Christmas Tree

See I agree totally with this. Until it all started to get silly last Autumn, I didnt pass loads of houses up for sale due to repossession. I know a wide range of people from various backgrounds and wasnt aware of toxic debt. I wasnt even aware of job losses until after it went tits up. So who borrowed all the toxic debt????? Parky If it wasnt the average joe in Britain, then I see no reason why people wont carry on as before when credit frees up. I know people had lots of personal debt, but virtually everyone I know would class this as managable debt. Very confused on who has fucked up. Property prices and job losses in the US were the root cause - banks decided that asset backed securities raised on mortgages were "worthless" which caused a stampede of selling. People like Northern Rock had both deals based on this US stuff and had too many people on dodgy ground here. Again I'd argue the only good reason that property priced fall is confidence. Dont think you can ever go wrong with property as long as your not after a quick exit. Rentals are steadily increasing due to the housing slump (I assume people not being able to get mortgages) and when it does pick up, prices will once again rise. (Subject to having the right location, ofcourse).

See I agree totally with this. Until it all started to get silly last Autumn, I didnt pass loads of houses up for sale due to repossession. I know a wide range of people from various backgrounds and wasnt aware of toxic debt. I wasnt even aware of job losses until after it went tits up. So who borrowed all the toxic debt????? Parky If it wasnt the average joe in Britain, then I see no reason why people wont carry on as before when credit frees up. I know people had lots of personal debt, but virtually everyone I know would class this as managable debt. Very confused on who has fucked up. What you need to understand is that Capitalism survives by borrowing from the future. The future borrowed the money. Will that be Labours election slogan

It doesn't work like that. The game doesn't just stop and then start fresh form 0. My understanding from every media source Ive ever heard on this issue is that is exactly whats happening. It stopped The toxic debt is been dumped Banks are re-financing It will start again

See I agree totally with this. Until it all started to get silly last Autumn, I didnt pass loads of houses up for sale due to repossession. I know a wide range of people from various backgrounds and wasnt aware of toxic debt. I wasnt even aware of job losses until after it went tits up. So who borrowed all the toxic debt????? Parky If it wasnt the average joe in Britain, then I see no reason why people wont carry on as before when credit frees up. I know people had lots of personal debt, but virtually everyone I know would class this as managable debt. Very confused on who has fucked up.

I thought they all spent the last few months writing off all the bad debt so that they could return to making profit this year. Cant remembers which banks were forecasting a return to profits but im sure there were a few here as well as the bank of america. Anyway, my daughter works in a lloyds call centre and she says ....... I was referring to media fabrication, moreover the ferocity with which they increase the reality of the current "big story". IE A child gets mauled and then we have a week of killer dog stories as though theres one on every street.

Mortgage lending has risen for the 3rd month in a row, banks are forecasting a return to profit here and in the US and markets around the world have surged on details of Obamas rescue plan Is this the start of the recovery? Could it recover as fast as it went tits up? Has more been made of this by media? It is the strangle hold on credit that has caused the slump, so as this stranglehold is released, won't we just keep on spending?

Film community is very small and it's as important to know people as have a killer script. A lad who used towork as a producer on some of my ads, apparently went on to write a film called dog soldiers with one of his mates. I think the had to go to some strange country to get a grant to get it made. Think he also got a job producing on the 2nd unit. Just an average joe with a script that finally broke in.

Two things are strange with regard to this 1. How many people don't push ahead with their dream. 2. If 99.9% get rejected, how does some of the shot that gets to big screen get through. Soccermom & jawd. Anthony Robbins- Awaken the giant within. Go get it :-)

Must be a 'southern/northern' thing. It was always considered a canny job up here to be working the bins. Dahn sarf, starting out as a binman can lead to things like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX6P8Wde5ag Yep, you cant beat a musical bin man.

I agree 100%. I can think of at least five who would be more entertaining and a better all round journalist than him. A key thing I would bring to a roll like that would be direct questions, not worrying about offending people, which are absolutely vital in any free journalistic publication. It would be a good story, but alas your last! It must be difficult writing impartially about something you love though. Got to play the game as in essence you are just a minnion selling advertising space. The big boys at the top table dont want you upsetting people. If your luck and good and have played the game, you eventually get to a red top or such where you have more licence to tell it like it is.

I agree 100%. I can think of at least five who would be more entertaining and a better all round journalist than him. A key thing I would bring to a roll like that would be direct questions, not worrying about offending people, which are absolutely vital in any free journalistic publication. It would be a good story, but alas your last!

