ChezGiven

I know the story, i wasnt in the boardroom! I do know the CoS referred to earlier but we don't discuss politics, just business. He's the boss of my ex boss. Or was. I am involved with the European Commission and the political interface there about once a quarter (ish) but unfortunately, nothing that exciting happens in that space. Shaping policy documents with technocrats is about as sexy as it gets. We may be setting up a new agency which would fundamentally alter how new health technologies are approved by member states but that's a few years off if it ever happens. Never been a member of a political party but am a socialist at heart and a centrist in practice if that makes sense. Always voted Labour though.

I enjoyed the comment on RTG about the scousers pronouncing his name like nails down a blackboard.

In the US, it depends on who the President is. The CEO job is a prize, it was probably a bit glib to say that drove the reason for his sacking / ousting. The kick back from Obamacare did however contribute as the ex CEO was a champion for Obama in Washington.

Tiim Healey was off his tits that night. Forgot about that.

I cant confirm that, our time only overlapped by about 9 months and i was more on the analytical nerdy side of things. What i can say (and i cant say much about my time there) was that the head of global corporate Affairs had to leave just after Obama came into power due to his connections to the GOP and this being the US who needs a republican Head of Corporate Affairs with a Democratic President? He went on to become Chief of Staff for a very famous Republican senator, the new CEO who was ex-Macdonalds, was a strong democrat, he brokered Obamacare in Washington with PHRMA (the US Industry group who you can imagine are a bit right wing). He was eventually forced out in a bloody internal battle that was principally exacerbated by the external view that Pfizer had gone soft left in its support for Obama. Anyway, the interesting thing about the Chief of Staff, i know him quite well. He has just joined the Trump campaign.....

That definitely describes you apart from the mis-spelling of 'bumbling spaz-faced wazzock'.

What a match that was. We won 0 -1 didnt we? Not sure how. I remember watching the Stoke match, if memory serves (and it rarely does nowadays), there were chants of Big Sam's B&W army from the stands, as we served up an absolute shambles of a match.

Its an outdated view on Scottish managers anyway. Might have been true about 5 years ago. Anyway, point being the decision-making seems reactive and the selection process (going back more than a decade) appears to have had nationality in the profile for the job. Cant think of many areas where that's a proven strategy for success.

Everyone agrees in retrospect that he would have taken us down / done utter shite. However, what pisses me off is that there was very little descent or calls for him to leave but since all the fans look back with critical eyes at his time, that translates into fans clamouring to get rid of him, which is revisionist nonsense. I think the only thing i heard was 'allardyce for England' ( ) either against Liverpool or Portsmouth at home as we were getting played off the park and stuffed to boot. There might have been some other critical noises coming from the stands but nothing more than any other time the team plays like shit and gets beaten badly.

I was at Pfizer the same time as him. He was UK affiliate, i was regional head office in Paris but roughly same area of the business.

He's been appointed because a pragmatic Portugal just won the Euro championships, no other reason. The FA decision making on managers has been a shambles for well over a decade. Not all their fault as all the good British managers are Scottish and none of them would go near the job.

Good bit of essential business, need to cut our cloth this season. However, I think he will excel at Liverpool. He went missing in some games but not all and the circumstances he was in do explain some of that. He played three quarters of the season under McClaren, in a shit side, in his first season in England. Still got 11 goals. McClaren probably repeated his team talks to him in a Dutch accent and left the poor fucker confused. In a better team, with a better coach and defence i think he will do very well. Wait and see though.

Can speak Latin and quote the classics but can't remember the name of the country that bridges Europe and the Middle East. Don't believe the hype, the fucking idiot.

Everybody wants some!! At least 3 laugh out loud moments, amazing soundtrack and one of the those strange films where nothing really happens. Absolutely loved Boyhood and wanted to see this on the back of that. Going to have a go at the Before trilogy now.

Bladerunner is great, watched it first when i was about 12 so i think that may have had some influence. Its also (felt like) one of the most sampled films of all times, during the rave years there was always some track with samples from it. Then there was the classic 'Remake' track of the Vangelis theme that was on Renaissance.

Get The Intouchables watched. I am missing about 20 of the top 100. I think its phoenix on kodi that has them in a collection. There may be one on exodus too.

Thats all it is though, a pledge. No guarantees although the Japanese tend to be more concerned about these sort of things. ARM have a solid Buy / Outperform recommendation on their stock, they have that because they are a growth company. They will be doubling their headcount anyway, not because the Japanese will somehow magic them into a faster growing company. They (ARM) were a target for a long time, so its fair to say that this deal is not caused by Brexit but it was probably accelerated by the circumstances. The stock has been flat for over a year, had some small gains since end of June but that increase in price for the Japanese has been more than offset by the currency fluctuation. So the deal has looked better, hence they made the move.

Of course May can block it, we essentially did that indirectly with Pfizer and AZ.

He cant say anything else, if he even hinted that the decision was influenced by Brexit, then the government would be more likely to block the deal. In Corporate Affairs departments, these issues are considered very carefully. If they said this was influenced by Brexit, they would be essentially scuppering their own deal. I would have thought your experiences selling sofas would have taught you that much.

Ooh German bight

People voted Brexit so we could send our jobs to Japan.