even try, as he didn't really do all that well in forecasting the 2010 election http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/uk-forecasting-retrospective/ What he's actually done is partner with some UK academics, and they've given an actual forecast, although since they don't really have the same reputation as Nate does (AFAIK), it could be nonsense. FWIW, here it is: http://electionforecast.co.uk/ Con 281 Lab 268 SNP 49 Lib 26 DUP 9 Plaid 4 UKIP 2 SDLP 2 Green 1 Other 8 If this is right, it shows the SNP royally fucking everything up, because nobody can reach 323 (326 minus speaker and Sinn Fein) through a simple 2 party alliance. This outcome will result in either a Conservative minority government unable to pass anything without the full support of the Lib Dems and major Labour/SNP defections (15+), or a Labour one unable to pass anything unless it has the full support of the SNP and can attract 6 other votes on top of that. So basically a zombie administration, guaranteed by law to last 5 years because you now need 2/3s of MPs to vote for an early election. Bastard Scots, turning us into a basket case of a country like Belgium or Italy, just because they don't like Trident or the bedroom tax. Sack up you skirt wearing tossers, and take one for Team GB!

"the change to our retail operating structure introduced in February 2013, which saw us partner with Sports Direct" What's that supposed to mean? What happened? I hope it only refers to contracts to operate/supply, rather than any Rangers style trademark chicanery. Not that it makes a difference while Ashley is here and owns both the club and SD, but it can obviously be used to make any future takeover more complicated than it needs to be.

If he ever thought he could do the job, or if he thought he couldn't refuse it, then even more reason to hold him in contempt. Because the only source of such belief would have been his own ego, they certainly have no evidential basis.

Bollocks, missed it, even though I saw the reminder here. It's on 4seven tmoz at 8 if anyone wants it. Any interesting revelations?

Aye, but do you know? That's the logical answer, yes, but Salmond is a crafty git. And anyway, who even has a favourite First Minister? It's like having a favourite cardigan, or a favourite lamp.

Hadn't been taking much notice of her up to now, but she's certainly managing to avoid Alec Salmond's habit of being able to make good points re. SNP's objective's while also being a massively smug knob about it. It's only just dawned on me though - she's the Scottish First Minister and isn't actually standing as an MP in Westminster - so what the fuck's she doing presenting herself as the person who would be calling the shots regarding what any future SNP-Lab relationship would look like? Does the SNP constitution make it clear that she's top dog over Salmond even at Westminster, or is he ultimately going to be the person taking the lead? I wouldn't put it past the crafty git....

I think he needs committing. What more evidence do you need that someone has lost all their marbles than suggesting that stewards would be able to stop people giving him dog's abuse if things carry on the way they have been? He's totally fucking lost the plot.

Social services aside, I'd say there's probably more people in local authorities who "witness" child abuse because they're touching their own kids, than would ever likely happen to notice a kid being trafficked around the country. And who the fuck seriously needs an awareness course to be able to spot that? Only the most clueless people, surely? As is usual in the media, the rare cases of snatchings and stranger danger get all the headlines (and thus drive public 'policy'), when in reality the vast majority of child abusers know their victims because they're either related, or are long time family friends. As good as it was that the Saville case has led to lots of awereness and led to many victims receiving justice, it's also sadly fed this myth.

Renton writes well. Still don't agree with his position.

I don't know why Shearer isn't more scathing in his comments actually, he must know exactly what the mood is in the stadium and the wider fanbase having to watch this shit, yet he seems to be of the opinion that all that needs to happen is for 'the lads' to show a bit a 'passhun'. That's Carver level wank that is. I know the BBC have to be impartial, but MOTD isn't an election news special FFS, and you're on there precisely to give your opinion - so tear Ashley a new one.

If people kept giving me free tickets to watch NUFC at the moment, I'd start to think they didn't like me.....

What could Carver possibly say to any fan that would make any sense? That's what blows my mind, that he thinks there's anything he could say at this point that would actually placate the average fan.

As the Sunday Sun put it, at Swansea the crowd seem divided on whether to support the team or protest against Ashley, and ended up doing neither. The red card protest obviously worked in terms of getting media coverage, and at least this time the cards include messages the media could actually work with and would resonate with other fans/the football establishment/potential owners, so we might be seeing some advances in strategic thinking if that was a conscious decision of those in the AO.com bunker (although in truth this looks more like the campaign catching up with the media tbh - as I've said repeatedly, they were already reporting quite correctly that these were the real reasons why we're not happy - even the Chronicle). The SD boycott (or as they term it, an "embargo"), still not sure on that. It got reported that fans were gathered outside the Northumberland Street store holding up the 'financial results league champions' banner, but that was about it. Portraying this as a serious attempt to target Ashley's business interests, or something that the shareholders of SD are going to give two fucks about, seems to me about as deluded as pumping out propaganda like this claim that NUFC as a club that lies to its fans for releasing official attendances figures that rely on tickets sold, as if nobody else in the world knows that's not a true record of actual attendance. So, it's a D minus for that one guys.

But Chewbacca lived on Endor. He LIVED ON ENDOR!!!!!111

He won't lose a lot of money, he'll just make a lot less - if we didn't go up straight away then he'd begin trading players to lower the wage bill to compensate for how the parachute payments reduce each year, until we reached whatever the financial equilibrium would look like for a large club in the new TV deal era Championship.

That's a fucking axe! Turn it the other way around, instant vasectomy...... Love the safety hat - here son, put this on, it'll keep bits of grit from getting in your eye. Champion!

Holy crap, I never even heard of this one: Craig Thomson, a former Hearts defender who in 2011 had been convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff’s Court of “lewd, libidinous and indecent behaviour”. Thomson had made inappropriate advances on Facebook to two girls, aged 12 and 14. He had known the former since she was six. He sent the latter a photograph of his genitals. The Scotland Under-21 international was fined £400 and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years – but he was effectively unemployable long before that term expired. There is no scale of sexual depravity but when Thomson was convicted in Edinburgh in 2011, he was instantly labelled a paedophile or “perv footballer”. Like Evans, he made public statements that appeared to lack contrition. Hearts’ sponsors were uneasy and one pulled out. The club was condemned by its own fans but still attempted to hold the line for a footballer worth about £500,000, even when it was pointed out that its stadium backed on to a school. What did for Thomson was the reaction of his manager Thomson was managed by Jim Jefferies, who had supported and played for Heart of Midlothian and was in his second stint managing the club. “He cannot have any complaints,” Jefferies said when dropping him. “What he did was a bad, bad thing, the ultimate taboo. You don’t want your club to be associated with anything like this. We cannot allow the club to become a sideshow.” Thomson now works as a window cleaner and plays for Newtongrange http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/from-lee-hughes-to-graham-rix--footballs-offenders-can-never-fully-remove-disgrace-9963957.html