*clears throat* *strikes 'the pose'* *adopts the Jonny Gielgud voice* On yonder hill, stood a cow. It must have shifted, caus it's not there now. Gielgud was an awful reader mind - he was accused of 'singing', much to his annoyance. Richard Burton was the boyo I came across some of my own pathetic attempts a couple of years ago, cringed, and quickly got rid of the evidence I used to use Paul Gambachini in nearly all my radio adverts. I have never come across anyone who could get so many words into a 30 second radio commercial or who could walk into a studio in london, have one practise reading the times in the style of a furniture ad and then completing the ad in one take. The worst was Christopher Biggins. Nearly died trying to do a gambachini script.

Must be a 'southern/northern' thing. It was always considered a canny job up here to be working the bins. And is again!

This is very true and I believe can make a big difference when the book lands on a publishers desk.

You cant say that man! There are all sorts of different levels of writing. You might not be Shakespeare but you may be a mills and boon or whatever interests you. I have always liked a good kids bedtime story but have lately become so frustrated at how many stories are just bland and quickly lose a childs imagination . Yet some tucker is getting paid for just that.

Does anyone have any knowledge of how hard / easy it is to get into and whether there is much money to be made for the average joe with a half decent book. I have always wanted to write childrens stories (think gruffalo), but have never really looked into it. Anyone else have a dream job that is not impossible but seems so improbable that they don't go for it.

To be honest, I dont really think up until Ashley joined that I ever "thought" about the board. Yes there was that NOTW fake sheik, but hey, who hast talked shite when pissed (or sober ) Can honestly say I never had a great deal of thinking time about them. Just used to enjoy the ups the downs, the manager merry go round and some nice signings.

Why did the American conjoined twins move to England? The other one wanted to drive.

Where to let ones mind wander first.... If thoughts turn to "incredible oral" within 10 seconds, you have passed. If they turned to double nagging, you have been married too long

Raises just so many questions..... Who wanks? Who pushes the fart out? Who wipes the arse? Do they both pay tax? And many more

