Matt

Didn't we sign Sibierski at the end of the summer window?

Phillip Craig was mod on the Soccer 24-7 Newcastle board, then set up his own.

That's the whole point though. The majority of MP's were state educated. Aside from the fact that figure still shows disparity given the ratio of state to private schooling (clearly it's never going to be 1:1 and I'm not suggesting it should be), the focus was on members of cabinet, rather than some backbench. Jesus even Ronnie Campbell is still an MP, he's uneducated enough to make up for all of Eton past and present. It's about the people who are setting policy will will shape our country for years to come.

Neil was not arguing against private education, but how the failings of our 'one size fits all' policy are manifesting itself within the people who are running the country. I think while the link is a little tenous, it's a debate worth having, and personally I am massively in favour of moving away from the current broad brush approach. It's got nothing to do with what you think of Cameron or why you think he's wonderful.

The programme argues that the system is such now that comprehensive education is now far less likely to produce someone capable of being better than Cameron, not that there are better people being overlooked due to some upper-crust conspiracy.

While an elected body requires a level of intelligence often badly lacking on the benches, it also requires deep understanding of the workings of our society on all levels. That cannot be acheived with a group drawn from such a narrow range of life experiences.

Considering how much he made on the floatation and where the shares are now, he should be paying them all 10 times what they were owed.

Seriously, you need to visit the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas book depository building at Dealey Plaza, the whole area is pretty much unchanged since the assassination, its a fascinating place to go. Second that, it's fascinating. Shame about the rest of Dallas.

It's cheaper to fly because it's so much easier to get the train on that route.

£300+ Newcastle to London if you get one of the first trains. Twice as cheap to fly. £300 on the train to London? Is that one-way? I never use the train so can't comment but I will anyway, that's massive money for a 4 hour journey. Return, that's for the first train (6 am ish) which gets you into meetings at a reasonable time. Much cheaper to book in advance off peak mind. Still, quite a rip off, I usually fly if I have an early meeting. All about the £12 advance fares!

Look at the trains how? An industry that the government neglected for decades then when it was dropping to bits didn't have the cash to fix it up. Same with the water industry (although it was well undersold). Look at what has happened with NI Water. Stamp prices are regulated and this would remain in place should anyone come in for it. More concerned about the impact on Post Offices. Tories will tell you that if you don't like not having a post office, you should just move nearer one. You can imagine it- drop your mail off or buy postage from automated kiosks in your nearest supermarket, everyone come move to dismal orbital towns.

That miss against Plymouth at home.

Basel II is already in place. Basel III will kick in gradually up to about 2018. I guess it's a question of what is needed for stability against what is actually possible without massive sources of new capital. As for the focus of attention- a lot of it is (IMO) down to what the mainstream media want to report on and how much of it is seen as 'old news'. It will all be back again in March when the govt in particular will have had enough of the coverage of the endless cuts. Certainly in more finance-oriented publications, the attention on liquidity, capital requirements, pay and tax etc remains pretty intense.

Aye, any links would be greatly appreciated, usual place not proving very fruitful tonight.

Brushed under the carpet? I'm surprised the weather wasn't blamed on the Lloyds-HBOS merger. The VAT rise is in line with other policies implemented to date- they are ideological trojan horses. The Tories do not give a toss about anyone who wouldn't vote for them and even less about those who don't even vote.

"Wide of the mark" Oliver returns!

Carver's done a few old boys' events, everyone who has spoken to him reckons he's a top bloke and absolutely loves the club.

Not sure how anyone can tell if he was a 'yes man' or not unless someone on here bugged SBR's office. He has come out and had a pop at Ashley on several occasions, but it would not surprise me if the powers that be were completely unaware of that fact.

I'm with 2J- can't see the issue at all here. We know he is a quality player and comfortably worth £5m (Journal reckons just £3.5m!). He is also a player with a repuation for throwing huge strops when he wants to move so surely it makes sense for NUFC to use their ludicriously cheap option and if there is interest, he can have a paddy in the summer and the club can make a few quid on him- or we have just signed a quality player for relative buttons. We can't seal the deal in Feb- it would have to wait until the summer window and would present a real risk of someone coming in for him. I'd ask the question just how much worse a player would he have to be after his injury to not be worth buying? Absolutely a chance worth taking.

Not a bad crowd for an U12s 5-a-side game, skip to 6 minutes to see the real impact of a winter break.

I thought it had been quiet in the SE corner this year.

I thought he would be a cracking loan a few months ago but he's looked awful in recent games. That may be simply down to playing under his nemesis Houllier, or his legs may have finally gone.

This has all the hallmarks of NUISA. That Gilmour fella was being quoted in the press for years after it shut down.

The Lib Dems just keep fucking things up. Well, it's hard to argue with your view of the party that delivered this coalition.

Will they replace Vince with another LibDem?