NJS

One of Labour's 97 manifesto pledges was a new public inquiry - a few months of wheedling by the police made Straw drop it.

Loads of good boozers around there, plus you are right next to Shoreditch also. The Water Poet and the Commercial Tavern are both within 5 mins walk of Liverpool St and the aforementioned Golden Heart is also good. Hamilton Hall is awful. To be fair to Danny, it does open early but you get a strange crowd in there. The Gun is decent (and is good for 80s nostalgia when we used to go there straight from the midnight train/clipper) - also don't see anyrthing that wrong with HH.

I remember a few years ago Paul Mariner claimed a goal for England which had grazed him before being deflected in for a blatant OG. Jimmy Greaves made the comment that he'd done a quick calculation and now reckoned he'd score 847 goals in his career rather than 400 or whatever it was. After seeing that I've done a quick calculation and reckon I've seen 257000 police assaults. It doesn't make hitting a woman right or proper but in the scheme of things I'd say it was minor - apart from the effect of making more people lose respect for the police.

I'm quite a fan of that one - Kate or Ziva is a classic dilemma. Watched the House S4 marathon on Hallmark over the weekend and have now downloaded S3 which I haven't seen plus the latest ones (S5) to be watched in due course.

My take on the "classic" Wimbledon side was that their aim was to get the 90 mins over with as quickly as possible with the least possible time for the other team to try and play football - that attitude lives on with Stoke imo (as well as Bolton under Allardyce).

Best of a bad bunch and his return gives us more chance of doing it - I still don't think we will but Barton (and Viduka) would make a difference.

I've always had the impression he was just as prone to niggles as Owen without the abuse as Alex says. This episode is a classic bottleless cunt opt out imo.

The ironic thing about relegation is that if we do what the Mackems did and get rid of all our high earners and then get back up on a shoestring as they did in 2005 with McCarthy, Ashley would be in a great position in terms of low costs. Hypothetical I know but it could turn out better than 3 years of finishing 17th under Kinnear.

In a fit of abject stupidity I decided I want to go to the Villa match. On searching for trains I find that the west coast main line is not open that day which means 3 hours from Euston via a train/coach/train combo. The thing is I can't work out why it's on a Sunday at 4pm - I know the Sky bastards will say that's now the tradition but they can fuck right off. I know the football league will be finished by the Saturday so they can't pull the "affecting" attendances crap like they actually fucking care. (finishes rant after hitting return in error) We also have the case of Setanta shitting on the Mackems exactly as they did to us last year. This all is a great example of why I'm caring about football less and less - the people who run it/exploit it are all bastards who don't care about the people who attend the matches - much like I'm starting to warm to the idea of relegation just to spite Ashley, I really hope football in general goes tits up.

If we do stop up and Shearer stays it would drastically change the summer imo - I think Owen would stay and Martins would be off. (Of course both would leave if relegated).

Hohoho. How naive. It's never the end, man!! NEVER! I like to think of myself as an ultra-cynical twat but occasionally I have to let in a single photon of incredibly stupid optimism just to remain human.

One more point than I expected. Hopefully the end of Ameobi. Midfield lack of creation again - not expecting any change there but still disappointing - will be interesting to see of he tries the supposed 4-3-3 against Spurs.

He has actually, was on the news this morning. Slight Fair play to him although I'd also ask why they are allowed to wear scarves as masks very much a la protesteors which he was.

It would be interesting to see if any "civilian" assaults which produced stress-related heart attacks led to more serious charges.

Not really - last couple of years I've only been to the London games which are always civilised these days and Sunderland. The last two years for the latter I've gone by train/metro and found it a strange mix of very decent coppers and ones who look like they are itching for it to kick off all the time - maybe they are the football fans who feel the tension. I'd fully admit that my attitudes and experiences were formed by away games in the good/bad old days and things have changed a lot - however I'd also argue that the protests we've referred to here and others show that the police themselves haven't necesaarily "calmed down".

My view is that if certain groups - like Muslims, countryside alliance protestors and other "nice" groups are treat in the same way as football fans have been treat for 30 years then the outrage may lead to changes across the board - if thats the kind of "equality" Fop is after then I agree while relishing the squeals of people I don't like in the meantime. (By relishing I'm obviously not talking about the blokes death). Be nicer if everyone was treated with respect but in lieu of that I'm willing to give this a try. I'm not saying coppers should become powerless - just better trained to spot whether members of whatever group they are policing at the time "deserve" a whack or not on an individual basis - not on a "today we hit people/grin and bear it" policy.

My view is that if certain groups - like Muslims, countryside alliance protestors and other "nice" groups are treat in the same way as football fans have been treat for 30 years then the outrage may lead to changes across the board - if thats the kind of "equality" Fop is after then I agree while relishing the squeals of people I don't like in the meantime. (By relishing I'm obviously not talking about the blokes death).

How does the "institutional racism" pov apply to the recipients of the worst policing of this type - football fans.

Pretty much a direct link, just as much as happening to land wrongly bang your head and set off a terminal bleed. There's also the issue of equality of policing again (would they have done this to say a Tamil protester doing the same thing?). He got his hands out of his pockets and used them to break his fall - if he'd landed on his chest/face with his hands still stuck I may have agreed with you but a "normal" fall for example if he'd tripped couldn't cause a heart attack.

Slightly different occasion but every single one of the protestors who invaded Stansted a couple of months ago met Alex's definition to a tee.

One parallel it does have with Menezes is that the Met haven't learned that smearing people they've "killed" as a PR exercise comes back to bite them on the arse - they really are fucking stupid.

I;ve read that and accept it which makes the way he walks in front of them more strange - I'd stop short of "asking for it" but definitely weird nontheless.

I have no respect whatsoever for the police but people calling this "manslaughter" are wrong imo. Anyone with even 2 brain cells would have realised that "dawdling" in front of a line of riot coppers with dogs was asking for trouble. I have read some reports that he'd been whacked previously to this incident which would explain it but otherwise his actions were a bit daft to say the least. Of course the coppers were out of order but thats what they do - as I've made the point before anyone who has gone to football at anytime in the last 30 years will have seen actions like this or even been the victim if unlucky (I have on a couple of occasions) many many times. This does mean the autopsy/inquest will now be the most manipulated since Dr David Kelly's.

I think someone else said in this thread we should reserve the contempt for the media and/or "fans" rather than Goody and I agreed while still thinking she was a waste of space - exactly my opinion of Diana as it happens. I also agree that Parkinson was as fawning as the Diana/Goody worshippers to his guests.

Either way, the most important factor will be either Ashley selling or getting other money in - whichever league with the cheap ethos will see us struggle - of course probably without Shearer.