We’re on the brink. I’m hardly one to be accused of over-optimism when it comes to Newcastle United but I never thought we’d be this close to sliding out of the Premier League this season. I recall being in Manchester on the opening day and whilst our expectations for this season were modest to say the least, I don’t think any one of us imagined the club would unravel so quickly and so completely. But that is exactly what has happened and continues to happen. The simple fact of the matter however is we are where we deserve to be in the table. For a brief few minutes on Saturday, before The Beasts equalised at home to Portsmouth we were in the bottom three. We remain out of the relegation spots simply on the basis of goal difference. The rage many of us feel at the people at the top of the club who have brought us here is not easily articulated but for many it will find a coherence when Ashley’s minions ask is to renew season tickets in the summer. Our next two games are at home to Arsenal and Chelsea before we travel for two successive away games at Stoke and Spurs. There will have to be a massive change in how we take the game to the opposition if we aren’t to be all but dead and buried before the arrival of Portsmouth at SJP on April 27th. There are some who are already writing off the next two games at SJP as unwinnable. We really cannot afford that kind of attitude. We are running out of games to save ourselves and this group of coaches and players have to come up with something unexpected and unexpected in a good way. The team just cannot afford itself the luxury of imagining it can write off games against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea and set itself up for what it imagines to be more realistic opportunities for pulling in points. The team has to give everything in every game and see where that takes us. The team needs to give 100% in EVERY game and hope desperately it can rack up some points. The next two home games are difficult enough but we also have matches against Liverpool, Spurs and Villa away from SJP that are similarly challenging. Those who imagine we can go to Stoke and win were obviously looking the other way when we went to Bolton and Hull. We all know what’s wrong with the squad – it simply isn’t good enough. But it has enough not to be involved in this current gut-wrenching fight for survival. It has been poorly managed, poorly coached and poorly directed from the moment KK baled out of the House of Pain as he could see the grotesque incompetence abroad on Barrack Road better than most. Too many well-paid and senior players just have not delivered the level of consistency or performance concomitant with the money they pick up. They just are not good enough and I seriously doubt the commitment of several of them. * Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Well, having given a 3-year contract extension to Shola Ameobi who has demonstrated for some time now he is not a PL player and who only last summer was on the brink of signing for a Championship club, the club appears to be on the point of offering further contracts to staff at the club who are simply not up to leading a Premier League club. Joe Kinnear is simply NOT a PL manager. On no day of the week is Joe Kinnear capable of managing a PL club. He never has been and he never will be. That was before his severe health problems but we must have grave doubts as to his capability to coach the team given his age, health and well, most importantly, his ability. It would be a different kettle of fish were we talking about a Ferguson or a Wenger but Kinnear is barely worthy of the comparison. He was a joke manager on appointment and he is a joke now. The rumours the likes of Hughton and Calderwood are to be offered further deals demonstrates the lack of credibility Ashley-Llambias-Wise have at the top of the game. Who with any credibility whatsoever would take orders from Dennis fucking Wise? If we do stay up this season with the management team being offered new contracts by Ashley we are simply delaying the inevitable. * News that Llambias is going to write to season ticket holders begging for our continued support is risible. Why can’t Mike Ashley write those letters? Let’s have something from the organ grinder rather than his monkey. And what exactly is Llambias going to offer us? What is in this remarkable 5-year plan he talked about? And when did it start? Ashley will have spent two years in two months time as owner of our club – did the plan start on Day One? Or did it start as I suspect from the moment Llambias thought to say it? And how does selling your best players and replacing them with journeymen at a profit fit in? The simple fact of the matter is a vast swathe of NUFC’s support is on the point of walking away from the club not because of the financial cost of a season ticket but because under Ashley, the club is a complete waste of time and energy. His goon Llambias can talk as much shite as he wants to supine local hacks in a choreographed interview that could have been completed by exchange of e-mails but the simple fact of the matter is supporters will judge NUFC on what it has been putting out on the park. We’ve been shit this season. We were shit the season before and we were shit the season before that. Who can remember when this basket case of a club had a decent season? The club has staggered from one crisis to another but many supporters are judging they have indulged various incompetents too often and are calling it a day. * The Newcastle United Supporters Club (NUSC) is staging a meeting at the Tyneside Irish Centre this coming Thursday, which will discuss the transition of NUSC to include a role as a Supporters Trust. Supporters Trusts are backed by Government and that has been backed up with funding for them and other help. There is unlikely to be a quick fix in terms of Mags getting a collective shareholding which would allow us representation at board level and a real power in the club which would be exercised in a responsible manner by people who are the true guardians of Newcastle United: the supporters. The meeting starts at 7:30 (19/Mar/09) and you should do your best to get there. * I must confess to becoming dismissive of those people with criticisms of the NUSC. I’m all for constructive dialogue and debate but some of the stuff appearing in various places regarding NUSC is just so half-baked and wildly inaccurate it hardly warrants any comment. Some criticism belies modern society’s obsession with spin over substance and a lack of appreciation of what it means to be a part of a DIY organisation made up of volunteers giving up their spare time from some people who are always going to be on the sidelines and who can only snipe. NUSC is far from being beyond criticism but I’ve yet to read any points raised against them which have any real basis in fact. 99% of it is simply people opening their mouths and allowing the wind to blow their tongues about. Nevertheless in under 6-months the Interim Committee of NUSC has formed a correctly constituted and legal association, with a set of books which will be open for members to inspect and which is managed by a fully experienced and qualified accountant. The NUSC takes legal counsel from two fully qualified and well-respected solicitors who give up their time wholly free of charge. There are several members of the local business community who are fully engaged in supporting and developing NUSC and there are others who give up their time free of charge for no other reason than they care deeply about Newcastle United and are alarmed at it’s decline. These are early days for the NUSC – the interim committee will come under the scrutiny of its members in May/June when its first elections are held. In less than 6 months NUSC has attracted over 1000 members and is continuing to grow week on week. NUSC is the largest independent supporters association in the United Kingdom. Newcastle United has the finest independent supporters media in the country bar none (fanzines, websites etc) so it should come as no surprise we can organise ourselves better than anywhere else as well. This fanzine will reserve the right to criticise NUSC when we need to but hopefully we will do so on the basis of a realistic grasp of the facts rather than lazy prejudice and ignorance.

Apparently pedro has this morning been on talk sport saying that fans are now warming to mike Ashley and looking forward to next season! Also saying how Wise is doing a great job! Didn't hear this first hand, just presenters discussing it and angry fans calling in.

Anyone know of any good software for building a web site. Used to have a dabble with frontpage years ago and have also heard of site build it. Dont want anything to advanced, just something with several pages for a new business venture. Not selling online. Cheers

One things for sure, they'll do more if they get your tenner. Come on, hand it over. well i dont think a tenner is much, and surely i get it for half price as i read someone earlier i think it was ant who got it for a fiver. ha. all with being a student. 10 or 5 isnt really much difference in it though. and im not sure if you were for or against the supporters club, i do seem to rememeber when you joined the board you were all against but you seem to be pretty pro supporters club now. anyway thats not the main point. I will join when im back in newcastle I know that for sure. Pro a supporters club. Not pro the current inquisitions. But hey go, makes the world go round. Alex would have said more but sat night and all . Busy busy busy. Got a pm this morning asking me to join Newcastle offline????? Anyone know anything about it? Pardon? In response to your question "What can we change then, Sensei?" I get you now. You appeared to be saying I would have said more. So I did

Pm on here How many accounts do you have like? one why????