ChezGiven

Beckham is staying a 320m2 suite at the Bristol costing 17k a night apparently. He owns Paris nevermind the football club.

Go and see Koze, the new album is lush.

Damien 'Junior' Marley refers to himself as 'Jamaica's Al Pacino drinking Blue Mountain Cappuccinos' on Hey Girl.

These are the key points but you cant really make both at the same time and have them both be completely true. If he has had good players at his disposal then they would have been in the first 11 every week. In which case he didn't need backing in the summer. If he needed backing in the summer its because the first 11s he has put out have not had enough strength or quality, which means therefore he hasnt had great options at his disposal. Tooj seems to need a bit of guidance round this point too

You didnt answer the question about the relationship between Credit Default Swaps and socialism. To illuminate us on how socialism caused the financial crisis You must have 6 dicks never mind bells to be that brazen with the truth. Thatcher was an ideologue, convinced of the supremacy of the market model and every economic policy she stood behind (mainly the thinking of people like Patrick Minford) placed the desirability of market efficiency ahead of social equity. All public policy is framed like this, it is rare that a politician would be explicit about trade-offs between them but that doesnt change Thatcher's economics. Thatcher had a 'welfare policy' not a 'welfare economics'. Welfare economics is how you evaluate a welfare policy; who gains, who loses, by how much? None of her policies produced long term social benefits for short term financial loss imo but i'm willing to listen to any examples you might have?

What have Credit Default Swaps and the layered packaging of credit risk got to do with socialism? Just for clarity, the example of the Mumbai railways was meant to serve as an example of social externalities, a branch of welfare economics that was poorly understood in the 70s and 80s. Dont be fooled by the word welfare either, it's a branch of micro-economics that has driven policy for nearly a century. I was an academic economist for a few years but have spent the last 14 years working in the worlds biggest companies. I definitely don't know anyone worth their salt who considers unfettered liberal market ideology as a solution to anything. Thatcher's legacy in this regard was once, for a brief time, seen relatively positively. I think the world has now caught up with a very pragmatic wing of economics that has always argued against ideology and for the pragmatic. Thatcher's world view was all about the dichotomies of politics; society versus the individual, the market versus the state, efficiency versus equity, substitution effects versus income effects. Where Ken Livingstone was right was that in everything she has been proven wrong. That's not to say her opponents have been proven right. What history has taught us is that ideologues like Thatcher are dangerous as policy driven from the conviction of principle is never measured enough to produce socially and economically optimal outcomes. Hence the Mumbai railways example.

Whilst a great pounding from Ken. Whenever i think of Thatcher's economics i think of the Mumbai railways. For years the tributaries of the extended Mumbai network were loss making lines that served poor suburbs (slums). These smaller lines were kept going because the Indian government felt that even the poorest without prospects had the right to transport links to the centre of Mumbai. For years, they remained run-down, unreliable and a burden on public resources. Then India began to experience strong economic growth, opportunities arose and because of the existence of the railway line, the people of these slums/suburbs were able to take advantage and find work in the city. Soon the lines became popular and busy and eventually the areas they served became attractive to people looking to live near the city. After a decade of economic change, the lines became profit making and in the final economic analysis, the benefits of the new revenues and the contribution of the infrastructure to the local economy far out stripped the costs of subsidising the lines for all those years. Thatcher would have closed them down.

Prem form since mid Jan is P 10 W 5 L 5 That has been against a mix of teams, the only victory against top half was the Chelsea game. On that form we should pick up at least another win and with Ben Arfa, Tiote, Debuchy, Perch coming back then possibly more.

Jonas is too soft in the tackle to be a first choice defender. Wouldn't trust him defending in the air against aggressive forwards in the box either.

Well, QPR winning is best for us as it keeps the maximum point difference between where we are and 18th place.

How did you rate Jol's tactics in the second half?

Pardew Howay

The players at his disposal for the most part this season have been about that standard. Cabaye can't carry the team and has been out for large chunks, carrying an injury and necking prozac. Cissé has been mis-firing, Tiote out of form and out of the side, Ben Arfa nowhere, Coloccini already back in Argentina. For the rest, excluding the new arrivals, I would say there are better players in many of the positions at clubs around us. I think one of the major problems that the Pardew critics have is that they vastly over rate the quality of our squad. Further, of those who are arguably of top half standard most of them have been out the side and injured. Going off the starting 11s, we have rarely looked definitively better on paper than our opponents.

Spending £500-700 on a 2 day trip to Lisbon out of holiday season is quite a luxury. If you've got that level of disposable income you're either on a decent income or you are in a narrow demographic that has minimum outgoings. For the majority, such trips abroad are out of the question or at least very difficult. I was equating this to a weekend break to a European capital, not 2 weeks in the south of France. Since the 80s there has been an increase in the numbers who travel abroad due to massively rising living standards and cheaper travel. Travel did not happen on the same scale before that. Just because everyone drinks, has a laugh and talks with local accents doesn't change the nature of the activity, an expensive trip abroad to a cultured European capital. Successive waves of supporters have been indulging in this very non working class activity whether they like it or not. Eating baked cod in a posh restaurant doesn't become fish and chips in a greasy cafe just because its you and your mates I don't have figures but I'd be surprised if the numbers traveling to round of 16, quarter finals in the 60s and 70s are anything like today. I'd wager since the 80s onwards when there was a huge increase in wealth there was a shift. Clearly the finals have always attracted large amounts of traveling supporters but not sure about earlier rounds in the 60s and 70s. Did we take nearly 4000 to the quarters in 69?

Aye, there's nowt middle class about taking a short break to a stylish European capital, sampling the local culture, eating local food and then heading out on the town to the bars and clubs. Very working class tradition that.

If its not over by a long stretch then neither is the thread numbnuts.

Can't be arsed to read the articles but has the Saudi case that was on newsnight been mentioned? An Islamic court has ruled a man should be paralysed from the waste down by injection as punishment for a crime he committed many years ago as a teenager. I think the victim was paralysed so the court ruled that the most appropriate punishment for the perpetrator was the same. Or a fine. If he can pay a fine he won't be paralysed. It would be funny if it wasn't so abhorrent.

I thought Benfica won.

Since the clocks went forward? Me too. I think it's because I'm an hour away from my usual tired but then worried as its late and I'm not sleeping. Having to get up early at the same time has left me a bit knackered this week.

2-1 would have been a fair result. I think Taylor gets some unfair criticism at times but that was inexcusable tonight. Santon had an absolute mare too. Pair of idiots have cost us.

If they're good enough to be top 8 in the pr then going on this season's record we will lose. A score draw would be brilliant.

Just heard the news about Iain Banks, gutted.

I was thinking of John Tudor.

Tudor-esque could mean a dodgy comb-over of course.